Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
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Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode four fifty one. Something dawned on me the
Speaker 2: other day and I want to share it with you
Speaker 2: because it's a simple but powerful leadership reminder. Asking an
Speaker 2: employee to do something is the same as asking chat
Speaker 2: GPT to do something. The stronger and more descriptive your
Speaker 2: input is, the better the result you'll get. So let
Speaker 2: me tell you how this clicked for me. I had
Speaker 2: asked one of my employees to rearrange something in one
Speaker 2: of our rooms. It's a pretty routine request because I
Speaker 2: have a conference room that needs set up in different
Speaker 2: configurations from time to time, depending on what event we're hosting.
Speaker 2: The problem was I didn't communicate the request well enough.
Speaker 2: I thought I was clear, but when I came back later,
Speaker 2: what they did didn't even come close to what I
Speaker 2: had in mind. And that was on me, that's not
Speaker 2: on them. Now. If you've used chat, EBT or any
Speaker 2: AI tool, you already know how this works. If you
Speaker 2: type in a vague prompt, you'll get a vague answer.
Speaker 2: If you take the time to be specific, detailed, and clear,
Speaker 2: you usually get a response that is much closer to
Speaker 2: what you actually need. That's leadership in a nutshell. The
Speaker 2: quality of your communication directly impacts the quality of the outcome.
Speaker 2: Think about it. Employees are not mind readers. They can't
Speaker 2: see the exact picture in your head. If you say, hey,
Speaker 2: go straighten up that room, you might mean align the
Speaker 2: chairs in rows, stack the tables against the wall, and
Speaker 2: place the podium in the center. But if you only
Speaker 2: say straighten it up, they may think you meant sweep
Speaker 2: the floor and empty the trash. Both are technically straightening up,
Speaker 2: but only one of those matches your vision. And this
Speaker 2: is where leaders make a critical mistake. This is where
Speaker 2: I made a critical mistake. We think we're being clear,
Speaker 2: but clarity isn't determined by what we say. Clarity is
Speaker 2: determined by what is received and understood. So here's the
Speaker 2: leadership lesson. Good communication is not just about giving instructions.
Speaker 2: It's about eliminating ambiguity. The better you describe the outcome
Speaker 2: you want, the more likely you are to get exactly
Speaker 2: that outcome. So how do you improve all of this?
Speaker 2: Here are a few strategies that you can use is
Speaker 2: starting today. Number one, paint the picture. Don't just say
Speaker 2: what to do. Explain how it should look or feel.
Speaker 2: When it's finished, describe the end result. Number two use checkpoints.
Speaker 2: If it's a big task, check in halfway. Make sure
Speaker 2: what's being done matches what you had in mind. This
Speaker 2: saves you from being surprised at the end. Number three
Speaker 2: ask for a repeat back. One of the most underrated
Speaker 2: communication tools is simply saying, tell me what you understood.
Speaker 2: This isn't about testing them, It's about making sure both
Speaker 2: sides are on the same page. And let me tell you,
Speaker 2: in the aviation industry, the read back actually saves lives
Speaker 2: every flight. Number four. Adjust your detail to the person.
Speaker 2: Some employees need more directions, some need less. It's not
Speaker 2: a sign of weakness to give more detail. It's a
Speaker 2: sign that you care about the outcome and respect the
Speaker 2: person enough to set them up for success. Now let's
Speaker 2: tie this back to AI one more time. When you
Speaker 2: put in a week prompt, you often end up frustrated
Speaker 2: and have to redo it. But when you give a strong,
Speaker 2: specific prompt you save time, avoid rework, and get better results.
Speaker 2: The exact same principle applies to leadership. Your employees want
Speaker 2: to succeed, they want to get it right. But if
Speaker 2: you leave too much room for guessing, don't be surprised
Speaker 2: if the outcome doesn't look like what you imagined. And
Speaker 2: that's not an employee problem, that's a leadership problem. So
Speaker 2: the challenge for you this week is pretty simple. Just
Speaker 2: pay attention to how you give instructions. Make sure to
Speaker 2: ask yourself did I just give a vague suggestion or
Speaker 2: did I communicate the result that I actually want? And
Speaker 2: if you have to go back and look at routine
Speaker 2: communication you use all the time and audit that as well,
Speaker 2: because if you have the same pain points all the
Speaker 2: time when you communicate, you may need to be more
Speaker 2: descriptive in your messaging. Strong input equal strong output. That's
Speaker 2: as true for employees as it is for large language
Speaker 2: AI models. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.