I promise I will let you down

No, that’s not a typo.  As a leader I can guarantee no matter your opinion of me that I’m going to fail you at some point, drop the ball, miss a detail, forget something, or in some way disappoint.  I am human, but guess what, so will you, your business partners, clients, and employees.  Not recognizing that, or addressing it, is just planning for friction and frustration. 

One of the biggest problems that any leader faces is improper expectations.  

Whether you’re new to leadership or whether you are setting up a new employee on day 1…setting proper expectations is mission critical.  Clear and realistic expectations from the get-go prevents hard feelings in the future and puts your culture on the right track.

New employees and the ‘honeymoon phase’

There’s a high likelihood that when you work in a small to mid-sized business, you’re going to interact with the owner.  Here’s what typically happens.  A new employee starts on day one and enters the ‘honeymoon phase’: everything is new and exciting, new boss, new job, new people.  Life is amazing!  

Eventually the honeymoon phase - like everything else - wears off and reality shows.  That can be good or bad, depending on the expectations the owner or leadership set at the beginning.  When expectations are never set or are unclear, employees end up feeling disillusioned, uncertain, and unempowered.

Setting clear expectations

Our role as leaders is to be clear and set clear expectations for those working with us.  Be honest - ‘I’m going to be the best leader/boss I can be, but I am human. I promise I will let you down.  And when I do, we’ll communicate, and I’ll learn from my mistakes and do better.’  There is no such thing as a perfect leader.  Leaders must step off a pedestal and walk beside everyone on the team.  Be willing to lead by example, don’t just make that some cliche,  and a great place to start is admitting you have room to grow.

Another reason to set expectations is to empower your employees.  Make it clear that they can and should speak up without fear they’ll look dumb or that everyone is judging them.  Give them the power to question when things are unclear or seem off.  Value their thoughts even when they haven’t quite learned all the processes and maybe aren’t in the right line of thinking.  

Normalize mistakes.  

You as a leader make them.  Your employees will, too.  ‘You’re human too.  You’ll let me down.  Humans make mistakes and that’s ok!’  The only bad mistake is one you don’t learn from.  Setting clear expectations helps create a place where everyone is willing to grow together.  

Let’s be clear.  I’m not suggesting a free-for-all where anything goes.  You have a business to run and want to run it successfully.  How do you empower employees without enabling them? How do you strike the balance between a culture of  synergy and a culture of laissez faire? 

The 5-15 minute Rule.

Here’s how it works:  Somewhere in a project or task you come up against a question, a problem, something that you are unsure of.  Pause, take some time to research, look over notes, see if you can figure it out.  If you’re still looking after 15 minutes, go ask for help.  No one is going to judge you or look down on you.  Especially, if they are all following the rule, and know you have spent some time trying to figure it out on your own.  Check with a teammate/peer first, then a manager or senior staff, or, anyone else, then if needed get with the owner or partner, we are all here to help.  In the worst case scenario you have asked a few people and burnt maybe 45 minutes max?  And also discovered multiple people need to know this too! Remove the stigma of not knowing.  This strategy empowers your employees to try to work out issues and gives them permission to learn from other experts on the team.  Don’t let anyone waste valuable time.  If you’ve been spinning your wheels for hours, you should’ve asked for help a long time ago!  This saves a ton of time (and pride!)

Your team is counting on you.  Be honest about mistakes.  Be clear in what you expect.  Give them a strategy that empowers and takes pressure off the individual.  And no matter what - we are all going to try new things and we are going to succeed together!

By Ryan Conn