Most are familiar, I am sure, with Nelson’s signal hoisted by flags in his ship to the assembled fleet on the day of the battle of Trafalgar (21st October 1805):
“England Expects that every man shall do his duty.”
What do you expect of yourself?
Do you expect yourself to reach that goal?
Do you expect to achieve that breakthrough?
What do you expect in your business?
Do you expect people to perform well, or do you expect them to be doing business as usual, just the bare minimum?
Inspired leadership is about vision, shared belief, expectation, clarity of role for everyone in achieving that vision, shared values and therefore a sense of personal responsibility at all levels, and a set of performance standards for people to aspire to and exceed.
This expectation from the leaders, will find echo in expectation from the team/ peers, and will breed self-expectation, where every piece of work is burnished with glowing pride.
Performance standards are critical for people to know what their priorities are, what their duties are. Expectation that these will be met (and exceeded), can reflect like a wave through a business.
Where there are no clear levels of expectation, trouble is just around the corner.
In your business, what signal do you hoist every year, every month, every week, every day?
What do you expect of your people? And how have you signalled that to them?