Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing. I spoke with more actors, musicians,

policy makers, and so many other fascinating people, like jazz bassist Christian McBride.

Jazz is based on improvisation but there's very much a form to it.

You have a conversation based on that melody and those chord changes.

So it's kind of like giving someone a topic and say, okay, talk about this.

Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is to make your expectations and needs explicit. In other

words, don't just drop hints. We've all found ourselves disappointed because someone didn't live up to our expectations,

only to realize later that the other person had not actually understood our expectations,

or realized that we needed help. Whether it's assuming that your team member will let you know in advance

if he's not going to meet an important deadline,

or that your partner will send flowers on your anniversary.

We're taking a risk if we have strongly held

expectations for someone's behavior but don't let the person know about them.

Other people simply cannot read our minds.

And we waste all kinds of time,

behaving as though they can,

and then recovering from the disappointment

or dropped balls when it turns out they can't. The only solution to this is to stop dropping hints.

...