Living up to Expectations

I’m very much a believer in bringing very high levels of expectations and driving forward a level of quality within the team that they may not have expected to be beholden to before.  This is often very present and noticeable when taking on a new team.  I’ve done it both by bringing in new organizations beneath my realm of responsibility as well as starting in a new role or at a new company.

When leadership changes, part of the reason that this change occurred is often because it’s necessary. This might mean there are pre-existing bar-graph-business-man-SalFalko-387x295problems, the previous leader moved on, or even that the team has been stable and it is simply time to make a change.  Many times, the new leader coming in needs to review what exists along with the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals and the organization.

I have found that many times this becomes perceived as micromanagement.  Although this can be a problem if the review is coupled with micromanagement long term, there is a very distinct difference between the two.

The micromanager takes essential management practices to extremes and interferes with employees’ ability to do their jobs properly, while creating undue stress for them. (NFIB)

The challenge comes when educating the new team about it. Perception may still be that the leader is micromanaging and, in fact, sometimes they are.  There are times where micromanagement, on a short term basis, is necessary.  Critical junctures, scenarios where there is no time to allow for standard execution and occasions where there are so many problems that they need to quickly be pinpointed and fixed. Just remember not to stay in this micromanagement focus for a significant amount of time.

All in all, communicating expectations and driving to a standard so that everyone on the team (leader and employee alike) knows the current temperature and environment is key to success.