I recently emceed a conference where the president of the association asked if I would organize a rock group with members of the association. Since I was driving from Georgia to Alabama, where the conference was held, it would be possible for me to bring the equipment necessary to make this happen.
Over the ensuing weeks, I started an email chain with the bankers, who responded that they played an instrument and would participate. It was coming together. However, there was going to be no time to practice beforehand, meaning it would be more of a jam session. We would show up, decide what to play, and just go for it. We knew the audience would give us grace, and we knew we wouldn’t be giving up our day jobs anytime soon–we would just have some fun in the process.
The date was quickly approaching, but none of the musicians had sent me any music they wanted to play. So, to ensure we would have something, I collected some classic rock, country, and contemporary music song sheets. For most guitar and bass players, this is sufficient to play a song, especially if you know the song already. I brought a printer with me to the conference, anticipating once I had finalized the song sheets, I would print out the copies I needed.
Except the printer wouldn’t print. Nothing. Nada.
So, I went to the venue early, before our appointed equipment setup time, in search of a business center where I could make copies. During that process, I ran into the conference organizers and wound up helping them with another issue that took me off the task of making copies.
Still without copies in hand, I went to start setting up equipment at the appointed time. I mentioned I still needed to make copies to the people who were helping set everything up, and a representative from the hotel overheard me and immediately offered to go make copies for me.
This is the epitome of service. She knew I was in a tight timeframe, overheard my issue, and offered to help. I gladly gave her the drive, explained where the file was, and told her I needed five copies. Then I returned to the job of setting up, testing and balancing the sound system. About an hour later, I saw that supervisor, and she pointed to a bench just inside the door and said, “There are your copies, all ready to go.” I profusely thanked her, then started working with a couple of the other musicians doing a sound check.
It was about 15 minutes before we were about to start playing when I got around to looking at the song sheets. They were printed double sided when they needed to only be printed on the front. This is a big deal for a musician. We need to have two pages open in a binder together to play a song longer than one page. This is impossible to do if the song is printed on the front and back, as you can’t flip over the paper while you are playing.
I was initially angry at the hotel representative who had printed them. We had not discussed printing front and back, and it seemed presumptuous for her to assume it would be OK. Then again, she was doing me a favor. She didn’t charge me for the number of copies, as the business center certainly would have, and the more I thought about it, I the more I realized when I had handed over the task, it had been my responsibility to have a conversation about the end result I needed. I had failed to give complete instructions, and then was upset I had gotten something other than expected.
As it turned out, the professional bankers/amateur musicians were amazing. They rolled with the inadequate song sheets, led additional songs they knew by heart, and we all joined in what ultimately turned out to be a one-and-a-half-hour jam session. “The band” agreed we really didn’t care whether anyone listened or even liked the music we played; we just had a great time. Even though the event ended well, however, I should have never let our success be dependent on my unclear expectations of that Grand Hotel staff member trying to do a good deed.
When you have a specific expectation about the end result of a task or project, then it is your responsibility to make that expectation known and crystal clear. Don’t assume your expectations are known–nail them down. If you do that and your expectations are not met or exceeded, then you have a legitimate beef with the individual or team that failed to meet those expectations. But if you gave incomplete instructions, hold back any criticism, and use those instances as an opportunity for learning how to make your intentions clear and understandable.