I recently stopped at a Wellness Pharmacy to pick up my daughter’s vitamin supplements. Typically, we get these somewhere else but with her at college now, the process to auto ship was not worked out yet. As the cashier rang up the supplements, she informed me that the item didn’t qualify as a Health Savings Account (HSA) purchase. When I inquired as to why, she informed me that when they upgraded their system years ago, something had “broken” with this type of transaction. Since I was short on time, I agreed to use another payment method but indicated that I would no longer purchase these supplements there since I was able to use the HSA account at other stores.

The manager overheard and quickly came over, apparently unaware of this recurring issue. After double checking and confirming it, she seemed frustrated. Not because I had brought the issue up, but because other store personnel (and customers) had experienced the same issue for over a year! She indicated that she would immediately look into it, apologized and acknowledged that the “issue” likely caused lost sales for their business. I thanked her, paid for the supplements and left. As I did, I thought about whether there were things I might not be aware of both personally and professionally, and what role my own behavior played in this.

As a Leader:

• Was my team comfortable bringing issues to me?
• Is there something they have “learned to live with” that could be hurting the business?
• Is the value proposition clear for the outcomes they drive and from the customer’s perspective?
• Do I treat my team the way I want them to treat the customers?
• Are my expectations clear?

As a parent:

• Were my values clear to my children to avoid any misunderstanding of my expectations?
• How do I handle or react to mistakes that are brought to me?
• Do I model what I believe and what is important?

I left the store that day with more than I had come for including a new perspective, a lot of questions and an awareness I hadn’t had before. Clearly, there were few more “things” I needed to think about including whether my own behavior mirrors my expectations. In short, were there things I wasn’t aware of, both personally and professionally, as a result of my own behavior?

How about you? Does your behavior as a leader or even a parent bring clarity to your expectations?