when in doubt: this is what we are doing, this is why, this is how it’s going.

made w/ midjourney

When you lead smart accomplished people, you can reasonably worry that you’re going to waste their time if you take the mic or the stage too much. You might set a very high bar for what you communicate. You’ll tell yourself it needs to be super smart or brand new or deeply inspiring.

Those high standards may leave you at a loss on a given Tuesday afternoon or before your next weekly / monthly all hands. It’s not bad or wrong to yield your time, now and again, and let people get back to the business at hand. But it’s a mistake, in my opinion, to withhold your voice and your take until you have an exceptional message.

When in doubt, remind your team what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how it’s going. More scientifically: what’s the current hypothesis you’re testing, why are you testing it, and what is the data saying so far?

Smart, agentic people will make up their own highly diverse answers to these questions when you don’t answer them consistently. (Some of them may still, even when you do answer them consistently). Under-communicating on these fronts is less efficient and less humane. People will spend unnecessary time wondering and storytelling (even just to themselves). And ambiguity usually feels bad. No need for the misallocation or the mishegas.

-eric