Managing expectations

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I felt actively involved in the workout	99%
The content was interesting	94%
I will use what I have learnt	96%
I'd recommend this workout to others	91%

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Very useful and informative, thank you.

Rating

It does get you thinking. It was interactive and explained clearly.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this session. I learned a lot and Noel was great!

“If you hit these targets you’ll almost certainly get promoted.” “Let’s paint the kitchen ourselves – it’ll be done in a day” “Support this project and you’ll see bottom line improvements in 18 months.”

It’s tempting to set expectations high, especially if we think that will win over the waverers. But we are storing up trouble for later on.

If Happiness = Reality – Expectation, then those people to whom we have over-promised will end up unhappy, especially with us. If you wonder why someone doesn’t appear to trust you completely or isn’t automatically convinced by your arguments, it may well be because you haven’t managed their expectations well in the past.

But what if one always set expectations extremely low, confident that they will be exceeded? Unfortunately, then few people will agree with us in the first place. Managing expectations appropriately requires sensitivity and judgement. Whilst these are attributes it can take years to acquire, there are short cuts that help us find the right path between false gold and despondency so we can get the best mix of short-term agreement and long-term delight.