My grandfather, Walter E. Krynski, Jr., was a force in this world who taught everyone around him how to be better simply by being that way himself. He was born in Detroit in the 1920s and was forced to grow up quickly through the Great Depression and World War II. He peeled potatoes at Kroger as a young teenager and went on to spend 40 proud years working the night shift at General Motors, all while raising 5 children with his lovely wife, Olga, in a 1,000 square-foot bungalow.
My grandpa learned a lot in his life and was always quick to pass on his lessons to his grandchildren. One lesson came in response to my sister’s disappointment in another family member, whose fear of driving in the dark forced my grandpa – at 80 years old – to make a late-night airport run. After hearing my sister complain, my grandpa looked at her and matter-of-factly said, “Don’t expect what people don’t have to give, Lindsey.”
This lesson, though quite simple, has had the greatest impact on me and has shaped my approach to leadership as an executive. My grandpa taught me that you can’t set expectations for others (in my case, for your team of employees) that are simply unattainable. And the same goes for your personal life. When we expect what is unattainable, we are setting ourselves up for failure and disappointment.
But let me be clear – this is not an excuse to have a mediocre team. It’s quite the opposite. This lesson puts a great deal of responsibility on executives to understand our employees, to learn exactly what they have to give. Conversely, we must learn our team’s current limitations in order to maximize their potential. We have to keep in mind, that just because our team cannot meet our expectations now, that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to meet them with additional training or mentoring.
Take baseball, for example. In baseball, you would never expect your starting pitcher to also be your homerun leader. They don’t have that to give. They spend too much time perfecting their pitching arsenal to worry about how much power they have in the batter’s box. But they are still vital to your team’s success. Knowing when to sub in a pinch hitter is the responsibility of the team manager.
As we get to know the strengths and weaknesses of all our employees, we as executives can leverage that knowledge to get the most out of our team. It is our responsibility to make sure we have the right people on the team and in the right positions to achieve our goals. If someone is not meeting expectations because they simply don’t have the ability, it is up to the leadership to course-correct. If you know your team well, it will be easy to recognize potential and determine when an employee can be pushed further than what they believe.
When my team is underperforming, I typically ask myself the following questions:
- Did I clearly communicate my expectations?
- Does my team have the ability to meet my expectations?
- Did I properly enable the team to meet expectations? Did I provide the training, mentoring, or authority needed?
- Is this the right team for the job?
It often comes down to communication. Whether the expectation was not clearly stated, or more questions should have been asked initially, ineffective communication directly leads to unmet goals. You can only expect from your team what you tell them you expect in the first place. We as leaders must set clear, attainable, expectations. If we don’t do this, then we run the risk of setting our team up for failure, and setting ourselves up for disappointment.
As executives, we must know our team’s capabilities and anticipate their limitations. We must learn what limitations are absolute, what limitations are temporary, and what limitations can be overcome. The success of the team as a whole depends on our ability to not expect from our employees what they simply don’t have to give.
Jessica Grosso is the Head of Project Planning and Technology at One Energy.
