Boss to Coach for Frontline Team Leaders
The Three Coaching Conversations

Conversation 1 Set Clear Expectations

Complete & Continue Next Lesson Learn More

Lesson 3 Conversation 1: Set Clear Expectations

50% of people are not clear about what they are supposed to do at work.  The clearer we are the better.  This sets us and our team up for success.

 There are two types of expectations: the What’s, and the How’s

  1. The WHAT’s are the priorities, the tasks, and responsibilities of the role.  Those closest to the work are the people who should determine what these are.  Therefore they should be bottom up and co-created with their manager.

  2. The HOW’s are the behaviours that support the delivery of the WHAT’s.  These are top down and a way to describe the culture “how we do things around here.”

For the WHAT’s People only remember three things

Watch the video about the Rule of 3

Research by Steven Covey (a well-known management expert) shows if you have 2-3 priorities, 2-3 will get completed with excellence.  If you have 4-10, 1-2 will get done.  If you have 11-20, none will get done

Source 4 Disciplines of Execution:  Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey).

Activity Thinking about the WHAT’s priorities of what needs to be done, what are the three most important priorities for your team?  List them on Page 2 of the Boss to Coach Coaching Notes.

For the WHAT’s People have different needs when completing a task

The approach to giving a task to someone will differ on what they need. 

  • For some people they can’t do it (it is about competence) because they have not been trained or had experience in a task.

  • For some people they won’t do it (it is about commitment) because they do not have enough context or “why” you would complete a task.

Activity on Page 3 of the Boss to Coach Coaching Notes and thinking about your team and the priorities you have identified on Page 2; identify who in your team (if any) who needs support with competence, or who needs support with commitment

For the HOW’s Set the Benchmark

Behaviours are modelled and are defined as what you hear people say and what you see people do.

Activity Let’s benchmark what ideal behaviours look like.  On Page 3 of your Boss to Coach Coaching Notes write down

  1. The name of a leader you admire

  2. Write down one thing (what they say or what they do) that makes them a great leader

Insight Those attributes are what you show when you are a confident leader.  When you are not a confident leader, the opposite is true.  This means that we see the world through our lens and that our team will have a different set of HOW expectations.  It is important we clearly articulate these.

Activity Let’s determine the expectations you have of your team.  On Page 3 and 4 of your Boss to Coach Coaching Notes write down

  1. What is one expectation you have of your team?

  2. What is one expectation you have of your manager?

Setting Expectations What to say

Two questions that can help to set expectations with your team are

  1. What do you expect of me?

  2. What do you think I expect of you?

Setting Expectations How to say it

How is it that some people we work with can pick up a task or new information quickly.  For others it can be a slow process.  One influence can be the way we learn, and when it clicks with someone it is likely we will be showing a similar learning style.

Watch The video that summarises the four different learning styles  

Activity Discover your own Learning Style by completing the profile.  If you have not already, download the excel spreadsheet here and complete the Learning Styles tab.  On Page 4 of your Boss to Coach Coaching Notes write down your preferred Learning Style.

You have completed this lesson

Remember to click the ‘Complete Lesson’ button