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Your Team Doesn’t Need More MotivationCarolyn and I love to take road trips to places we’ve never been before. There’s something exciting about discovering a small town, finding a local restaurant we’ve never heard of or taking the scenic route just to see where it leads. Some of our best memories happened because we got off the interstate. But before we ever put the car in drive, one thing always happens first. We enter the destination into the GPS. The moment we do, something changes. The trip hasn’t gotten any shorter. Traffic still exists. Construction zones are still ahead. There may even be wrong turns along the way, but uncertainty disappears. We know where we’re going. The GPS doesn’t remove obstacles. It simply tells you where to go next. And when people know where they’re going, they stop worrying about every turn along the way. It reminded me of a meme I came across on LinkedIn. I liked it so much I had ChatGPT recreate it for this week’s tip. It’s the graphic you see at the top of this tip: Clarity is power. The greatest obstacle to performance isn’t usually a lack of talent, effort or intelligence. It’s uncertainty. Whether you’re leading a sales team, coaching employees or sitting across from a client, people perform their best when they know exactly where they’re headed and why it matters. Research published in Harvard Business Review found that after surveying more than 35,000 leaders from over 100 countries, 73% admitted they are distracted from their current task some or most of the time, while 67% described their minds as cluttered because they lack clear priorities. That’s not an attention problem. It’s a clarity problem. I’ve seen this play out for years in sales. Ask a struggling seller what they’re trying to accomplish this week, and you’ll often hear a list of activities.
Notice something? Every item on that list describes what to do… not what to accomplish. None of those are objectives. They’re tasks. The best sellers don’t wake up asking, “What do I have to do today?” They ask, “What’s the most important thing I need to accomplish?” They know the one client they need to move forward. The one conversation they need to have. The one problem they need to solve. They aren’t necessarily working harder. They’re working with greater clarity. Leadership is no different. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School has written that organizations rarely fail because they choose the wrong strategy. More often, they fail because they don’t execute with consistency and alignment. Great leaders don’t simply cast vision. They provide direction. They help people understand what success looks like and what matters most. That’s what direction does. It eliminates unnecessary decisions. It reduces anxiety. It gives people permission to stop chasing everything and start pursuing what matters most. That’s where freedom comes from. Not freedom from responsibility. As leaders, we often think our job is to provide more answers. Sometimes our greatest responsibility is simply to provide more clarity.
Clarity isn’t being controlling. It’s being kind. Nothing reduces anxiety like knowing exactly what’s expected. When people can answer those questions, everything changes. Their confidence grows. Their focus sharpens. Their execution improves. And eventually… Results follow. So, as you begin this week and before you ask your team or yourself to step on the accelerator, make sure you’ve entered the destination into their GPS. Ask this question: Have I made the destination so clear that everyone knows exactly where we’re going? Because… Clarity is power. Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about making the destination so clear that people can find their own way there. Think Big. Make Big Things Happen. Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development at RAB. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can also connect with him on X, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Share |
