I have long thought, and continue to be convinced, most problems inside organizations aren’t caused by laziness, incompetence, or a lack of talent.
They’re caused by something far less dramatic.
Ambiguity.
And I don’t mean the kind of ambiguity where nobody has any idea what’s happening. That’s incompetence, by definition, and would completely ruin my original argument 🙂
I mean the kind of ambiguity where everyone is moving, everyone is trying, and everyone is busy, yet despite these efforts, the team still feels a half-step out of sync. The team still doesn’t reach their potential.
There’s a sense of, “If only we could….”
Ambiguity kills progress because when people aren’t sure what success looks like, they’ll usually do one of three things:
- They guess.
- They play it safe.
- They do more than necessary… just in case.
And none of those lead to great outcomes.
I was reminded of this more than once in the last few weeks. The start of the year often means planning calls with upcoming clients, and those calls usually follow a predictable path: talking about logistics, timing, audience, the schedule, and the general goal of the session.
All the normal stuff.
And then I asked a question that I’ve started asking more and more often. Not because it’s clever, but because it’s clarifying:
“When the session is over, and everyone has left the room… what does ‘that was a great session’ look like to you?”
Not the polite version. Not the “we filled the time slot” version.
The version where you’re finally standing there after it’s done – exhaling, probably sipping a cocktail or taking a quiet moment to yourself – and you say:
“That was the perfect speaker for this audience, at the perfect moment, for this event.” What would have to happen for that to be true?
And every time I ask the question, I can hear and feel the shift on the call. Our conversations changes a bit. We stop talking about a keynote topic or the title of the session. Now, we’re talking about success. We’re talking about questions like:
- What do you want people to think?
- What do you want them to feel?
- What do you want them to do differently on Monday because of what they heard today?
And this is the part that hit me every time:
Most teams don’t struggle because they’re not working hard enough. They struggle because they’re working hard in different directions. It’s a lot of well-intentioned effort, headed toward a finish line nobody has actually described.
That’s the simple leadership move most people skip: Getting ridiculously clear about what “good” looks like.
It’s not vague. It’s real clarity. Specific, defined, and verbalized.
It’s not “we want to improve communication,” but rather: “what does improved communication look like? Is it fewer meetings or faster decisions? More ownership over decisions or better customer outcomes?”
Without defining success, people default to activity. And activity feels productive, right up until it doesn’t.
The truth is ambiguity will always be present. Always. There are simply too many variables in today’s workplace (and in society in general). We’ve got an infinite amount of data and inputs. Everyone has an opinion and platform to share it. We’re introduced to new tools nearly every week and it feels as though change is the only thing which is constant.
When leaders feel that ambiguity, the instinct is to solve it with more.
More updates.
More tracking.
More explanation.
More meetings.
More documents.
More dashboards.
More “Can we just hop on a quick call?”
But clarity is rarely created through volume. Clarity is created through definition.
It’s a leader saying:
“Here’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”
“Here’s what good looks like.”
“Here’s how we’ll know we’re winning.”
I’ve seen this play out with teams in every industry. The moment leaders define success in clear, human terms, teams relax. They focus. They collaborate. They stop wasting energy trying to interpret what matters most.
So if you want a simple leadership practice that makes everything else easier, try this:
Before your team starts the work, describe the win. In one or two sentences.
Try something like:
- “A win today looks like…”
- “If this goes perfectly, here’s what happens…”
- “At the end of the week, we should be able to say…”
- “When this is successful, it will be obvious because…”
Once you define success, something magical happens:
You start filtering decisions through it.
You don’t have to debate every detail.
You don’t have to entertain every idea.
You don’t have to turn every conversation into a 30-minute philosophical discussion about what matters most.
You just ask:
“Does this move us toward the outcome we said we wanted?”
That’s the cheat code.
It doesn’t eliminate complexity; it eliminates confusion.
And if you’re leading a team right now, especially in a season where things feel fast, uncertain, and noisy, there may be no greater gift you can give your people than a clear picture of what winning looks like.
Because clarity isn’t just a communication skill. It’s leadership – plain and simple.
