Unleash the Power of Clarity
by Robert Hackman
Picture by Brett Jordon on Unsplash
One chance to grow, one chance to mold and make-believe what you want to be
Open your mind to clarity, for clarity is the key for you and me
To move forward, one step closer for us achieving our dreams
Lyrics from the song ‘Life Fighters’
By Rhythm Earth
It feels like a broken record. Continually being reminded we are living through a period of unprecedented uncertainty and change. Regardless of the assertion’s accuracy, I find the repetition tiring to hear and think about, let alone navigate.
Take your pick between climate change and extreme weather events, political polarization, racial and social unrest, economic disruption and insecurity, the unrelenting threat of the COVID-19. Multiple threats loom large; none of us knows how to deal with these collective circumstances successfully. If these do not adversely impact us, we know others who are.
And yet, these are the hazards with which we must contend. Trying to respond to these difficulties is like playing an eternal game of whack-a-mole. And the ambiguity and our lack of control send our anxiety through the roof.
What can you do to avoid the overwhelm of perpetually escalating change and ambiguity? You can make the crucial decisions few people do, determine what does not change, and gain confidence and stability in the process. You can develop an internal guidance system to steer your path.
You can identify the foundational elements which make everything else possible:
- Your overarching strategy and approach
- Your core values
- Your purpose
In so doing, you liberate the power of clarity in your life, team, or company. Your purpose provides the why, values the how, and strategy/approach the what.
I refer to choosing a single overarching strategy for teams and companies or approach for an individual, two indispensable values, and a distinct aspirational purpose. The intersection of these choices becomes the power center to determine your actions and formulate all other decisions.
I will write in further detail about each of these individually in future articles.
Businesses recognize the sin of trying to be all things to all people – something to avoid at all costs – yet try to do it anyway. Ultimately, leaders find clarity to be threatening. The same holds for individuals and in teams.
To achieve greater success and fulfillment, identify what is sacrosanct. Do not seek to add what is missing; strive to eliminate what is unnecessary.
You may fear winnowing down your guiding principles so narrowly to be restrictive and confining. I contend the opposite to be true. By ascertaining the essential from the non-essential, you release boundless potentials within these foundational elements.
You pay the price for not homing in on these fundamental pieces through inconsistent approaches, wavering principles, and a lack of meaning and direction, resulting in a constant drain of energy and focus. As such, you find it challenging to take stands, operate from a sense of confidence and conviction, maintain self-trust, and engender trust in others.
All diminish the potency of your leadership, creativity, and capacity to expand possibilities for yourself and others. Most critically, leaving these choices unresolved makes you significantly less likely to live the life you want and leave the legacies you intend.
On the other hand, choosing permits you to fully commit to these foundational elements because you have named and claimed them as your own. You tend to pay significantly more attention to what you put words to, expressly, when you write them down.
In his book Essentialism, The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown speaks profoundly about these realities, informing the reader of the root of word decision – cis means to cut. Mckeown asserts having fewer options makes it easier on the eye and the brain. Thus, deciding cuts out the things that confuse. Conversely, failing to determine definitively invites the bewilderment we seek to avoid.
He plainly states decisions require trade-offs and, consequently, loss. If we have decided on one thing, we have simultaneously said no to the realm of all other options. Ouch! Pain and loss are necessary parts of this process, along with the fear and anxiety of the consequences of choosing wrongly. These realities contribute significantly to our lack of willingness to decide.
Identifying and selecting requires trial and error: action, reflection, and adjustment. You cannot know ahead of time what you must cut and what you cannot cut. Trusted mentoring and coaching relationships prove to be invaluable partners in this editing process.
Clarifying your fundamentals creates a core to align around, despite the whirlwind around you, your team, or your organization. It simultaneously frees up valuable bandwidth and develops directional consistency. The reliability of the relationship between decisions and how you make them enables them to leverage one another, dramatically amplifying their impact individually and collectively.
Key Take-aways:
- You can create an internal guidance system to contend with the uncertainty and anxiety resulting from change’s persistent and escalating pace.
- Gaining clarity about your essentials is liberating, not restricting. It expands your capacity to create possibilities for yourself and others.
- Failing to invest the requisite time, energy, and focus to make core decisions undermines your leadership capacity.
- The junction of these core components becomes the governing source for guiding your actions and generating all other decisions.
- Determining foundational elements provides a basis for powerfully aligning yourself, your team, and your company. Increasing the likelihood you will live the life you and leave the legacies you intend.
If clarifying your overarching strategy/approach, core values, and purpose would benefit you, your team, organization, please reach out to me. I welcome the connection.
Robert Hackman, Principal, 4C Consulting and Coaching. He provides executive coaching for leadership impact, growth, and development for individuals, teams, and organizations. Committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, he facilitates trusting environments that promote unusually candid conversations. Rob is also passionate about the power of developing Legacy Mindsets and has conducted over 50 Legacy interviews with people to date.
A serious man with a dry sense of humor who loves absurdity can often be found hiking rocky elevations or making music playlists. His mixes, including Pandemic Playlists and Music About Men, among others, can be found on Spotify.