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Transcript

728. Clarity Before Speed: Why Strong Leadership Creates Understanding Before Urgency · 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 Kleeneau, 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.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And make us part of your daily routine, whether it's during your commute on a walk or an quiet moment just for you, because you're influenced matters.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, everybody, Brian Smith here with the IA team series and your Daily Influence.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And today we're going to talk about clarity
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, one of the biggest mistakes organizations make today is confusing movement with progress.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we live in a world where everyone feels pressure to move faster, faster communication, faster decisions, faster growth, faster responses and faster change.
• 1:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: As many of you may or may not know, the biggest chapter in our first book,
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: individual influence is actually titled slow down.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, we're big on not going in faster.
• 1:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: But what happens in many organizations is that speed begins to replace clarity.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: It blurs things.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, people are moving, but they're not aligned.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Teams are communicating, but not understanding each other.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Leaders are reacting, but not necessarily leading.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And eventually, that pressure creates confusion, burnout, frustration, and
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: organizational friction.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the reality is that high performing organizations do not become successful because they move fast first.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: They become successful because they become a clear first.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Clarity creates confidence.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: It creates alignment.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It creates trust.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And once people truly understand the mission expectations priorities and behaviors,
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: speed becomes sustainable instead of chaotic.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So today, we're going to talk about my clarity must always come before speed.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Most organizations don't slow down because people are lazy.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: They slow down because people are unclear.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Unclear expectations create hesitation.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Unclear priorities create duplicated effort and unclear accountability creates finger pointing.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: and unclear communication creates emotional frustration.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the core teachings in the side, smart management, and as part of smart management, smart communication is that people perform better when expectations are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: When people know what success looks like, who owns what, when things are due, and how communication should happen, they naturally move faster with less drama.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is the important part.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Healthy speed is usually the byproduct of operational clarity.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Many leaders attempt to create urgency before they create understanding that almost always creates friction instead of momentum.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the hidden problems in leadership today is emotional overload.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: People are exhausted.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Teams are fragmented.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Communication is oftentimes reactive.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Many organizations are operating in a constant state of urgency.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: When emotions begin driving communication, clarity disappears.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: People start listening carefully, assumptions increase, meetings become repetitive, and organizations lose enormous amounts of time, trying to recover from misunderstandings.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Strong leadership does not remove emotion from business.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: but strong leadership does create stability inside emotional environments.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: What that means is slowing conversations down and needed, clarify and expectations, listening and intentionally, and making sure people leave conversations understanding the mission instead of just feeling the pressure.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is especially important in today's work place.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we have multiple generations, multiple communication styles
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: All the happening simultaneously.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Clarity calls organizations, chaos accelerates burnout.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And look technology is not the solution to communication problems.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: We all try to solve it that way.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Technology amplifies existing behavior.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: If an organization is already unclear, fragmented or reactive, technology simply helps confusion travel faster.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: More emails, more texts, more notifications,
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: and more dashboards, but not necessarily more understanding.
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Smart organizations use technology intentionally.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: They simplify communications.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: They centralize information and they define accountability.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the insure technology supports human understanding instead of replacing it.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the greatest leadership responsibilities today is helping people filter signal
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: because speed without clarity creates rework, speed without clarity creates distrust, and speed without clarity eventually slows everything down anyway.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, at the end of the day, leadership is not about creating motion.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's about creating understanding.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: When people clearly understand the mission, the priorities, the expectations, and the behaviors required for success,
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Organizations naturally begin moving with greater confidence, consistency, and speed.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Clarity creates stability, stability creates trust, and trust creates sustainable execution.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Inside smart management and throughout the IMT series we teach that influence is most powerful and people understand not only what they are doing, but why they are doing it together.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for joining me today on Daily Influence.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the next time we're going to continue this conversation by talking about decision velocity and how strong leaders make timely decisions without creating confusion or chaos.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: But look forward to joining you next time and have a great day.