Expectations Can Make Or Break Your Executive Team. How Clear Are Yours?
<p><em>‘I’m so disappointed,’ </em>said one of my CEOs as their opening statement in a conversation last week. <em>‘My exec team are just not stepping up the way they need to, the way that I need them to. I’m getting really frustrated. Not only that, the board is also starting to notice, and so I’m getting pressure from them too.’</em></p>
<p>Sound familiar?</p>
<p>I started to break this down with my CEO client, to really understand what was going on.</p>
<p>It became clear that the individual leaders on the executive team were not reaching the expectations of the CEO. There was an obvious gap between how they were operating, and performing, the progress they were making, and their level of competence, compared to the expectation of where the CEO wanted them to be performing and operating.</p>
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<p><strong>‘Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality.’</strong></p>
<p><em>~ John C Maxwell</em></p>
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<p>What also became clear when I asked the CEO about it, was the CEO was not confident that these executives, their own direct reports, really understood with clarity the CEO’s expectations.</p>
<p>How fair is it to judge someone’s performance against a set of expectations they are not aware of?</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, this is not a unique situation. This happens too often.</p>
<p>It is quite easy for people, a CEO for example, to assume that their expectations have been conveyed to their direct reports.</p>
<p><a href="https://staceyashley.medium.com/expectations-can-make-or-break-your-executive-team-how-clear-are-yours-5009f846f3b"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>