EP 107: Are You Leading or Just Reacting? Why Your Team Feels Confused

You didn’t start the year intending to lead in chaos.

Most leaders don’t. They start with goals, energy, and a vague sense of “this will be the year we get ahead.” And then the calendar fills up, priorities shift, decisions stall, and everyone stays busy…but the business doesn’t feel aligned.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: when a team feels confused, it’s usually not because they’re incapable. It’s because leadership has become reactive.

And reactivity has a cost.

In today’s workplace, only 38% of employees say they truly understand what’s expected of them, which means the majority are trying to perform without a clear definition of success. That’s not a communication issue. That’s a leadership infrastructure issue.

Confusion is not neutral

When expectations are fuzzy, people don’t “figure it out.” They protect themselves.

They slow down decision-making.
They wait for approval.
They hedge, over-document, over-meet, and under-own.
They start optimizing for not getting blamed instead of building something great.

Confusion quietly drains culture and capacity. And leaders often don’t see it because it shows up as:

• “They’re disengaged.”

• “They’re not proactive.”

• “They’re not thinking like owners.”

But you can’t ask people to think like owners if they don’t know what success looks like.

Clarity isn’t a soft skill. It’s the highest form of leadership.

Clarity is what makes execution possible.

It’s what turns strategy into choices, and choices into traction. Without clarity, teams drift, intentions fade, and the organization becomes a series of half-decisions.

I’ve worked with leaders who couldn’t make a decision to save their life. And it didn’t make them “nice.” It made them unsafe to follow.

Because when a leader can’t decide, everyone else pays for it - in rework, misalignment, and lost momentum.

The anatomy of leadership clarity

Clarity isn’t a vibe. It’s a system. In this episode, I break it into three dimensions leaders must own:

1) Clarity of purpose: Why this? Why now?

If you can’t name the “why” in a single sentence, you’re not clear yet.

And if it feels too complex to explain, your team is definitely not clear.

This isn’t about writing a poetic mission statement. It’s about defining the north star that makes tradeoffs easier.

Ask yourself:

• Why does this team exist— - right now?

• Why is this initiative worth attention - right now?

• What are we trying to create, protect, or change - right now?

2) Clarity of expectations: What does success look like, and who owns what?

Vague ownership creates invisible bottlenecks.

You can use a simple responsibility model (Responsible/Accountable/Consult/ Inform) or your own structure - what matters is that your team can answer:

• What does “good” look like?

• Who is making the call?

• What must stop so the team can move faster?

One of the fastest ways leaders sabotage clarity is by constantly pushing team meetings. If the team needs to move faster, the answer is often more consistent communication - not less. Canceling the rhythms that create alignment doesn’t reduce work. It increases confusion.

3) Clarity of communication: Less jargon, more direction

Most leaders think they’re being clear because they’re talking a lot.

But volume isn’t clarity. Consistency is.

Pick one phrase that represents what matters this week and repeat it everywhere: meetings, Slack, emails, updates. Repetition isn’t annoying; it’s how alignment gets embedded.

Complexity feels smart. Clarity feels like leadership.

The real cost of unclear leadership

When clarity disappears, trust takes a hit, even if no one says it out loud.

Teams lose confidence, which slows decision-making. Leaders become firefighters. Engagement drops. Execution gets fractured. And over time, top performers either leave or emotionally exit.

I’ve lived the “death by committee” reality inside consensus-driven environments - where decisions required endless pre-meetings, meetings, post-meetings, and political buy-in. It didn’t just cost time. It cost momentum. And momentum is what makes people believe their work matters.

If you want a team that moves, you have to lead like someone who knows where you’re going.

A clarity reset you can do this week

This episode includes three small practices that create outsized leverage:

1) Three sentences of intent

Write these three sentences and don’t overthink them:

• My leadership purpose this year is: ______

• My team’s expectations are: ______

• My non-negotiable priorities are: ______

If you’re on an executive team, compare answers across leaders. Misalignment becomes obvious fast, and that’s the point. You can’t fix what you refuse to name.

2) The clarity check

In a meeting, ask people to write (silently, first):

• “Define success for our team in one sentence.”

• “What is your role in one sentence, and what daily/weekly responsibilities support it?”

If your business has three objectives for the year, and people’s roles don’t clearly roll up into those objectives, you’re not running a company - you’re funding disconnected activity.

3) The weekly compass review

Every week, ask:

• What did we finish?

• What are we aiming for next?

• What’s blocking us?

This is accountability and celebration. It creates follow-through without micromanagement - because people know you’re paying attention, and that obstacles will be addressed instead of ignored.

The leadership question you can’t delegate

What ambiguity are you carrying right now that’s costing your team bandwidth, momentum, or decision speed?

Sometimes the ambiguity isn’t strategic. It’s personal. Leaders get wobbly - burnout, lack of confidence, misalignment with peers, and then expect the team to perform like everything is fine.

If you want your team to stop spinning, you have to stop outsourcing clarity.

Because leadership isn’t about moving fast.

It’s about knowing where you’re moving - and why.

Want the full episode?
Listen to: “Are You Leading or Just Reacting? Why Your Team Feels Confused” on YouTube or wherever you listen to audio.

If you want support building clarity into your leadership team, so alignment doesn’t depend on your calendar behaving, reach out. This is the work I do with executive teams when the business is growing, complexity is rising, and “we’re fine” is no longer true.