Words to live by.

They’re not mine (exactly) but they’re true. They actually comprise the name of a LinkedIn post (I am liking this new content venue – you?) by entrepreneur  Scott Belsky.

Belsky actually speaks many truths throughout the article, questioning his own effectiveness at communicating after hearing the CEO of a large tech company share a hard-learned lesson: if you don’t communicate your vision, your people won’t know what it is.

This in particular spoke to me:

“I think the problem is that, like watching a kettle boil, it’s hard to notice a team growing. When a team grows one person at a time, you assume that everyone knows everything – and that the important knowledge somehow spreads and soaks in. But someone who joins a week after our annual offsite could quite possibly work for an entire year without knowing our long term goals.”

This is gospel, folks. I’ve seen it, lived it, battled it. Years back, in my agency life on the Microsoft account, I took it upon myself to create an orientation PowerPoint for new team members, who had no chance in hell of succeeding without a who’s who and a what’s what, not to mention a what’s-it-all-about.

That presentation was turned into a mandatory online training for all team members. I was proud of that, and proud of the leadership that dedicated resources to communicating, communicating, communicating.

Belsky concludes:

“It’s becoming more clear to me: Effective leaders (and brands) repeat themselves to the point where they can barely stand to hear themselves any more. When it comes to setting strategy, they make a few simple points multiple times. And they compromise on ‘new messaging’ to reiterate what is most important.”

Yes, yes, yes.

Yes.

 

WRITE A COMMENT No Comments