Most leaders know they need to set clear expectations at work.
It’s one of the most common themes I hear from management teams. Communication is something we need more of. We need cleaner, clearer versions of it, and we need to communicate consistently.
And yet, we miss the mark, and our teams still drift. People focus on the wrong things and move in different directions. People get confused and overcomplicate things. Performance drops, and morale usually follows.
So what’s actually going on?
Here’s what I’ve come to believe after years of working with leaders across industries: the problem isn’t communication. Not exactly.
The real problem is our assumption.
Setting Clear Expectations at Work
Now I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, my mother frequently told me that when you assume you make an ass out of you and me. That is wisdom passed down through the ages… thanks Mom!
When we assume our people know what we expect, understand our standards, and see the vision as clearly as we do, we miss the mark 9 times out of 10.
And we miss the mark because of something simple: we never say it out loud. What we leave unspoken, we leave to chance.
I was working with a leadership team recently, and one of the managers made a comment that stopped me in my tracks. She said that having the language and vocabulary to describe what she was experiencing made it feel tangible, real, and actionable.
That landed for me, because it’s exactly the problem. So much of what drives performance (expectations, values, standards, direction) lives in the implicit world. We feel it, and know it, but never say it.
And that gap between what we know and what we say is where performance starts to break down.
Here’s a simple example. As employees, we’re expected to perform at our best. We’re expected to treat our colleagues with respect. We’re expected to take ownership of our work.
But here’s the thing: expectation and articulation are not the same thing.
When you assume that you are setting clear expectations at work, and people already know what you expect, you’re skipping the most important step. The step where you actually tell them.
As managers, it’s our job to say, “I need you to perform at your best.” To say: “In this team, we treat each other with respect, and here’s what that looks like.” To say: “I want you to take ownership of this project. I don’t want you to follow a checklist; I want you to own the outcome.”
It sounds simple. It feels almost too obvious to mention.
But I promise you, it’s not happening nearly enough.
When we leave things implicit, a few things tend to follow.
- People make their own interpretations.
- Teams move in different directions.
- Managers end up frustrated, wondering why their people aren’t meeting standards they never actually articulated.
- And somewhere in there, trust quietly erodes.
The antidote isn’t a longer meeting or a more detailed email.
It’s the courage to say the thing you’ve been assuming everyone already knows.
So here is the Subtle Shift:
Move from assuming to articulating.
Make the implicit explicit.
This means naming the standards you’ve been holding in your head. Describing the vision out loud, one more time. Telling your people what you expect so you are crystal clear. Remembering that carity is a gift, the best leaders give it freely, and it takes a little effort to get there.
If you want your team to communicate well, say that, and describe what it looks like in your environment. If you want people to take ownership, don’t hint at it. Name it. Tell them: “this is yours, and I believe in your ability to run with it.”
Good leadership isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about making sure the people around you can find their way without you.
And that only happens when we stop leaving the important things unsaid.
