Isn’t it funny how such opposing contradictions can be true? Like that saying for parents that days go slow but the years go fast, or that feeling of being so busy and yet accomplishing so little. Or being afraid of retirement for fear of not knowing what to do with oneself — only to get there and wonder how you had time to work all those years! It’s the wonderful paradoxes of life that both make us smile and frustrated at the same time.
In leadership it’s the paradox of information: we have a tendency to overshare, but under-communicate. We forget that communication isn’t a function of information, just like “doing something” isn’t the same as “accomplishing something.” Doing busywork is not the same as doing important or productive work, just as sharing information isn’t the same as communicating insight, understanding or inclusion.
As a people we are drowning under and avalanche of information! If we as leaders expect our communication to be of any value, it’s got to rise above the noise, be worthy of our team’s attention and contain something that warrants the expenditure of their precious little time. Are you vomiting everything upon your team so you won’t be accused of “not communicating,” only to be accused of being a poor communicator? Consider the old adage about quality vs quantity. The call for communication isn’t a cry for more, it’s a plea for better.
