Leadership Principle #13. Landmines – The Career Killers. Part 4 of 5 – Those Above You

Leadership Principle #13.  Landmines – the Career Killers. 

Part 4 of 5 – Those above you

How do you win an unwinnable race?  Sounds impossible, right?  The short answer is not taking part in an such a race in the first place, by making darn sure you have a realistic chance of success before ever setting foot on the starting line.

What does this have to do with landmines in your career?  The simple fact is that those who are above you at your organization…the board, investors, the bank, etc. all have expectations for your business, and it’s your job as CEO – and a critical one -- to manage their expectations, because if this isn’t done properly…landmine.  And a BIG one.

The truth is that if you don’t manage expectations of those above you, they will manage you with unrealistic expectations.  Ironically, even if you happen to be in the fortunate position to have great results, but didn’t properly set expectations in the beginning, even these good results will get downplayed if they weren’t what the board expected.  Not only that, but you will lose the momentum you had gained with those good results.  Undoing expectations is even worse!  This is how you lose the confidence of your board or investors, and find yourself in a precarious career position.

So instead of dealing with the potential landmine of the unwinnable race, have the conversations ahead of time with those above you to align on a proper set of expectations for your organization.  It’s a simple but necessary step to avoid a really big landmine. 

Next landmine…Those Below You.