Three Simple Steps to Managing Your Expectations

When life happens and our personal lives are affected by twists and turns that were unexpected we tend to roll with the punches. After all, what can we do?We generally accept the fact that although we didn’t bring that umbrella because our trusted weather person foretold a sunny afternoon, yet those Seattle skies opened up and dumped torrents all over our day; it’s just part of living in the Great Pacific Northwest.Oh well.However, in our business life we cannot afford to be so unaffected when our expectations are not met; or at the very least closely hit to the mark. When customers are not gained, or worse yet, lost it becomes a nightmare for a business.Business “expects” to grow, to expand and to compete rigorously for the market share it deserves and when those expectations are not met it can be a sad thing indeed.Now, I’m a Poker Coach and not a business advisor, but I do instruct in Strategy and Advancing toward an objective, a particular outcome. These things my clients/students have in common with business so I’ll share a simple 3 step method to manage expectations that works well in poker and I’m confident it will work for you in business as well.I call it:The SOI Concept: Strategy – Outcome – Influence1. Strategy vs. Planning 2. Outcomes vs. Goals 3. Influencing vs. Not Influencing ExpectationsStrategy vs. Planning: First of all, many people just don’t know when to stop Planning. Planning is great for those aspects of your business that are totally under control. Generally those things are internal elements and have little or no unexpected variables.But managing your business strictly via planning is like trying to drive your car while looking through your rear view mirror. All the data you put into planning comes from the past. You compile it, put it together and figure you should do better in the next reporting period.Planning is a wonderful tool for functions like Quality Control. Other elements which require control involve planning and can benefit from it, but it is critical to understand where planning is effective and where it is not. Wherever stringent standards are enforced, be it in the internal functions or external delivery systems, planning is essential and a good thing.However, out in the competitive elements where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, there needs to be license for flexibility. Strategy needs to be the rule, not planning. And that Strategy should be agile and permissive enough (within the guidelines of integrity) to deal with all the unknown actors that will be faced in the outside, untamed world of competition.That world, the world of competition, is not controlled. It is not only capable of change, but that is the only constant rule, change. And the Ground which is both being contested upon and being contested for is ever changing. The market which is ever elusive and fluctuates in taste and moderation can be influenced both by the aggressor and the imitator.Thus, those that are simply planning by last year’s or even last month’s “numbers” or whatever they use are already dead meat. Those that have a Strategy and know how to dance the Strategy Dance make it look easy.The ability to alter priorities and make decisions instantaneously for good of the business “mission” or “philosophy” opposed to rigidly adhering to some plan or rulebook IS the Strategy Dance. Strategy commands that ingenuity, in alignment with integrity, be part of the field general’s arsenal and securing the deal, expanding the client base and spreading the good company name.Outcome vs. Goals: This should be easy for most in business to grasp, but I just deal with Poker Players; so it was a challenge to explain that goals are good targets and outcomes are clarified bull’s-eyes.The concept of goals and objectives are fine, but what we really need to clarify and Manage Our Expectations are outcomes. Why, because goals are just not specific enough. Goals are, “Increasing our next quarter net returns by 7%”.Outcomes are, “By this time next year I see us spending earned revenue by knocking through that Southeast wall for the expansion of the IT department. I hear the roars of all the employees as we pop the champagne at the celebration party. And I feel the shared pride and excitement of every single one of them as we face the next new milestones together”.When I first ask a student what they want they generally make statements like they want to “win a tournament” or “beat my boss” or “just play better”; but by the end of the session we can virtually see them “lifting the trophy high above their head", "hearing the crowd cheer for their victory” and “feel that awesome rush of victory after successfully playing a tournament”.And the power of those types of "outcomes" firmly implanted is that they reinforce the majority of the lessons taught and pull them up when needed in the heat of battle. They are literally capable of manifesting from the ether, from thought - into emotion - into action what was learned. Of course, that doesn't translate 100% of the time into vicotory, but you get the point.Influencing vs. Not Influencing Expectations: Influencing outcomes, thus expectations is as old as time. That’s what domesticating and breeding animals is all about. That’s what farming and most of horticulture is all about, affecting and influencing the outcome of a particular event to favor what we want it to be.Well, once we put into motion our business machine – whatever that might be – it only makes sense to do whatever we might be able to do, within the guidelines of integrity, to influence the outcome.The challenge becomes utilizing creative vision to see the desired outcome and compare that to your current reality, then bridge the gap that exists between the two. There will obviously be obstacles between our current reality and that outcome plus those volatile unexpected interferences that will cross our path.Those impediments can either be seen as roadblocks or as potential benefits, but this is where Strategy plays in where planning generally panics and fails. Flexibility and agility are required to deal – in one fashion or another – with these intersections and moves forward in the competitive environment which business is.There are those that preach that business can and should be one of creativity and compromise and not of competition and I agree that there is a time and place for such an instrument. However, compromise is but one tool and if compromise and alliance is the only path a business walks they will eventually be walking alone or unable to walk at all.It is important to grasp the difference between conflict and competition. Success in competition often means the avoidance of conflict rather than win it. In fact, strength and presence are not always signs of success. Competition in business is a dynamic force and it ebbs and flows. It is an on-going concern however, of action and reaction. And the presence of force inspires opposition. In the long run, it is preferable to lead people rather than oppress them.Reality and our Expectations will never quite match up. All we can do is design what we’d like to have happen in our personal and professional (and poker playing) lives; and hope we utilize the best follow-up and follow-through tools we can to see things happen the way we desire. Often the path we end up on is the one we were meant to be on as a result of our inner strengths and desires.Again, the SOI Concept works pretty well for poker players and it might work okay for you too.The SOI Concept: Strategy – Outcome – Influence1. Strategy vs. Planning 2. Outcomes vs. Goals 3. Influencing vs. Not Influencing ExpectationsThe very best of success,~ LeePoker Coach 2008-06-04T01:49:52Z

2008-06-06T14:45:07Z

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three-simple-steps-to-managing-your-expectations

2008-06-06T14:45:03Z

What we Expect to happen and what Happens are not always the same thing. In our Personal life that can be an adventure, in Business it can be a disaster.

Three Simple Steps to Managing Your Expectations

2009-02-24T09:44:40Z