Finding Fulfillment Part 4: Clarity
What is the ultimate goal when it comes to our life’s work? Is it money? Fame? Prestige and power?
No. These things are nice to have — or necessary to have, in the case of money — but they don’t satisfy your inner needs. Instead, what we all truly want out of our careers is fulfillment.
Fulfillment is that deep, inner satisfaction, usually experienced when we accomplish our goals, better ourselves, or participate in something meaningful. Finding fulfillment in our work is the ultimate marker of success.
What Creates a Sense of Fulfillment?
Fulfillment is the combined experiences of passion, purpose, and progress — what we call the “motivational drivers” of fulfillment. Be sure to read each linked article for more information (as well as our Fulfillment Theory), but in short:
- Passion is loving the work that you do.
- Purpose is knowing the work you do matters.
- Progress is seeing the impact of your work.
When you’re excited to wake up and get to work, when you believe your work contributes to something greater than yourself, and when your work gets the right amount of better in the right amount of time, you are experiencing fulfillment. It’s an amazing place to be.
The Cornerstones of Motivation
Passion, purpose, and progress lead to fulfillment, but what makes these motivational drivers possible? Of course, everyone wants to feel passionate about their work — and to have a purpose and make progress. But some factors stand in the way of these drivers.
That’s where the cornerstones of motivation come in. These cornerstones are what make the key components of fulfillment possible. They are the “three Cs”:
- Clarity
- Collaboration
- Connection
Let’s start with clarity.
What is Clarity?
Clarity: having all the knowledge, insight, and context for a given situation. In business, clarity usually means understanding vision, mission, and values, plus other parameters like budget, timeline, target audience, related systems and processes, goals, and more. It also means understanding your role and all the responsibilities it entails.
As a leader, one of your most important jobs is providing clarity to your team. Otherwise, they can’t make progress or reach deliverables. But remember, clarity isn’t a one-and-done action. Modern businesses are fast-paced, so clarity is an ongoing process. Make your team aware of updates in real-time for the best results.
Lack of Clarity
As discussed in our Fulfillment Theory, lack of clarity is one of the biggest demotivators a person can experience. It’s nearly impossible to do your job well and on time — or even at all — without a full understanding of the details.
It’s like trying to put together a complicated puzzle without seeing the final picture. You may get there eventually, but it’s going to take a lot longer — with a lot more frustration — than if you had clarity from the start.
Sometimes clarity can be achieved through research. Other times, a leader or fellow team member has to offer clarity. If they don’t, every aspect of the business suffers.
Without clarity, your team experiences:
Wasted Time
Imagine being asked to create the marketing plan for an upcoming product launch. You spend hours, days, and weeks strategizing, only to find out that key elements of the product have changed. Your boss forgot to tell you, and now your strategy has to be completely reexamined.
All those hours wasted — all those other projects neglected. If your boss had provided clarity throughout your weeks of planning, this could have been avoided.
Lack of clarity is one of the biggest time wasters in business. It leads to hours of unnecessary work, either back-tracking or redoing projects. Those extra hours are so valuable, for the project in question as well as other responsibilities and tasks.
Respect your team’s time by offering complete clarity as often as you can.
Wasted Potential
Without all the facts and context, how can any project, product, or service meet specified needs? The impact of your team’s work suffers when they lack clarity.
I know from experience: the most you can hope for without clarity is a cobbled-together mashup of guesswork. Maybe it works out, or maybe portions of the work are salvageable. But full clarity enables work that is outstanding rather than acceptable.
Even worse, lack of clarity handicaps people, not just projects. There were a few times in my early career that I saw clarity weaponized at work. Usually, it was a tenured worker who wanted to remain valuable, so they kept important facts to themselves. In these circumstances, the newer employees almost always got bored or frustrated. Many of them left for new opportunities because they couldn’t contribute very much without clarity.
For your projects and people to reach their full potential, clarity is a must.
Resentment
How would you feel if your boss or teammate continually wasted your time and efforts, or made you look bad, by withholding clarity? Resentful, to say the least.
If you’ve ever had a job where you lacked clarity about your role, you know exactly what I’m talking about. When you don’t know exactly what’s expected of you, everything feels confusing and frustrating. When fellow team members ask you to do something, it’s impossible to know if they’re taking advantage of you. And when you take initiative, you constantly wonder if you’re overstepping.
Similarly, if you’ve ever had to redo a project because no one offered clarity from the start, you can probably still feel that sting of frustration. Leaders (and peers) who fail to offer clarity are directly disrespecting their team’s time, energy, and feelings.
Apathy
The other side of the coin to resentment is apathy. What’s the point of dedicating time and effort to your work if it’s inevitably going to fall short? If you’re always going to have to make last-minute changes because you’re missing vital pieces of the puzzle?
Without clarity, results will always suffer. It doesn’t take people long to realize their efforts are in vain. Many of them will stop trying altogether, saving themselves from frustration and disappointment. Can you blame them?
The Whole Picture
Now that we’ve discussed what happens when clarity is missing, let’s go through some of the benefits of clarity.
Clarity is truly a beautiful thing. I’m a firm believer that knowledge is power, and I want to empower my team to do work they are proud of. The least I can do is give them all the information they need to excel.
With clarity comes:
Efficiency
We’ve talked about how lack of clarity wastes time, so it’s only logical that having clarity leads to greater efficiency. When your team has all of the pieces of the puzzle at their disposal, they can plan, organize, and execute quickly and seamlessly. There’s no backtracking, reframing, or redoing the work. And, there’s no time wasted chasing down the right people, facts, and figures.
Clarity enables the perfect combination of speed and quality, allowing your team to meet deadlines while producing high-quality results.
Effective Teamwork
Clarity enables collaboration and synergy. To quote from our Fulfillment Theory:
“When you are on a team, having a shared understanding is the difference between actually being a team or just several disjointed parts.”
When everyone is on the same page, with all the pertinent information available to them, teamwork is an awesome experience. It’s clear how everyone is contributing and who needs to communicate with who. People are free to exchange ideas, and you’ll often see them fueling one another’s creativity.
When working alone, lack of clarity is awful. On a team, it’s disastrous. Who’s doing what? Which ideas are feasible? Everything becomes a jumbled mess of frustration and confusion.
Creativity
Clarity allows your team members to be innovators. They can think outside the box, adapt to new changes, and get creative with solutions. Do you think Steve Jobs could have created Apple without clarity about the market and his audience? Absolutely not.
To know the heights you can reach — where you can push the limits and expand your influence — you first have to understand where you’re starting, including current context and processes.
Going out on a limb when things are still hazy is too risky. Your grand ideas may not even be applicable, leading to wasted time and energy.
Real innovation starts with a firm foundation of knowledge. It starts with clarity.
Independence
Lastly, clarity enables independence. It’s the difference between a builder who has a full set of tools vs. one with just a hammer. The latter has to constantly ask other builders for support. They simply can’t complete the project on their own.
Your goal as a leader is to coach your team members into independence, developing their skills and judgment. It’s not about holding their hands or micromanaging their decisions. That’s not true leadership.
Offering clarity is one of the greatest ways you can empower your team’s independence. With a full understanding, they have the opportunity to make informed (and wise) decisions, plan for the future, and get creative.
Clarity for Purpose and Progress
When you look again at our Fulfillment Theory, each motivational driver is at the intersection of two cornerstones of motivation.
Clarity fuels purpose and progress:
- Purpose: Having the complete picture shows you exactly how your work affects the world — the people it will touch, how it will improve their lives, and the potential it has for large-scale change.
- Progress: Knowing all the facts, figures, and context allows you to work toward something better. You can reach meaningful, timely milestones rather than wasting resources.
You can see how fulfillment is an intricate balance — and how leaders have a significant role in helping their teams find fulfillment at work.
The first step in helping your team members experience passion, purpose, and progress (particularly the latter two), is by offering clarity. In the beginning, and every step along the way.
Our next article in this series will cover collaboration. Stay tuned to learn how to create an environment for effective teamwork! In the meantime, think about how much clarity you’re giving your team and if there are additional opportunities to provide more info.