Great(er) Expectations

mlns='> Leo Burnett was right ­– if you want more than a handful of mud, set your sights higher. [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( Weekly News 7.22.22 Connect With CMI [Does SEO Still Matter to Content Marketing When Google Takes Your Clicks?]( No one’s saying you can stop paying attention to SEO. But Google’s approach to providing answers on SERPs makes it harder to earn clicks and traffic. But don’t worry, Content Marketing World 2022 speakers are here to help with SEO advice and ideas for the instant-answer age. [Read more]( By Ann Gynn More of the week's best stuff: - [ANA Creates Standards for Organic Influencer Measurement (at Last) [CMI News Video]]( by Robert Rose - [The One Email KPI To Watch in the Age of Mail Privacy Protection]( by Jodi Harris - [Is Your Thought Leadership Content Missing the Point?]( by Jonathan Crossfield - [Stop Under Promising and Start Delivering Better Content [Rose-Colored Glasses]]( by Robert Rose - [Forget Views and Shares: Choose Metrics More Relevant to Your Content Marketing Goals]( by John Hall  Great(er) Expectations Didn’t somebody say 2022 would be better? The last two years have created a kind of fatigue that’s hard to pin down. Ask people how they’re doing, and they say, “Fine.” But it doesn’t take too many follow-up questions to get to the truth at the center: “Actually, no.” Leading teams, guiding clients, and even working with colleagues feel challenging now. Add in the complications of acquiring new talent, and you can see why managing to higher standards feels so difficult. Your first impulse is to lower expectations and let people off the hook. I think you should do the opposite. Last week, a client talked about his struggles with a writer on his team. “He continually produces work that just isn’t good enough,” the client said. “I’m not sure what to do.” I asked if they had considered raising expectations for writing quality. My client seemed incredulous. “No,” they said. “I’m just trying to get him to first base. If I can get a basic piece out of him, I’ll count it as a win. I’ve been trying to manage his expectations about where he fits in.” I’ve been in consulting for more than 35 years. And every firm I’ve worked with tells me they focus on managing others’ expectations about delivering great work. But let’s be clear. In those 35 years, that phrase has never meant raising expectations about what they’ll deliver. To “manage expectations” means lowering expectations. If you know you’ll surpass expectations (the thinking goes), keep that to yourself so you can surprise and delight people later. If you search Google for best practices around managing expectations, you’ll find some variation of this simple advice: “Communicate your intentions clearly.” That’s all well and good. But before you manage expectations for your team, your boss, a client, or a customer, ask yourself this question: Am I communicating my expectations, or am I trying to lower theirs? Think about that feeling when you’re excited about some innovative thing you want to do or about the potential for your team to accomplish something (especially these days). Your expectations are likely off-the-charts high. But what do you do? You dampen that excitement when you take that idea to management. You manage people’s expectations downward so you’ll be sure to meet them. Have you ever said (even to yourself), “Let's under promise and overdeliver?” Exceeding expectations is a flawed way to deliver a service. It’s likely to prompt the equivalent of the response Nigel Tufnel gets in the mockumentary Spinal Tap when he shows that his amplifier goes to 11: “Why don’t you just make 10 louder?” If you feel you need to “exceed expectations,” then at least one of those expectations (either yours or theirs) isn’t high enough. So, what can you do to encourage excellence even when you know everyone’s exhausted? I offer some ideas in this week’s [Rose-Colored Glasses](. But I’d also love to hear how you’re doing it. Send me [an email](mailto:cmi_info@informa.com) or leave a comment on the [article page](. In the meantime, remember: It's your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Do you have colleagues or friends who would benefit from Robert's weekly updates? 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