If you lead an organization or a team, chances are you’ve heard about the need to find your purpose and cast vision.
It really is important to know your why, something that anchors you with a deep sense of purpose.
And it’s also important to cast a compelling vision for the future so people can be inspired to move forward.
But you’re facing a danger.
And it’s a really big one.
A lot of paths might work out, but you can’t go in many directions at once. A lot of strategies might work, but the one that’s sure to fail is the mashup of them all.
It’s doesn’t always come down to right vs. wrong.
Sometimes, it comes down to unclear vs. clear.
If you lead a company, nonprofit, team or project, I want to challenge you to think of yourself as The Chief Clarity Officer.
You’re the one that has to bring the right things front and center. It falls you to keep everyone focused on the right path.
I’d go so far as to say that clarity might even be the secret sauce.
Clarity can definitely become your competitive advantage. As others try to become all things to all people, there’s power in simplification. There’s power in clarity.
The people you lead are looking to you for this.
They aren’t going to discover it on their own. They are not going to drift into it. Because we rarely drift to the desired destination. We drift away from it.
We get distracted with shiny objects, urgent tasks and new priorities.
And here’s some irony: the best people are often the worst culprits. Because they love the organization or love the project, they will tend to pick up more and more of what matters less and less.
As the Chief Clarity Officer, it’s up to you to clarify and communicate, to bring us all back to what matters most. To define how we will win, what projects will help us, what goals we should pursue, and what numbers we should track.
- We need you to say “here’s exactly what we are doing.”
- We need you to remind us “here’s exactly how we do it.”
- We need you to show us “here’s exactly where we fit in.”
- We need you to say “here’s exactly how we are going to measure our progress.”
Even if we know the purpose and even if we agree on our values, we need you to continually clarify.
Will Mancini says, “Clarity isn’t everything but it changes everything.”
We love to talk about casting vision, but it might just be more important to cast clarity.
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