Today we’re talking about the assumptions we all have and make.
Sometimes our assumptions lead to certain expectations in business or life that can cause us a lot of pain.
We assume our employees or team members are performing a certain way, we assume our leader is giving us all the information we need to be successful, and so on.
How do you stop assuming? Start by discovering what your expectations are for your team and ask yourself,
“Who taught them?”
Did you teach them to do it the right way? Is it possible you’re just assuming they know how to do a task because it’s in their job description or it was on their resume?
If you’re expecting your team members to be exceptional at what they’re doing but you’ve never shown them what you’re expecting, you’ll always be unhappy.
When it comes to your team, children or yourself, reset your expectations by asking that simple question. When you don’t take personal responsibility and ask yourself what your role was in the situation, it’s easy to be upset.
Check out this episode we did on unspoken expectations:
618 | The Silent Team Killer: How Unspoken Expectations Undermine Success
Question: What’s a time when your assumptions threw you off?
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I’ve been guilty of this, and unfortunately I still am sometimes. I think the biggest one was assuming that Poole knew what I expected…even though I never really told them. Working on getting better job descriptions and KRA’s written. Also adding in more focused training. I used to look at training as “losing” time so I’d try to pack as much as possible into our training times. Looking back I can’t figur out why I was so dumb. Obviously when everyone is better trained the productivity increases and a much happier workplace follows. Now training is very focused into one area.
Exactly right James! I want my team knowing as much as they possibly can, and utilizing that knowledge so we can change more lives. It’s just like coaching. So many leaders don’t think they need it, but when they get it, they’re shocked at how much it helps.
Thanks for the input!
Hello Chris, this is a “hot” topic, since our assumptions and beliefs, govern the most of our actions (even the ones, we not publicly accept as intentional ones!). Excellent approach though, even I cannot emphasize a lot the importance of training as a single convocation action that might “normalize” belief according to some general acceptable standards.
Thanks Takis! If we start understanding where others are coming from, and what they are dealing with, perhaps we can do exactly that.
You are welcome, Chris. I agree. We need more research, better understanding and I believe a larger degree of compassion (or tolerance, or better yet empathy), in order to recognize and honor the different perspective and integrated normally in our day2day busienss.
This is great, Chris! Thanks for making it so simple and so true.
Wurd! 🙂