Why Lack of Clarity is Risky

If you haven’t thought about how greater clarity in communication is good for business while lack of clarity produces the opposite effect, my advice is to spend a few minutes and think about two things:

Do your clients understand with 100% clarity the value you provide? If not, how can they possibly appreciate the true value your service provides? If not, how does this impact your ability to be fairly compensated for value delivered?

Do your employees understand their role in delivering on the company’s vision and mission, both at the strategic and tactical level? If not, what is the cost this lack of clarity produces in terms of less than desired client outcomes, company morale, employee engagement and productivity, etc.?

The topic of clarity came to mind last Friday when Wayne, my father-in-law, flew into town for a brief visit. We got to talking about a sunny morning a few years ago in his home town, when on top of Bald Mountain in Sun Valley, Idaho, I casually mentioned that it would be fun to ski down to the bottom of the mountain. BECAUSE this message was not delivered clearly, what my father-in-law heard was that we were going to ski the entire run without a break. Watching a guy 24 years older than you fly down a mountain is humbling; and being at 9,000 feet, keeping up was a challenge, but I did make it… Barely!

At the bottom, Wayne turned and incredulously asked WHY I wanted to ski down to the bottom of the hill without stopping. He was winded, about to pass out, but looked pretty good compared to what I felt like at the time. I looked at him like he was crazy and said, “That wasn’t my idea!’’ We both realized that lack of clarity on my part and a false assumption on his part almost killed us (figuratively) and we simply started to laugh, before deciding that we’d call it an early day and head back to his house.

Looking back on this event five years later, Wayne and I acknowledged how the experience of the day would have been better if we simply stopped periodically during that run. The breaks would have provided opportunity to check in, see how we’re doing, make decisions on which route to take, where the best snow would be, etc. We would have skied longer and had more fun.

Using this metaphor for your business, what are the opportunities present in your company to check in and provide greater clarity? How will you achieve this? What will it mean in terms of improving your company’s effectiveness and profitability? If you need in any way figuring out how to increase clarity, reach out to me and let’s talk!