Clarity compounds

The ROI of slower, nebulous work

Unfortunately, most of the truly important work leaders do is not urgent.

If it were urgent, it would be easier to get ourselves to do it.

I'm talking about essential things like investing in the clarity of your leadership stack: clarity of purpose, vision, goals, strategy, and product principles.

This is the hard, nebulous work of leadership. And it's often ignored until there's an emergency that forces us to get it together.

Why do we put it off? This work is slower, more nebulous, and frankly, hard.

What's the payoff of making this investment?

**In a word: clarity.**

Clarity compounds and drives enormous gains, in two ways: first, by helping everyone on the team make better decisions faster. Second, by the compounding effect of those decisions over time.

There are other more tangible payoffs for specific pieces of your leadership stack, such as your product vision. A strong vision is a massive upgrade to your effectiveness in recruiting, as well as investor / partner relations.

This is a “slow down to speed up” thing. Yes, you will move a little slower for the next 3-6 weeks while you do the hard work of making this investment. But beyond that, you’re into the gains and the upside compounds.

But the overall payoff here is clarity across the board. As a leader, creating this clarity is one of the highest leverage things you can do to increase performance.