You will write a one-page goals and expectations sheet with one direct report and agree it together.
You have team outcomes from lesson 4.1, From team purpose to individual goals, a draft of the team's working expectations from lesson 4.2, Write down the expectations you assumed were obvious, and a way of keeping goals alive from lesson 4.3. This exercise brings them together on one page for one person. Choose someone you meet regularly. If you don't manage anyone yet, write it for a composite team member and ask a friend to play their part when you review it.
The sheet has a short header, three goals, and the expectations that matter most for this person's role. It should fit on one page.
The header holds the person's name, role, the quarter it covers and the team outcomes it connects to.
The goals section has three goals, each with a measurable result and a date, and for each one, the team outcome it supports and how you will measure it.
The expectations section lists three to five working expectations most relevant to their role, written as behaviours.
The review section holds the date of the end-of-quarter review and a status column for each goal: on track, at risk or changed.
Step 1 is to draft three goals. Work from the team outcomes. For each goal, check it against the SMART checklist from lesson 4.1, and make sure the person can affect the result.
Step 2 is to add the expectations. Take the team list you drafted in lesson 4.2 and pick the ones that matter most for this role. Add any that are specific to this person's work.
Step 3 is to send the draft before you meet. Share it a few days before your one-on-one and ask the person to edit it directly. Make it clear you mean it: "This is a first draft. Please change anything that seems wrong, unclear or unrealistic." People are more honest editing a document alone than reacting to it face to face, especially with a new manager.
Step 4 is to agree it in the one-on-one. Go through their edits. Accept the ones that make the sheet better, discuss the ones you disagree with, and record what you agreed and any changes.
Step 5 is to have both of you keep a copy and set the review date. Put the sheet in their one-on-one document and put the end-of-quarter review in both calendars.
Wei Ling drafted this for Farid, who compiles the weekly client reports. The figures are her team's own, given here as an example.
Header: Farid, client operations executive, quarter three. Supports the team outcomes on weekly reports and escalations.
Goal one: every weekly client report sent by Monday 6pm for all 13 weeks of the quarter. Supports weekly reports. Measured from the sent-mail log.
Goal two: no client-reported errors in weekly reports for the quarter. Supports weekly reports. Measured by client complaints logged in the CRM.
Goal three: write a one-page guide to the weekly report process and train Hui Min to cover it, by the end of week 8. Supports both outcomes, because it removes a single point of failure. Measured by Hui Min producing one report alone.
Expectations: reply to client emails within four working hours, except Mondays before 6pm, when an auto-reply gives the report time; tell Wei Ling as soon as any report looks likely to miss 6pm, with the reason; check figures against the warehouse data before any report goes out; when covering a colleague's client, read the last two weeks of the thread before replying.
Review: last week of the quarter, in the one-on-one.
Farid made two edits. He changed goal two from "no errors" to "no client-reported errors", because small typos he catches before sending shouldn't count. Wei Ling had in fact written it that way already, so they agreed quickly. His second edit mattered more. He moved the training deadline from week 6 to week 8, because week 6 included the quarterly survey he had taken over in lesson 3.1, Delegate outcomes, not instructions. Wei Ling had forgotten about the overlap. Without the edit, goal three would have been set up to fail.
He also added a question beside the email expectation: did "four working hours" include time on client visits? They agreed it didn't, and added "when in the office or online" to the line.
You have a one-page sheet with three goals, each with a result, a date and a way to measure it, and three to five expectations written as behaviours. The person has edited the draft, you have discussed it, and any changes are recorded. You both have a copy, it sits in their one-on-one document, and the review date is in both calendars.
Draft the sheet, send it to the person for edits, and bring it to your next one-on-one.
Complete the sheet, review it with the person in your next one-on-one, and record any changes they asked for.
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