Are you clear?

[Transcript]

00:04

Welcome to the Finding Gravitas podcast brought to you by Gravitas Detroit. Looking to become a more authentic leader. Finding Gravitas is the podcast for you. gravitas is the ultimate leadership quality that draws people in. It's an irresistible force encompassing all the traits of authentic leadership. Join your podcast host Jan Griffiths, that passionate rebellious farmer's daughter from Wales, entrepreneur, leadership coach, keynote speaker, one of the top 100 leading women in the automotive industry as she interviews some of the finest leadership minds in the quest for Gravitas.

Jan Griffiths: 00:50

Are you clear about that? About why? Oh, I don't know everything. This idea of clarity keeps coming up in my life lately. And it's made me think about clarity in my life, my business for the year, and for how I approach each day, and clarity of thought and every thought and every task each day. Being clear impacts so many facets of our lives. And it can only be achieved when you come from a truly authentic place. In this episode, today, I want to explore all facets of clarity and why it's so important. Let's start off with clarity of vision in life. It's my birthday soon. And I stumbled across in an old shoe box, you know that shoe box that you have full of old photos and old photograph. It's a picture of me on my 21st birthday in the farm with my mother, we had a 21st birthday party, and then cutting the cake. And I look at this young girl, so full of excitement and energy and zest for life, wanting to take on the world not knowing exactly what that meant. But just knowing that she wanted so much more than her surroundings might suggest that she should live her life a certain way. And I look back at that photo. And I think wow, I had no idea when I was 21 the way my life unfolded. And I would never have guessed that I would end up in Detroit, Michigan in the automotive industry. And here we are.

Jan Griffiths: 02:53

As I look back on my career, and my life, I stumbled from job to job. I know that I wanted more. And I was certainly driven in my career. And I wanted more experiences. I wanted a challenge. I wanted more increasing responsibility. job after job after job company after company. I moved from Indiana to Michigan to North Carolina to Iowa and back to Michigan, always wanting more. But not really having a lot of clarity about what that was. I was dependent of course back in the day when we didn't have the internet. I was dependent on headhunters calling, offering the next job opportunity. If it sounded good. I went for it. I interviewed most of the time I got the job and off we went. Which you know, sounds great. But I didn't have that, that intention, that real purpose and vision to define exactly what I wanted. I didn't have clarity. Then in the 2005 to 2008 timeframe. things fell apart in my personal life. I lost my mother, my marriage, my job, my savings, and my health, all in a three year period. It shook me to my core. And yes, there were days when I didn't want to get up off the couch. I'm sure we've all had those days. I had a lot of them back then. But you know what, it made me more determined than ever. And I became clear, very clear in what I wanted. I knew that I wanted a C suite job. It was in me. I knew it and I wanted it. I wanted a house in Birmingham, Michigan. For those of you who aren't familiar with Birmingham, it's a nice area in Michigan, as a bit of a European flair to it. I wanted my daughter to be in a private school. And I would not let up until those things had happened. I knew that I had reached some sort of rock bottom. And coming out of that I was determined to make all of those things happen. And I did. Why did they happen? Looking back, I think it's because I had that clarity. I had purpose ahead of vision, and I was crystal clear on what I wanted, and I made it happen.

Jan Griffiths: 05:46

Now I'm in my 50s. And I'm thinking about what I want for the rest of my life. And I know this, I don't want to waste one minute of it, I'm getting crystal clear on my vision for the rest of my life. Something that helped me along the way, is the book by John Anderson, replace retirement, where he talks about not following the traditional model of retirement. But defining your life your way, he uses an example, where he's a grandfather, and he wants to be skiing, or double black diamond, with his grandchildren when he's in his 90s. The fact that he has that clarity of vision allows him to be very clear and intentional with the way he lives, his life and how He sets up His days. So now I'm focused on the vision for the rest of my life. And it's an exciting time. Let's bring it down a level, we talked about getting clear on what we want for our lives. But let's take it down to a year, a year timeframe. At the beginning of each year, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, we have our new year's resolutions, we set a clear intention, or we try at least to get clear on what the year would look like. I think the Chinese do a really good job of this the way they celebrate, and the deep meaning that they have for Chinese New Year, setting up the following year, full of excitement and anticipation and prosperity and following through with many different rituals to make that happen. But it's about getting clear.

Jan Griffiths: 07:45

So let's take this into the business realm. And I'll refer back to a recent podcast, an interview that I did with Warren Harris, the CEO of Tata technologies. Warren is a supporter and I would say ambassador of the principles of organizational health, organizational health really comes out of the teachings of Pat Lencioni and the table group. And I'm a huge supporter of the leadership philosophies that they they prescribe. In the podcast, Warren talks about his commitment to a cohesive leadership team. And I'll quote from the podcast, he says, it drives clarity around six basic questions. Why do we exist? How do we behave? What is it that we do? What constitutes success? What's important right now? Who does what and when. And it requires a commitment to over communicating that clarity and then institutionalizing that clarity in terms of how you hire people, how you drive performance and how you celebrate success. Those are the words of Warren Harris in the podcast. And the more I thought about that, again, use this word coming up, clarity, and leadership really is all about that. Yes, it's about being authentic, because you cannot be clear. If you're if you're not coming from an authentic place, it just it can't happen. Clarity is the antidote to anxiety. And if a leader does nothing else in this world and with their team, they have to be clear. It provides a sense of a sense of calm of confidence to the team when you're able to articulate your vision and what you expect of your team not only in terms of tasks, but how they behave, then that is what leadership is all about. People respond to that they gravitate to that. Yes, I'm going to say it. A leader that knows how to do that is indeed a leader with gravitas. And so I understand clarity now in a lot more detail than I did before, as it applies to leadership. But here's another example of what clarity is showing up in my life. And that is, in my business.

Jan Griffiths: 10:42

When I launched the business, I launched myself as a leadership coach, I know exactly what that means, in my head, I know what I can do in my head. But trying to describe that and explain that to other people is not that simple. Again, it comes back to clarity, clarity of message, clarity of understanding of the offerings that I'm actually putting out there as part of my business. And that reality hit me hard over the last couple of weeks. And right now I am going back to the drawing board. And I am defining redefining my niche. And I think it is going to come around clarity. Because I really believe that when we start to lead a team of people getting clear on who we are, and what we expect of the team and how they behave is the very first thing that we need to do. Whether we're starting a new job, or moving to a new function, or maybe launching a product, we're often in too much of a rush to get into the detail and get into the tasks, we don't take that time to really build those basic building blocks that foundation. And that's where I'm going to focus my business. It's all around clarity. There's a quote from Cal Newport, who wrote the book, deep work. And he says, clarity about what matters, provide provides clarity about what does not. And isn't that the truth? Great leaders really talk and focus on what matters to them and to the business. And they're able to galvanize people around that vision, and articulate that. There's another quote that I love, and I quote often, and it's a George Bernard Shaw quote, and he says, the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. I don't know how many times in my career, I've thought that. Well, I communicated that How come people don't know what's expected? And there's this fear of being redundant, right? We're all afraid of oh, well, I communicated that I don't want to duplicate the effort. I really don't believe that we ever can over communicate. But again, it's about clarity. And there's a few points that I found actually, just by researching on the Internet, I'd like to claim credit for this. But these aren't mine. But I saw that they were they were nice and concise. And seven tips for improving the clarity of your own communication. Number one, consider your audience. So often, we don't take the time to do that. And maybe understand the language that the audience speaks the words that will resonate with them. Number two, say exactly what you mean. Again, this goes back to authenticity. When we try to create communication or messaging, to try to get people to look a different way or believe something that's going on or not going on or try to hide something. You know what we're fooling nobody people can see right through it. So be authentic, say exactly what you mean. Three is avoid jargon, particularly in the business world today. When we talk about dealing with cultures in multiple countries, don't use the classic sporting terminology. I remember somebody in a meeting talking about a Hail Mary pass, and I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. So avoid jargon. Number four, keep it short and simple. Don't try to create that beautiful corporate language. That may sound wonderful on A piece of paper, but it's actually meaningless. Keep it short and simple and make sure that people can relate to it.

Jan Griffiths: 15:08

Five is asked for a playback, check in to make sure that people captured the key points of the communication. Six is over communicate, yes, get over the fear of over communicating. And seven choose the right medium for the message. Oh, I think we're getting this wrong lately, our everything seems to be a Zoom meeting. It doesn't have to be a Zoom meeting, not everything has to be a Zoom meeting, I am a huge supporter of keeping the cameras on. Because you need to read the nonverbal cues that we see. Coming through the screen, we need to read body language, you know, the eye roll the tone, we got to read all of that. But that's not for every meeting, you have to be more focused. And you have to be on all of the time when there's a camera on you for a Zoom meeting. And there are times when that is absolutely essential. But it is not the right medium for every message and for every meeting. So really take some time to choose the right medium for the message. I thought those points were right on as I some actually stumbled across those to be honest on the internet today. It's about clarity. And the great enemy of clear language is in sincerity. And this is a George Orwell quote. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims. One turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms like a cuttlefish spurting out ink, ooh, ouch, is a lot of us in the corporate world feeling the sting of that one right now. So I'm starting to understand why I need more clarity in my business. Now let's take this down to a day to day level about being clear on a daily basis. When this pandemic started, I was massively distracted. And we talk about a vision being that something that pulls you that you can get traction towards the opposite of that is distraction. In in a pandemic, it's so easy to be distracted, you don't feel particularly motivated. It's hard to bring action to the table. And it's easy to scroll on social media and stay distracted. But yet, in order to achieve our goals and get to our place and achieve our vision, we need to take action on a daily basis. I'm a huge supporter in small incremental steps of improvement. But keeping that going is bloody hard. And so again, it comes back to clarity, with a clear goal of what you want to achieve and how you're going to achieve it. Every single day becomes a brand new opportunity to stay focused and take action on that goal and stay away from the distractions. That's one of the reasons why I started the accountability lab, it's a check in point to make sure that we stay focused and we have clarity because you're forced to declare your clarity of action for the day, every single morning. And there's power in that. And there is power in making that statement not only to yourself, but to others. In this accountability group. It doesn't matter what forum you use to do it. The important thing is not to get up in the morning and just let the day happen. Don't just stumble through the day. It's all about setting the intention, having clarity for the day, and then managing the distractions, understanding your energy level how you work throughout the day to make it happen. So I have just decided, and I took this action today that the distraction that I think we all fight with is our smartphones. And when I see that little red bubble over my favorite apps, I am compelled to touch it and see what's in there.

Jan Griffiths: 19:40

And I simple little trick. This is what I did today, I moved my social media apps that I get lost in and love to scroll the most. So that is of course LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And I moved those apps is away from the homepage. So I don't see them when I look at my cell phone. So we'll see if that helps. I believe that it will. I'm also a huge believer in time blocking on my schedule. So I block time for the important things that I need to work on not working to a task list. So I'm working on, for example, the messaging for this new product offering. And it's a huge task. And if I were to put that down to task list, I'd probably just kick the can down the road and maybe work on it tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Is it a big task? No, I put time on my schedule every single day to work on it. And I'm making progress. I found the time blocking is really helpful. Because it helps to give you the space that you need to make progress. But it's about clarity. If you don't have clarity in where you're going, then none of this can happen. And quite honestly, I'm not sure that anything will really matter if we're not clear on where we're going and why we want to achieve what we want to achieve. I've had a huge realization just recently, as I said, with needing clarity for the business, I believe that I am clear now on my life goals. The business goals are almost there, not quite, but it's getting there. And the accountability group helps me with making clarity on my goals every single day. So take a moment to think about clarity in your life. What does it take for you? To be clear? And would it be helpful to take a moment to step away from the day to day and think about clarity, for your life, your business, your relationships for the year, the month, the week and the day? And to the Finding Gravitas authentic leadership audience out there. Have a great week.

22:18

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