Showing posts with label Expectation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expectation. Show all posts

Thursday 17 November 2022

Expectation Management- Accountability Vs.Responsibility

 Expectation Management-

Accountability Vs.Responsibility
(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)

 
We have discussed the importance of being aware of key stakeholders' expectations related to expectation management. One way of being aware of the role expectation is getting clarity between accountability vs. responsibility.

In practice, we interchangeably use the term accountability and responsibility. There is a difference in the terminology, and how we use them to understand the expectation of our role in a professional setup will help us to deliver effectively.

Accountability refers to RESULT or end expectation, and responsibility refers to ACTIVITIES. In any professional dealing, others expect us to be accountable rather than responsible, even though it is not explicitly expressed.

How will this understanding help us?

When you relate your job with reference to more accountability than responsibility, it will enhance your understanding of expectations. You tend to improve your execution capabilities when you are clearer on expectations.

For example, assume you are the finance head of the organization. The key accountability expected from the position is to ensure positive cash flow, and all the activities are subsets of this accountability. When you know your ultimate accountability or result expectation, you will tend to do an effective job rather than when you relate your role only to activities like account keeping, generating statements, analysis etc. When you relate more to activities, likely suboptimal performance only will happen.

Similarly, if you are the procurement head, the key expectation is to ensure undisturbed material supply and cost optimization in material procurement. The other activities or responsibilities are a subset of accountability.

You may relate to your current role and articulate the highest expectation of the role.

When we are not aligned in expectations between key stakeholders and us, say, our boss or customer, disappointment occurs.

Some effective leaders, as i observed, will always relate their work and their team's work with an accountability perspective. When they have clarity, they will always communicate or connect with the team from a result delivery point of view and minimize the micromanagement on the activities level.

The clarity on accountability vs. responsibility is vague in many organizations, and it is the prime job of the managers/leaders to make clarity and practice when dealing with others.

This clarity on expectation setting helps to execute things well.

Have a great week ahead!

Expectation Management

  Expectation Management 

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)
As we are discussing the relevance of self-management for enhancing execution capabilities, one aspect we discussed was time management for ourselves and others.

The next aspect is "Managing the Expectation."
 
Managing expectation is about being aware of what is expected from us in professional dealings and how we set expectations for others.

First, we need to be aware of what is expected to deliver for the role we assume
Second, we must be clear about the priorities sequence we need to follow.

Why is this CLARITY important?
 
When we do not have clarity on the expectation, it affects our execution capabilities and growth opportunities.
Most of the firefighting and chaos in the organization is due to a lack of clarity on the expectation between people or stakeholders.
 
It is not what you can do or deliver, but knowing and delivering the same as expected from you completes the execution cycle successfully. Otherwise, the efforts will be wasted only.

One incident happened to me with my client where i realized the importance of expectation management. At the beginning of my consulting career, a human resource head from a company called me and briefed the requirement for productivity improvements, as he understood from his business head.

Since this company is abroad, they organized flight travel and accommodation. I went, met a few people and spent a couple of days, and identified the opportunity areas for improvement. At the end of the day, i met the business head and was about to make a presentation and hurry to catch the flight. When i started presenting the potential areas where we could work on improvements, the business head began showing signs of confusion and irritation. He turned to the human resource head and started firing him up. He asked me to stop the presentation and explained he wanted to know the methodology of manpower assessment, not improvements at that point: completely different expectations and realities. The entire effort became a waste.

The business head, however, asked me to stay back, and i refused as i had some other work lined up. Then i  returned and sent a proposal as per his expectation, but it did not work out as the first impression was not appealing to both of us.

I realized in this incident that i must be clear enough about the expectation from key stakeholders as communication distorts from person to person. It is not how good you are or how you deliver; whether you deliver as expected or not matters in professional dealings.

Knowing the expectation is a must for delivering effectively, and our effort in getting the expectation right is essential.

However, regarding expectation management,  executives need clarity on accountability vs. responsibility which affects the execution capability. Let us discuss that next week.

Have a great week ahead.

Monday 20 April 2020

Coping with uncertainties

With the prevailing uncertainty, most of us are undergoing internal anxiety and restlessness.

We have many queries, and no one able to predict and answer the following, which adds more anxiety and disturbance.
  1. How long this lockdown continues, and when things will become normal to go out freely?
  2. Even after lockdown, what will happen to my job and my business?
  3. Will I have sufficient cash to manage the basic and my business expenses?
  4. Will there be any change in the business model, how i  fit into that, and so on?
Whatever may be the answer or outcome, our mental strength is essential to cope with any challenges, and we can develop power through the combination of spiritual, emotional, logical intelligence.

My perspective on dealing with the uncertainty as follows

Accepting the reality:
First, we need to realize that we cannot control everything in life, and we need to go along with the flow. Today's situation is a common, global phenomenon, and we are just part of it. Go with the flow.

Expecting the best to come:
When we are uncertain, our mind works on what can go wrong. The more we think about the possibility of failures, we start believing that and our behaviors/actions fall in line with belief. Alternatively, accept the fact that nobody can predict the future. Let us believe that the best will unfold and cultivate the positiveness.

Cultivate the positives by looking at your past:
We have experienced many such uncertainties in our lifetime. For example, we have seen uncertainly in the 1990/ 2001 / 2008 economic crisis, in the last two decades more of natural calamities and epidemic incidents. During those times, we used to think the future is dark. On a personal level, every one of us might have come across the loss of family members, loss of job or money in the business, the stock market, or through theft.

During those moments, we might have thought that the future was almost lost and felt helpless. However, by overcoming all the social and personal crisis, we are still standing tall. That means, life challenges are just a storm, peaceful life is certainly possible post-storm. So, expect the best in any crisis, we will be better than ever before with our inherent strength.

Feel the gratefulness for overcoming those challenges and being secure today than before. That will reinforce the positiveness within us.

Faith in the power of nature  
As we discussed many times, the law of nature is more powerful and eternal for all times. Remember those phrases
"Nothing is permanent, either good or bad." 
"You will get trouble to the extent you can bear."
"Everything happens for a reason and right time; we are just part of it and playing a small role".
"When we look at all our live events in a longer time frame, the challenges look small. Time heals everything".


Your mindset and looking at the right, balanced perspective is vital for managing any uncertainty.

God bless all!
***********************************************************************************
Having discussed at the personal level, I have given my perspective  to help the Entrepreneurs / Business owners / Head of the small, emerging organization to manage the lockdown and post lockdown scenario
  1. The things to be done during the lockdown
  2. Likely scenario immediately after lockdown and the solutions approach 
  3. Long term business fitness for managing uncertainty in future
If you are interested, pl use the link below and read it as I believe that the contents will give some clarity or reaffirm the thought process of the business heads to manage the uncertainty.
https://businesstransformationinsights.blogspot.com/2020/04/coping-up-with-uncertainties-in.html

*************************************************************************************

Sunday 17 March 2019

Leading through Result- (Managing Expectation)


One of the areas, a leader, need to sensitize is on understanding or managing the expectation clearly from others in a professional environment. When the expectation on the result is not clearly understood and clarified, it leads to disconnect and frustration on both giver and receiver.

In one of my client operations, the business head asked his accountant to help him with P&L analysis of the previous year. The accountant worked through the accountancy software and prepared P&L statement data. With a sigh of relief as he delivered the work on time, he explained the business head the hardship he had undergone to make the report. However, the business head was not happy with the output.

What the business head expected from his teammate was that statement with analysis on what needs to be done to improve the P&L as he thought that information was already available in the software system. His expectation was to get “sensitivity analysis”, whereas the accountant felt that taking summary from the system itself was a significant task and he delivered the result on time.

Here is the issue is lack of expectation management.

We may suggest that communication needs to be improved on both ends. In reality, there is an emerging trend in the professional transaction is to give more value added than stated expectation given the technology, information available in the professional environment. The transaction could be between peers, customer and supplier, employee and employer.

Discounting the fact of communication improvement, the question an individual must ask himself is whether he is making an effort to offer an extra bit of value addition. That will be the starting for leadership development towards making an impact on others!!
 

Friday 4 March 2016

Managing Expectation -Part 9

As we had discussed some of the insights and problems in managing the expectation of others, both in professional and personal life, now we discuss the solutions, approach to manage the expectation as it is difficult to fulfill the expectation always. 

Solution approach to manage the expectation:

1. Taking responsibility  to improve the competency
2. Improving  communication skill / feedback, giving and receiving 
3. Deciding  the choice and accepting consequences

Having discussed first two solutions approach, we discuss the third solutions approach

Deciding the choice and accepting the consequences:

It is very difficult to fulfill all the expectation of others, even though others are related to us in one way or another. To some extent, we can take effort to improve our competency, communication, and interpersonal capabilities to manage the expectation. Most importantly, we can decide the priority in life or decide which relationship we would like to preserve most. Based on the choice or decision, we manage the expectation. However, we need to accept the consequence once the choice or decision taken.

For example, you come across better career advancement opportunity, but you are rejecting the opportunities to fulfill the expectation of your family members. That is your choice and it may be good for you. Once you decide the choice, accept any consequence of career growth. The problem arises only when you are not accepting the consequence and internally feeling guilty about your choice. 

Ultimately, you need to decide which is important to you, which relationship you want to preserve most, take a decision, and accept the consequence happily. This mindset is required for balanced growth and happy life.

Friday 26 February 2016

Managing Expectation part 8

As we had discussed some of the insights and problems in managing the expectation of others, both in professional and personal life, now we discuss the solutions, approach to manage the expectation as it is difficult to fulfill the expectation always. 

Solution approach to manage the expectation:

1. Taking responsibility  to improve the competency
2. Improving  communication skill / feedback, giving and receiving 
3. Deciding  the choice and accepting consequences

Improving communication skill / feedback, giving and receiving:

      In professional life, we are struggling to meet the expectation of others or others are not up to our expectation is probably due to our inability to express our requirement very clearly… Expressing our requirements clearly is the art of communication and developing this skill is a life long effort as we need to deal with different people, with different situation and we are at different level of maturity.

      One technique we can use in a professional environment is PURPOSEFUL COMMUNICATION. when we ask for any details from team, we can go one step further by explaining why we need the data, when exactly we need, how this data would be useful .By explaining this in detail, we respect others as individual  and there is likely  less chance for  misunderstanding the expectation.

      Also developing the skill of giving the right feedback at the right time to others when things are not going as per our expectation helps to correct the situation as well as to improve the relationship. Similarly, we can develop the EGO free attitude for asking feedback from others when we are not clear on the communication or expectation of others.

Thursday 18 February 2016

Managing Expectation part 7

As we had discussed some of the insights and problems in managing the expectation of others  both in professional and personal life, now we discuss the solutions approach to manage the expectation as it is  difficult to fulfill the expectation always. 

Solution approach to manage the expectation:

1. Taking responsibility  to improve the competency
2. Improving the communication and feedback
3. Deciding  the choice and accepting consequence

Taking responsibility to  improve  the  competency:

       One of the reasons we struggle to fulfill the expectation of others in professional life  is the lack of required competency which organization or others  expect  from us. The one of the ways to cope up with the expectation is  to continuously  upgrade the competency. Competency is the combination of knowledge, skill and attitude towards the task. 

       Depending upon your profession, there is a need to continually update the core knowledge or technical skill. Apart from core skill development, other  management skills like able to prioritize the activities, able to extract the essence of the  information, able to get things down from others,  leveraging technology and others for personal productivity  and so on  needs to be developed.

       As per recent research by World economic forum, Problem solving skill is being top skill expected in the organization. Most of the misunderstandings between peers, boss and subordinate  arises due to lack of  understanding the big picture, detailing to data, analyzing the data, connecting the dots, interpreting the information, articulating the pro’s and con’s of actions  and ability to communicate the solutions approach etc .

      Development and mastering  above competency  is  a life long experience. As said earlier, managing the expectation is also a life long experience!.Hence invest yourself in improving your competency.

Monday 15 February 2016

Managing Expectation part 6

      Past weeks, we discussed  three  insights on  expectation. First, when there is a relationship, there must be an expectation. Second, in  a relationship, since someone is believing that you are the person  capable of meeting their needs, thereby expectation rises. If we want to preserve the relationship,  it  becomes our responsibility to manage the expectation. . Third, we cannot control other’s expectation and it is difficult to fulfill other expectation all the time, only we need to learn to manage or balance the expectation.

We will discuss  fourth insights  of expectation 

Insight 4:

"In a relationship, the expectation is not explicitly expressed"

      Most of the time, as we take relationship as GRANTED, we restrict the expression of our expectation to others. When we are not  explicitly expressing our expectation, it creates misunderstanding, disappointments and frustration in a relationship.

For example,

       as a manager, you  want to cut down the expenses and  expect your  team member to prepare the expense analysis. Your  team member is also preparing and presenting you all the data with analysis. But still internally you may be disappointed with your team ‘s performance. The reason could be internally you are expecting decision points  or solutions approach where you are getting only the accumulated data and analysis. You  might have assumed or taken granted, you team member understood your internal expectation and when the reality is not so, you are getting disappointed.

      Similarly, in personal life, your spouse / children want you to spend time with them and they may ask for taking them to short outings. Even after you spend your time and money on the picnic or outing, they may get upset with you. The reason could be the real expectation n is spending quality time with you and  you had not fulfilled during outings. Since it is an intimate relationship, things are taken  granted and the expression is not explicitly expressed.
The point to understand is in a relationship, most of the time, things are taken granted and the expectation is not expressed clearly. Once we understand these insights, we can discuss the solutions approach in the coming weeks..

Saturday 6 February 2016

Managing Expectation part 5

Past weeks, we discussed  two insights on  expectation.First, when there is a relationship, there must be an expectation. Second, in  a relationship, since someone is believing that you are the person  capable of meeting their needs, thereby expectation rises. If we want to preserve the relationship, it  becomes our responsibility to manage the expectation. This  reflection will relieve the stress  to some extend on managing the expectation.

We will discuss  third insights  of expectation 

Insight 3:

"You cannot control other’s expectation"

Even though our intention must be to fulfill the expectation of others to the maximum extent possible, we must also realize the fact that we cannot control other’s expectation of us. That means, others can expect anything from us, it is not possible always to fulfill  the  expectation. It  requires a balanced approach to managing the expectation and relationship.

This insight is important, failing which only, sometimes, we want to please all people and in this process, either we lose  our   temperament or personality  or disappoint  everyone surrounding us. 

For example, through your business, you are providing service  and your customer is  expecting more from you and sometimes expecting unreasonably say superior performance, lowest cost, and fastest delivery. You cannot control the customer’s expectation. At the same time, you may not able to fulfill all expectation, as you know it is a tradeoff between cost, speed, and delivery. 

Here what you must learn is how to manage the unreasonable expectation and retain the relationship, not on trying to please others at the cost of your profitability and peace .

We discuss the solution part once we outline one more insights on expectation next week !.

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Managing Expectation -Part 4

Managing Expectation part 4

     Last week, we discussed that when there is a relationship, there must be an expectation. Alternatively expectation arises  only there is some form of relationship. Now we understand why someone is expecting from us or we are expecting something from our relationship?

Insight 2:

Why someone is expecting from us? Because others are believing that you are capable of fulfilling their expectations.

For example, 

you are expecting more from you, because subconsciously you believe that you have more potential.

In a  professional environment, your boss is expecting more from you than other  colleagues, because he believes you have more potential and  capability to deliver.

In family life, family members are expecting more of your time  with them,because  they believe that  you are the source of love, source of care, source of affection.
Your friend  is  sharing  his problems with  you, because he is  believing that you can provide perspective or solutions to the problem.
In a nutshell, someone who is having a relationship with us, believing that we  can fulfill their expectations.

If you understand this fact, Is it not previlege for  you  for having such a relationship in your life ????..If this is previege  or a gift you got in your life, is not your responsibility to make an effort to fulfill the expectation of the relationship ??

If you internalize this insight, you will never be feel stressed  on managing the expectation..You thank God for having so  many people in your life believes that you can deliver, then managing expectation becomes easier… Reflect on it till next week!!!

Saturday 23 January 2016

Managing Expectation -Part 3

      As discussed last week, as most of us struggling to manage the expectation and in this process, we get into disappointment, frustration, personal vengeance or stress.

       We discuss this aspect into insights and solutions approach. Before getting into solution approach, let us understand some of the truth or  insights about the expectation management.

Insight 1:

        In personal life, expectation arises between you and yourself, expectation arises between you and your parents / brothers, expectation arises between husband and wife, expectation arises between parents and child, expectation arises between teacher and students and so on.

        In a professional environment, expectation arises between you and your boss, expectation arises between you  and your team, expectation arises between peers and so on.

        In a business environment, expectation arises between supplier and customer, expectation between client and service provider, expectation arises between business and society and so on.

        Likewise, expectation arises between one element and another. In all the above examples, what does exist in common? In all the examples, there exists "RELATIONSHIP". Expectation arises only when there is a RELATIONSHIP. Alternatively, we can say when there is a relationship; there must be expectation in the relationship. .

        Generally, we are not expecting much about someone who does not have much relationship with us. We expect something only someone is associated with our life through some relationships. Hence, when there is a relationship, there must be some expectation. If we internalize this fact or insight, this would  bring a new dimension to solve the managing the expectation problem.

        The next insight would be when there is a relationship, why someone  is expecting from us .Let us discuss the insight next week