hire yourself a chief clarity officer (you)

As Ann Lamott’s advice about “The Inside Job” keeps sinking deeper and deeper into me, I find myself more and more drawn to simple takes on what leaders should be doing with and for their people. 

Good-hearted leaders who care about their teams - we want to do so many things for people! Our people! Our hard-working, appreciated people!

And yet.

Almost all of the things, the deepest, realest, most spiritually salient things - your people gotta do that stuff for themselves. You can’t do it for them. You may even deny or delay their doing of those things with your own well-intentioned doing. 

So. What should you be doing? What conversations should you be having? What delicate emotional estuaries should you be stepping into with your rugged leader boots on?

A thought experiment that has helped me of late: what if my title were CHIEF CLARITY OFFICER? 

Where would I focus my time, attention, and moves? Who would need to hear from me? What would I need to tell them? How would I measure my performance? What would I point to as killer evidence for promoting me or giving me a raise because I had done so stinking well as the CCO?

When I run this experiment, it draws me to the main storyline of the team, and where each character fits into that story. I have a sudden mandate. I have to go tell people:

• Here’s what we’re doing

• Here’s why

• Here’s how it’s going

• Here’s what I need to see from you next (in this meeting or week or quarter or year)

Even though I’ve seen the movie beaucoup times, I still get surprised. Almost everyone on the team has a hovering question mark about at least one or two of these key plot points in the story. 

The Chief Clarity Officer has work to do. 

-Eric