Episode 4: Why Leadership Clarity Matters: Clear Expectations, Communication and Trust

Welcome to the Leadership and Management Reset podcast, the space where we rethink how we lead and reconnect with who we are as leaders. I'm Sharon Smith, leadership coach, mentor and founder of Own Your Leadership. Each episode I'll discuss leadership development, share confidence building tools. And emotionally intelligent strategies to help you navigate the real challenges of leadership with more clarity, calm, and intention.

Whether you're stepping into a new leadership role, growing your leadership identity, or simply wanting to lead in a more grounded human way, this podcast is your opportunity to pause, reset, and realign. Let's get started. It's what happens in the modern world. So what's going on inside your head unless you articulate that clearly.

And your thinking in a your direction of travel and people don't understand what it is you're wanting to do. And quite often leaders carry that clear picture internally, but figure others can't see it. So in fact, today I've had something quite interesting that I'd like to share with you. I am working on a leadership competency framework just now, and, um.

The outcome of what I asked a colleague to do really surprised me. It was very clear in my head what I wanted. I was hoping that my colleague would come back and say, this is incredible. Um, so I got what I asked for when I said, just check it.

They did. And they had lots of comments about what's not working, what needs fixed, what, um, might be better in a different place and so on. Useful. But I think the look on my face told my colleague exactly how I felt I was utterly deflated.

And not only that, it wasn't what I was looking for, but I also. It's actually about translation. Sometimes we can feel like we're listening to somebody speaking a foreign language. We do work at such fast paces that doesn't give us space to explain clearly or to even share what success must look like.

And we end up fumbling about in the dark. I think back to the time when my son was at university and he was doing product design engineering and he had to meet with, um. And as leaders, we really should be doing the same work. If we want something finished at a certain way, we should package up that communication clearly so that everyone knows what they're working towards.

Now, when I say it that way, it sounds very, very simple, very simplistic, but we all know the the reality, don't we? Now you may be a new leader of a team, or perhaps multiple teams, and you have that strategic responsibility to be visionary, to get out of the operational space and to work on the forward direction. And when you're taking the team and what you're, you're, you need to be clear, sorry, on where you're taking your team and what you're hoping to move away from. Um, maybe have a look at getting an understanding of what everybody thought the organization was for.

So we started really superficially, so a team of employees were entrusted to lead this. And one of the activities, um, I was on that team and one of the activities we did was use Simon Sinek's golden Circle of the why, the how, and the what, why being the purpose, the cause or belief that motivates the action. And wow, did they all do that differently? But the teams tended to respond similarly, which is was very interesting.

Those that were working in the registration team said their why was to protect children and ensure that teachers were qualified and safe to educate them. Fair enough. The digital team, which did all the communication work for registrants, said that their why was to deliver high quality digital materials to support our teachers. Whenever a case, um, met worthy of that, um, came to the regulation board, not one team shared the same.

Why. So that organization's direction of travel was very different because of the different fractions within it. So the leadership team clearly had an awful lot of work to do on actually pulling that all together to make sure that everyone was singing basically from the same song sheet, so being clear is not controlling. It's not about being controlling, and I want you to really notice that.

'cause quite often I have conversations with people that they say, but if I tell them what it's to look like, then I'm controlling and I'm stifling innovation or creativity. No, that's not the case. Inviting warm questions, so stating, look. No questions at asked question, what do you, what haven't I explain?

Explained clearly and suggest that you may not have explained something clearly. We're not all, we don't all learn and understand through the same avenues. We're not all visual learners. We're not all auditory or kinesthetic learners, and it's really important that we check in with our people to find out whether or not they've, it's clear and everyone is understood, and I don't want to demean anyone here.

The criteria is quite simple. So why do we find it so hard in leadership? It may be a generational thing, it may be def. It definitely is a time and an overwhelming thing, and that's something we need to mitigate against, but it's also something we need to get used to because those young people that are all about success criteria and waggles are coming through and they'll be all over this.

It's up to you to help them either. Pass responsibility onto somebody else or to provide them with additional resource. It's not up to them to overwork, to, um, have to do whatever it is to make it happen or potentially to fail because you've not been there to lead them through that challenge. Unclear timeframes also create pressure, so regular check-ins help with that.

Empower your people by leaving them to go on with them. You also don't wanna be adding stress to anyone because you haven't done any of that. Now you might see people should manage their own time and work pressures. But again, you're leading and you're nurturing, and you are supporting your people, and ultimately you want them to succeed and feel that pride in doing well.

People need to know which leader they're getting each day. Are you consistent in how you lead and show each day? Or are your team walking about on eggshells because you're up and down and frankly, temperamental. As a leader, you must be mindful of how you turn up, and if you're not consistent and with acceptable behavior, then this is something you must deal with when you're predictable, and that might sound like a boring word, but when you're predictable and consistent, it builds trust.

But sharing things like saying, um, I ask questions when I'm thinking sometimes the. Lots of questions might, people might think they might infer that as being, oh, I'm not very clear, or he's doubting what I've done, or she thinks that this isn't very good. But actually sometimes questions I, I'm a question I, I ask her all the time when I don't understand something or I need to process something more in my mind, I will ask lots of questions. And tell them that you value progress over perfection, that you're not looking at every stage of the game, utter perfection.

The projects that they're working on, the things that you are leaving them to work on are pro works in progress. So progress is better than perfection. And I'll go back to what said before, be predictable. Okay.

And finally, very, very finally, before I forget. Clarity is kindness. When you're clear, you reduce any emotional effort, you stop people second guessing, and it allows people to relax more, to work more intentionally, and it means that they then contribute fully. So clarity, really essentialize care, its respect.

Show your vulnerable side. Show that you're a learner. You are also a work in progress. And take that feedback so you can learn and you can get clarity on your clarity.

I'll leave you with that today. Catch you next time. Bye-bye. If there's something you'd like me to explore in a future episode, a question, a challenge, or perhaps a topic you're navigating, I'd love to hear from you.

This podcast is here to support your leadership journey, so until the next time, lead with intention and own your leadership. See you soon.