Why Your Team Isn't Executing: The Six Clarity Questions Every Leadership Team Must Answer

You explained it. They nodded. Two weeks later nobody is doing it, and you walk away frustrated. I can't believe they didn't get that report right. I can't believe it took that long. Time out. Maybe they didn't really understand what you were asking, and when they tried to ask, they got a quick 'You got it, I'm sure you'll do fine.'

This is the second half of a two-part series on The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni, and it covers the part most companies skip. People cannot execute what they do not understand. That is not a people problem. It is a clarity problem, and it shows up in a ten-person company just as easily as a five-hundred-person one. It even shows up in families.

What are the six questions every leadership team has to answer the same way?

Clarity means everyone knows what matters most, every day. I coach leadership teams to answer six questions, and to answer them the same way, in writing:

1. Why do we exist? Yes, we have to make money. But why do we show up in this industry? I once heard a builder tell his team they were creating a home where families make memories. The first birthday party, the first baby, the first grandchild. When you understand that part of your work is relational, you show up differently.
2. How do we behave? These are your core values, and they only work if people can say what they are.
3. What do we do? Build homes, invest in real estate, run a heating and air company. Write it down so everyone knows the game we are playing.
4. How will we succeed? The strategy that turns your mission and values into a process, and that process into profit, five-star reviews and employees who are glad they work there.
5. What is most important right now? For the company, for the department and for me personally today. If what mattered yesterday changed this morning, your team is confused, and confusion costs you customer satisfaction, warranty and profit.
6. Who must do what? This is the one almost nobody gets right.

Why do core values need descriptive words?

A single word on the wall is not a value yet. If one of your values is integrity, add a description: doing the right thing when nobody notices. If it is customer service, say what that means in a decision: when we have a challenge or a frustration, we lean toward the customer, and we are careful when the dollar amount gets large.

Without a description, integrity means one thing to me (doing what I say every time) and something else to you (telling people what they need to know but not everything). That is how you end up hearing 'They never should have said that. That is not how we do things here.' If nobody wrote down what is acceptable, you cannot blame people for guessing.

How do you fix role clarity on a small team?

Last week I was working with a company of eleven or fifteen people. You would think everybody in a company that small knows who does what. Not true. Someone starts down one road, a person above them walks by and says 'What are you doing? That's not how we do that.' They switch, and someone else says the first person was wrong. Now they are confused and they don't even know who to ask, and there are only eleven people in the building.

Role clarity needs a real structure, not an org chart that lives in somebody's head ('I think that's Susie's department'). Every person should be able to answer: what have you hired me to do, what am I accountable for, and do I have the authority to make decisions inside some guardrails? A guardrail can be as simple as 'don't spend over a set amount without checking with me.' Then let them run.

Check expectations too. Do my expectations of my job match yours? 'They should have known' is broken. If they didn't know, they didn't know.

Why does complexity kill execution?

I see this in companies of ten or fifteen people, not just fifty. Somebody detailed, and usually a little fearful, builds a process: make sure you check this, make sure you check that. Soon there is a 33-item checklist because the last guy forgot one thing. Then the checklist needs a review from a manager, then sales, then the owner. A task that should take an hour takes a day and a half, and by week three it still isn't done.

Time is money here: interest carry, cash flow, overhead, missed opportunities. Massive checklists and layers of approval that exist so everyone can double-check everyone else are fear wearing a process costume. They come from our own filter, filled with every time we got burned. Most people just need a couple of guardrails, a clear goal and a deadline. If they miss it a little, call them in, talk it through and let them adjust.

We don't need fourteen pages of checklists, multiple levels of approval and six meetings to make one decision. Just have a little faith in the right person.

How often should you repeat the message?

Longer than feels reasonable. Clarity leaks. Vision leaks, mission leaks, values leak. They drip out of us over time. Andy Stanley says that when you have said it a thousand times, they have heard it the first time, and any parent who has told a child fifty times not to play in the street knows exactly what he means.

Bring the values into decisions ('Is this really a customer-focused decision?'), put them on the wall, put them on shirts, and open meetings with a story that shows who you are. When a six-month employee says 'This doesn't feel like a customer-focused decision,' you know it is working. Repetition creates alignment, and over time it changes people's filters and their results.

When someone misses it, don't dictate. Call them in, say they are not in trouble, and ask how they made the decision. Then talk about the value. If you just say 'Never do that again,' they say 'Yes, sir' and learn nothing. And celebrate loudly when someone gets it right, even if it is a gift card for a team lunch.

A simple test: how many times in the last month have you communicated the vision to your team? That is where the slide starts.

What meeting rhythm actually works?

Everyone hates meetings because most of them are the wrong meetings, the kind where people bring their laptops to get real work done. A good rhythm has a specific agenda each time, the right people in the room and a to-do list on the way out. Someone operationally minded needs to own the schedule, the notes and the follow-up. If you are an owner without that person, you are struggling.

• Daily check-in (about 10 minutes). Everyone gets a minute: what is most important today, and do you need help? Gather in the break room or jump on a call.
• Weekly tactical (one hour to an hour and a half). Three to seven leaders who believe in where the company is going. Look at numbers and metrics, then identify and solve problems. Every other week is better than nothing.
• Monthly strategic. Bigger picture, a different agenda, no chasing rabbits.
• Quarterly offsite (half a day to a full day). Look back at 90 days: did we hit our goals, how were profit, permits, production, sales, leads and cycle time? Then look ahead to the next quarter.
• Annual look back. Late in the year, spend a day or two on the whole picture: goals, issues solved, threats and opportunities, and whether your mission, vision and values are still on target.

How do you keep clarity alive through hiring, reviews and recognition?

Reinforce it everywhere people touch the company. Hire for it. Run exit interviews, because even one or two things from someone leaving are worth capturing. Replace the old once-a-year review ('here's your bonus, sign this') with a quarterly conversation: brag on yourself, share what you wish you did better, hear one or two things I have noticed, then decide together what to work on over the next 90 days. It is not a trip to the principal's office.

Walk around, too. Stop at someone's door and ask how they are doing, how the family is, and whether they need anything. Watch for the people who go the extra mile and promote them, and catch people doing something right out loud. If you are not good at recognition, find someone on your team who is and ask them to remind you.

The takeaway from The Advantage

In my coaching I teach eight essentials of a healthy organization: vision and leadership, people and talent, data and metrics, a communication rhythm, written processes, a process to identify and solve issues, operational excellence, and sales and marketing aligned with your values. It is not easy, and I never said it was.

But organizational health is the ultimate competitive advantage. Leadership teams must trust one another, clarity eliminates confusion, communication creates alignment, and culture has to be reinforced every day. Healthy organizations execute faster and better, and great companies are built from the inside out. Take some baby steps. Try a few things for the next twelve to thirty-six months and watch what happens.