Here's how you can establish clear goals and expectations for your team effectively.

Always back up your team. As long as achieving the goals is not, unethical, immoral or illegal then how they achieve the goal is completely up to who you delegated to. Making sure you remove your "control" over how the goal is accomplished and focusing on the guidance is the best way to achieve the desired outcome.

Have your team collaborate formulating goals: Specific Measurable Accountability Resources Timelines deadline Everyone signs off commitment No excuses

Communication is key. Keep in mind not everyone effectively 'hears' or 'receives' a message in the same manner. Implement various methods using verbal, written or role-playing.

Understand communication and different personalities. Different people need different communication styles. Making sure everyone fully understands will help prevent misunderstandings and potential straying from what the goal really should be.

Based on my experience what has worked with my teams is to: Present the organisations’ goals and objectives for the year and then link the teams’ KPIs. When the team understands how their own actions enables them to contribute towards the organisation’s goals for the year, they are able to create SMART goals that are directly linked to the organisation’s and are able to measure their progress and performance against these goals.This process is done together as a team to be able to address any issues openly and in turn give everyone the opportunity to identify collaboration spaces that would enable them to achieve their goals. If there are issues concerning codependent goals- it’s best to address them in this forum.

Recognize the different areas of scope required and lean on the people in your group with the skills suited to guide on the related topics. This will provide a well structured idea of what is required. Once requirements are determined, milestones, benchmarks, and expectations can be properly assessed and assigned.

One of the things I love most when managing teams is the collective, collaborative approach. I find that collaboration is the driving force in providing a conducive environment for action and accountability. My second favorite thing is working with a team member from inception to close. As a leader being involved at the beginning stage not only offers your team member(s) support, but a learning opportunity for you on new perspectives in determining solutions that can be applied in other present or future scenarios. Involvement as the team lead is crucial. Too often, delegating tasks takes you out of the process, therefore relying on assumption rather than gaining valuable insights. Teams are more effective when there is team ownership.

In these situations, someone with less experience may make a suggestion that simply will not work. Take the time to explain why in a way that makes sense to them. Improving your teams knowledge on various subjects will always be to your benefit.

There are several tools available to centralize, manage, and report your data/progress. Make the effort to find the correct platform so drawbacks of the system used do not become a contributor to project issues.

Review upcoming items or tasks often. Keeping your view focused enough on the task at hand is important, but as complications arise or hurdles pop up, being familiarize with the next 2 or 3 steps will give a broader view and help with recognizing potential issues before they happen. This will also keep acceptable course changes in mind.