How many times have you been in a meeting and somebody asks a seemingly simple question that deserves a simple answer, but they get something much more complex? An example of this would be the question: “How’s the weather?” Instead of the simple answer like “Nice and sunny,” the person answering decides to give a monologue on how beautiful the sky is, how warm the air is, and how the weatherman incorrectly called for rain today, etc.
If you find yourself falling into the trap of telling someone how to build a clock instead of simply telling them what time it is, you’re probably succumbing to the tendency of Full Transparency and forgetting the fact that what most people are looking for is Full Clarity. Let me explain…
A blog written by John Maeda & Becky Bermont called Leaders Should Strive for Clarity, Not Transparency explains the difference between Full Transparency and Full Clarity…
“Full transparency is access to all the facts.”
“Full clarity is access to understanding the facts.”
Hidden in the above definitions is that full clarity does not mean revealing all the facts – just providing your listeners with the access to understand the facts.
Also, let me stress that this does not mean you should hide anything from your team or your company. You also don’t need to give every one every little detail on how you came to a decision. What you do need to do is to give your team and any associated stakeholders the right amount of information in a timely manner and ensure that they understand the decision you reached and the information you are providing. Clarity is often about brevity and balance.
If you are about to ask a question and want to insure a brief and clear answer, be sure to say “Just the headlines, please.“
From personal experience, I can tell you that trying to reveal all the facts and all the nitty-gritty details will – more often than not – bore your audience and very quickly get them to quickly tune you out. Unfortunately, no matter how incredible/valuable/important a fact or piece of news is, if your audience has already tuned you out, they will miss it.
Now – what was my message…
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Chris Sprague is a Visionary Servant Leader
He strives to bring out the best in everyone
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Image Source: parliament.uk
