Expectations should be looked at like self-affirmation. If we expect someone to do something correctly and successfully, it will promote their performance and cause a success in doing the task by that person. It means managers will get what they expect from the employees. If you treat people like a loser, they will definitely disappoint you! If you behave in a way that shows you trust their competency and capability of handling things perfectly, they will do their best to prove it. Managers who expect more will get more.
Why does expecting more from an employee make him or her more efficient?
Because managers’ presumption affect their behavior towards employees. Managers assign organizational resources to people according to their expectation from them. Employees whose managers expect them to be perfect usually get better non-verbal positive attention such as smile, look… The feedback managers give them will be more valuable and managers will show more confidence in them.
In return, such behaviors will make the employee a better trained, more skilled, and more knowledgeable person. In addition, the manager’s support for the employees increases their self-confidence, which in turn increases the “belief in success” in them.
The lesson to be learned from this is to “increase your expectations from employees.” Show that you trust them in your sentences or by your behavior. Let them believe that they are talented and can achieve more. But do not exceed your expectations too far. It may frighten them and negatively affect their behavior. This will cause frustration, fatigue, failure and finally falling beneath expectations in future. If you help your employees achieve small successes, they will gain confidence and their expectations can be raised over time.
by Ahmadreza Ahrarnejad from the book “Human Resource Management” by Stephen Robbins
