Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building and GOLA GV. This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul fella Aledo.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode four fifty one. Something dawned on me the other day and I want to share it with you because it's a simple but powerful leadership reminder. Asking an employee to do something is the same as asking chat GPT to do something. The stronger and more descriptive your input is, the better the result you'll get. So let me tell you how this clicked for me. I had asked one of my employees to rearrange something in one
of our rooms. It's a pretty routine request because I have a conference room that needs set up in different configurations from time to time, depending on what event we're hosting. The problem was I didn't communicate the request well enough. I thought I was clear, but when I came back later, what they did didn't even come close to what I had in mind. And that was on me, that's not on them. Now. If you've used chat, EBT or any
AI tool, you already know how this works. If you type in a vague prompt, you'll get a vague answer. If you take the time to be specific, detailed, and clear, you usually get a response that is much closer to what you actually need. That's leadership in a nutshell. The quality of your communication directly impacts the quality of the outcome. Think about it. Employees are not mind readers. They can't
see the exact picture in your head. If you say, hey, go straighten up that room, you might mean align the chairs in rows, stack the tables against the wall, and place the podium in the center. But if you only say straighten it up, they may think you meant sweep the floor and empty the trash. Both are technically straightening up, but only one of those matches your vision. And this is where leaders make a critical mistake. This is where I made a critical mistake. We think we're being clear,
but clarity isn't determined by what we say. Clarity is determined by what is received and understood. So here's the leadership lesson. Good communication is not just about giving instructions. It's about eliminating ambiguity. The better you describe the outcome you want, the more likely you are to get exactly that outcome. So how do you improve all of this? Here are a few strategies that you can use is starting today. Number one, paint the picture. Don't just say
what to do. Explain how it should look or feel. When it's finished, describe the end result. Number two use checkpoints. If it's a big task, check in halfway. Make sure what's being done matches what you had in mind. This saves you from being surprised at the end. Number three ask for a repeat back. One of the most underrated communication tools is simply saying, tell me what you understood. This isn't about testing them, It's about making sure both
sides are on the same page. And let me tell you, in the aviation industry, the read back actually saves lives every flight. Number four. Adjust your detail to the person. Some employees need more directions, some need less. It's not a sign of weakness to give more detail. It's a sign that you care about the outcome and respect the person enough to set them up for success. Now let's tie this back to AI one more time. When you put in a week prompt, you often end up frustrated
and have to redo it. But when you give a strong, specific prompt you save time, avoid rework, and get better results. The exact same principle applies to leadership. Your employees want to succeed, they want to get it right. But if you leave too much room for guessing, don't be surprised if the outcome doesn't look like what you imagined. And that's not an employee problem, that's a leadership problem. So the challenge for you this week is pretty simple. Just
pay attention to how you give instructions. Make sure to ask yourself did I just give a vague suggestion or did I communicate the result that I actually want? And if you have to go back and look at routine communication you use all the time and audit that as well, because if you have the same pain points all the time when you communicate, you may need to be more descriptive in your messaging. Strong input equal strong output. That's as true for employees as it is for large language
AI models. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast and I thank you for listening.
For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.