secret that many organizations have

secret that many organizations have become more results oriented
in recent years. The economy, market conditions, increased competition,
price pressures, globalization, and more selective customers
all have forced businesses to watch the bottom line more
closely. Everyone is doing more with less, while even more is being
expected by unforgiving shareholders and top management.
As a result, the overwhelming majority of senior executives and
managers see the top management at their organizations as either
extremely or somewhat demanding. And the larger the company,
the more demanding is top management.
In today’s business climate, it is only rational for the top brass
to be highly demanding of results. “As a publicly traded company,
it is all about results,” says one executive. “While we can’t
ignore the future, we have to focus on today, tomorrow, and this
quarter in order to get to the future. Our shareholders and Wall
Street demand this approach, and our executive team replies
responsibly.”
Leaders must demand results. But that’s not the issue. Top management
is not always realistic about the level of results demanded
and how well those results can be delivered by those below. In fact,
almost 80 percent of executives and managers do not consider the
results expected to be extremely realistic for them to deliver. In
companies with more than ten thousand employees, almost 90 percent
feel this way. Top executives have a right to place heavy
demands on those who are paid to deliver results, as they are. The
problem comes in setting proper expectations, based on the real
capability of delivering.
“My team and I have a ton of pressure daily, weekly, monthly,
and quarterly to hit our numbers,” says one manager. “At times, the
requests from above are not manageable or attainable, so I reset
expectations on what I need (people, money, both) to run the business.
I do not take higher expectations on without getting what I
need to get that new job done.”