Paul walked out of the meeting thinking to himself “that was easy, no one had any questions.” He smiled to himself that he had done his job, giving the team clear directives for what they needed to do next, and they all understood. He’d be surprised if the fly on the wall after he left could talk to him because the fly heard the rest of the conversation. Bill said, “Okay, I heard we need to do ____ by ______”. Sherri said, “that’s not what I heard, I think we’re supposed to do _____ and “I didn’t hear a firm deadline”. Juanita laughed and said, “the two of you are delirious, he didn’t say to do either of those things, he wants us to do ______.” Quiet Denzel finally spoke up and said, “I kind of understand why each of you would think what you do, but I didn’t really hear a clear directive on any of those things.” What should we do? Paul wasn’t the type of leader you went back to with questions, everyone went off to do their own thing. There was plenty of frustration and stress.
I’m sure you and I have never (?) left a group with anything less than clear instructions (of course not), but I’ve learned leaders sometimes think what’s clear in their head just naturally comes out as clear instructions everyone will understand. But it doesn’t work that way.
Whenever there is a lack of clarity regarding a role, responsibilities, or expectations, it leaves everyone to create in their own mind what should or should not happen. Their expectations are often unrealistic, which causes stress and possibly burnout for those who take on more responsibility than they need to (see Exodus 18). It also is stressful for those who feel they must be “hands off,” yet their stress goes up when they observe things are not getting done. Lack of clarity makes everything inefficient, and progress is extremely slow.
Clarity is a noun, but I think it should be a verb because clarity is action oriented. Clarity gives permission and empowers people to do what they are responsible for. The opposite of clarity is confusion.
How can we help make sure things are clear?
Keep it simple – If you are writing or speaking, do it so that an 8th grader will understand it. You might think it’s insulting, but the reality is if an 8th grader gets it, everyone you are speaking with will too. If you want to check the reading level of a document, there are tools to tell you the grade to which it is written. If you’re curious, this blog is written at a 7th grade level.
Seek feedback on what you said – The best question you can ask others is for them to repeat back what they heard you say. If they can tell you clearly what you’ve instructed or told them, then your communication “hit the mark”. If not, you have a chance to fix it, re-explaining and using different words.
Be open to questions – There is a way to ask if anyone has questions that invite them and a way to keep people from asking. Use the former because you should always want questions. It’s a small step to make certain everyone gets it right. Silence is okay, let there be 30 seconds of silence to see if someone will ask. Make fun of yourself, “when I was young, I was afraid to ask questions thinking I would ask a stupid one, but I truly want your questions, there are no stupid ones.” Provide an incentive. Once you get one, others usually follow.
Write it down – If you have multiple people saying, “I thought it meant …”, you have a big problem. Don’t leave it open to how each person interprets it, write it down. When you put it in writing and everyone agrees it says the same thing, you will have clarity.
When there isn’t clarity, work hard to get it because everything will become much easier.
When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.” Exodus 18:14-16
