Clarity powers productivity. And it does so for anyone and everyone. Here are seven of the most important ways:
Since military leaders make decisions affecting the fates of nations and millions of lives, one would like to think their decision-making skills are as carefully honed as their combat skills. So I was gratified to find plenty of reassuring evidence among the leaders of the Norwegian Resistance in the excellent book by Neal Bascomb called The Winter Fortress. Bascomb’s book provides several examples of consistently excellent decision making. Whether this was the result of specific training, excellent role models, or natural clarity, I will never know. However, the contrast between their uncommon methods and the way most people approach decisions is like night and day.
I’ve never sold a house one day and a bought another the next. Until this week. While meeting with our attorney a few days beforehand, I quizzed her a bit to understand how wiring the money worked. I wanted to know the likelihood of the sales proceeds not getting through in time to cover our purchase the next day. Seeing that a short delay would have fairly minor consequences, I took the next logical step. What if the sale fell through completely due to some unforeseen calamity? I pictured ourselves arriving at the second closing with no money in hand and all our belongings in a moving van due to deliver within two hours. This is when the attorney said, “Turn your brain off or you will go crazy.” Now that is a statement with which I could not disagree more! For three reasons.
I don’t know anyone who wishes they got more email. Everyone gets too much. If you are tired of getting buried, follow these 6 steps.
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.
I followed a conversation on social media recently where women were talking about the common habit, especially among women, of ending sentences in an uptick as if they were asking a question. There have been numerous articles about how this uptick makes women seem tentative, weak, and unsure of themselves. I agree with this interpretation? You don’t sound competent and trustworthy if you sound like you need reassurance every step of the way? You simply can’t speak with authority if every statement you make sounds like a question? This group, however, was defending the habit. They suggested the uptick was a sign of their collaborative nature. They even suggested that men would do well to follow suit.
A ‘lack of clarity’ sounds like something is just a little off. Like a lack of spice, where the perfect pinch would elevate an otherwise exquisite dish to greatness. Or a ‘lack of light.’ Not darkness. No, just not quite enough light to see really well. Just a little lacking. Everyone knows that light and darkness fall on a continuum. And we all have many shared words for describing positions along that continuum. Black of night, candlelight, twilight, bright and sunny, in the spotlight, and blinded by the light, to name a few. Each conjures an image distinct from the others and with a meaning shared by most people.
I recently had the pleasure of joining marketing strategy expert Linda J. Popky, president of Leverage2Market® Associates, on the Marketing Thought Leadership podcast. Our topic, “Let Me Make That Perfectly Clear: How Clarity Ties to Organizational Success,” covers some of my favorite topics and perennial questions: What is clarity? Why is it so uncommonly found in today’s organizations? How can clarity improve productivity, performance, and employee engagement? Why is it so important for marketers and other knowledge workers? Listen to this podcast. Podcast Transcript:
If you think arming teachers is the solution to gun violence, I bet your track record as a manager, especially a hiring manager, leaves much to be desired.
A couple of months ago, I wrote a piece called 15 Time Wasting Activites Corporations Encourage Daily. Growth strategist Alastair Dryburgh of London commented that my list of wasteful activities comprised the main tasks of management. And he was absolutely right. I bet if you asked random leaders and employees alike to list tasks of management, they would mention most of those 15 time-wasting activities. Activities like reporting, reviewing, planning, meeting, discussing, and documenting. Why are these wasteful?