The Most Important Thing: Cutting Through Noise and Confusion for Clarity
Nauman ul Haq
Finance Director | Group Reporting and Financial Control | Digital Transformation | FCA, CFA
People are destined to suffer when communication from leadership is misdirected, unclear, or misunderstood.
Consider a physician who left a written order for a nurse treating an earache: 'Two drops, twice a day, r. ear.' The nurse, reading the note, opened the medicine and then directed the patient to turn over, putting the eardrops in his rectum.
The somewhat amusing anecdote is narrated by Robert Cialdini in his book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion . We don't know whether the ear infection was cured from this method of administration of ear drops but it is meant to illustrate how, humans have been programmed to follow leaders. In his talk, Psychology of Human Misjudgments , Charlie Munger talks about how our society is formally organized into dominance hierarchies, with culture augmenting the natural follow-the-leader tendency of man.
We are all leaders in some way. While few have formal titles, most of us assume leadership roles through social structures—whether it's working in teams, being part of a family or friend circle, or raising kids. Leadership requires making sound decisions, and to do that, we need to know what we want and value.
Knowing What We Don't Want vs Knowing What We Want
Knowing what we?don’t?want is easy for most of us.
I divide my life into four areas: career, health, relationships, and wealth. However, I recently realized that I haven't been clear on what I want in each of these areas.
I know what I don't want: to be an absentee father, fight with my spouse, get sick or gain weight, go broke, or lose my freedom. Like everyone else, I dislike discomfort, suffering, and lack of autonomy.
But knowing what we don’t want doesn’t bring us closer to what we do want. It’s a good risk management strategy and can keep us out of trouble. For example, spending an hour on the stair master burns calories but doesn't get me any closer to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. It just means I’m not getting fat.
We have all worked with a boss who is hard to please. No matter what you submit to them, it's just not good enough.
Or maybe you are that boss who takes pride in being hard to please and calls it setting high standards.
High standards are necessary, but if all we communicate is that something isn't good enough, we aren't providing a vision for improvement. It's different when high standards come with clear feedback on what needs to change to meet our goals. Criticism can feel overwhelming, but if we know what's needed and why, we feel empowered to act. We understand the project's main goal, the problem, and the vision.
Sure, we might get a superstar on our team who can meet and exceed all the expectations, but we shouldn't assume that's always going to happen. Afterall, the team is only as strong as the weakest link.
As individuals, we should aim to be the top performer who can meet and exceed the expectations, but that is not enough. On the flip side, as a leader, we are still required to clearly communicate what we want.
It is crucial to know and communicate the most important thing.
The Most Important Thing
In practice, knowing the most important thing is often value based. it’s clarifying and empowering to have your team and kids know what you value.
If as a father, I value "curiosity and seeking knowledge" as the most important thing, "always having the right answer and getting top grades" becomes secondary. Therefore, my kids will understand what matters most when faced with a choice. If they have to decide between exploring a new topic they are interested in or focusing only on getting perfect grades, they'll know that their curiosity and love for learning are what I value more.
Similarly, does the finance department value generating sustainable cash flows more than hitting EBITDA targets? If it's clear that sustainable value is more important than meeting targets, then those reporting the results will know they don't need to game the system to meet targets.
When you clearly understand what's most important, it's easy to know how you'll be measured and judged. It does not leave any wiggle room for us, as we are held onto the standard and expectation which we had communicated.
However, learning to identify and express what we truly want is a skill that takes practice.
It's important to be clear about our values so we can help others make decisions on their own. If I am leading a team, I need to make sure that the team is aware of what is needed to use in making decisions. Without clear values and direction, people are left guessing and constantly need help. I might feel good and think the team can't function without me, but the truth is, they're struggling because of me. I become the bottleneck and prevent others from developing good judgment.
When everyone knows what the most important thing is, they can naturally make the right decisions. This is probably one of the most important aspects of being a parent or a leader.
We have to pick the most important thing and communicate it.
How to Identify the Most Important Thing
The next lesson of Decision by Design teaches us how to identify the most important thing. Here Shane Parrish introduces a simple exercise, which can be done with sticky notes or small pieces of paper:
By the end of the exercise, you'll have a list of objectives ranked by priority.
The great thing about this exercise is that it's not just for decisions and their objectives. You can use it to figure out which values are most important to you. For example, if I value integrity, honesty, curiosity, responsibility, and discipline, but want to know which one is the top priority, this exercise can help. It helps me see which value would come out on top if there was ever a conflict between them.
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