What Do You Expect?

Law 1: Communicate Clear Expectations

Jan 08, 2026

In my early 20s, I got hired at the most prestigious jewelry store in town. It was high volume, had the best people, and an incredible training program. I was hungry for all of it.

I was the least experienced person there by a mile. The next-least-experienced salesperson had been managing for another major chain for nine years. I’d been selling jewelry for less than a year.

The manager wasn’t in the store much. But whenever we did talk, he’d reassure me.

“You’re doing fine. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

I remained focused on the training.

Three months in, he took me out to lunch and said, “This just isn’t working out. You’re not doing good enough for this store, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.”

I asked if I could ever come back. He said: “Possibly. Go back to the minor leagues for a while and work on your swing. Then we’ll see.”

I was crushed.

I never forgot that feeling. And I swore I would never do that to somebody else.

What He Never Told Me

The veterans knew how to position themselves for the big sales—bridal sets, engagement rings, and high-ticket items. They controlled the prime floor space and passed the time-wasters off to me.

“Keep doing what you’re doing” made me believe my job was to master the sales and training and handle the overflow, not fight the experienced people for sales.

If he had pulled me aside and said, you need to be more aggressive on the floor and stop letting them position you for scraps, I would have prioritized differently.

But that conversation never happened.

The worst part is that this wasn’t even an oversight. It was part of his system: throw people into the fire and see who survives.

This manager was an exceptional recruiter. He always had a bench five to ten people deep. There was always more talent waiting to come in.

His system relied on time and pressure to sort out the staff for him. People were brought in, put on the floor, and left to figure it out. Those who hit the ground running, stayed. Those who didn’t, were shown the door.

He saw me struggle with something specific. But all he ever said was, “You’re doing fine.” All while he watched me drown.

When he finally told me what he wanted, he did it by firing me.

What Most Managers Get Wrong

Most managers don’t avoid setting expectations. They think they’ve already done it.

Gallup recently found less than half of workers know what’s expected of them. And that number is getting worse, not better.

Too often, managers aren’t specific enough. They’re too sloppy or vague. They don’t define what “good” looks like.

If anyone can walk away thinking “good” looks different than what you meant, you haven’t been specific enough.

It’s always a good idea to check what the other person heard

Have them tell you what the expectation is. If they can’t explain it the way you had it pictured, then you haven’t effectively communicated it yet.

Another mistake managers make is assuming that because someone has been there a long time, they should just know.

Managers can also assume because someone has experience somewhere else that they’re automatically going to do it the way they want it done.

And the biggest contributors to crucible culture are the managers that start putting pressure on people before they check for clarity.

Pressure has its place. Sometimes people do need a kick in the ass.

But if they don’t know what direction they’re supposed to be pointed, you’ll just be kicking them in the wrong direction.

One of the worst things managers can screw up is taking it personally.

They see someone not doing what they should be doing and decide it’s because they don’t respect them or care about their job.

Most people don’t wake up in the morning saying, “I wonder how I can piss my boss off today.”

So, before you make it personal, sit down and talk to them. Say, “Here’s what I’ve been seeing. Here’s what I expected instead. Tell me what’s going on.”

Sometimes there may be a valid underlying reason and you’ll thank me when that saves you from putting a big fat foot in your mouth.

Taking it personally in a leadership position is just low emotional maturity. And that will make you lose respect quicker than anything else.

How to Make Expectations Specific

Every clear expectation must answer three questions:

First: What’s the outcome?
Be specific. “Improve performance” is too vague. Name the actual result you want them to deliver.

Second: What is “good”?
It might be a number, a rate, a frequency, or a clearly defined behavior. This must be objective. If anyone could disagree about whether the standard was met, it’s not specific enough.

Third: What’s the timeframe?
Every expectation needs a time component. Is there a deadline or is it an ongoing responsibility? What is the window in which it must be executed and measured?

When all three are present, you have a clear expectation.

Vague: Increase sales this quarter.
Specific: Generate $50,000 in sales per month.
Vague: Provide good customer service.
Specific: Respond to all customer emails within 30 minutes during business hours.
Vague: Keep quality high.
Specific: Maintain a defect rate below 2% on all shipped units each month.

This Week’s Directive

Start with one of the core drivers you identified last week.

Pick one role that’s directly responsible for that driver and list every expectation you currently have around that driver for that role.

Now narrow the list. At this stage, you’re aiming for one expectation, or at most the top three.

Run through our three questions:

What’s the outcome?
What is good?
What’s the time frame?

Repeat for any additional roles and each of the key drivers.

In the next article, we’ll cover how to measure these expectations so performance is trackable and visible.

Same Person. Different System.

After I was fired, I was immediately offered an assistant manager position at my previous company.

From the beginning, the manager made it clear that I was responsible for 25–30% of the store’s volume.

It only took a few months before I found myself in a head-to-head battle over a large diamond sale.

The customer bounced back and forth between me and the top salesperson at the store where I’d just been canned. She was a consistent company top ten producer, clearing over a million a year in a store that did nearly four times our volume.

But I closed that sale.

That one alone put me well over my monthly goal.

My manager pulled me aside afterward and said, “I can see you making a sale like that every month.”

I was the same person with the same skills and the same work ethic. The only thing that changed was clearly knowing what was expected.

Within days, the manager who had fired me reached out to bring me back.

After months of pursuit, I finally sat down with him. I asked, “What changed? It’s only been a few months. I’m still the same person you said wasn’t good enough. Why am I suddenly a good fit now?”

He said, “I can tell something changed in you. You’re standing taller. You’re walking with more confidence. You’ve grown.”

I told him, “I can’t work for you again. I never know where I stand with you.”

To his credit, he acknowledged it and said, “That’s fair.”

We departed on good terms and remained in contact, but the damage to any future working relationship had already been done.