Setting Expectations

In this post on his Ripples weblog, David St. Lawrence writes:

Hindsight is so humbling. It took me 45 years of professional life to arrive at the following conclusion: Setting expectations correctly is far more important than the actual work that you do.

I hate voicemail. However, I have heard of a consultant who has voicemail that says, "Leave a message and I'll return your call in 90 minutes." He always returns the call in sixty minutes or less -- or has an assistant do it. He sets a client's expectations and then exceeds them. If we lawyers were able to consistenly do the same thing, we wouldn't be the butt of so many jokes.