Crystal clear, or clear as mud?

The Gallup organisation has for many years studied what makes for a happy (engaged) and productive workforce.

From that statistical work they developed the Q12 (12 questions) survey, which may be familiar to you as your organisation’s employee engagement survey.

I know what is expected of me at work is the first question on the survey because it is the most important.  Gallup’s research has led them to call this question the foundational element of engagement and performance.

Knowing what is expected of you at work is not just what is written in your position description, but is likely to include other factors as well. You may want to think of your position description as your manager’s (or HR’s) best attempt to describe the job. 

Your manager isn’t the only person who has expectations of you. If you are managing others, they will have expectations about how you will manage and lead them.  Your customers will have expectations of you too, as will your peers.

In your first 100 days, you want to become crystal clear about what is expected of you in your role. Keep clarifying the expectations with your managers and others.  If in doubt, ask! And keep asking.  Nearly one-third of 1000 executives in a McKinsey study didn’t meet all their objectives at the end of the first year. Maybe the objectives were unrealistic, maybe they didn’t understand them, perhaps there was disagreement about what achieved meant, but I think everyone could agree they would rather not have that conversation with their manager at the end of their first year!

You can expect to refine your understanding of the requirements in the first few months as you get clear about all the stakeholder expectations and the context in which you are working. By the end of the first 100 days, however, you should be able to answer “absolutly, no doubt about it” to the question: “Am I completely confident that my manager and I would describe this job in the same way, and line up in agreement on what I am expected to deliver?” And don’t forget to keep clarifying expectations as your first year rolls on. Remember, hundreds of thousands of people have said knowing what is expected is the key to their happiness and success at work.