Giving the Perfect Gift

One of the classic tales of self-less gift giving is the O.Henry story The Gift of the Magi. In the book, a poor young couple is in search of the perfect gift for the other. The problem is they each only possess one item of value. For her it is her beautiful hair. For him, a watch of gold. The only way to get a gift for the other is to each sell their most valuable item, so they do. From the money he gains from selling his watch he buys her a set of hair combs. In turn, the earnings from selling her hair go to buying a watch chain for him. The irony, of course, is they both made huge sacrifices but ended up with useless gifts.

Unfortunately, the holiday season can be full of gifts we we don't want or appreciate because our expectations are different from what we receive. One of my favorite podcasts is Hidden Brain with host Shankar Vendantam. Last week he welcomed guest Jeff Galak who has studied gift giving and how we can be better gift givers. Galak shared a lot of interesting information, but what caught me was his findings that often gifts fail because we don’t ask the right questions and instead rely on our own assumptions of what we think someone wants or needs. Our Gift of the Magi couple would have fared better if they had talked about each other's expectations before heading to the pawn shop.

Expectations vs Reality

Ok, that puts a dampener of a beautiful story about unselfish love of one person for another, but this is a leadership blog, and like the story, work expectations and reality don’t always align. Often in the workplace there are not enough good clear conversations about expectations. As leaders, we expect certain behaviors from our team but we don’t always communicate it well. The truth is your team can’t meet workplace goals unless they are clearly understood.

Employees are happier and perform better when they know what is expected of them.  Improving performance, maintaining performance, and exceeding performance starts with making work expectations clear. Employees need to know what is expected of them from the moment they are hired and even before they are hired. 

What do you expect of the people you lead?  Are you clear? Do people know what to do and how to do it based on what you have told them. An effective leader can explain both.

A Gift for Your Employees

There are six easy steps for ensuring expectations are presented clearly to staff members. Think of them as a gifts you give to your team.

1. Set employee expectations early and often.
2. Keep expectations attainable and realistic.
3. Make expectations follow the SMART goal framework- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.
4. Connect expectations to clear metrics.
5. Review employee performance regularly.
6. Be open to collaborating on expectations.

The key is asking good questions; and we want to ask them, too. ICAHN Professional Education Services will be sending a short survey through the list servs after the first of the year. We want to know what clinical education, work force development, leadership development, or other courses your hospital is looking from in 2023. Please take the time to share your thoughts and expectations. 

Tell Us What You Expect

This is our last blog of 2022 (!), but we will pick back up in January 2023. As we close the year, we want to thank you for following us from where we sit. It has been a gift for us to work with all of you.  During this holiday season look for the small things that lift your spirit and bring you joy. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Kathy and Liz