Clarity
Posted on December 11, 2022 by Sheila Smith, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Clarity is certainly essential to helping to understand your circumstances when life gets blurry.
Do you need to adjust your focus constantly with your eyeglasses? Have you replaced your prescription for your eyeglasses lately to help with increasing your vision? Clarity is certainly essential to helping to understand your circumstances when life gets blurry. It is certainly essential to be successful in business and life.
What is your definition of clarity?
Two quotes that help me understand clarity, are:
‘Clarity is the preoccupation of the effective leader. If you do nothing else as a leader, be clear.’ Marcus Buckingham
And,
‘Clarity comes from action, not thought.’
Marie Forleo
How many times have you stepped away from a discussion, phone, or video call to realize that you don’t have all the information or answers to proceed with a task or project?
Here are actions that you could put into action today to help gain greater clarity.
Listen & Engage
A critical step in gaining clarity in communication is repeating back to your speaker what you understood, as the listener to be sure you have it correct and allow the opportunity to resolve any areas of confusion or misunderstanding. It is common for us to be thinking about what we are going to say in response before the speaker has finished what they are saying. I catch myself doing this often and remind myself to stay present in the moment. In these types of situations clarification is so important when what is being communicated is difficult to express emotionally or complex.
In a recent article I read, the new CFO of Red Hat, Carolyn Nash, was recently interviewed about her success in being selected for the position. She was asked, ‘What is the best piece of advice you ever received? And who gave it to you?’ She responded, ‘Don’t ever be afraid to ask for clarity. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, if somebody cannot explain something to you in a straightforward way that you can understand, they don’t understand it well enough themselves. That is their issue, not yours. To be able to do your job effectively, you must have clarity. Whether that be clarity of your role, the scope, or the goals. Also, as a leader, you need to have clarity so you can supply context for your team. Ultimately it comes down to being confident to demand that clarity.
Caring and engaging
Asking for clarity tells the speaker that you care about what they are saying, about them as a person and that you care about doing efficient work.
The human brain is an incredible complex organ that controls all functions of our body, interprets information from the outside world, and embodies the essence of the mind and soul. Our brains crave statements that create a clear path and direction. Also, studies have found that the human brain can hold one thing far better than two or more things that they should care about. As a leader, think of it as giving someone directions to get work done (rather than, ‘get this done by October 28th!’ and then, how you would give the person specific directions to get it done successfully. ‘Please complete this project by October 28th at 5:00 pm. I will check in with you on the Thursday before, however, if you have any questions, please reach out by phone or email.’ People may be afraid to come back to ask a question they may feel they should know the answer so keep the door open, develop that safe space for employees to ask questions along the way so they are successful in reaching the deadline.
A Final Note
An important aspect of clarity in today’s day of distraction. There are four simple tips as recommended by www.Braintap.com .
1. Exercise – improves mood and sleep, reduces stress and brain fog, inability to focus
2. Practice Mindful Meditation – improve overall clarity and focus in 20 minutes a day
3. Stop Multi-tasking – remember, our brains work at their best with one thing at a time
4. Pick your timing when you perform at your best
To have increased clarity and focus on our work and home lives, we can make an impact on our lives and those of who we work with and live with.
Written by Sheila Smith, S2HR Consulting, HR Strategist & Executive Coach.
sheila@s2hrconsulting.com
519.221.1781
www.s2hrconsulting.com
