Clarity is a Two-Way Street
Or, why your team isn’t doing what you think you told them to do.
“For every minute he talks, five hours of work gets created.”
That’s what one of his direct reports told me. The CEO thought he was being clear. His team heard chaos.
This is the part about clarity that nobody talks about: it’s not just what you say. It’s what they hear.
I spend a lot of time with CEOs on my management Holy Trinity: Clarity, Focus, Urgency. Most founders get that they need to be clear. But they think clarity is one-way: am I saying the right things clearly enough?
Wrong.
Clarity is a two-way street. You transmit. They receive. Either side can fail. And when one does, everything breaks.
The Problem
Leaders think they’re crystal clear. They’ve thought about something for weeks. They’ve internalized the strategy. They know exactly what needs to happen. They are clear on what THEY want, but then they say it once in a meeting or in a 2am Slack message, and assume everyone got it.
Teams think they’re sending clear signals. They’re frustrated. They’re overworked. They don’t understand the direction or the why behind it. But instead of saying it directly, they do what one team did: “Let’s just appease him, then go back to what we know how to do.”
Both sides think they’re communicating. Neither side is connecting.
The hard truth: if your team isn’t doing what you need them to do, you haven’t been clear enough.
Even if you think you have.
Your Side: Are You Actually Clear?
Test yourself: Can anyone on your team explain your top priority in one sentence? Can they tell you who owns it? Can they tell you what success looks like?
If not, you weren’t clear.
Some common failures I see:
The 3am vomit of text. You’re thinking through something at midnight. You send seventeen messages. Your team wakes up to chaos and no idea what you actually want them to do. Clarity isn’t volume. It’s signal.
The Surprise Spotlight. Complete darkness, then blinding light. You ignore something for weeks, then suddenly demand everything. Your team can’t tell what matters because your attention is random.
The closed-door decision. You have big conversations with customers or investors, then don’t loop in your team. They could add value. They could make better decisions. But you’ve left them in the dark, so they’re guessing.
Before you speak, ask: What does this person need from me to be successful?
Not what do I need to say. What do they need to hear, understand, and act on.
That’s the difference between talking and communicating.
Their Side: Are They Actually Hearing You?
Here’s the uncomfortable part: you can be perfectly clear, and they still won’t get it.
Why?
They’re not listening. One team kept saying “okay” in meetings, then doing exactly what they wanted. They heard him fine. They just didn’t agree, and instead of saying so, they quietly resisted.
They’re filtering. We all hear what we want to hear. We process information through our own goals, fears, and biases. You say “move faster.” They hear “panic and do stuff!”
They don’t have your context. You’ve been thinking about this for months. You understand the market, the competition, the board pressure. They don’t. So when you say “this is urgent,” they don’t understand why, and that breaks execution.
What you do about it:
Check for understanding. Don’t ask “does that make sense?” That’s permission to lie. Ask “what are you going to do?” Make them play it back. If they can’t, you weren’t clear.
Create space for disagreement. If your team is just appeasing you, you don’t have a communication problem. You have a trust problem.
Address resistance directly. When you sense someone isn’t on board, when they’re saying yes but doing no—name it. “I get the sense you don’t actually agree with this. Let’s talk about it.” Most resistance comes from not feeling heard.
Why This Matters
Without clarity, you can’t have focus. Nobody knows what to focus on.
Without clarity, you can’t have urgency. People don’t understand why it matters.
Without clarity, you can’t have accountability. Success isn’t defined.
Every other leadership problem stems from this one.
The companies that win aren’t the ones with the smartest people or the best product. They’re the ones where everyone knows what matters, who owns what, and what success looks like.
That only happens when clarity flows both ways.
To be clear, your job as CEO is to communicate with total clarity and to make sure your team understands you crystal clearly. Period. Do you have any questions about this or what my expectations are?1
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If this resonated, forward it to a founder who needs it. And if you’ve got examples of clarity breaking down (or working beautifully), reply and tell me. I read every one.
See what I did here?