Inspect What You Expect: Your Key to Achieving Amazing Results

According to Team Stage, a company that provides project management applications, only 15% of employees worldwide feel engaged and when employees are engaged, they are 87% less likely to resign from their companies.

Is it any wonder that your leadership success is the direct result of your ability to motivate and inspire people to get things done – whether they report to you or not?

Most of you understand the importance of empowering your team to make decisions. You’ve probably even gotten comfortable delegating tasks.

Now you need to focus on ‘inspecting what you expect.’ This is the key to ensuring that you and your team achieve your organization’s results. Why? Because, simply put, what gets focused on gets done.

The challenge here is to check in with those whom you are leading in a way that does not make your staff, team members or colleagues feel like you are micro-managing them. No one likes a helicopter boss. Easier said than done, right?

Here are some simple rules to help you get better results without appearing to hover over anyone.

1. Be clear on the deliverables but flexible on means. I tell clients that structure can be liberating. This means that we work to put together the framework for how we will get the work accomplished. Then within that framework it is up to each of us individually to determine how we will go about completing day-to-day tasks.
2. Determine key milestones and check-ins at the outset. This will help make it clear at the front-end what you consider to be most important. Scheduling check-ins early on will help you stay up to date on work in progress and allows you to ask questions and become familiar with the details along the way.
3. Be available for input and support. By making yourself available throughout the project or assignment, you create opportunities to build and grow your relationships. This also helps to show that you are interested in the success of the project and more importantly, the success of that individual.

Certain situations may warrant some level of micro-management. For example, when an employee is just learning the ropes or when performance has become an issue.

In these cases, it always helps to be up-front about the reasons for your closer supervision. While it may not alleviate tension, it does go a long way to helping others understand your focused involvement.

In a nutshell, if you want to achieve results, inspect what you expect. Use these simple rules and you may very well be amazed at what you and your team can accomplish.

Regina
Speaker. Coach. Consultant.
“Dream Big. Take Action. Make It Happen.”
Founder, Women at the Top® (WATT®) Network