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777. Clarity Is a Leadership Skill · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Lino, partner at IA Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Be sure to follow, subscribe, and share Daily Influence with someone who could use a little extra positivity today.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And make us part of your daily routine, whether it's during your commute, on a walk, or an quiet momentous for you, because you're influenced matters.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, everybody, Brian Smith here with the I&T series and your Daily Influence.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the biggest misconceptions in business.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: is believe that people fail because they lack motivation.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I got to tell you in my experience that is really the real problem.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Most people genuinely want to do good work.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're motivated by what they've chosen to do.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: What they often lack is clarity.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: As advisors, we spend a tremendous amount of time inside organizations that believe they have communication problems.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Accountability problems.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: for even culture problems.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when we begin asking questions, we discover something more fundamental.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: People simply don't have the same understanding of what success looks like for the organization they're working with.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: They heard different messages.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: They interpreted words differently.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: They filled in the blanks with their own assumptions.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So today I want to talk about clarity.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: is one of the most important leadership skills you could ever develop and why confusion inside organizations is almost never accidental.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Confusion is usually created by leadership, not employees, and this is one of the hardest truths for leaders to accept.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Employees rarely invent confusion, they react to it.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: If five people perform the same task five different ways, I don't immediately assume I have five poor employees,
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: smart management has always taught that systems Bruce behavior people generally operate within the boundaries leaders create.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: If the expectations are fuzzy performance becomes inconsistent, that's not an employee issue it's a leadership opportunity.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: In look delegation is not a signing work many leaders believe delegation sounds like this.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Can you handle this?
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is a delegation that's transferring
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: real delegation answers several questions.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does success look like?
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does it do?
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: What authority do you have?
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: What decisions still require me and how will we measure whether this was successful?
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Without those answers, people create their own.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And every person creates something slightly different.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's where inconsistency begins.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the core teachings inside smart management is eliminating assumptions.
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Assumptions feel efficient, clarification feels slow, but assumptions always become expensive later.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of the assumes I thought you'd manage or I assumed you wanted or I figured.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those phrases usually appear right before missed deadlines, unhappy customers or frustrated coworkers.
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Leaders must replace assumptions with curiosity.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Instead of asking, did you understand?
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: How about we ask, tell me what you're heard?
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: That simple change uncovers misunderstandings before they become operational problems.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: In every organization has a semantic struggle.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is something we teach constantly.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Words matter.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: People often believe they're communicating because they're using the same words, but they're attaching different meetings.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Think about words like urgent, quality, soon, dumb, ownership, accountability.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone nods, everyone believes they agree.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then everyone behaves differently.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not because anyone is wrong, because language is interpreted through individual experience,
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the most valuable things a leader can do is to find important works before expecting consistent behavior.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: In communication is a discipline, it's not an event.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Many leaders believe communication happened because they spoke, but it didn't.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Communication isn't complete until understanding exists.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: That means repeating priorities, writing things down, confirming understanding, following
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Revealing progress, not because people aren't paying attention, because organizations are noisy.
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Leaders often become frustrated, repeating themselves.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've learned something different.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: If something is truly important, it deserves repetition.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Clarity is built through consistency.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: In culture, follows clarity.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: People often ask, how do improve culture?
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: My answer usually surprises them.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Healthy cultures don't emerge because people are happier.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: They emerge because people know what's expected.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: They understand priorities.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: They trust decision-making.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: They know where they fit.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Certainty creates confidence, confidence creates ownership.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ownership is what creates culture.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like if there's one thought I'd leave with you today, it's this.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Confusion is rarely random.
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: He usually points back to unclear expectations inconsistent communication or assumptions that nobody realized that we're making.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Leadership isn't about having all of the answers.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's about making sure everyone is solving the same problems with the same understanding of success.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: The clearer you become, the stronger your people will become, because clarity creates confidence,
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: and accountability built on understanding instead of assumption creates organizations that can truly grow.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for joining me today on Daily Influence.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, remember that every interaction is an opportunity to do influence someone in a positive way, so make it count.
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great day.