Aligned Expectations and Team Contribution
From new book “Presence, Impact and Influence”
Aligned Expectations and Team Contribution
In the absence of truly understanding and knowing the people you work with, each team
member is driven by their own agenda, schedule, and priorities. This misalignment can cost you
valuable time, resources, and productivity. Each person you work with is unique in how they
think and consider themselves as a contributor to the team. As companies continue to develop
engaged and aligned groups, they are seeing the need to develop clear expectations, goals, and
work habits. Please never assume you know how people operate and what is important to
them. When you ‘think’ you know something, you are most often wrong.
It is when you become focused and serious about aligning your team that you truly understand
what makes your group operate in a cooperative and supportive way. There are no excuses
here. Being busy does not count (after all, who isn’t busy?).
Please have every person on your team complete the following survey. This exercise could be
the most valuable thing you do all year.
SURVEY: How I Choose to Work and Value My Contribution
- This is how I would describe my work style:
- My most effective and productive work environment looks like:
- This is how I best communicate with others in certain situations:
- This is how I like to be communicated with:
- My most productive time of day is:
- This is how I work best at that time:
- This is how you can help me the most right now:
- I wish to contribute in the following ways:
- This is how I wish to be held accountable:
- Our meetings would be more productive if we:
- This is how I like to receive feedback from my colleagues and manager:
- This is how I like to be recognized:
- This is what is most important to me as it relates to my career:
- What I value most is:
- My real strengths are:
- I feel my input matters when I receive the following feedback:
- This is how I would describe my character and attitude:
- This is how I choose to better my skills and attitude:
- I am most comfortable at work when:
- My top 3 professional goals include:
- The critical factors (3 main goals) of my work right now are:
- This is how I prefer to be taught:
- This is how I manage my time:
- This is how I like to re-charge and re-focus:
- I am the most creative when:
- My next steps in learning new skills include:
- This is how I wish to review my performance:
- What I see getting in the way of my progress is:
- I prefer to handle stress by:
- This is how I tend to handle difficult situations:
- This is how I tend to handle difficult conversations:
- Our greatest strengths as a company are:
- Our customer service makes us distinct because:
- Our biggest challenges in the next year will be:
- Our clients do business with us because:
- What will allow us to compete in the future is:
And finally… I feel what is expected of me is:
This list presents a good variety of questions that allows any team to understand its players on
a deeper level. Please feel free to adjust these questions based on your work environment. You
may choose to amend, make additions to, or even remove a few points.
The intention remains the same. Ultimately, this is your only competitive edge left… your team,
your people.

failure is not an option
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