manipulate<\/a> them into making the decisions we think they should make.<\/p>\nIf we help people by clearly communicating what we know, they are more enabled both as employees and<\/em> as adults. If we’re wrong, we can apologize, take the consequences that result, and work together as a team to get better.<\/p>\nWithout clarity, everything is muddled and confused.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Without clarity, we can’t grow as leaders, and the people we lead can’t make informed choices and learn from the results of those choices.<\/p>\n
Clarity<\/em> is Success<\/h2>\nLet\u2019s say you work hard on a project, you put your all into it, and then someone shuts it down. Do you consider that a failure? Or a success?<\/p>\n
If, in the process of your work on that project or the process of it being shut down, you learned anything<\/strong> that helped clarify your past, present, or future, we would say that both the project and<\/em> its shut down were resounding successes – because clarity is the most important measure of success<\/strong>.<\/p>\nClarity about the project, or the political environment surrounding the project, or corporate priorities, or the priorities of the hierarchy above you – all of this information leads to a more clear and informed future as well as more understanding now.<\/p>\n
Clarity is significantly more helpful than getting a specific result out of a single effort.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As an example – let’s say the project was shut down because the business division realized that it wouldn’t meet the needs of your customers. If you can find out why it didn’t meet those needs, you can understand more about your customers, and more about how a project that would not serve them came to be.<\/p>\n
Or, let’s say the project was shut down because you royally screwed up in some vital way. This is also a thing you should know so that you can either choose to improve or\u2026choose not<\/em> to improve. Either way, you have the right to choose, and you can’t do that without understanding your choices<\/strong>.<\/p>\nYou can’t<\/strong> understand your choices without clarity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIf no one explains why the project was shut down, you\u2019ve learned to suspect<\/em> that perhaps where you are is not a safe place to try to execute – because random, unexplained badness may happen to things you care about. You are now warned of that possibility, and you should ask what went wrong. If no one will tell <\/em>you what went wrong, then\u2026again, more clarity. Now you know for sure<\/em> that where you are may not be a safe place to execute, and also that asking why<\/em> something happened may go unanswered, or worse, is unwelcome entirely.<\/em><\/p>\nClarity about the specific project is helpful in obvious ways – \u201chow to avoid this problem in the future.\u201d However, it’s also valuable to know about a\u00a0lack<\/em> of clarity – \u201cno one explained anything – and when I asked<\/em> for an explanation, I was told no.\u201d<\/p>\nClarity is success<\/strong>, because it allows you to understand the reality of the situation – and the reality of the situation is the only thing that allows you to make accurate, informed decisions going forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nReality is Unstoppably Real<\/h2>\n
Sometimes as leaders, we have to tell people things that will be hard for them to hear. And sometimes as the led, we have to hear those same difficult things – that despite being as clear as you know how to be, someone grossly misinterpreted something to the point of reputation or relationship damage. Or that you really screwed something up<\/em>. Or that the overall perception of you is of incompetence, or arrogance, or\u2026whatever. People often avoid clarity because if clarity is done correctly, it’s a reflection of reality – and reality can really hurt, actually<\/strong>. We don’t want to hurt the people we care about, or the people we’ve taken responsibility for.<\/p>\nBut the thing is\u2026you can’t<\/em> prevent hurt for people. That isn’t how life works. If we’re going to take responsibility for people, we owe them the ability to make their own choices<\/strong> – with as much information as we can give them, so those choices are as informed as possible.<\/p>\nIt’s good to love the people you lead (we would say that it’s necessary, actually), and it’s good to want to protect the people you love – except when that “protection” slides into something that removes or obscures their choices<\/em>. Attempted protection from reality does them a disservice, and it ultimately does them\u00a0more harm than good.<\/p>\n