At the beginning of a new year, we can be so busy we don’t realize we’re forgetting one very important part of leading: sharing our expectations with our employees.

You can’t assume your staff understands what you expect of them, writes David Grossman for the leadercommunicator blog.

“Many leaders often think they’ve shared their expectations with employees, but unless you’ve taken a moment in time when you share your list of expectations in a formal way, you’re reducing your employees’ chances of success,” explains Grossman.

Here are five ways you can start the year off by sharing expectations with your teams:

• Start with your own expectations of yourself. Sharing what your employees can expect from you as a leader and being as specific as possible helps set the stage for your work together as a team.
• Discuss team expectations. “Unclear expectations can lead to a lack of accountability or action – undermining the ability to deliver results,” writes Grossman. So sharing what you expect out of your team and will help them rise to the occasion.
• Commit to setting goals. Make a promise to set goals, define success, and determine roles and responsibilities for each project and campaign and do your best to stick to it.
• Schedule check-ins. When you’re setting goals and structuring projects, building in milestones and checkpoints give you an opportunity to discuss the project and also evaluate how the team is fulfilling each expectation.
• Give frequent feedback. Simple feedback is effective too, writes Grossman. “Every day, commit to give at least one employee feedback to reinforce positive behaviors (how he or she is meeting expectations) and/or to extinguish any negative behaviors and suggest alternatives,” he writes.