Clarity is one of the top ten characteristics of leaders who excel. These are the people about whom stories are told long after they’ve led their organizations through
extreme circumstances or uncertainty, and met great challenges well.

Why is leadership clarity so important? It’s because people can’t follow what they don’t understand.

And because circumstances are constantly changing, ensuring clarity, as a leader, is a never-ending job.

Think of leadership clarity this way. Trying to follow a person who’s not clear about where he or she is leading a group is like trying to follow someone while driving in
thick fog.

People on a team, in such a case, don’t know where the road is, or if there’s one at all. They don’t know where the dangers are. They don’t know if they’re still traveling together, or by now, alone.

They proceed nervously, slowly, trying to move as safely as they can. Or, metaphorically speaking, they pull over to the side of the road, idling, waiting for the fog to lift, the way to become clear, safety to be ensured.

In the meantime, time and opportunities are lost. Costs increase. Profits fall.

Being clear, as a leader, may sound easy to achieve. It’s not.

It requires clear thinking in every circumstance – when the best way forward is apparent, as well as when – as has been the case for many companies in recent months – the best path is not yet known and must be created, as you go.

To reach this level of clarity, a leader and his or her team need good information, effective collaboration, clear and effective processes for prioritizing and decision-making.

Great leaders build strong organizations, which may include many people. The work of all these people must be integrated and coordinated in some way. Perhaps that’s done somewhat loosely, organically, or it may be accomplished in much more formal, structured ways.

The net effect, however it’s done, is that with the right direction, information, and other signposts along the way, individual employees can make the right decisions and choose the right actions in the daily flow to create continuing progress for all on shared company goals.

Combined with the other top characteristics of great leaders,leadership clarity turns good intentions, and precious resources focused on challenging goals into the best results possible for all company stakeholders.

Sometimes you don’t.

If you get a second chance at something that’s important to you, something that didn’t work on the first pass, you know the surge of energy it can bring. You also know the wisdom of the second pass, the lessons learned that tighten your focus, improve your aim, and increase your chances of success, if you apply those lessons well.

Here are thoughts from others about second chances, persistence, and trying again, with better aim:

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.
Harrison Ford

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
Napoleon Hill

Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success.
Robert Orben

The key to success is often the ability to adapt.
Unknown

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.
Unknown

The key to change…is to let go of fear.
Rosanne Cash

Discover, express and focus on a future for your team that’s clear, positive, compelling.

A vision that works motivates the group to take action to make the vision come true, no matter what obstacles they find ahead.

To do this, create a vision that appeals to your team’s emotions, as well as their intellect.

When you think about creating the vision together, think of it as a way to “pre-experience” success, in detail. Think of the final product of your visioning experience as a “snapshot” and preview of the future you are creating, as much as you possibly can.

Here are tips about how you can capture or create your team’s powerful, future-creating vision:

1. Create the time and space for it.

Your team needs time to relax and let their ideas flow. That requires time and space away from the pressures of the regular workday. Schedule the time in advance with your team.

Create an environment for the visioning work that’s free of interruptions and enables the team to think expansively, clearly, honestly, creatively.

Engage a good facilitator, if the support of someone experienced in managing group processes would help. The facilitator can also help you create the final vision product you’ll post.

If you’re working on your own, make sure you have the space to stretch out. That includes plenty of wall-space to post butcher paper or easels and flip charts on which the team can record their ideas.

2. Envision a compelling future.

Start by setting a target date by which you hope your vision will be real. Perhaps that’s 5, 10 or more years away. Whatever it is, make it a specific date.

Next, imagine what you will have achieved, as a team, by this time. Imagine in detail. “Be there now.”

Imagine what your customers, collaborators, and competitors are saying at this future time about your results and how you created them:

- When you see and hear their reactions, what do you like?

- What do you want to change, about what they are saying about you, in that future state?

Now, as you imagine being in this future, imagine how you feel about what you have achieved by this time:

- What do you like best?

- What do you want to add or change?

3. Capture and sort the group’s input to create the shared vision.

Capture the group’s work in writing or graphics so the team sees and shares the experience of their ideas emerging, being combined, and their shared vision ultimately taking shape.

Sort the information in some easy way as you move through the process. You can use mindmaps, clustering techniques, or structured brainstorming exercises.

You can also create a graphic template ahead of time of a metaphor you want to use to catch and organize the team’s ideas. For example, some teams use a metaphor of taking a journey together, mountain climbing, surfing, or building a city. There are many other metaphors you can also use.

A variety of useful tools are available in good facilitation books and resources. In addition, an effective facilitator, if you use one, will have her or his own visioning process and tools ideas to suggest to you.

4. Refine and post the vision. Then follow up.

Take the visioning work you’ve done, and distill it, as a group.

Produce a simple final vision statement or graphic.

Post the vision in a prominent place where the team works. That may be a physical space, or if you have a virtual or dispersed team, post it on an online space you share.

You can also create an individual version that employees can post at their desks. Some teams use these like worksheets so team members can keep their eye on the “big picture,” and capture their own notes, as the year unfolds.

Ultimately, your vision will turn out to be more powerful for your team than you – or they – might guess. Visions are always powerful, whether they’re positive or negative.

When you’re positive vision-led, if at any point unexpected circumstances threaten to throw your team off course, you’ll be far ahead of competitors and other teams who are floundering to find their direction again. You’ll be able to recapture your bearings, focus, balance and get traction quickly, and continue to move ahead.

Visionary leadership is one of the top characteristics of great leaders.

Leaders who have this ability can see a better future for their teams and organizations. They’re very successful at engaging others in the process of creating that future together.

A shared, positive vision is far more powerful than many people would guess. In the absence of such a vision, individual members of a team – any team – are likely to be pulled in the direction of their own visions of the future. And often, at best, these visions are not aligned. At worst, they directly conflict.

For example, some people are driven by great fear of the things they’re trying to avoid. They’re filled to the brim by graphic visions of the very things they dread. They may not realize how powerful these visions are, perhaps even leading them closer to the very things they wish to avoid. They need a compelling, positive vision to replace their fear.

Other employees, in their fervent desire to try to manage change, are motivated by visions of protecting the status quo at all costs. These visions can be helpful in the short-term, but in the long-term, they’re likely to freeze the organization in place – while customers and competitors continue to move far ahead.

What happens if individual employees are working to visions that conflict?

The result is likely to be wasted effort, time and opportunities, as well as distraction, team dissension – anything but a focus on customers, and the team effort required to make sure their needs are well-met. Ultimately, of course, dissatisfied customers take their business to competitors, or decide to quit buying the types of products and services you sell, altogether.

Great leaders can gather and direct the full range of their team’s resources - their time, talent, attention, energy, and, of course, budget – to create a strong and positive future for their companies, customers and team.

I’ll provide ideas you can use to create your team’s vision in the next blog post.

Part of successful problem-solving is having the right long- and short-term perspective.

A game frame of mind helps, too.

It’s also good – and productive – to believe and act as if you expect to succeed somehow, some way: in seeing the problem, seeing the answer, and making change and improvement well.

Here are a few more thoughts from change-makers of the past:

In times like these it is good to remember there have always been times like these.
Paul Harvey

I never decide whether it’s time to retire during training camp.
Bob Christian, NFL player

The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.
Peter Drucker

Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
Edward R. Murrow

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
Theodore Rubin

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
James Thurber

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
Albert Einstein

Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than trying to solve them.
Henry Ford

When a problem comes along, study it until you are completely knowledgeable. Then find that weak spot, break the problem apart, and the rest will be easy.
Abraham Maslow

Often the greatest challenge facing an organization is recognizing and acting on opportunity rather than solving a problem.
Arnold Glasgow

Is the problem you’re working on really the one you need to solve?

More often than you might guess, it’s not.

Instead, you may be working on symptoms or just surface issues of the problem you really need to address.

Think of a medical example. A patient walks into a doctor’s office with a possible problem and symptoms. The doctor considers the information the patient provides, along with what the doctor observes. That clarifies what the “presenting problem” is, and may be enough to know what the patient’s real problem is.

The doctor orders tests if more information is needed. When he or she understands what the patient’s condition really is, he or she develops a treatment plan which the patient begins as they work together to solve the actual, rather than “presenting problem.”

Chasing the wrong problem – in medicine or in any circumstance – wastes a lot of valuable time, money and energy.

Meanwhile, the real problem and its impact continue to grow. As that happens, in the most extreme circumstances, the real problem may eventually become unsolvable.

How can you identify the real problem you have to address, when problem-solving is part of your work or life? Here are a few things you can try:

1. State the problem you think you’re facing. Then collect data to verify the “presenting problem,” or to refine your understanding of it. Revise the problem statement as you work, because you may need to come back to it as you go through the problem-solving process.

2. Fill in the statement, “The problem is…,” as simply as you can, in ten different ways. See where the different problem statements lead you, and how these ideas affect your understanding of what the real problem may be.

3. Check with the people who are most affected by the impact of the problem. They may not know what the real problem is – or they may. But they’re probably the most passionate about getting it solved. As a result, their description of the problem they think you should  solve is likely to be very clear, simple, and concrete. That may help you to see the problem in a similar light.

4. Imagine that this problem has been solved, and everything is working perfectly. Then imagine you are recalling the way that the causes of the problem were eliminated. Viewed from that perspective, what do you imagine the real problem was and what made it go away? Use that information to help you clarify the problem now, as action to solve it gets underway.

5. Consider how different the ideal situation is from the situation you have now. That may give you ideas about the problem and the circumstances that may be causing it, which you need to ease or eliminate.

There are many other tools you can use to define the real problem you must resolve. I’ll highlight some of those in future blog posts. In the meantime, use these ideas to help you clearly define the next problem you have to solve.

Making decisions by group consensus is a commonly used – and in many ways, misused – form of group decisionmaking.

Achieving consensus does not mean – as many people think – reaching 100% agreement by all members of a team on 100% of the details they each sought in their ideal solution.

That’s pretty much an impossible task – and can keep the team tied up in knots for days. Meanwhile, opportunities are lost and costs increase, as does frustration with the team, its leadership, and the process.

As with any group process, for achieving consensus to work, there’s give, there’s take.

Try these ideas for achieving consensus more easily, more effectively:

Strive to achieve an 80% solution, rather than a 100% solution.

Set as your goal finding a solution that everyone can and will support – even if it does not include all the details each person hoped for.

The 80% agreement reached is usually far more sustainable than the agreement that appears, initially to be “perfect,” but turns out to be temporary, tentative, tenuous, soon gone.

And there’s nothing quite as frustrating as having worked hard to achieve an agreement – you thought – only to have it fall apart once the team or committee walks out the door

Create the expectation that your team seek the 80% solution first. You may even find this goal makes consensus easier to reach because the pressure of the process has been reduced. There’s less of a sense of sides competing, more a sense of solution-finding, solution-creating.

Here are some additional guides that may simplify and smooth the consensus-reaching process:

Frame the decision before you look at specific alternatives.

Agree on who the customers of the decision are, and what they need from your work.

Agree on your customer-focused priorities for this specific decision.

Look at the facts.

Look at your goals.

Look at your resources, including your money, people, time, attention, talent – including the resources you “own” and those you can “rent.”

Do all of this before specific alternatives are brought out. If you don’t, the debate often takes on a life of its own. People can forget the goal as they start to take opposing sides.

Post your goals where you can clearly see them, and return to them often, if you get “stuck” in the process. Remember, what is the overriding objective? On whose behalf are you making the decision, and what do they want?

Keep your eye on the ball and let the process work.

And if you still should reach an impasse, and need help with training, coaching, or guiding your team through the consensus-making process, give me a call.

Many people desire leadership, the opportunity to be in charge.

But leadership comes with risks, often great ones. It also comes with uncertainty – lots of it.

And so, leaders, to be effective, must be attentive to their plans, and how they’re working out, then able to learn and adapt – and get their teams to do so – while work is well underway.

Here are some of the lessons of leadership others have shared:

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
JFK

Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.
General George S. Patton

Enduring setbacks while maintaining the ability to show others the way to go forward is a true test of leadership.
Nitin Nohria

The man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.
James Crook

And this is one of the things that many leaders may not talk about:

Leadership has been defined as the ability to hide your panic from others.
Unknown

Who’s the first person you think of when you hear the term “great leaders”?

What characteristics did – or does – this person have making them so great?

Here are some of the top characteristics others mention when they think of leadership excellence:

Vision

Great leaders see things as they can be, not just as they are. They work toward a clear and powerful picture of the future they’re creating, no matter what circumstances they find themselves in now.

Clarity

A clear understanding of present conditions is also part of the great leader’s repertoire. Leaders such as these are people who can face the facts, whatever they are. In fact, they insist on having the facts in order to see what the organization’s challenges really are – not just what they’d like to believe.

Courage

Fearlessness without brashness, foolishness or rashness is a hallmark of the excellent leader. He or she is not afraid of the gap they must close – and lead an often fearful group across. In fact, highly effective leaders are highly motivated by the disparity between “what is” and “what can be, what will be.” They convey that sense of mission powerfully to the people who must close the gap with them.

Strategic

Of the many paths open to the organization – if many paths are available – great leaders can see and choose the actions that are most likely to succeed. They can envision or anticipate what is likely to happen in the future, as a result of the course they choose now.

Decisive when the time is right

Great leaders ensure that they have the best information possible for the decisions they must make. Their decision-making processes are well-tuned, and highly effective, the result of continuous improvement of the decision-making process, itself.

Action-oriented

Highly effective leaders have a bias for action. They work in a focused, purposeful way, changing the organization, step by step, leading it steadily to far better circumstances and results down the road.

Strong

Plans are an organization’s intended path of action, its desired use of available resources needed to reach a goal. But if circumstances require change while the work is underway, effective leaders have the strength to move their organization to a better course of action leading to the goal.

Resilient

Great leaders are driven by their vision, yet it is their ability to rise above great uncertainty and lead, in spite of it, that leads to legendary tales of leadership. Their greatness may not always be fully appreciated until long after the work is done, and the battles – whatever they were or are – are fully won.

Inspires respect

Excellent leaders lead with integrity, and lead by example, as well as by inspiration. They expect the same of themselves as they do of their followers.  They’re not “above the law” just because they create the rules and work structures in the organization. The rules for others apply to them – and everyone knows and sees it.

Great communicator

Powerful, effective leaders know when and how to communicate, no matter what’s going on with their followers, and what pressure they are under. Such leaders know when to observe, when to listen, when to talk. They use all the vital communication skills of leadership well. They also know that the most powerful communication of all is their attitude and their action – far more than what they say in any circumstance.

Let’s say you need to make big changes in your work or your life.

You clearly see the shining time in the distance when all is well:
- All problems are solved
- All bad habits have been dropped
- All stress has been eased, all duress is a long-ago memory

Getting there will be easy, right? Maybe…and maybe not.

Check your history for a quick reality test. How have you normally handled the process of reaching big goals in the past?

Did you often get overwhelmed – however that happens – do you typically work in a persistent way, producing a steady flow of results all the way to reaching that big goal?

Whichever path you take, there’s a process involved in becoming overwhelmed, or staying focused and getting things done. Let’s look at both:

How to get overwhelmed

Here are some of the common steps that people experience in the process of becoming overwhelmed:

Set no priorities, enforce no boundaries

If you have no target, no one can say you missed it, right?

And if you have no boundaries, the answer to every request, every decision is “yes.” In this way, you’re never the “bad guy,” the person who says “no” – UNTIL you can’t come through with all you promised.

Find and feed an addiction to drama

Perhaps you like the adrenalin rush that comes from living on the edge. Or maybe you like being rescued when you’ve committed to more than you can handle and everything is falling apart.

On the other hand, maybe you’re the person who’s the rescuer for someone else, and you readily drop everything to jump right in and pull someone else out of the fire. Rescues are, at times, essential, of course.

But if rescue is a habit – as well-intentioned as it may be – regularly being pulled out of the ringer, preventing a zinger at the last minute can have precisely the opposite effect from what you expect. Rescuing, or being rescued, as a routine, may reinforce bad habits that have gone so far that they have become, well, a handicap.

Focus on the future to the exclusion of the day-to-day details of victory

Maybe you believe that only big, dramatic achievement deserves attention and accolades.

Or maybe the future looks SO big, SO bright, so compelling that you’re frankly bored by the day-to-day work that stands between where you are and where you’re going.

And so? You may be one of the people who lets that boring flow build up until it becomes far less boring…it becomes absolutely terrifying.

Downplay the consequences of overwhelm

Missed opportunities are one consequence of overwhelm. You may also miss the signs of a great short-cut to your goal, or the quiet but significant little warnings that a problem is ahead.

In addition, the costs of failure go up the longer you delay getting the work done, or miss the signs of opportunity to prevent problems before they occur. If, for example, you miss the signs of a health problem when it’s small, you could face a much bigger, more serious, more expensive and far less solvable problem down the road.

How to get focused and develop a habit of completion

Here are some of the common steps in the process of getting focused and persistently producing good results:

Set your sights a little lower

Turn the bright stage lights down a bit.

Turn off the camera. Shut down the expectation that you need something dramatic to write on your blog or add to your Facebook account today.

Focus your attention on the next step you need to take. Concentrate on doing that well, and getting it done before big problems and big piles build up.

Break the big goal down into little actions

Every big milestone is made up of many little ones.

A marathon is made up of many one-mile runs, along with many individual training runs before that. A building is made up of many individual components, planned, ordered, and assembled in a clear series of actions and events.

Applaud the small achievements

Even if it’s just you providing the applause, celebrate completion of each milestone.

To do that, pause to fully notice the achievement and then reward it in some small way.

So often, small but very significant accomplishments slip by quietly, unnoticed, because your attention has already moved on to what you haven’t done yet.

Simplify your to-do list

Expect less. Do more. Give yourself the chance to enjoy what you do, not just to plow through it.

One way to do this: take one thing off your to-do list.

You’ll be surprised at the energy and ease that this one action releases. It opens up time and energy because it forces you to make choices, to own and act on your real priorities.

Drop the habit of pursing perfection

Build the habit of pursing completion.

Go for the experience of flow. Go for the “zone.” Enjoy the experience of doing the work and getting it done, for its own merits, not just the benefits it will produce when you’re done.

Measure and manage progress

Progress unnoticed, unappreciated is progress that won’t grow as fast as it can.

Find something that you can track – something significant that you measure or count – that will motivate you to make and see steady progress through the peaks and valleys that precede any major achievement.