Managing Expectations

What does it mean to manage ones’ expectations? Is it expect the worst, but hope for the best? Is it a set up to fail? Or is it simply about how a situation is perceived by your audience? Here’s a great example of how perception is used in managing a person’s expectations:

There was a small town in which there were two candy stores: Smith Candy and Jones Candy. A mother asked her son which he would like to visit for a treat. Her son replied immediately that he wanted to go to Mr. Jones’ Candy Store. Why? He believed he got more candy for his money from Mr. Jones. The truth was that Mr. Smith’s and Mr. Jones’ prices were exactly the same, but Mr. Smith’s practice was to put a large pile of candy on the scale and then remove it piece by piece until he reached the correct weight, while Mr. Jones put a few pieces on the scale and kept adding and adding until the correct weight was reached. The little boy’s perception was that he was getting more, even though the end result was the same.

When dealing with your audience, expectations should be set up front. They should be realistic. Let them know what they can expect, but don’t over-deliver. If you can’t provide what you say and on time, it’s nobody’s fault but your own.

Managing expectations has always been a vital part of my job when working with clients over the years. I worked for a large financial institution, and we always welcomed a feature piece on our funds from a major publication. The problem was when the piece came out in all its glory, the subject matter expect was never satisfied with some part of it. Maybe it was one tiny quote he or she felt was taken out of context regardless of the fact the piece was glowing, there were quotes from a third party endorsing the product and the one tiny quote was so buried in minutiae the majority of readers wouldn’t know if it was taken out of context or not.

Didn’t matter. The one person that needed to be satisfied was not, and going in was made aware of the ramifications of doing the interview. A story could be 99.9% positive, and you will still find that one person who will focus on that 0.1% that’s negative.

It’s what we deal with on a daily basis of managing expectations.