I saw a bumper sticker today that read “Mediocre Is The New Fabulous.” This really got to me because it’s a little too true. It is also sad. Mediocrity is a sad state. It’s a state of moderate quality. Ordinary. Middling. We don’t want mediocrity for our families, our towns, our teams, our country, or ourselves. We want fabulous! We want awesome! But calling things awesome doesn’t make them awesome.
I’ve written numerous articles about clarity blindness and the general inability of people to recognize the ubiquity of disclarity surrounding us. Today I want to share four critical reasons why you need to make clarity a priority. Clarity represents a huge opportunity whether you care about profits, productivity, employee engagement, confidence, commitment, conflict, or politics.
What is the best way to create commitment? Invite everyone to frequent communications meeting. Make sure everyone feels heard. Launch initiatives with great enthusiasm. Collect ideas from lots of employees. Develop an employee engagement program. All of the above. None of the above. Make your choice and then see if you are correct!
When my parents died, their wills suggested an onerous process for dividing belongings among 5 siblings. But at least they provided a process! They also indicated we were welcome to come up with a better process, if we so desired. My parents, who probably had something to do with my clarity(!), clearly knew the importance of having a process! As executrix, I gladly proposed a better process. Being me, I’m pretty sure I would have done so regardless of whether or not it was my responsibility. So I wrote up a simple process, explained it to all siblings, asked for opinions, and then got their signatures to confirm agreement before anyone began claiming anything. The process worked smoothly. Success depended only on the thought invested by each sibling into their desires and needs. Everyone left with a combination of cherished and practical items. There was one opportunity for dissension, however.
People have been talking about conflict resolution and conflict avoidance for years as if we should all embrace conflict and shun those unwilling to do so. They are wrong. Conflict is destructive. It damages results, productivity, and relationships. Conflict is the result of the fears and unproductive behaviors that originate in disagreement. In the worse cases, conflict becomes violent. In the workplace, the consequences are rarely so severe. Nonetheless, conflict transforms decisions into painful processes. It invokes power struggles, silos, and internal competition. It makes some people talk louder, push harder, and lean in, while others shut down, react defensively, and lean out. Whatever the manifestation, conflict is destructive and prevents open, honest, productive conversation. I’m not saying you and your employees should be in agreement at all times. You shouldn’t. If you are, most of you are unnecessary. You need good healthy debate about ideas and decisions. You need disagreement. You absolutely need disagreement. And, unlike conflict, there is nothing fundamentally destructive about disagreement. Good, healthy disagreement leads to eye-opening discussions. People learn, explore, and challenge each other’s thinking. In the end, minds are changed and compromises are made or parties agree to disagree and move on. So what causes disagreement to become conflict?
The Power of Clarity that galvanizes commitment and drives high performance is built on three pillars. Clarity of Purpose If you want to maximize productivity, commitment, and results, everyone needs to know what they are trying to accomplish and why. You may think you’ve got this covered once you’ve established goals and priorities. You haven’t. First, you need to avoid the trap of too many priorities, which is a super common problem. Too many priorities means no priorities. If you have 2-3 priorities, you will accomplish 2-3 things. If you have 4-10 priorities, you will accomplish 1-2 things. If you have more than 10 priorities, you will accomplish nothing. I read this somewhere, don’t remember where, but I know it is true because it applies to me and everyone I know. At any given moment, you need to focus on one task. As your list grows, you spend more and more time looking at the list, shuffling items, trying to decide which to do next, playing games with yourself like adding things you’ve already accomplished so you can check them off, and not accomplishing anything that counts. Focus is absolutely critical. You and your employees must pare those lists down.
Whether you are an executive or a member of a Board of Directors, I bet you recognize at least one of these situations: The executive sees little or no value in the board. I’m not talking about the quality of the board here; I’m talking about the attitude of the executive. Relations are strained and no one is happy. The executive respects the board, but doesn’t know what to do with them. I’ve seen many cases where the executive wastes days every single month preparing for the board meeting. It’s a major production bent on entertaining and impressing the directors. Nothing substantive is accomplished. In other cases, they all plod through a very boring and lengthy meeting that also accomplishes nothing. The executive has a really close relationship with one of the directors and it isn’t the chairperson. The result is serious trust and power issues. It’s like having a spy on the board who will run to the executive with confidential board business. Even when confidences are not being violated, an executive can’t risk having his board think they are. The executive shares too much with the board and drags them down into operational weeds. As a result, the executive unwittingly loses control of decisions and the board’s time is wasted. The executive shares personal fears and insecurities with members of the board. It doesn’t take long before the board loses confidence in the executive and the executive loses his job. An executive is supposed generate confidence, not erode it. The executive doesn’t think the board is taking on enough responsibility. This is particularly true of non-profits and fundraising responsibilities. Undercurrents flow and resentment builds for all. The board doesn’t show up. More resentment. Decisions are made without appropriate expertise, input, and oversight. The board isn’t completely happy with… read more →
My clients strive to be fair to their employees. Where they struggle is in the distinction between fair and equal. The goal is to treat people fairly, not equally. Equal means the same. Identical. But employees are like snowflakes; no two are quite alike. They don’t all need the same level or type of support to succeed. Nor do they want or deserve the same opportunities. They come from different backgrounds and never contribute in the exactly same way. Furthermore, employees don’t even like to be rewarded in the same way. Equal treatment does not necessarily make sense. Fairness, however, is a worthy goal. When people believe they are being treated fairly, they can relax and focus on the prioirities and challenges they face. When they feel unfairly treated, their focus shifts completely and they devote more energy to protecting their own interests than tackling important priorities. Equal may or may not be fair, but fair is always fair! Want to know how to ensure employees are, and feel, fairly treated?
White smoke signaled a decision made and then the new pope walked out on the balcony. Pretty simple. No communications plan needed. Unfortunately, smoke signals won’t work in your company! It works for the Vatican because everyone, and I mean everyone: Knows exactly what decision is being made, Knows how the process works, Accepts the process, and Is watching and waiting with enthusiasm How often does that happen in your company? I suspect never. Thus, smoke signals won’t do the trick. However, there is no reason why you can’t come closer than you do. Let people know what decisions are being made and why Be sure they understand and accept the process Increase their enthusiasm by helping them understand the importance to the company and the implications for themselves While this will make for better decisions and happier employees, I still don’t recommend you reduce your communication to smoke signals!
At a client’s staff meeting last week, we had an interesting discussion about accountability. When someone stated that accountability and adherence to policy and rules were critical, the result was a combination of vehement agreement and visible discomfort, often on the same face. Why? Because this single sentence muddled an important distinction: accountability and compliance.