Personal Expectations

This week I am working on getting teams of people together for a number of different reasons. Work, adopt a highway clean-up, t-shirt sales...things that are coming up that I need to get organized around.

Although the planning is easy, one thing I forget to do is set expectations for the event as well as for the people. I am great at the planning and organizing, but I forget that people need to know what is expected of them in order to be on the same page as I am.

Here is the example of what I mean. I am organizing a highway clean up for May 1st and the information I have given is the time, date, location, and the recommendation to wear long pants and sleeves. Great! I have an organizing plan. What I have not done and should do it set expectations.

Expectations are different than planning. Expectations are how people should act, behave, and do something. For the example above I need to set the expectations of:

1. We will start at 9am so be at the park and ride at 8:45am
2. We will be walking against traffic only
3. We will NOT cross any lane of traffic for safety reasons
4. We will pick up as much garbage as possible in the 6 hour time frame caring more about plastic and less about paper products
5. We will work as a team not individuals to make sure that safety is the number one concern.
6. We will do the best we can in the time we have

There, expectations. Not to hard, but notice it has nothing to do with how many bags we will fill or how fast we will get it done or how many people will be needed. It is not outcome based, rather attitude based.

This is one example. I think of this now as I remind myself that I need to have personal expectations for myself every day. These shouldn't be that I will work 9 hours today, or work out for 30 minutes, or spend less on lunch...it has nothing to do with action items and more to do with attitude.

So, My personal expectations for this week are: I will treat myself and others with respect, I will hold myself accountable for my actions, I will listen to and support my body and mind, I will take the opportunities to improve as they come available, and I will bring value to my day.

Expectations - personal or otherwise they are needed. Set them and remind yourself that you have personal expectations.