I had a recent client session end with the team looking a little hangdog and expressing some disappointment. This was an EOS Vision Building™ 1 session, which includes getting the team’s Accountability Chart to about 90% complete and defining their Core Values.
When we dug into their disappointment, here’s what emerged:
So why were they disappointed?
They could have chickened out by failing to call out their Right Person/Right Seat concerns or by passively accepting rather than challenging their parent’s Core Values. If they had done either one of those things, then they should have been disappointed.
In fact, they did great work on both issues, and there was nothing more they could have done on either one in that moment. Make no mistake – this does not mean the bar is low. It just means not confusing a day’s work with a week’s work or a quarter’s work.
I’m confident that this team will confront and solve those issues over the coming weeks and months. But if they don’t, then they absolutely should be disappointed.
Setting the right expectations is not about showing everyone how high you can set the bar. It’s about creating clarity and alignment. What work do you intend to get done? What’s the time frame in which you intend to do it? Do the work and the time frame line up with each other?
That’s the very heart of accountability.