Managing Expectations

This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 1994). People have expectations. Your clients, for example. Sometimes their expectations of you seem unreasonable. But sometimes your expectations of them seem just as unreasonable (in their eyes). The problem is that these mismatched expectations can lead to misunderstandings, frayed nerves, and ruffled feathers. More seriously, they often lead to flawed systems, failed projects, and a drain on resources. Managing Expectations shows how to identify expectations and suggests ways to gain more control of them. In today's turbulent business world, understanding and meeting your customers' expectations is indeed a challenge, and it's not hard to understand why: Expectations affect a range of interactions, including service responsiveness, service capability, product functionality, and project success. Expectations are difficult to control and impossible to turn off. However, by learning to identify and influence what your customers expect, you can dramatically improve the quality, impact, and effectiveness of your services. Contents include sections on communication skills, information gathering, policies and practices, building win-win relationships, as well as a concluding chapter on how to formulate an action plan. A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Expectations Guard Against Conflicting Messages Use Jargon with Care Identify Communication Preferences Listen Persuasively Help Customers Describe Their Needs Become an Information-Gathering Skeptic Understand Your Customers' Context Try the Solution On for Size Clarify Perceptions Set Uncertainty-Managing Service Standards When Appropriate, Just Say Whoa Build Win-Win Relationships Formulate an Action Plan

Practical advice for making the shift to your first leadership position The number of people who will become first-time supervisors will likely grow in the next 10 years, as Baby Boomers retire. Perhaps the most challenging leadership experience anyone will face isn't one at the top, but their first promotion to leadership. They must deal with the change and uncertainty that comes with a new job, requiring new skills, and they've been promoted from peer to leader. While the book addresses the needs of any manager, supervisor, or leader, it pulls from the best leadership and management thinking, and puts the focus on the difficulties that new leaders experience. Includes practical information for new managers who must supervise friends and former peers Authors are expert consultants who work with leaders at all levels Shows how to adopt the mindset of a leader, including: communicating change, giving feedback, coaching employees, leading productive teams, and achieving goals This much-needed book can help new leaders get beyond the stress and fear to focus on becoming the most effective leader they can be-starting right now.

A MARIE CLAIRE BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR • A USA TODAY MUST READ BOOK • A W MAGAZINE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • A SHEREADS BEST MEMOIR OF THE SUMMER A charming, poignant, and mesmerizing memoir in essays from beloved actor and natural-born storyteller Minnie Driver, chronicling the way life works out even when it doesn’t. In this intimate, beautifully crafted collection, Driver writes with disarming charm and candor about her bohemian upbringing between England and Barbados; her post-university travails and triumphs—from being the only student in her acting school not taken on by an agent to being discovered at a rave in a muddy field in the English countryside; shooting to fame in one of the most influential films of the 1990s and being nominated for an Academy Award; and finding the true light of her life, her son. She chronicles her unconventional career path, including the time she gave up on acting to sell jeans in Uruguay, her journey as a single parent, and the heartbreaking loss of her mother. Like Lena Dunham in Not That Kind of Girl, Gabrielle Union in We’re Going to Need More Wine and Patti Smith in Just Kids, Driver writes with razor-sharp humor and grace as she explores navigating the depths of failure, fighting for success, discovering the unmatched wonder and challenge of motherhood, and wading through immeasurable grief. Effortlessly charming, deeply funny, personal, and honest, Managing Expectations reminds us of the way life works out—even when it doesn’t.

Trading legend and market wizard Anthony Saliba's first book in 10 years describes his process evolved over 4 decades of option trading. 450 pp and 200+ charts and images.

Increasingly, companies are being judged by their performance in terms of Environmental Social Governance (ESG). But exactly what does it mean, and what should be done about it? While much ambiguity exists, it is no longer sufficient to negotiate the environmental assessment process successfully. ESG is an ongoing process that spans the entire life cycle of a company and its operations. This book is aimed at business leaders – senior executives and company directors – and particularly those involved in the extractive industries and other ventures that significantly affect the environment and host communities. Guidance is provided on the major ESG issues that confront all business leaders. Strategies are provided to address ESG risk and to handle crises when they occur. QUESTIONS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS: Are you at all prepared for an environmental or social crisis event? How will you cope with the "unknown unknowns"? What do your shareholders expect you to do about climate change? Are your employees proud of the company’s ESG performance? How does your bank evaluate your biodiversity impacts?

Apply the best science to all your parenting decisions with this essential A–Z guide for your biggest questions and concerns from the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline Every baby- and toddler-care decision sends parents scrambling to do the right thing, and often down into the rabbit hole of conflicting advice. Dr. Tina Payne Bryson has sifted through the reliable research (including about all those old wives’ tales) and will help you make a manageable molehill out of the mountain of information and answer more than sixty common concerns and dilemmas, including • Breast or bottle? Or breast and bottle? Will that cause nipple confusion? • What’s the latest recommendation for introducing solids in light of potential allergies? • Should I sign us up for music and early-language classes? • What’s the evidence for and against circumcision? • When is the right time to wean my baby off her pacifier? • How do I get this child to sleep through the night?! Dr. Bryson boils things down with authority, demystifying the issues in three distinct sections: an objective summary of the schools of thought on the topic, including commonly held pros and cons; a clear and concise primer on “What the Science Says”; and a Bottom Line conclusion. When the science doesn’t point clearly in one direction, she guides you to assess and apply the information in a way that’s consistent with your family’s principles and meets your child’s unique needs. Full of warmth, expert wisdom, and blessedly bite-sized explanations, The Bottom Line for Baby will help you prioritize what you really need to know and do during the first year of precious life.

Managing Stakeholder Expectations for Project Success provides a practical approach to managing those things that matter most for project success—stakeholder expectations, communication, risk, change, and quality—so that scope, schedule, and cost end up on target and the project’s intended benefits for the organization are realized. This unique desk reference shows how to utilize the best practices, concepts, and methodologies found in PMI’s PMBOK® Guide, along with a few concepts from APMG’s PRINCE2, and leverage them in the context of organizational challenges and project realities. It features new methods for successful project management that focus on understanding and managing stakeholders’ needs and expectations, communication, time management, and organizational politics and culture. The book’s content and design also make it a valuable resource for PMP® certification. J. Ross Publishing offers an add-on at a nominal cost — Downloadable, customizable tools, presentations and templates ready for immediate implementation.

This volume presents research on policy responses to racism in sporting codes, predominantly Australian Rules football, in a global context. While the three guest editors are based in Australia, and their work pertains to the uniquely domestic game of Australian Rules football, the outcomes, research vectors and key issues from this research are part of a much larger on-going international conversation that is equally relevant when considering, for instance, racism in English Premier League football, first class cricket and basketball. The book is an outcome of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project titled Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to Promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation, which investigated social participation and the impact of the Australian Football League’s anti-racial vilification policy since its introduction in 1995. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

For over 28 years we have been finding reasonable solutions to complex problems. What we have found is that most often the solution lies within an examination of expectations. Over the years we have found that these expectations can be divided into four basic categories. This book is about those four categories as well as the interaction and value of those categories. We then explore those categories through thoughtful conversation and mutual curiosity which leads to simple solutions. Examination of expectations leads to clarity and leads to a desire to focus on intelligent solutions without blaming. This is what it means to Expect Success.