A few months ago, my 6-year son gave me a leadership lesson!

Upon being dismissed from the room where I was coaching a client, my son left the room frustrated, went to his room, slammed the door and once I had completed my coaching session, he came back with a big child smile, and offered me a sign he had made, saying “If the door is closed, I cannot know if you are coaching or not. Please put this sign on the door next time you coach and then I know I can’t bother you!”

Thomas 1 – Pascal 0

Once the moment of surprise over, I now realized why he had been so frustrated. I had not set clear expectations with him that he could not disturb me while I was coaching. However I had still expected him to know when he saw the door closed. What was I thinking here?

As a leader too, it is critical to set expectations and build clarity with the team. Otherwise you cannot expect commitment. This is exactly what my son had reminded me of.

Setting expectations and build clarity is fairly easy to be honest. You must have a discussion about what it is that you expect. You must then check that every person on the team is buying in and leaves the discussion with a clear understanding of the expectation. Then, commitment will happen.

Think of a time in life or at work where you did not set expectations properly. What was the result for you? and for others? What is the one thing you could have done or said that would have created clarity and commitment from others?

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