{"id":8386,"date":"2026-02-13T12:49:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/?p=8386"},"modified":"2026-02-13T12:49:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:49:02","slug":"leading-with-clarity-how-to-keep-your-team-focused-on-what-matters-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/leading-with-clarity-how-to-keep-your-team-focused-on-what-matters-most\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading with Clarity: How to Keep Your Team Focused on What Matters Most"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a leader, you likely spend a great deal of time and effort addressing issues of under-performance on your team. But in most cases, the issue that should really be dealt with is that of lack of clarity, not under-performance.<\/span><\/h2>\n

Lack of clarity is the all-too common problem that sees members of a team deliver less than optimal results not through lack<\/em>\u00a0of effort, but through\u00a0misplaced<\/em> effort. And where there is misplaced effort you will almost always discover that the root is lack of organizational clarity.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re faced with less than optimal results, first check to see if what is really going on is a case of clarity. You will usually find the root of fuzziness in one of these areas of confusion:<\/p>\n

1. Collaboration<\/h2>\n

Most teams have a stated, or at least implied, value of collaboration. There can be a clear expectation that yours is a \u201cYes-driven\u201d team; if someone asks for help, it can be expected and assumed that a teammate will drop whatever they\u2019re doing in order to chip in.<\/p>\n

The problem can be, however, when people believe they can or should constantly drop their own work in order to pitch in with someone else\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

If you come across Collaboration Confusion, affirm the helpfulness, but clarify the need to get their own work done first.<\/p>\n

2. Contribution<\/h2>\n

Does everyone know exactly what contribution it is they are expected to make? It\u2019s hard to hold a team member accountable for lack of results, if the expectations for those results have not been clearly laid out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s your job as the leader to ensure that everyone is crystal clear on what is expected from them. If this is fuzzy, head to the white board and lay it out. Clearly.<\/p>\n

3. Concentration<\/h2>\n

Sometimes people know their roles. They know what is expected. But they are simply overwhelmingly drawn towards what some call \u201cSmall shiny objects\u201d.<\/p>\n

They see a cool project that another team is working on, and they insert themselves into the task. They think about a job that would be simply more fun than their actual role, and they just drift into it.<\/p>\n

If you have a team member who is enamored by these \u201cSmall shiny objects\u201d, rein them in. Grant permission for these extra-curricular tasks as a reward to completing their actual job.<\/p>\n

The good news in all of this is that lack of clarity is well within your ability as a leader to rectify. it simply requires the awareness to recognize where fuzziness lies, and the boldness to shine the light of clarity throughout the team.<\/p>\n

Because when you drive clarity, you drive results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a leader, you likely spend a great deal of time and effort addressing issues of under-performance on your team. But in most cases, the issue that should really be dealt with is that of lack of clarity, not under-performance. Lack of clarity is the all-too common problem that sees members of a team deliver…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1091,1017,1021,577,7],"tags":[594,984],"class_list":["post-8386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clarity","category-communication","category-courage","category-focus","category-leadership","tag-clarity","tag-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8387,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386\/revisions\/8387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}