When things go wrong, such as a team misses a project deadline or a customer receives the wrong order, often I’ll hear leaders, and quite frankly, you can probably think of individuals, who will then react and respond and say, “But I was so clear. I was so clear in my directions, I was so clear in the guidance.”
To that leader saying I was clear, they’re telling the truth, at least from their perspective. They believe that they are being very clear. And even if it’s not just from their perspective, even if the clarity was there, clarity does not necessarily mean understanding. What we need, if we are to get the outcomes that we want, is shared understanding.
Simply being clear upfront does not necessarily guarantee that shared understanding. We need to make sure that we’re aligned on all meaning. We need to create context that everybody understands, just to name a couple of things. But when leaders think clarity is enough, they then unintentionally pass the responsibility on to the other person, the receiver of the communication. And when things don’t go the way that the leader expected, they put all of that blame, all of that responsibility there.
What we need to do, as leaders, is start shifting and thinking about clarity; clarity is not the way to guarantee understanding. Even though my message is clear, does everybody understand the context, the meaning? Do they have all of the information that they need?
And start to take responsibility for being the person who’s delivering the communication, instead of just passing it. Don’t overlook how messages land just because you are clear. We want to make sure that that shared understanding is there, to create the outcome that you want. And that’s what I’m here to do, help you transition those intentions into outcomes.