Sometimes It's Better To Just Shut Up And Execute
Ouch. Talk about a great introduction to piss people off. Truthfully, that’s not my intent. My intent is to get you to take notice and let you know the more words that come out of your mouth as a business leader, the more difficult it is for people to understand your point. Great leaders are experts at taking what's complex and turning it into something simple.
As a Partner at Stride, I work closely with many business owners and have built and scaled businesses myself. I’m going to take my own medicine here.
Do you ever have that out of body moment when you're talking to your team and observe you're speaking words but you don’t even know what you’re saying? Okay, this may be me sharing some vulnerability, but the point is if you don’t know whether you're making sense, I guarantee your team doesn’t either. But here's the thing, most of your team members will nod along like they understand because they don’t want to disrespect you. That’s the worst result.
So let me tell it like it is, from one entrepreneur to another:
Spend more time asking questions than speaking
When you answer a question, answer the question (no need for politics here)
Speak with an intention to educate, guide or clarify for the listener
Over-communication dilutes your impact – speak sparingly
Employees are less interested in hearing from you than you think
Speak more often about facts and unarguable truths than your interpretations of facts
We typically over-communicate out of fear. We communicate areas of concern because we don’t want to keep it to ourselves and think it might spur motivation. We communicate wins because we want people to know we’re making progress and not get antsy to find another job. We communicate company strategy because we don’t want people to forget. We communicate, because if we’re silent, then it means we don’t have enough activity going on in the business. These are just stories that entrepreneurs tend to tell themselves. Change the narrative.
So, shut up and execute! When you put the right plans in place and everyone is clear on the objective, there shouldn’t be much more to talk about. Actions speak for themselves.