Why can't his people meet his expectations?

2 days ago

2 min read

We humans love complexity. The less we understand, the more we are attracted to and respect that individual, group, philosophy, or technology. The same holds for management.

We look for deep, complex explanations, blaming a whole host of factors for our failures.

Many 'leaders', business owners, managers, bosses, etc. like to blame others for lack of good results.

Once I patiently listened to a client, who is also a friend, moaning about the poor performance of his employees. I asked him, "What are your expectations?"

An aspect, I witness all too often, not surprisingly the client could not articulate his own expectations.

Now, if I, as the boss, cannot outline or specify my own expectations, how can I expect anyone else, especially my juniors and team members, to meet my 'expectations'?

After several meetings and brainstorming, I was able to get the client to clearly outline his expectations. This was the starting point of goal setting, defining objectives and team building.

Following good management principles and practices, I am happy to say that, within two years, the client was getting extraordinary performance from seemingly ordinary people.

Written and posted by: Gurvinder Singh on 16th October 2026 - Pune, India.

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