Manage expectations and foster trust

- In any relationship, at work or otherwise, usually the catalyst to friction is unfulfilled expectations. So no matter how much potential you bring to the table, if expectations within your team aren't managed, you'll likely lose their trust, and trust can take a long time to rebuild once lost. There are two types of trust in teams, integrity-based trust: I trust your motives and competency-based trust, I trust your skills. You need both. For example, if you're given a deadline of five days, and you deliver the work in three, you're a superstar demonstrating both integrity-based and competence-based trust because you delivered within the agreed timeframe. But if you tell your team you can get it done in two days and it takes three, sure, the time it took is still three days, but you violated integrity-based trust. You didn't manage expectations and eroded your trustworthiness. So here are three rules to maintaining your trustworthiness. Commit and deliver. If you commit to it, do it. If you know in advance you won't be able to do something, manage expectations early. Tell the person there's going to be a delay or try to seek assistance. And if you don't know how to do it, seek support. Put it in writing. Have you ever delivered work to your team leader only to get, "This isn't what I asked for," yet, you're certain that that's what was requested in your last meeting? Unfortunately, there's no way to prove it. The same applies when you casually tell a team member that the report will be delayed by a day, but they forget the conversation ever happened and now think you're unreliable. The solution, document accountabilities, and email expectations. There are three important questions you need to get agreement on: what, when, and who. What specifically needs to be done? When is the deadline? Who is responsible? Set boundaries. What if you are at full-capacity, and your team delegates you an additional urgent task to complete? Don't accept if there's going to be an issue with delivering on time without first communicating with the team. Here's a simple two-step approach to respond. First, positive-first response. Sure, I can take that on. Followed by: request a solution. Can you help me reprioritize what's on my list so I work on what's most urgent? Why is this so effective? A 2021 study published in "Harvard Business Review" found that managers either didn't know or couldn't remember 60% of the work their teams do. So it's plausible that the rest of the team won't know the extent of your workload either. Once you take them through your list, they might realize everything on it is urgent and delegate it to someone else or offer their help. There is a self-assessment in the exercise files to help you rate your trustworthiness at work with suggestions for improvement. Remember, managing expectations is crucial in teams. Be a person of integrity that can be relied upon.