Clarity vs. Complexity | Leadership Tensions | Part 6 of 10

We’re back today with episode 6 of our series all about leadership tensions, and today we’re looking at clarity vs. complexity. Listen in as Chip Parker explores the decision of clarity and what it looks like to model that for your team. Let’s jump right in!

Thanks for listening to the Impact Leadership podcast! We are so glad that you're here. If you're looking to connect with Chip Parker, send him a message at chip@theorchardcc.org. New episodes are released weekly on Wednesdays. We'll catch you in the next episode!

Transcript

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Hey everybody, welcome into the Impact Leadership Podcast. My name is Chip Parker, and I'm the lead pastor at the Orchard Community Church, a multi-site church in North Central Florida working to impact lostness and impact the next generation. This podcast is all about helping you as a church leader grow your leadership to grow your impact. Let's hop into this week's conversation. All right, well, here we are, episode six of a 10-part conversation all about tensions in our leadership, or at least tensions that exist and some tensions that apparently exist. Because the whole idea has been is that there are some tensions in our leadership that we do need to hold, things that seem to work against each other, but as leaders, we have to find a way to embrace both. And then some decisions that we need to make that try to disguise themselves as tensions, where instead of actually coming down on one side or the other where we need to, we just kind of straddle the fence, treat it as a tension, and often do damage in our organization because of it. And so what we've done is kind of broken down these tensions in a few different areas. We've talked about, you know, tensions around how we lead ourselves. One of those was about our identity and our performance. We've talked about how we lead others. And that was last week's conversation. One of those was accessibility or boundaries. And now we're going to shift gears about how we lead, maybe we would say systems in our organizations, how we operate as leaders. And the tension we're going to look at today is the tension of clarity versus complexity. And I'll just jump right in and say it this way. I don't believe this is a tension at all. I think sometimes we try to think that complexity is what keeps us from being clear. And we try to balance that tension. But the truth is, this isn't a tension at all. This is a decision that we need to make. We have to choose clarity if we are going to be effective leaders. Now, what I'm not saying is that your organization is not complex. I know that organizations are. As a matter of fact, as organizations grow, whether it be a business, a church, or a ball club that you coach, it doesn't matter. As that organization grows, it is going to grow more complex. And as a leader, you have to stay on top of that. Like you have to understand that. You have to understand how your organization works and understand that complexity. However, that complexity that comes with growth is not an excuse for a lack of clarity. We cannot let complexity take away our clarity. The more complex we grow, that's the harder we need to work to make sure that we are clear as leaders. We are clear in where we're headed. We are clear in what we're doing. We are clear in what we say because clarity is essential for us as leaders. If we are not clear, we are not effective. Clarity in our leadership, clarity is something that builds trust with people. They know where you're at, they know where you stand, they know what you believe. Clarity builds speed. It allows us not to have to hash and rehash something over and over, but to move and operate and get things done quickly. And then clarity reduces friction in our organization. It takes away that room for people to hop on different sides of issues because they don't know where we're headed, what we're doing, and each try to take control of the wheel. No, it allows us to set a clear direction and reduce friction. So what I'm not saying again is that complexity is not real. I know that it is. What I'm saying is that clarity is essential. And here's the truth if there is a lack of clarity in your organization, if there is confusion in your organization, as clear as I can be, that is a leadership failure. Confusion is a leadership failure. I think that often we are not clear in what we say, what we do, where we're headed as leaders, because we aren't really clear in what we believe or what we think. And we let that indecision, we let that lack of clarity in ourselves become a lack of clarity in how we lead. And we try to hedge our bets, so to speak. We try to find middle roads because we don't want to go too far to one side or the other, because we aren't convinced of where we need to go and what we need to do and how we need to say it. I heard a pastor say it like this one time. I thought it was really helpful. He says, a mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew. And I think that that idea translates over to every field of leadership, whether you're a pastor like me or not. The idea is that if you are unclear, your people are gonna be far more unclear. Your teams are gonna be far more unclear. If it is misty in your mind, it is gonna be foggy and cloudy in theirs. And so what we have to do as leaders, one of our top priorities has to be reducing complexity into clarity for our teams. We need to be able to say what we need to say clearly and simply. One of my favorite pastors, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, says it like this He says, My goal is not to be so clear that I might be understood. My goal is to be so clear that I can't be misunderstood. And I think that is such a challenge for us as leaders. We can't just be so clear that we can be understood. We have to be so clear that we can't be misunderstood. Because everybody in the room, when we're talking, when we're leading, is going to be filtering what we say through their own experiences, their own thoughts, their own lens. And so we have to be ultra clear so that the heart of what we're saying gets through everyone's filter. We must be clear. That is what a leader does. A leader brings clarity. And the reason why this is so important again is because the people we lead, they need clarity from us. They need direction from us. If they are serving with us, working with us, then they are looking to us to provide them direction for what they should be doing, which way they should be going. And so we need to be clear so that they can have that. I don't know if you've ever thought about this before or not, but leadership means that we're not just working with other people. Leadership means that we have to work through other people. And so for me, one of the convictions of leadership I have is that I have to be so clear that the people I lead can communicate that clarity to the people that they lead. And so you have to start thinking in layers like that, and it's difficult, honestly. But that's why clarity is so important. And when we treat this idea of clarity versus complexity like attention, what happens is that we justify our unclear leadership in the name of nuance. We we try to nuance everything to death, and we pretend that it's just so complex that we can't be clear and we justify our lack of clarity, which again is a failure in our leadership. So here's the question for you today: where are you being unclear because you don't want to simplify? Man, I think that is a challenge, isn't it? Where is it in our leadership that we are being unclear because we don't want to simplify? Because we don't want to make a hard call to kill a program or to change directions or to set a goal? Where are we hedging our bets? And that is leading us to be less clear than we could. Where am I being unclear because I don't want to simplify? I think that's a great question for you to chew on today. And again, as I've tried to do, let me leave you with one final thought that might summarize this for you well. If people are confused in your organization, it's not because they're dumb. It's because you weren't clear. And I hope you hear that and I hope you hear my heart behind it. Look, the people on your team, they're not dumb, they're not stupid. If they were, they would not be on your team. So if they are confused, if they're not clear, it's not because they're not smart enough. It's because you weren't clear in what you said and what you're doing or where you're headed. As leaders, we have to prioritize clarity. We cannot let complexity derail our leadership. And the more complex we grow, the harder we have to work to be clear. One last thing before we end this conversation is just let me say if you are a leader, specifically in the local church context or even outside of it, I would love to be able to connect with you if I can help. If you would like, I'm gonna have my email in the show notes. Reach out to me. We can set up a time to connect because here's what I know leadership is bigger than any one of us. If we are truly going to have an impact in our communities, we need to lean on each other and we need to learn from each other. So I would be more than happy to do what I can to connect with you and help you lead right where you are. So reach out, let us know how we can connect. But until then, we'll see you right back here next week on the Impact Leadership Podcast.