Clarity creates competence
Chaos is a fact of life for founders. Your daily routine is undoubtedly hectic, and bandwidth is rare and precious. Under these conditions, your ability to communicate with precision is critical to maintaining organizational efficiency.
“Ensure every stakeholder is clear on the problem at hand and the strategy that’s in place to solve it. Then, everyone can understand how that strategy translates into their priorities.”
ASSAF RESNICK
Co-founder & CEO, BigPanda
Building a strong team is one of the most important tasks you’ll undertake as a founder, but once you’ve assembled your people, they need you to lead them. While that sounds intuitive, in practice it’s a balancing act, and it’s not easy.
You’re constantly gathering information, identifying novel problems, making strategic adjustments, and communicating goals in ways that set expectations, down and across the chain of command. You must do all that without falling into micromanagement.
This is why developing strong internal comms is vital; when you give the signal, the whole organization should know how to respond. You create that alignment by communicating often, adapting your style as needed, and continually challenging yourself to be more concise and accurate.
“A founder’s job isn’t just to identify the company’s mission, strategy and priorities,” says Patrick Salyer, who serves on BigPanda’s board and previously led Gigya (acquired by SAP) as CEO for 10 years. “They need to actualize these ideas with consistent and contextual communication. This is why it’s so important to work on conveying your ideas and expectations with clarity. If you can’t do that, you won’t be able to leverage your people, no matter how capable they are.”
PATRICK SALYER
Partner
Enterprise