Focus your communication on the why and less on the how….

Kevin’s Eikenberry has a great post that caught my eye titled "What to Communicate" discussing the importance of communication to leaders. I really believe that we do not spend enough time figuring out the why before we move on to figure out the how. Kevin reminds us of this principle by providing the following rule of thumb:

Communicate why before how, and don’t switch too soon….. In most organizations and teams the ‘why’ is missing. When the why is strong enough, the how will be figured out. Besides, if you are trying to empower your organization, as a leader you probably need to spend less time on how anyway…. Focus more of your communication and conversation on why and less on how.

A similar view is expressed by Annette Clancy from the blog Interactions in the post "The Management/Leadership Conversation", who makes the following observation:

"In order to follow I need to know ‘why’ and once we’ve worked out the ‘why’ I want to know what the implications are. Lots of people can manage, but leaders do things in their own inimitable way. Too many ‘leaders’ are really managers who are preoccupied with the ‘how’ and the ‘what’."

The importance of spending time to understand the why before the how is discussed in detail in Peter Block’s book “The Answer to How is Yes”, some of the reasons Peter gives in his book, to support focusing on the why are:

• "We often avoid the question of whether something is worth doing by going straight to the question ‘How do we do it?’"
• "Too often when a discussion is dominated by by questions of How? we risk overvaluing what is practical and doable and postpone the questions of larger purpose…"
• "…engage in conversations about why we do what we do….. create the space for longer discussions about purpose, about what is worth doing. It would refocus our attention on deciding what is the right question, rather than what is the right answer."

• Are you acting on what matters?
• Are you acting on what’s worth doing?
• Are you giving priority to what matters?
• how will the world be different tomorrow as a result of what we do today?

Technorati Tags: Vision, Purpose, Mission, Management, Leadership, Book, Why, How, Question, Communication

Related posts:

1. Companies Need Less Communication…. Not More!
2. Leaders Focus on Creating, Not Problem Solving
3. Leader as social architect…
4. The Importance of ‘Know Why’ over ‘Know How’
5. Communication: The Key to Leadership

Tagged as: Change, Clarity, Communication, Focus, Purpose, Vision