What you expect from others becomes the minimum you will accept from others.

There are certain aspects of human nature that are predictable and usable by marketers. These behaviors occur whether we are aware of them or not. One of these is shopper/customer expectation behavior. When we tell a sales person what we expect, we are really telling them the minimum acceptable performance required for us to buy. In Six Sigma this becomes a critical to quality concern.

Whether you are in sales, Six Sigma or a relationship, knowing the expectations of the other party allows you to know the minimum level of performance expected. People who operate at or below this expected level are probably going to fail.

If you what to succeed in business and have quality relationships, exceeding expectations should be your goal. In life, we cannot always control our circumstances, but we can always control our effort.

What you expect from yourself becomes the maximum effort you will put forth.

A few years back, when the Orlando Magic played the Houston Rockets for the NBA championship, the series was a blow out. The Magic had a great season and talked consistently about “playing for the championship”. They accomplished that goal, which seemed to be the target of their season. The problem is that they played poorly in the championship series and were embarrassed by being swept. They met their expectations and could go no further.

This is another one of those unconscious behaviors mentioned above. When you set expectations for yourself, you have also set a target for your effort. This is why you should not set your expectations too low, or unreasonably high. Goal setting is a progressive thing. The healthy pattern is to set expectations that you know will change once you reach them. The satisfied person is also a stationary or static person. Becoming satisfied will stop your forward momentum.

Look at it from the good, better, best approach. If you believe that “good” is good enough, you are a minimalist and failure will plague you. If you think in the better category, that just makes you average, and though you have a somewhat higher probability of success, true excellence escapes you. When you think in the best category, you have the highest probability of success and excellence comes to define your efforts.