Those of us who live in the world of Education are entering the final quarter of the year. As I mentioned in last week’s article, everyone’s to-do lists are lengthening as the weeks seem to speed rapidly ahead, often despite the feeling that the days are growing longer.
A central component of closing down the year, as well as great leadership, is evaluating people’s performance. Some people love this, and some people hate it. And that goes for both sides of that coin. Some leaders find joy in sitting down with their teams and really digging into the successes and the failures from the year, while keeping the focus on what’s been learned and how that learning can be applied to next year’s plan for growth. Similarly, some team members relish the opportunity to sit down with their leader and spend some focused time reflecting on their work, their growth, and, in the best cases, providing feedback on what their leaders can do to make things better, too. In fact, the highest performing teams are marked by much of what’s contained in this paragraph.
Unfortunately, not every team is high-performing, and for every leader and employee who’s excited about the evaluative process, there are many more who hate it. Broken promises, watered-down processes, unrealized expectations, and a myriad of other negative behaviors, sometimes including their own, have ruined the process for them. They dread this season and spend much of it anxious about what’s to come.
I could find a lot of words to say about all this, but “ain’t nobody got time for that.” Rather, I want to share a thought that profoundly impacted me just a few years ago. I didn’t get it from a book or from a mentor who spent their life leading other people well. Rather, an intern, whom I now proudly call a teammate, shared it with me as we were riding through Asheville. As we navigated the twists and turns that mark the highways running through the Blue Ridge Mountains, I remember him quietly saying these words:
Uncommunicated expectations are premeditated resentments.
Those five words took my breath away. I asked him to repeat them.
Uncommunicated…expectations…are…premeditated…resentments.
My hope for you today is that these words are already generating as much reflection in you as they stirred up in me that afternoon.
As you move into this final season of the year, the question is not whether expectations exist in your school, on your team, or in your relationships. Expectations always exist. The first question, before you jump into the actual work of evaluation, is to consider whether you’ve communicated those expectations to your team. Were they clear and mutually understood?
Great leaders don’t wait until they’re in a summative evaluation to think about what might have gone unsaid. They work to create clarity ahead of time by courageously inviting their teams into the conversation with both honesty and trust.
In a season when time feels short and pressure increases by the day, this is one simple place to begin. Say the thing that matters. Ask what matters to others and listen to what they say.
This is how strong teams finish well. This is how we develop trust. And, this is one powerful way we all choose to be great!
#ChooseToBeGreat
Angelo
**Note: The quote shared in this article is attributed to Neil Strauss.
CHOOSE TO BE GREAT 