Hey everyone, welcome to the Herding Tigers podcast. My name is Todd Henry. I'm the author of Herding Tigers, be the leader that creative people need. Here on the show we talk about simple practical things we can do every day as leaders to help our teams stay focused, engaged, and producing the best work of their lives.
In many ways, leadership is about risk mitigation. You want the channel resources and team effort in the direction most likely to generate the results you want, while at the same time minimizing the potential downside of getting it wrong. This is especially challenging when doing creative work because the downside of getting it wrong can be significant. If you make the wrong decisions early in a project, the net result can be days or weeks of wasted work, not just yours, but the teams, making it impossible to course correct.
Because of the risk involved, many leaders unknowingly become less than clear about their expectations for the work or of the team. They might speak in vague terms or give opaque direction because they themselves are not certain of the right decision. They know the team needs to move forward, but it's not clear to them yet what forward actually means. They want to protect themselves from a mistake, so they lack precision.
The problem with this is that their lack of precision and clarity has a trickle down effect within the organization. Direction diffuses. Things don't become more clear as you get farther and farther from the decision maker. They become less so.
Thus, a few team dynamics emerge. Number one, because they don't want to waste their time, team members sometimes will just wait until you tell them what to actually do before starting their work. They don't want to spend days or weeks doing something that's just going to be changed anyway because you make a different decision, right? So they'll just wait until you tell them what to do.
Number two, dissonance emerges as each team member interprets what you want. Everybody comes up with their own story about what you want because you're not being precise, sometimes leading to misalignment and disjointedness among those responsible for executing on the work. Team members need leaders to be precise about expectations. They don't need you to be right, but they do need you to be clear even when you're uncertain.
Here are a few areas where you need to ensure that you're being precise with your team. Number one, precise language. When sharing your decisions or expectations with the team, speak in nouns and verbs, not lofty adjectives and adverbs. Be a laser, not a lighthouse.
A lighthouse tells you what not to do by pointing out danger areas. It doesn't really give you a clear path forward. It just says, don't go here, don't go there, don't go here, don't go there, right? That's kind of a self-protective way of leading.
A laser is precise and focused and points you to a desired outcome. You should aim to use precise language when speaking with the team. Don't use industry buzz phrases or metaphors. Find a clear, compelling, precise way to communicate what you want, even if you're uncertain, you're correct.
So use precise language. Number two, precise expectations. Be very clear about what you want, when you want it, who will do it, why it matters, and what the outcome will be if you are successful. Don't leave room for vague interpretations of when the work is needed, who the responsible parties are, or why any of it matters to begin with.
All effective expectations include assignment of responsibility, articulation of timeline, and accountability for results. If your expectations don't include all three, you aren't being precise enough. You're leaving too much room for interpretation. So assignment of responsibility, articulation of timeline, and accountability for results.
All three are critical. Third, precise objectives. So where are you leading the team? How will you know that you've arrived?
Why will any of it matter? Many leaders speak in lofty vague terms about their vision for the work, or their vision for the team, because they aren't really certain about their own intuition, because they are insecure about their intuition. They allow that insecurity to trickle down to the team in lack of precision. Team members need to know that you have clear objectives in mind, that you are aware of the obstacles you will encounter along the way, and that you have a plan to overcome those obstacles.
You must be clear about where you are leading the team, in spite of your personal insecurities. So precise language, precise expectations, precise objectives, leaders. Be precise in how you communicate with your team. You owe them that.
You do. Once your team members have clear bounding arcs, so in other words, clear boundaries for the work that they're doing, and a solid objective in mind, they will reward you with more consistent, aligned, imaginative work. Hey, I hope you found today's episode Hopeful Be Precise. With your team, if you wanna learn more about this, check out my book, Herding Tigers, write a lot more about this in the book, or check out the Herding Tigers Creative Leader course at accidentalcreative.com.
All right, be brave friends, and be the leader that your team needs.