September 24, 2024 • 7 mins
How can defining your business values and success more clearly lead to a calmer operation?
This episode kicks off our miniseries on deconstructing the common elements that all calm businesses share. We're starting with the most foundational element: clarity. Clarity in business is often summarized by a simple yet powerful term: "freedom from ambiguity." In today’s discussion, Susan Boles explores how achieving clarity in your business's values, goals, and communications can lead to more engaged employees, less turnover, and ultimately, a calmer business environment.
Understanding what success looks like and making sure everyone in your organization is on the same page can transform your business operations. Clarity reduces confusion and aligns your team's efforts towards common goals.
Listen to the Full Episode to Hear:
- Why clarity is crucial in defining business success and aligning actions with values.
- The impact of clear communication on employee engagement and satisfaction.
- Practical tips for enhancing clarity within your team, from onboarding materials to daily communications.
- How clarity in roles, expectations, and the bigger company vision can lead to more effective and autonomous decision-making.
- Steps you can take today to start improving clarity in your business, including sharing your vision of success and refining internal documentation.
- (00:00) - E103 - CALMER Solo - Clarity
- (00:33) - The Importance of Clarity
- (01:52) - Benefits of Clear Communication
- (02:59) - Challenges of Achieving Clarity
- (04:47) - Steps to Build Clarity
- (06:26) - Gradual Process of Improving Clarity
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Susan Boles (00:02):
When you get clear on what your values are, what
success really looks like, andthen align your actions
accordingly, that's when you canreally start creating a calmer
business. Because calmbusinesses are engineered.
They're constructed. They don'tjust happen. They take
forethought.
They take planning. They takedesign. And that's what we're
(00:26):
diving into in this miniseries.What are the common elements
that all calm businesses havebuilt into their foundations?
The first and arguably mostimportant foundational element
of a calm business is clarity.
But what does that mean? One ofmy favorite dictionary
definitions is freedom fromambiguity, which I think is
(00:48):
actually kind of great, but Ithink this could be simplified a
little bit. For me, claritymeans both explicit and
unambiguous. And when it comesto business, that means that
everyone knows what's importantand what to work on. In a
business that's clear, successis transparently and explicitly
defined, Whether that's in theform of value statements, goal
(01:12):
metrics, written handbookseveryone knows what you're
aiming for.
Likewise, values are alsoequally explicit Everyone knows
what's important and what toprioritize when it comes to
making hard choices. Are weprioritizing profit or are we
prioritizing people? Are weemphasizing growth Or are we
(01:34):
focusing on building systems sowe can aim for maintenance mode?
These are critical pieces ofinformation and it's important
that everyone in your businessunderstand them. That's the
benefit clarity gives you.
But how does clarity make thingscalmer? Well let's start with
the benefits of clearcommunication. Now research
(01:56):
shows that when organizationshave clear communication,
employees are generally moreengaged and they're more
satisfied with their jobs. Thatmeans there's less turnover,
there's less time spenttraining, and there's more
institutional knowledgegenerally. And that equates to
calmer business operationsbecause you can consistently be
(02:17):
building and improving insteadof training and basically
starting over from thebeginning, which is pretty much
what happens when you have abunch of team members turn over
again and again.
Also, happier team members, theyare more committed, they do
better work, and are generallymore productive. Not to mention
(02:37):
that when team members arereally clear on what they're
supposed to do, they can do abetter job of effectively
allocating their time and theirresources so the most important
priorities get the mostattention. Now all of that means
that work generally is moreeffective, and that can make it
feel a lot calmer. Clarityequals calm. Now I will say that
(03:00):
clarity, that is not thedefault.
Most businesses, most businesscommunications are full of
jargon, their secret subtext,and cultural rules that you
wouldn't know about if you justwalked in the door. The
corporate business world seemsto pride itself on buzzwords
that don't mean anything. Theygo on visioning retreats to come
(03:21):
up with mission and visionstatements that are really just
there for marketing materials.They don't actually mean
anything. And that, well, that'snot good.
That lack of clarity, that lackof meaning is really the reason
that so many people accidentallybuild default businesses. Those
ones that emphasize andprioritize growth while
(03:43):
sacrificing everything else.Because it honestly never really
occurs to business owners,especially those who come out of
corporate culture, to just stopand take a minute and figure out
what is important. What aretheir priorities? What do they
wanna build their businesstowards?
And stopping to think aboutthat, stopping to get that
(04:05):
clarity is a critical step. Nowthere are a few different
aspects of clarity that all helpbuild towards a calmer business.
The first we've talked about,that idea that everyone in the
business knows what's important,knows where you're going, and
they know how you want to getthere. The second part is a
little bit more tactical.Everyone in the business has to
(04:27):
know what their role is and whatthe expectations are for that
role.
They also need to understand thebig picture of the company and
how that impacts their role.That information allows them to
make informed decisions fortheir area because they
understand the implications oftheir choices company wide. So
(04:48):
you might be asking, how do youactually go about building
clarity into your business?Well, there are really a lot of
different places you can startmoving towards more clarity for
your team. For example, you canshare what your version of
success looks like, talk aboutwhat's important to you, share
why it's important, and helpthem understand what role each
(05:09):
one of them plays in movingtowards your definition of
success.
You don't have to get astactical or as transparent as
sharing financials. Although ifyou want to and feel comfortable
doing that, great. But itdoesn't really have to be that
direct. It could just be aconversation at your next team
meeting about where you'reheaded. If you do wanna get a
(05:30):
little bit more explicit thanthat, a great place to start
building is in your teamonboarding materials or in your
employee handbook if you haveone.
These are great places to talkabout priorities. You can
explain inside jokes that youmight have or even have a how we
work section talking about howyou approach work at your
(05:51):
company. How does work get done?Are you a meeting first kind of
place, or do you communicateprimarily written or
asynchronously? Writing downthose kinds of things can help
you define and explicitlycommunicate how work happens at
your company, even smallprojects like writing down how a
specific task happens.
(06:12):
So who does it? What tools areyou using? What are the steps in
this task? That can help improveclarity around tasks and how
specific work happens and alsomake it easier to hand off work
between team members. Now thisdoesn't have to be something
that happens all at once.
In fact, it probably won'thappen like that. Starting to
improve the clarity in yourbusiness, it's a gradual process
(06:35):
that happens a little bit at atime. But making being clear a
priority ultimately benefitseveryone in and around your
business. Being very clear aboutwhat's important, how work
happens, and what everyone'srole is, that is a critical
component in building a calmerbusiness. And that clarity is
something that absolutely has tobe in place for our second
foundational element to exist: autonomy. (06:59):
undefined
Now, you cannot build anautonomous work culture without
everyone being clear first orelse they won't actually have
the information they need to beable to make autonomous
decisions or to own their areaof the business. So that's the
element we'll be deconstructingnext time, autonomy. So make
(07:21):
sure you hit subscribe in yourfavorite podcast player so you
don't miss it. Big thanks toeveryone who supports Beyond
Margins. If you are a listener,a sponsor, or a partner of any
kind, I absolutely couldn't dothis show without you.
For more ideas, tools, andresources about how to build a
calmer business with comfortablemargins, head to
beyondmargins.com. While you'rethere, you can sign up for my
(07:44):
free newsletter. I send it everyweek, and it's all about
exploring and deconstructingwhat it takes to build a calmer
business. Thanks so much forlistening.
When you get clear on what your values are, what
success really looks like, andthen align your actions
accordingly, that's when you canreally start creating a calmer
business. Because calmbusinesses are engineered.
They're constructed. They don'tjust happen. They take
forethought.
They take planning. They takedesign. And that's what we're
(00:26):
diving into in this miniseries.What are the common elements
that all calm businesses havebuilt into their foundations?
The first and arguably mostimportant foundational element
of a calm business is clarity.
But what does that mean? One ofmy favorite dictionary
definitions is freedom fromambiguity, which I think is
(00:48):
actually kind of great, but Ithink this could be simplified a
little bit. For me, claritymeans both explicit and
unambiguous. And when it comesto business, that means that
everyone knows what's importantand what to work on. In a
business that's clear, successis transparently and explicitly
defined, Whether that's in theform of value statements, goal
(01:12):
metrics, written handbookseveryone knows what you're
aiming for.
Likewise, values are alsoequally explicit Everyone knows
what's important and what toprioritize when it comes to
making hard choices. Are weprioritizing profit or are we
prioritizing people? Are weemphasizing growth Or are we
(01:34):
focusing on building systems sowe can aim for maintenance mode?
These are critical pieces ofinformation and it's important
that everyone in your businessunderstand them. That's the
benefit clarity gives you.
But how does clarity make thingscalmer? Well let's start with
the benefits of clearcommunication. Now research
(01:56):
shows that when organizationshave clear communication,
employees are generally moreengaged and they're more
satisfied with their jobs. Thatmeans there's less turnover,
there's less time spenttraining, and there's more
institutional knowledgegenerally. And that equates to
calmer business operationsbecause you can consistently be
(02:17):
building and improving insteadof training and basically
starting over from thebeginning, which is pretty much
what happens when you have abunch of team members turn over
again and again.
Also, happier team members, theyare more committed, they do
better work, and are generallymore productive. Not to mention
(02:37):
that when team members arereally clear on what they're
supposed to do, they can do abetter job of effectively
allocating their time and theirresources so the most important
priorities get the mostattention. Now all of that means
that work generally is moreeffective, and that can make it
feel a lot calmer. Clarityequals calm. Now I will say that
(03:00):
clarity, that is not thedefault.
Most businesses, most businesscommunications are full of
jargon, their secret subtext,and cultural rules that you
wouldn't know about if you justwalked in the door. The
corporate business world seemsto pride itself on buzzwords
that don't mean anything. Theygo on visioning retreats to come
(03:21):
up with mission and visionstatements that are really just
there for marketing materials.They don't actually mean
anything. And that, well, that'snot good.
That lack of clarity, that lackof meaning is really the reason
that so many people accidentallybuild default businesses. Those
ones that emphasize andprioritize growth while
(03:43):
sacrificing everything else.Because it honestly never really
occurs to business owners,especially those who come out of
corporate culture, to just stopand take a minute and figure out
what is important. What aretheir priorities? What do they
wanna build their businesstowards?
And stopping to think aboutthat, stopping to get that
(04:05):
clarity is a critical step. Nowthere are a few different
aspects of clarity that all helpbuild towards a calmer business.
The first we've talked about,that idea that everyone in the
business knows what's important,knows where you're going, and
they know how you want to getthere. The second part is a
little bit more tactical.Everyone in the business has to
(04:27):
know what their role is and whatthe expectations are for that
role.
They also need to understand thebig picture of the company and
how that impacts their role.That information allows them to
make informed decisions fortheir area because they
understand the implications oftheir choices company wide. So
(04:48):
you might be asking, how do youactually go about building
clarity into your business?Well, there are really a lot of
different places you can startmoving towards more clarity for
your team. For example, you canshare what your version of
success looks like, talk aboutwhat's important to you, share
why it's important, and helpthem understand what role each
(05:09):
one of them plays in movingtowards your definition of
success.
You don't have to get astactical or as transparent as
sharing financials. Although ifyou want to and feel comfortable
doing that, great. But itdoesn't really have to be that
direct. It could just be aconversation at your next team
meeting about where you'reheaded. If you do wanna get a
(05:30):
little bit more explicit thanthat, a great place to start
building is in your teamonboarding materials or in your
employee handbook if you haveone.
These are great places to talkabout priorities. You can
explain inside jokes that youmight have or even have a how we
work section talking about howyou approach work at your
(05:51):
company. How does work get done?Are you a meeting first kind of
place, or do you communicateprimarily written or
asynchronously? Writing downthose kinds of things can help
you define and explicitlycommunicate how work happens at
your company, even smallprojects like writing down how a
specific task happens.
(06:12):
So who does it? What tools areyou using? What are the steps in
this task? That can help improveclarity around tasks and how
specific work happens and alsomake it easier to hand off work
between team members. Now thisdoesn't have to be something
that happens all at once.
In fact, it probably won'thappen like that. Starting to
improve the clarity in yourbusiness, it's a gradual process
(06:35):
that happens a little bit at atime. But making being clear a
priority ultimately benefitseveryone in and around your
business. Being very clear aboutwhat's important, how work
happens, and what everyone'srole is, that is a critical
component in building a calmerbusiness. And that clarity is
something that absolutely has tobe in place for our second
foundational element to exist: autonomy. (06:59):
undefined
Now, you cannot build anautonomous work culture without
everyone being clear first orelse they won't actually have
the information they need to beable to make autonomous
decisions or to own their areaof the business. So that's the
element we'll be deconstructingnext time, autonomy. So make
(07:21):
sure you hit subscribe in yourfavorite podcast player so you
don't miss it. Big thanks toeveryone who supports Beyond
Margins. If you are a listener,a sponsor, or a partner of any
kind, I absolutely couldn't dothis show without you.
For more ideas, tools, andresources about how to build a
calmer business with comfortablemargins, head to
beyondmargins.com. While you'rethere, you can sign up for my
(07:44):
free newsletter. I send it everyweek, and it's all about
exploring and deconstructingwhat it takes to build a calmer
business. Thanks so much forlistening.
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