What does “strategic ambiguity” mean? Marketers, politicians, and others use it all the time. It’s the art of making a claim using language that avoids specifics. So, you can be purposefully vague to derive personal organizational benefit. On the other hand, it creates an environment at companies where employees try to avoid blame.
Today, my guest is Karen Martin, president of TKMG and author of Clarity First. She describes how a pervasive lack of clarity strangles business performance and leadership on marketing teams.
Some of the highlights of the show include:
- Definition of Clarity: State of something being easily and accurately understood; similar to transparency, but different from certainty
- Conveying and receiving information can cause ambiguity or clarity for employees and customers
- Primary reasons for lack of clarity all come down to fear
- Ramifications of lack of clarity: Takes time, builds frustration, and creates inefficiencies
- Five Ps for clarity:
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- Purpose
- Priorities
- Process
- Performance
- Problem-solving
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Visual of the marketing team’s health
- Profit is not your purpose; profit is the outcome of delivering high value to customers, and purpose is to solve a customer’s problem
- Are you a clarity avoider, pursuer, or blind? Take Karen’s Clarity First Quiz
- Where to start to focus on clarity: What do you do? What do you really do? Why does that product, and not something else, to solve a problem?
- Fearless Workplace: Multiple perspectives, but not a single understanding; feel comfortable having difficult conversations
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