What brings about the biggest sense of disappointment in life?  How do you measure success?  When you think about it, both basically boil down to one thing: expectations.  Do you feel elated even though you know that you have failed to meet a deadline, to accomplish a personal goal or to produce the results you desired?  Are you thrilled because you met some guidelines written down in a contract even though your manager or client is irate?  Not likely.  Expectations can be your own as an individual or as a team member.  They can come from an external source – a client, corporate, management, a partner or a contract. Your own performance and the actions (or lack thereof) of others can affect the outcome.   In nearly all cases, the feeling of achievement or disappointment comes from surpassing or falling short of a set of expectations.

                Often, prior to the start of an effort, there are discussions that center on requirements.  What is to be accomplished? What are the parameters?  Who will be involved?  What are the time constraints?  Failing to establish requirements essentially assures failure.  Expectations are more comprehensive and far-reaching than mere requirements, and they will ultimately be the bar against which success or failure is measured.  They include the basic requirements, but also how those requirements are weighted and perceived. 

To manage expectations, you need to follow a few basic steps:

1)      Ensure the expectations are realistic and feasible, taking into account the scope, resources, and time allowed

2)      Communicate vigorously throughout the effort

a.       Don´t assume everyone knows the logical next steps

b.      Take any feedback as an opportunity to review expectations and see if you´re veering off course

3)      Don´t overdo it.  Follow steps 1 and 2, but know that things and people are not 100% predictable, so you will never have complete control of every possible outcome.

4)      Enjoy whatever you´re doing

Try to follow these guidelines and you may experience some things you didn´t expect…..

Bill

Just about everything we do involves relationships.  Family, work, friends, romance and just about any interaction we have with other people is essentially a relationship.  The connection can be close and frequent or distant and occasional, but they still affect how we go about our daily lives.  Some are with people we rarely (or never) see in person.  With social media flourishing and interconnectedness a part of many people´s lives, we often have ´friends´ that we have never met in person.  We may have relatives or old friends that live far away, but they are people we still have in our lives in some degree.

                Relationships can vary as widely as the colors in an artist´s palette and we can mix and match aspects of them to create the experience we want.    So, if you want to enjoy life and to be happy and succeed in doing whatever you choose, you must forge and nurture relationships with the people in your life.  Often people feel that ´building relationships´ is a term used exclusively in sales or business development.  In fact, it is crucial to getting (and succeeding in) any job, in having a harmonious family life, and in, well, relationships, whether they are with friends or are romantic in nature.

                I have always believed that the key to any relationship is communication.  The better the communication, the more likely the relationship is to be prosperous and beneficial to everyone involved.  This can help to eliminate confusion and suppositions that can lead to misunderstandings.   Everyone has been in the situation where they perceived something or assumed something that was not necessarily the case, but was unclear until open communication took place.  We´ve all received E-Mails that conveyed a message or tone that wasn´t intended, showing that some forms of communication can be limited or incomplete.  To build and maintain successful relationships, we need to try to ensure that we make sure our messages, both verbal and non-verbal, are clear and allow for two-way communication to circumvent any potential issues brought on by miscommunication.  So, look around, and you´ll see relationships wherever you look in your life.  Keep the communication gates open to make the best of them!

Bill

Every day, we all get up and do our thing – go to jobs, school, work out, raise kids and/or pets, exercise or not, eat, sleep and then do it again the next day.  While we are going about the day-to-day we may not consciously realize it, but we probably have some kind of basic philosophy that guides us.  It can be more recognizable in some circumstances than others, when we have major decisions or choices to make, but it is usually there, an undercurrent that helps carry us on the stream of life.  I know when I was younger, I didn´t think about it that much.  When I did, I tended to get a little wrapped around the axle, trying to determine what were all the possible ramifications of every possible course of action in a certain scenario.  I often lost track of the big picture when trying to figure out every permutation for every situation.                   
                     

Over the years, I have tried to simplify many things.  Life is complex enough without adding to the extraneous noise that can sometimes overwhelm you.  It took a while, but I did find out that the more I faced different situations, the more I got the best results from a common mindset: try to do what is best for everyone involved.  Trying to see situations from different perspectives is one key to this.  It´s easy to see what we want or what works best for us, but truly seeing someone else´s point of view and really attempting to weigh the alternatives fairly is the only way to arrive at a decision that is best for all.  It may not be 100% positive for everyone, but it will hopefully keep things balanced and prevent resentments and bad feelings.  It is not always easy, and it does not mean we will always get a result that will make everyone involved completely happy, but in the long run, it will help create a harmonious and positive environment where we can all thrive.

Bill