It's all about EXPECTATIONS!!

Early in my career, I learned a very important lesson: never to overpromise and create expectations that you can't meet. As a result I have always counselled my clients, students, employees and audiences to "create the minimumly acceptable expectations and then always meet or even slightly exceed them".
There are many illustrations of companies, organizations and individuals that have created unrealistic expectations and have failed. In the sports world, The New York Yankees have created the expectation that they will win the World Series every year and so when they just come in second everyone is disappointed. The same was true of the recent Super Bowl. The New England Patriots were cited as the "greatest professional football team ever" and it was expected they would beat the Giants and have a perfect record. In fact, all of the experts predicted them to win and some by a large margin. On the other end, no one had high expectations for the Giants and so when they won they were honored with a parade in New York.
The current United States Presidential elections are an excellent example of "creating expectations" that are not achievable. All of the candidates say that they will not only solve the current major problems, like the Iraq war, keeping the country safe, keep the economy strong, but also will provide healthcare and social security for everyone... create equal opportunities for everyone and wipe out proverty. They promise everyone everything and they cause people to not believe anything they say. The leaders lose credibility which is one of the major requirements of their success.
But these types of promises are not just restricted to politicans. Corporate CEOs promise higher revenues, improved earnings and higher stock prices. Companies in crisis, like Chrysler, promise that they will turn things around and become a profitable leader again.
Unfortunately, most of the promises are not achieved and the stakeholders become sketical and don't believe anyone.
Leaders must not fall into this trap. They must be able to clearly understand what is doable and realistic and then set the right level of expectations. They then must do what they say. If they are wrong, leaders must be willing to admit their mistakes and just blame everyone and circumstances, for their failure.
In short, leaders at all levels in all major institutions must avoid surprising their key stakeholders and themselves.
In the next few blogs, I would like focus on how you should create and meet realistic expectations.

Bill Rothschild
Author of "The Secret to GE's Success"- which shows how GE was able to set and consistently meet expectations and avoid major surprises and "Putting It All Together- a guide to strategic thinking" ( which describes the art and science of setting and meeting realistic expectations". Check out his website: www.strategyleader.com to find out how to get both of these books.