How we expect others to perform has a surprisingly oversized impact on how they actually perform. Leaders naturally develop expectations for how team members will perform on any given task or assignment. Unknowingly, these expectations influence how the leader treats these team members.
This explains why leadership in my 8000 person I.T. department would always kick off big projects with absurd expected completion dates. In my whole 34 year career I always wondered why they would repeatedly come up with these end dates that had no bearing on reality. It was a running joke to the rank and file and I personally think it damaged the credibility of our leadership.
Then there would be those projects where the worker bees would pull out all the stops, work a bunch of overtime, to make those absurd dates and we'd have a system go out riddled with problems. Or worse yet the project would get cancelled for various reasons even after putting in all that work. You go through a few of those situations in your career and you really start resenting management for such incompetence.
I get what you are saying with having high expectations. But on the flipside, those expectations must be grounded in some kind of reality. And to be fair, you do mention this in your posting. So my sentiment is not to take anything away from what you posted. I'm just pointing out the pitfalls of not setting those expectations carefully. I think too many leaders set crazy unrealistic goals with the thought that if they don't make the goal wildly optimistic that the rank and file will just sit on their butts and do nothing, not understanding the downside of doing so.
There is definitely a tension constantly at play between prior performance and future expectations.
The example you cite shows a serious lack of balance in that ever-present tension. So far out of balance that it’s a joke and the communication no longer has meaning.
This explains why leadership in my 8000 person I.T. department would always kick off big projects with absurd expected completion dates. In my whole 34 year career I always wondered why they would repeatedly come up with these end dates that had no bearing on reality. It was a running joke to the rank and file and I personally think it damaged the credibility of our leadership.
Then there would be those projects where the worker bees would pull out all the stops, work a bunch of overtime, to make those absurd dates and we'd have a system go out riddled with problems. Or worse yet the project would get cancelled for various reasons even after putting in all that work. You go through a few of those situations in your career and you really start resenting management for such incompetence.
I get what you are saying with having high expectations. But on the flipside, those expectations must be grounded in some kind of reality. And to be fair, you do mention this in your posting. So my sentiment is not to take anything away from what you posted. I'm just pointing out the pitfalls of not setting those expectations carefully. I think too many leaders set crazy unrealistic goals with the thought that if they don't make the goal wildly optimistic that the rank and file will just sit on their butts and do nothing, not understanding the downside of doing so.
There is definitely a tension constantly at play between prior performance and future expectations.
The example you cite shows a serious lack of balance in that ever-present tension. So far out of balance that it’s a joke and the communication no longer has meaning.