Lead With Expectations
Close the Gap Between What You Think They Know and What They Actually Know
One of the most invisible leadership failures has nothing to do with strategy, talent, or effort.
It’s the gap between your expectations as their leader and your team’s performance.
As Hamlet famously said, “Aye There’s the Rub”… It’s a gap that you, their leader, unknowingly and likely created.
The childhood saying is true about never to ASSUME anything since many times it makes an ASS out of U and ME.
Great leaders do not assume.
They are clear, direct, transparent, and consistent about what they expect. They actively close the distance between what’s required and what actually happens. They deliver relevant and timely feedback both positive and negative against their expectation of the activity.
So my PlayBook for this week to help you level up your leadership impact is to start by:
Leading with expectations.
The Silent Killer: Unspoken Expectations
Most performance problems don’t start with incompetence.
Performance problems usually start with ambiguity and end with crystal clear clarity.
“Crystal?”… ”Crystal!”
Expectations that live in a your head
Assumptions that others “should obviously just know”
Vague language disguised as being nice or providing empowerment
Feedback delivered too late, too softly, or too inconsistently
When expectations are unclear, teams fill in the blanks themselves and most times incorrectly. Telephone tag game anyone?
And even when you think you’ve communicated clearly, guess again, since you haven’t repeated your expectations 7 times 7 different ways so there is no gap in your communications.
Gaps in expectations and communications becomes frustration.
Frustration becomes resentment.
Resentment becomes disengagement and disconnection.
The leader (you?) then blames execution or the person when the real issue was not clearly communicating expectations.
Expectations: Your Leadership Requirement
Being crystal clear is not micromanagement.
Directness is not aggression.
Transparency is not weakness.
Consistency is not rigidity.
Clear, Direct, Transparent, and Consistent are 4 key pillars of leadership.
Your job as a leader is to not just to set direction, it’s to define success and make sure everyone is on the same page.
That means being extremely explicit about:
What “great” looks like
What’s unacceptable
How progress will be measured
When course corrections will be required
If you haven’t said it out loud, written it down, and reinforced it repeatedly, then there’s a large possibility it’s not a crystal clear expectation.
The Expectation–Performance Gap
Every gap between expectations and performance is ultimately owned by the leader.
If you find yourself asking:
“Why didn’t they deliver?”
“Why aren’t they stepping up?”
“How did they not understand that?”
“Why do I have to keep repeating myself?”
Ask yourself:
Did I clearly define the expectation?
Did they confirm my expectation?
Did I make the tradeoffs explicit?
Did I reinforce it consistently over time?
Great teams don’t guess.
They execute against clear expectations.
Clear Beats Kind. Every Time.
I believe every leader learns this lesson at some point in their personal leadership maturity journey. Early in my career, I too avoided being crystal clear because I confused it with being “too harsh”, “too direct”, or too “micro-managy.”
So I softened my tone. I hedged. I wasn’t crystal clear.
And I left room for misinterpretation.
I created the gap in expectations.
Then, I had to write the performance review 6 months later.
The most respectful thing I eventually learned was to deliver crystal clear expectations.
Clear expectations:
Reduce anxiety
Increase autonomy and ownership
Speeds up decision-making
Improves trust and transparency
Enables accountability without drama
The saying is true:
“They may disagree with you but at least they clearly know where you stand.”
Expectations Must Be Actively and Consistently Managed
Setting expectations once is not enough.
They must be:
Reinforced in meetings
Reflected in metrics
Referenced in feedback
Re-stated when conditions change or performance falls short
Leaders who say, “I already told them that” are usually confusing communication with listening. Trust me, just because you communicate doesn’t mean “they” listened or truly “heard it.” There’s that misalignment gap again.
You, the Leader, Must Goes First
If you want others to meet expectations, you must model them yourself.
Your team watches:
What you tolerate
What you ignore
What you focus on
What you repeat and reinforce
What you excuse under pressure
Culture is simply expectations made visible through behavior.
If there’s a gap, it’s not a mystery.
It’s a mirror.
A Simple Leadership Test
Ask yourself this about every role on your team:
Could they clearly articulate what success looks like this quarter without asking me a single follow-up question?
If the answer is no, your leadership work isn’t done.
If the answer is yes, your work still isn’t done since time destroys memories.
Final Leadership Thoughts:
Leadership is not about charisma or vision alone.
It’s about precision.
Precision in language.
Precision in expectations.
Precision in follow-through.
The best leaders don’t just inspire effort.
They architect clarity.
Lead with expectations… and close the gap.
Close the gap between what you think they know and what they actually know
