Clarity First: How Smart Leaders and Organizations Achieve Outstanding Performance

by Karen Martin

Lack of clarity collectively costs companies, educational institutions, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations billions of dollars per year, inserts unnecessary risk into every decision or action, drains organizations of the energy needed for productive effort, and causes customers to question whether the organization is capable of delivering value.

high degrees of clarity create high-performing organizations; low clarity drags organizations into an abyss of poor performance with frustrated leaders, disengaged employees, dissatisfied customers, and disappointed shareholders.

clarity as the “it” leadership skill.

book about clarity—why you need it, why you don’t have it, what you can do to get it.

Clarity-driven management enables your organization to reach a level of performance well beyond what you’ve experienced, while creating a work environment that attracts and retains top talent.

Ambiguity is the corporate default state, a condition so pervasive that “tolerance for ambiguity” has become a cliché of corporate job postings, a must-have character trait for candidates.

The absence of clarity also creates an opportunity for biases and assumptions to influence how people interpret information.

Ambiguity tempts organizations to be reactive: instead of addressing the most important issues, they address those attracting attention at this moment.

Ambiguity prevents organizations from operating with focus, discip...

By “operating,” I’m referring to how leaders lead, how managers manage, and how frontline team members do the work. Clarity—or the lack thereof—lies at the core of how a business, government agency, or nonprofit operates. Clarity raises the organization up; ambiguity drags it down.

clarity enables better performance by removing a layer of doubt.

“Clarity reduces the risk of guessing or being wrong.”

Clarity doesn’t just make people feel more capable. It actually makes them more capable and empowered when they know what is expected of them when performing a task.

Clarity enables greater productivity, stronger collaboration of all involved parties, and better ideas—all of which lead to better organizational performance.

The simplest definition of clarity is the quality of being easily and accurately understood.

Certainty is not always possible, but achieving clarity nearly always is.