Speaker 1: Hey, this is Chris with Hacking Leadership on today's discussion
Speaker 1: on employee engagement.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about the importance.
Speaker 1: Of getting and maintaining clarity of goals and expectations between
Speaker 1: you and your leader. You know, on this show, Lorenzo
Speaker 1: and I talk about the importance of clarity and how
Speaker 1: one of your responsibilities as a leader of people is
Speaker 1: to provide clarity to your people on what the goals
Speaker 1: and expectations are, not just of their role in general,
Speaker 1: but of the moment. And you know, in organizations, the
Speaker 1: goals or the objectives can change by an annual or
Speaker 1: a quarterly basis, but sometimes it can feel like those
Speaker 1: goals are changing based on a moment by moment basis
Speaker 1: when leaders don't have kind of the ability to decipher
Speaker 1: between what's important and what's urgent. And you know, I've
Speaker 1: been in situations before where I didn't have that clarity
Speaker 1: between my leader and myself, and it led to me
Speaker 1: spending time on things weren't as important but they felt
Speaker 1: important at the moment, and it ended up being that,
Speaker 1: you know, time was being wasted on those things versus
Speaker 1: what was was really important. You know, in order to
Speaker 1: be successful in a role. Obviously, you need to align
Speaker 1: with the priorities of your leader, and in a perfect world,
Speaker 1: all leaders would be clear about what those expectations are,
Speaker 1: what the priorities are, but some leaders aren't as great
Speaker 1: at being clear about those things. You know, and if you,
Speaker 1: as an employee, want to take more ownership over your
Speaker 1: career or the outcomes associated with your career, the doors
Speaker 1: that open for you when it comes.
Speaker 2: To getting your job done correctly.
Speaker 1: It can sometimes take a responsibility on your end to
Speaker 1: gain that clarity if it's not being provided to you.
Speaker 1: I've been in situations where I've gone to my boss
Speaker 1: and said, hey, you know, what's how am I doing?
Speaker 2: You know, what is my performance doing?
Speaker 1: Well? What are what are the things that I should
Speaker 1: be working on that I'm not working on? And I
Speaker 1: have received answers something like, oh, yeah, you're doing great
Speaker 1: or yeah, I just keep doing what you're doing. And
Speaker 1: that can feel great in the moment, like Okay, I
Speaker 1: guess I'm doing the right thing, but if that doesn't
Speaker 1: align with what's going on, you know, a month or
Speaker 1: two months down the road, when we have performance discussions
Speaker 1: and I'm getting talked to by my leader about you
Speaker 1: know what I've not done right or what I should
Speaker 1: have been working on. Then it can feel very bad
Speaker 1: for me as the employee that I've been almost put
Speaker 1: in a situation where I didn't know I should have
Speaker 1: been doing something, or I've put too much focus or
Speaker 1: time and effort or attention into the things that felt
Speaker 1: important in the moment but weren't necessarily the bigger picture
Speaker 1: things that I should have been working on. It took
Speaker 1: me a while to realize that when I didn't have
Speaker 1: this clarity, it was less that my boss was being
Speaker 1: difficult or you know, didn't want to put the effort in,
Speaker 1: and more likely that the cause of that was probably
Speaker 1: a lack of clarity in themselves on what the goals were,
Speaker 1: either because their leader wasn't being forthcoming or it wasn't
Speaker 1: painting a good picture about what the priority should be.
Speaker 1: And now that kind of trickles downhill where the leader
Speaker 1: that is feeling like their priorities are vague, all they
Speaker 1: can do is pass on that ambiguity to their team,
Speaker 1: and then everybody kind of falls under the same situation
Speaker 1: where they're focusing on whatever feels urgent in the moment
Speaker 1: as opposed to the more important goals or the.
Speaker 2: Bigger picture of things.
Speaker 1: And when I first start thinking about this, my kind
Speaker 1: of knee jerk reaction is to say, well, that's not
Speaker 1: more responsibility, you know, like this is this is more
Speaker 1: effort or kind of like, you know, expending emotional capital
Speaker 1: to get into the head of my boss when it
Speaker 1: should be their responsibility to provide.
Speaker 2: The information to me. And that's not wrong. It is
Speaker 2: their responsibility.
Speaker 1: But if you want to make sure that your career,
Speaker 1: or your aspirations, or the doors that are opened or
Speaker 1: closed for you aren't completely controlled by somebody else and
Speaker 1: you want to have more ownership over that, it might
Speaker 1: take effort on your part to talk to your boss
Speaker 1: to figure it out. And sometimes, you know, the high
Speaker 1: level questions that we ask about those things are met
Speaker 1: with answers that don't seem to provide any further clarity
Speaker 1: than what we had going into it. And so what
Speaker 1: I want to talk about is how to best make
Speaker 1: sure that the time that you're spending at work is
Speaker 1: on items that would be considered promotable work, you know,
Speaker 1: things that you can hang your hat on at night
Speaker 1: and say I accomplished this that will align with the
Speaker 1: organizational objectives of your company as a whole, or the
Speaker 1: broader leadership structure within the organization, as opposed to just
Speaker 1: your boss who might be telling you what to do
Speaker 1: based on what feels urgent in the moment, but isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily you know, the bigger picture priority things. And so
Speaker 1: I want to go over a couple of questions that
Speaker 1: you can ask your boss that will kind of help decode.
Speaker 2: That that language a little bit.
Speaker 1: Things that you can say that will be more likely
Speaker 1: to elicit a candid response or a more accurate response
Speaker 1: if you happen to be reporting to a leader who
Speaker 1: isn't good at being forthcoming with what this information is
Speaker 1: or what you should really be working on. So I
Speaker 1: want to go over some of those questions, but first
Speaker 1: let's get to one of our sponsors. All right.
Speaker 2: If you're trying to.
Speaker 1: Gain clarity or validate the clarity you think you already
Speaker 1: have on the things you should be working on, some
Speaker 1: of the questions that you should be asking your boss
Speaker 1: are things like what goals do they discuss with their boss?
Speaker 1: The importance of this question is that it kind of
Speaker 1: reveals what impacts the performance or reviews or appraisals of
Speaker 1: your boss, So what metrics do they get taught about
Speaker 1: first with their boss as opposed to just having them
Speaker 1: try to translate it to you on their own. If
Speaker 1: you ask them specifically what they are kind of tracked
Speaker 1: on or what leads to a performance appraisal result that
Speaker 1: we consider positive versus negative from their boss, the answer
Speaker 1: they give you to this is likely what's important to
Speaker 1: their boss, and then that is likely what should be
Speaker 1: important to you as well. And so when you're bringing
Speaker 1: this up, the important thing is to ask what things
Speaker 1: does your boss talk to you about first when they
Speaker 1: have a conversation. So when you sit down with your
Speaker 1: boss to figure out, you know, what your progression is,
Speaker 1: what are the things that your boss brings up first?
Speaker 1: If you ask that of your boss, then those are
Speaker 1: likely the things that you should be working on first
Speaker 1: as well. The next question you can ask is, you know,
Speaker 1: what are the projects that we're working on right now
Speaker 1: that spend the most time in your head? Basically what
Speaker 1: keeps you up at night. And the reason you want
Speaker 1: to ask it this way is because it removes yourself
Speaker 1: from the equation altogether, and hopefully it will get a
Speaker 1: more honest or candid response from your leader because you're
Speaker 1: asking them about the things that impact them. Those are
Speaker 1: the things that your boss might struggle on getting done.
Speaker 1: And if they're struggling with getting it done, they are
Speaker 1: very likely going to struggle with providing you the clarity
Speaker 1: that you need to get it done as well. And
Speaker 1: so it kind of gives them an opportunity to show
Speaker 1: a little vulnerability and tell you what are the things
Speaker 1: that are kind of bothering them or the things that
Speaker 1: they don't have enough time to work on, and then
Speaker 1: you can decide how much of that you can take
Speaker 1: on on your plate, because anything that you can do
Speaker 1: to again further align your actions with the priorities of
Speaker 1: your boss are the things they're going to work out
Speaker 1: better for you. When it comes to performance appraisals or
Speaker 1: quarterly or annual talent assessments or ratings that you might get.
Speaker 1: The last question might be the most important one, and
Speaker 1: that's to ask your boss what the difference between good
Speaker 1: and great performance looks like. But it's important to word
Speaker 1: it a certain way. Ask your boss what good looks
Speaker 1: like when it comes to results and how you're spending
Speaker 1: your time, and let them tell you what that looks
Speaker 1: like without interrupting, let them go through that entire answer,
Speaker 1: and then once they answer that question, fallow up with
Speaker 1: it and say, okay, that's perfect.
Speaker 2: What does great performance look like?
Speaker 1: Now? And so what you're saying is the things that
Speaker 1: they've just said to you in that answer would be
Speaker 1: what will be considered kind of meeting expectations.
Speaker 2: Or what good performance looks like?
Speaker 1: And then now you want to find out what is
Speaker 1: great look like. If you ask them the difference between
Speaker 1: good and great right up front, then you're likely to
Speaker 1: only get a response of what they considered it to
Speaker 1: be great, but might only just be what good performance
Speaker 1: looks like. So you have to wait till they answer
Speaker 1: the question on what good looks like to then follow
Speaker 1: up and ask them what does great look like? The
Speaker 1: answer to this secondary follow up question is going to
Speaker 1: be the difference between performing at a kind of meeting
Speaker 1: expectations level or exceeding expectations, and that could be all
Speaker 1: the difference in the world between what doors open for you,
Speaker 1: even if you happen to be working for a leader
Speaker 1: who isn't great at laying this out to begin with,
Speaker 1: or providing.
Speaker 2: The clarity that they should be providing.
Speaker 1: And then the last thing I want to mention when
Speaker 1: it comes to this is that if you're having difficulty
Speaker 1: gaining this clarity from your boss, make sure that that
Speaker 1: doesn't translate into your inability to provide clarity to your
Speaker 1: team members, the people that report to you. So, if
Speaker 1: you're a leader of people who is feeling this with
Speaker 1: your boss, then it's likely that you have a difficult
Speaker 1: time kind of trickling it down to your people, not
Speaker 1: because you don't want to, but because if you don't
Speaker 1: understand what good looks like, if you don't understand what
Speaker 1: the expectations are, if you don't have that clarity, how
Speaker 1: do you then translate that to give it to your people.
Speaker 1: And so if you're going through these conversations with your boss,
Speaker 1: if you're having these issues and you're trying to solve them,
Speaker 1: make sure that you understand that that means that it's
Speaker 1: like your people are feeling the same thing, because if
Speaker 1: you were very easily able to translate it to them,
Speaker 1: that means you already know.
Speaker 2: What you should be doing.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know what you should be doing,
Speaker 1: then you're not articulating it.
Speaker 2: Correctly to your people as well.
Speaker 1: And so as you're getting this clarity, make sure you
Speaker 1: don't keep it to yourself, make sure you don't know
Speaker 1: just run with it on what you should be doing,
Speaker 1: but that you bring your people in on it too,
Speaker 1: because if they feel more clarity on what the expectations are,
Speaker 1: then they have more control over their own career progress
Speaker 1: and they will likely become more engaged in their work
Speaker 1: because they understand that the things that they see you
Speaker 1: working on are the things you're also asking them to
Speaker 1: work on, and that will sit very well with them.
Speaker 2: And making sure they understand that they.
Speaker 1: Are focusing on the right things, that they are considering
Speaker 1: bigger picture things and not just was urgent during the moment.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me today and listening. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next Thursday for the next discussion of employee engagement.
Speaker 2: You have a great day.