Setting Up Clear Expectations with Your VA is Crucial: Here’s Why

Let us presume that you know how vital it is to set clear expectations with your virtual assistant or any employees for that matter. Then what’s the point of reiterating something that is so obvious?

Setting expectations for your VAs can get convoluted very easily as you have (employee expectations, team expectations, performance expectations, etc.) many things to deal with at the same time. Therefore, the point is to ensure that your expectations are ‘clear’, ‘precise’, ‘realistic’ and so on.

Therefore, through this blog we want to help you re-identify the necessity of having and communicating clear expectations to your virtual assistant or the larger team in general. We will also look at the ‘how’ of setting clear expectations to make this initiative complete.

Let’s dive in.

If you don’t have clear expectations, you will only set yourself up for disappointment and no extraordinary performance from your VAs can satisfy you. And if you do have clear and realistic expectations (we will discuss how to have it later) you need to communicate it clearly.

Many (who have or don’t have comprehensible expectations) communicate based on the assumption that the other person will get the whole picture if they juggle with some pieces of the puzzle long enough. But that has hardly ever worked.

Let’s find out why having and communicating realistic expectations are absolutely necessary:

If a leader or a manager fails to have precise and direct communication, they cannot relay the exact expectation to a virtual assistant or a team of them. Remember, that these people are working from a remote location and most probably your mother tongue is their second language. Being extra mindful of how you communicate bears a lot of weight.

Being precise at your speech will allow your virtual assistant to align their goals with yours and start working in the right direction, minimizing any conflicts between your interests.

It is also highly important if you are working with a team of virtual assistants. Communicating expectations across the team would help you reduce duplicate work, miscommunication, and help create more effective collaborations. However, if you work with a managed virtual assistant team you can have less headache.

If you show someone a clear path, they will have it easier to follow. Meaning, a clear goal, or set of expectations allows someone to have clearer priorities which in turn enables them to put in a lot more focus and become highly efficient. On top of that, it reduces the impulse of searching for directions from other sources, significantly minimizing diverging influences.

It also increases productivity by reducing the need for reworks. Your virtual assistants can get their endeavors right when they understand your expectations and have proper resources and training (if applicable).

To enable your VAs achieve what you want them to achieve, you need to understand how pivotal the role of manager is here. If the task of clarifying the main objectives and results is done diligently you have already set the foundation for success.

Employee engagement is crucial, because if and when employees (in this case your virtual assistant) are engaged at work, they get satisfied handling the tasks and it increases productivity automatically. Employee engagement also entails the emotional connection and dedication workers have for their working roles.

If you take a look at the Gallup study about ‘quiet quitting’ you’d find out that only 32% of the American workforce are engaged at their work.

Even though you are not dealing with the American workforce when you are hiring a virtual assistant, you are still dealing with humans who would most probably react similarly to the Americans in a given work environment. Take note, that ‘clarity of expectations’ plays a major role in employee engagement.

Employees across the board complain that their managers or employers rarely set clear and easy to comprehend expectations. Make sure that when you opt for virtual assistant services you pay close attention to this.

To make your goals achievable you should consider going through the following considerations:

If you have not still defined your expectations it is almost impossible to relay expectations that are mutually clear. Try clearly articulating your expectation both verbally and on paper to give it a primary shape.

Focus on the areas of improvement or the gaps that need to be filled. If you can figure out where you or your team is lacking you can define accurately the necessary change.

Now you should prepare yourself to provide your VAs the context for these expectations or new goals. If you do that, they will become more accountable to meet these expectations. That’s human nature.