Why Your Team Isn’t Meeting Expectations

Welcome to another Toolkit Tuesday! Every week, our goal is to give you a practical leadership tool to put in your toolkit.

(Steve) So there I was… standing in the middle of a wrecked workspace, looking at the aftermath of a preventable disaster.

A warship takes a monster wave in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. Anything not secured was definitely thrown about.

The night before, I had told my team to "secure for rough seas"—a standard command on a Navy ship, meaning everything needed to be tied down to prevent damage in case of heavy waves. I assumed they understood.

They didn’t.

Instead of tying everything down, they wedged equipment against bulkheads and assumed it was secure. When the ship hit rough waves, the workspace was destroyed—it looked like a tornado had hit.

That’s when I learned a hard lesson: just because I said it, doesn’t mean they understood it the way I intended.

The Challenge

As a leader, you’ve probably faced your own version of this. 

• You think you’ve been clear about expectations, but your team delivers something different than what you envisioned. 

• You assume everyone understands the priority, but tasks stall out because no one actually knows the deadline. 

• You communicate how you want something done, but the final result doesn’t meet the standard—and you’re left frustrated. 

The problem isn’t effort—it’s clarity. 

When expectations aren’t clearly communicated, aligned, and verified, they lead to what I call The Expectation Gap—the frustrating space between what you assumed would happen and what actually happened. 

And in that gap? Missed deadlines, wasted effort, and avoidable frustration.

The Tool: Closing the Expectation Gap with SAV

Great leaders don’t just give directions—they close the gap between what they expect and what their team delivers.

The SAV framework helps you do that:

• Specific – Are your expectations detailed enough for someone else to understand them exactly as you do?

• Aligned – Have you confirmed that the task aligns with the priorities, capabilities, and reality of your team?

• Verified – Did you check that they truly understand, or did you assume they got it?

If I had asked my team to repeat back what I meant by "secure for rough seas," I would have caught the misalignment before the disaster.

As a leader, you can use SAV to close the Expectation Gap before it creates problems—ensuring your team knows exactly what needs to be done, why it matters, and how success will be measured.

The Result

If you don’t close the Expectation Gap:

• You’ll waste time fixing misunderstandings instead of making progress.

• Your team will feel frustrated or disengaged because they’re not sure how to win.

• You’ll end up micromanaging or redoing work—draining your time and their motivation.

That said, when you consistently apply SAV, you:

• Get better results with fewer corrections.

• Build trust and confidence within your team.

• Free up your time by reducing unnecessary back-and-forth.

Take Action

If you’re tired of frustration caused by unclear expectations, let’s talk. Schedule a free strategy session, and we’ll walk through how to apply the Expectation Gap tool to your leadership.

Closing the Loop

That night on the ship, my team and I spent hours cleaning up a mess that never should have happened.

I had assumed they understood. I was wrong.

Great leaders don’t leave clarity to chance. Close the Expectation Gap—before it costs you.