“I think we should go ahead and have those two points Tom mentioned added to the report.” Sound familiar? We’ve all heard this, or something like this. Someone in charge wants something done but obviously has no clue how to effectively convey who should do it, when it should be done, and how they want their intent met. When I hear something like that, the first thing that comes to mind is something my mom would say to me if I made a similarly unaware statement – “Do you have a frog in your pocket? Because I don’t know about this we shit.” It boils down to a lack of awareness resulting from a lack of training, really. The person in charge wanting something done by using the passive voice doesn’t realize that they are just throwing words into the air, not addressing anyone on what could be an important issue. How do you shed this ambiguity to ensure something actually gets done?
"Leaders engage in confrontation all day long; to be effective, you must welcome and be successful with it."
So, lack of training, but what kind of training? Well, training that solves a problem that has grown with the impersonal digital world we live in, engaging in confrontation. Leaders engage in confrontation all day long; to be effective, you must welcome and be successful with it. Confrontation is as simple as engaging someone to discuss something face-to-face. Leaders take this a step further though, by telling others to do things; they give orders. This task doesn’t need to be “confrontational,” however, because you don’t need to be a dick to influence others to do something on your behalf, you just need to be trustworthy.
Building your skills for confrontation makes for an effective professional development event with your staff. Bring them together in a closed session where you go around the table practicing giving orders. Start off formally, with a format, just to get the hang of it. Make sure, at minimum, intent is clear, a deadline is issued, those responsible are identified, and the desired outcome is laid out. Practice in pairs, grow to giving more complex orders to a group, have more junior personnel practice ordering seniors, and so on. Do this until comfort with the task increases while weaving what was originally a formulaic order into normal speech that will influence direction, not command it. Seasoned leaders are familiar with this. Effective long-term engagement breeds trust and trust allows you to influence others’ actions without having to rely on rank or position to achieve your objectives.
Done well, what this professional development session gets at is desensitization. Confrontation is a form of adversity, something to be overcome. In Special Operations, desensitization is a key aspect of training, draining emotion from a task through repetitive exposure and practice to refine an act to something almost subconscious, so you can do the same on battlefield. The result is doing something subconsciously well vice unconsciously bad. This will be uncomfortable, but growth starts outside of the comfort zone.
"The most successful organizations handle external ambiguity to achieve their goals while eliminating ambiguity within to enable them."
Incorporating professional development also grows awareness, individual and situational. Giving and receiving orders in quick succession with the opportunity for immediate feedback will quickly expose you to how you are engaging with your team members and build empathy for those affected by ambiguous attempts to give direction.
Having effective control of the English, or your respective language, is another key aspect of eliminating ambiguity in day-to-day business, but that’s a complex lesson for another day. What I’m hinting at though, is that leaders need to be trusted to wield a variety of skills and attributes at will to provide vision, purpose, and direction and deliberately planning and executing your training will get you there.
The most successful organizations handle external ambiguity to achieve their goals while eliminating ambiguity within to enable them. They have a clear vision of what needs to be done and that starts with you, the leader, guiding through influence, leading your team to perform out of commitment and not simply compliance. So, set that frog free, by infusing accountability into your speech to influence your objectives.