Expectations?

I recently read a post that read 'the less you expect of me the harder i'll work to prove you wrong. The more you expect of me the harder I will work to exceed those expectations.'

While on some levels that could be possible, for instance, the less you expect the harder I will work to prove you wrong, typically comes from the realm of underachievers... the few that you run across who will react positively to this are people who need to prove themselves and have almost always proven that they have not excelled in the past and need to keep proving themselves because of reputation or earlier experience.

The second part of this is, the more you expect of me the harder I will work to exceed those expectations, also comes at the expense of too many people. By this I mean that high expectations can backfire. Along with high expectations there also must be high rewards, thorough explanations and understanding of what is wanted, needed, expected and why. Without those necessary understandings, most people feel that your high expectations are unnecessarily pushy. They will feel exploited, unappreciated and over worked. They will rebel, stop working or worse, quit and move on.

These expectations may be used to take rather unusual individuals and produce a motivated and exceptional employee but when dealing with the general population it should be noted that for most people this 'expectation' kills moral, depletes motivation and drives down production.

A great manager will treat each of their people as individuals. They will find out what their hopes and dreams are, find out what motivates them and do their utmost to find ways to keep their people happy within the realms of their employment.

I know of a company right now that when they hire their employees share with them how much they expect of them, how heard it will be and why they do it this way. They also explain one incentive that usually excites the type of employee they are looking for: after five years with the company they will receive an all expense paid trip to anywhere in the world for a month.

You see, learning what your employees want and better yet, hiring with the right incentives will help your company become or remain at the top of their food chain.

Learn more about the many different reasons people excel and what motivates your people as well as how to become a GREAT MANAGER by writing to me or subscribing to my blog at blogger.com/stevesapato