Recently, someone on my team was looking through my archive of articles when they came across my old post, ‘Three Reasons Employees’ Don’t Meet Their Bosses Expectations.’ They reached out and started to pepper me with questions on how they could work through some of the challenges they have encountered with their own employees. While most of their queries were positioned towards being a leader in the middle of a creative team, I was inspired to revisit the topic as this week’s post.
I like to think that people each have their own unique talents. However, as a leader I’ve found their proficiency at these skills, especially on the job, is never quite equal. The reality is not all employees are created equal, thus as a boss it’s on you to weed out the underperformers (or those just matched in the wrong job). But why do they flounder you ask? Let’s take a look at the main reasons employees can epically fail to meet their bosses’ expectations on the job.
Key Reasons Employees Fail to Meet Their Bosses Expectations
Throughout my years as a leader and executive coach, I’ve recognized a pattern of three instances that often contribute to employees underperforming. They are:
- Not understanding their bosses’ expectations due to lack of direction (Yeah, it could be you!)
- Lacking the skill to effectively perform their jobs (Yeah, so this could be on both of you)
- Not caring about your expectations (Yeah, this one is on them)
Now allow me to give you some hope, once you’ve recognized these challenges you’re well on the road to rectifying the situation. To add, how you proceed will require you to take the extra step of providing clear written expectations for team members at levels of the organization. That’s right, it starts with building better accountability (my favorite word!) for you and them.
Let’s tackle each issue with the best plan of action.
They don’t understand their bosses’ expectations due to lack of direction
I initially joked that it could be you but I wasn’t lying. It’s hard to accept that we might not be the clear and concise leaders we believe ourselves to be. However, the reality is we must hold ourselves accountable by performing self-checks on the effectiveness of our communication skills.
This is where the magic of written expectations become most beneficial. By writing it out and displaying it somewhere they can easily view, it allows your needs to be an ever present companion. Even more:
“Taking the extra step to meet with each employee facilitates the message being repeated multiple times. Remember, it takes several attempts through various communication methods for information to sink in.”
That’s easy enough; I’m going to go ahead and mark this one as resolved.
They lack the skill to effectively perform their jobs
Ok, so they don’t understand their job, let’s pause here to reflect, have they been adequately trained to do so? I can’t repeat this often enough, but as a leader it is your job to coach your employees. Coaching affords the employee the opportunity to learn through visual, verbal, and written cues. This means they can:
- Better absorb the information
- Be afforded the opportunity to speak directly to the source and pose any questions they may have about performing their job.
Another thing to consider- is this even the right job for them? It is up to you to be responsible for placement: if this job isn’t a fit, help them find another.
This should be your biggest takeaway:
“Through coaching, the employee and the leader are more aware of the other’s expectations. This awareness means better accountability and action.”
They don’t care about your expectations
Well, if they don’t care about your expectations, it can only be assumed that they do not care about their job. There are only two simple courses of actions here:
- Meet with them one-on-one to see if their outlook is temporary and fixable. If it is, encourage them to believe in the mission and buy-in to the goals
- Let them go
The latter will afford them the opportunity to find another job they believe in and for you to refill the position with a more dedicated candidate.
My final thoughts
It’s important for me to underscore that as a leader, you must dedicate the time and effort to perform these self-checks and check-ins. This is the only way accountability can be upheld as a standard of excellence.
I love the word accountability. Why? Because it’s an important leadership tool in the world place! To learn more tips and tricks on how you can better hold your staff accountable, check out my books, Serve Up, Coach Down and the Sales Leaders Playbook. See ya next week!
