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Deliver What You Promise – 4 Vital Stages To Beating Expectations · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Deliver what you promise at work and you'll probably be happy and very successful in whatever career you choose.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: The simple fact is that we all rely on those around us at work to be personally successful.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We need what others produce so we can produce our own work.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Others need what we produce.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: These interdependent relationships at work mean that delivering what you promise is hugely helpful to all around you.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: When you deliver again and again what you promise, colleagues will firstly trust you to deliver the next time and each time into the future.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, colleagues will like working with you because you don't let them down.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Third, bosses will love you because you support their success and you don't let them down.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, people will appreciate and respect you and want you in their team.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: When you become a manager of others, being good at delivering what you promise through the team you lead creates even more goodwill and appreciation.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than impacting a few stakeholders, you positively impact multiple teams and a lot more stakeholders.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Meeting and beating expectations at work is a great way to be given more responsibilities, i.e., promotions will keep coming your way.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Businesses nearly always promote those that increase the value they produce for the business and those who get on well with others and help make others even more successful.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Any manager that wants career progress must focus on helping their team increase teamwork, increase motivation, increase capability, and ultimately increase performance.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Being good at communicating and managing expectations is a huge part of teamwork and delivering what you promise, personally and through your team.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have four vital stages you must go through to consistently beat expectations of your bosses, of colleagues and peers and your team.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: These are firstly mentally plan before doing.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, be careful what you agree to.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Third, negotiate the resources at the start, and fourth, knowing who can assist.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Working hard, working smartly and doing a great job is one side of consistently beating expectations, but not the most important part.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Being good at setting expectations or negotiating expectations is, in my experience, more important.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Agreeing achievable goals means you can beat them and deliver what you promise.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Accepting unachievable goals usually means you are going to fail before you've even started.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: In my second job after university, I was tasked with supporting about 15 senior managers and leaders.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was 25 and I had three years working experience.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: They were all in their 40s and 50s with at least seven times the amount of experience that I had.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I had 15 rather intimidating people asking me to do this and do that.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I quickly learnt that it was impossible to say yes to everything.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just could not deliver.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: I only had so many hours in the day.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I also learnt quickly that half of what they asked for was not practical to deliver.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I had to negotiate and educate to be successful.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I gained a reputation for delivering what I promised, not because I worked all night long, I negotiated and I was careful about what I agreed to.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: The first stage to deliver what you promise is to mentally plan before doing.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Planning may seem obvious to most, yet plenty of people don't do this before agreeing something being asked of them.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: The before bit is the vital part.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't think through what you can and can't do, how can you negotiate realistic and practical goals or set expectations to beat?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't mentally plan, how do you know if what you're being asked is sensible or even possible to deliver?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Far too many people do this stage after they have agreed to do something and then have to go back to the other person and negotiate different expectations.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: This just makes you look bad.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Even worse is not saying anything because you're scared, embarrassed, etc.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: and then you fail to deliver.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you need five minutes to think through and plan out what is possible, take that five minutes.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Explain you need five minutes to plan the workout before agreeing.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: In my experience, most bosses are happy with waiting.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: You taking the time to plan at this stage gives them confidence in you and your ability to deliver what they need.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Always think through firstly your current workload and the time frames for each work stream.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Compare against your capability and capacity or that of your team.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, check for crunch points or bottlenecks.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And fourth, give yourself plenty of contingency, i.e.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: underpromise because unexpected things always pop up.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Be really clear in your own mind what you can and can't do in the time frames being discussed before agreeing to anything.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, enhanced.training provides resources and courses for you to build management expertise and confidence to lead any team to their best performance.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: To get a lot better at managing and negotiating expectations so you can consistently deliver what you promise, go to enhance.training, select courses, and take a look at our how to skillfully manage expectations.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: This course teaches you how to say no without offending, how to negotiate realistic goals and set expectations that you can beat.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do take a look at this.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: The second stage of beating expectations is being careful what you agree to.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Saying yes in the moment is really easy.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: You think it is what the other person wants to hear.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: In that moment, saying yes avoids any conflict and you don't let the other person down.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Saying yes is enjoyable and rewarding in that moment.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who hasn't said yes and then five minutes later are thinking, what the hell have I just agreed to?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I can't see how I can deliver this.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've been there many times.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the person you most admire at work for always delivering what they promise.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Watch and listen when they are being asked to do something next time.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I bet they rarely say yes straight away.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I bet they ask a bunch of questions to really understand what is being asked of them.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Then they might make a number of suggestions to amend what is being asked.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then when they agree to the task or project, the expectations or goals agreed are different to what was originally asked.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: This change happens by design.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: I can't if I want to deliver what I promise.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't like conflict, a small amount of conflict while negotiating sensible expectations or goals is a hundred times easier to deal with than the ton of conflict and anger you get when you don't deliver what you agree to.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Set expectations you can meet.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Be very careful what you agree to.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: More often than not, you'll need to negotiate more practical or realistic expectations with the person asking you to deliver.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: The third stage to deliver what you promise is to negotiate the resources you need at the start.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Without the right resources, doing a task, activity or project will take a lot longer and it will be a lot harder to do.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Don't have the resources you need, and delivering may not be possible.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most motivated people to help you get the resources you need is the person asking you to do the work.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: When negotiating your goals, also negotiate the resources you need or get the other person to help you get the resources you need.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Time is the most common resource.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Extra capacity, budget, help, advice, access, authority, etc.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: are all important resources too.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Failing to negotiate resources properly is probably the most common reason people don't deliver what they promise.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Always negotiate your resources when setting goals and expectations.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do this stage separately or later.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Always negotiate resources up front at the start.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth stage of beating expectations is knowing who can assist.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Very few of us work in isolation, yet the most effective people at work are usually the ones that invest time and effort into building good and influential relationships with colleagues, bosses, peers, and other stakeholders.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: When they need help, they get help quickly.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Getting assistance allows them to work at speed and to suffer very few delays.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: This makes them very effective in their jobs.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: When you manage a team, this stage becomes ten times more important.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Delegating work as well as asking colleagues outside of your team for assistance enables a good manager to deliver a lot more than those that don't get assistance.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is not about pushing work to others, but about utilising the strengths of those around you.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Playing to others and your strengths results in work being completed quicker and better.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: The best workers and managers know this and use this constantly.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Playing to strengths is a brilliant way to deliver what you promise and consistently beat expectations at work.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, in summary, the easiest way to deliver what you promise and consistently beat expectations at work is to negotiate expectations that you can practically and realistically deliver.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Setting expectations at work that you can beat is far easier than working late each night to deliver what you've agreed to.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you negotiate and consistently deliver, you gain a lot more respect and appreciation than if you just say yes and then work late to deliver.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: You are also a lot more likely to gain promotion and progress your career with good negotiation and expectation management skills.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: This has certainly been my experience personally and from observing others working in many top companies.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: The four most important stages to deliver what you promise and consistently beat expectations are firstly mentally plan before doing.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, be careful what you agree to.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Third, negotiate the resources at the start, and fourth, knowing who can assist.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned earlier, to get a lot better at managing and negotiating expectations so you can consistently deliver what you promise, go to enhance.training, select the courses, and take a look at our How to Skillfully Manage Expectations course.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: This course teaches you how to say no without offending and how to negotiate realistic goals and expectations.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do take a look at this.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions on Deliver What You Promise for Vital Stages to beating expectations, please email me at support at enhance.