“I know everything that you do, and I’m already doing it, so there’s no way you can help me.” I hear some version of that sentence from owners and senior leaders more than almost any other, and it usually arrives with a line about budget right behind it. My response is to ask a few questions instead of arguing. How many hours a week are you working? How productive do you feel your employees are? Do you have a vision statement, a mission statement, core values, job descriptions, an org chart, regular monthly all-employee meetings, and quarterly reviews for your employees? Then comes my last question: if so, how’s that working for you? If not, maybe you better rethink what you just told me.
The person saying it usually believes it. He talks about expectations constantly, he has a clear idea of the mission, and he calls a meeting when something goes wrong. In his own head that adds up to “already doing it.” What I’m asking is whether any of it exists in a form somebody else could point to. A mission that lives only in the owner’s head is a preference, and the people working for him are left guessing what it is.
If so, how’s that working for you? If not, maybe you better rethink what you just told me.
— Gary B. Henson, Founder
Gallup’s numbers show how often this goes unchecked on the employee side. In the first half of 2026, 49% of employees strongly agreed that they know what is expected of them at work, up two points from 47%. Gallup’s chief scientist for workplace, Jim Harter, reported the figure in July 2026 from a quarterly survey of 43,262 U.S. workers. Gallup’s earlier reporting had put clarity of expectations among the steepest declines on its engagement index since 2020, so the recent rise is a recovery from a low point, not a sign that the problem is solved.
Expectations are the part of the list an owner is usually most sure he has covered. He talks about them constantly, and he calls a meeting when someone misses. But an employee who strongly agrees he knows what is expected can tell you what it is, and about half of employees don’t strongly agree. Talking about expectations and an employee knowing them are two different things, and only the employee can tell you which one is happening in your company.
There are limits to what this proves. The 49% describes U.S. employees in general, not your company, and it says nothing about whether you are the exception. “Strongly agree” is the top answer on the scale, so an employee who falls short of it is not necessarily in the dark. The number also measures what employees say they know, not whether anything is written down. I’m using it as a reason to check. It proves nothing about any one leader.
of U.S. employees strongly agreed that they know what is expected of them at work in the first half of 2026, up two points from 47%, according to Gallup. Jim Harter, Gallup (July 2026) →
That’s why I don’t rely on the owner’s description of his own company. I talk with people across the organization, from the bottom up or from the top down, to get a clear view of what really is going on, and not only the owner’s or the leaders’ expectation of what’s going on. The written foundation I ask for is the first piece of work in the Inside-Out Method™, because a gap in it shows up fastest when someone other than the owner is asked about it.
Not every leader takes the audit well. Before anyone becomes a client, I ask whether they believe they’re coachable and willing to listen to hard advice, and unless they say yes, they can’t become a client. Even so, once in a while I run into someone who is fooling themselves and can’t be honest about their own personality. Our agreement runs 12 months, with a 30-day written-notice clause for either side, and sometimes I have to use it. It’s rare, but it’s the reason that clause is in the contract.
If you recognize the sentence as one of yours, try a test that takes an afternoon. Pull out the seven items on that list and note which ones exist in writing and when each was last updated. Then ask two people who work for you, not your direct reports, to tell you in their own words what the company’s mission is and what you expect of them. Don’t prompt them, and don’t react to what they say. Whether their answers match yours is the number I would want you to have before you tell anyone, me included, that you already do it. What to do about a mismatch is a separate decision, and it’s yours to make after you’ve heard them.
