3 Min. Coaching Bite - HOW TO PRACTICE ACCEPTING WHAT IS

Below is the transcript of this Coaching Bite on ‘HOW TO MANAGE EXPECTATIONS and below that is the video.

My hope is that these Coaching Bites offer some insight and incentive for contemplation.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. This is your three minute warning. Today I’m going to discuss expectations, low expectations, and high expectations.

Expectations are connected to standards, so the kind of standards that you hold for yourself are very important.

Standards are also what help you decide whether you should have low expectations or high expectations.

For example, if you hold yourself to a high standard at work, And you have a good work ethic, you’re competent, and you tend to have a lot of success with all the projects that you complete.

Then it’s reasonable to have a high expectation of the people around you to work in a similar manner and have similar types of success.

That way you know what it takes to achieve those standards consistently.

So you can be a better judge of when you should or should not have a high expectation or low expectation from a certain situation.

If we go back to the work situation, Well, if somebody’s just starting to learn the type of work skills that you’ve been using for and developing for years, you’re going to have a low expectation that they’re going to be able to do those things well.

You can also weigh your expectations against results that other people have gotten. Which is why it’s so critical to observe what other people are doing without judgment, number one.

And number two, to make sure that you’re getting the truth which is getting harder and harder to determine.

You can’t necessarily go by what somebody says.

And you certainly can’t necessarily go by the end result. Process is everything.

So if you understand a process, you can manage your expectations. So, let’s go back to a work situation again.

If it’s a very simple job, where you’re literally punching holes in something, let’s say some cardboard, into a type of machine, and you pull a lever, and it pops out certain shapes from the cardboard.

This is a very simple example, but it’s pretty easy to understand that process.

It’s easy to show somebody how to do that, and it’s very easy for someone who’s never seen it before to actually accomplish that.

So your standards and your expectations can be adjusted accordingly.

Now, if the job is brain surgery, and you’re a brain surgeon, you know how many years and how much work it has taken for you to learn all the things you need to learn. Then there was all the practice and standing in on operations before you can do a surgery on your own.

So this is how you can manage expectations, is by understanding the process of something.

I would also suggest. Being wary of what other people say about the end result.