Opinion: Why clarity is a leader’s superpower

Thomas Douglas

Walk into any organization during a season of change, and you’ll find something spreading faster than facts: rumors.

Someone missed a meeting? “They’re probably job hunting.” Leadership goes silent? “The company must be in trouble.” A tough decision made without context? “Must’ve been political.”

The truth of the matter is that in the absence of facts, people make s--- up.

And as a leader, that’s your problem to solve. You can’t control what people feel, but you can control what they know. You can offer clarity. You can anchor the narrative before assumptions take hold. Because when uncertainty floods in, clarity is your highest act of service.  If you want to become a leader worth following, you have to live by this rule: Love the truth, even when you don’t like it.

Truth is a trust strategy
You don’t need to have all the answers. You don’t even need to have good news. But you do need to say what’s real. Because when leadership goes quiet, whether to protect the team or buy themselves time, it creates a vacuum. But people don’t just sit in that silence. They fill it with fear, speculation and worst-case scenarios. The longer you wait to name what’s true, the harder it becomes to repair the trust you lost by not saying it sooner.

The day COVID shut us down
In March 2020, I stood in front of our team at the office with more questions than answers. The news cycle was a firehose, clients were freezing budgets and companies around the country were announcing layoffs by the hour. In moments like that, leaders are tempted to go quiet until the picture clears up.

Silence wasn’t an option.

I told the team exactly what I knew and what I didn’t. We were shifting to remote work immediately. The economy was unstable. Forecasts were guesses at best. And then I said the one sentence I knew they needed most: “Everybody here is keeping their jobs.”

That kind of promise was the result of intentional preparation. Years earlier, we chose to build a real cash reserve – roughly 180 days – to protect the company from a storm we couldn’t name yet. COVID ended up becoming that storm. The reserve bought us time to adapt without sacrificing our people.

When I finished, you could hear the exhale. The shoulders relaxing. The relief. And it mattered, because in the absence of facts, fear writes the story. If I had left a vacuum, rumors would have filled it by lunch.

Was I certain about the next six months? Not for a second. But I don’t think clarity equals certainty. To me, it means telling the truth you have, right now, and committing to act on it. That morning, clarity gave our team stability to serve clients, energy to solve problems and the confidence to move fast together.

Because that’s the job: Naming what’s real, making the hard promises you can keep, and then going to work proving it true.

Clarity isn’t certainty
A lot of leaders withhold communication because they’re still figuring things out. But silence is rarely neutral. It usually sounds like disengagement, or worse – deception.

The myth we have to break down is that transparency means perfection. What it really means is having the courage and humility to say:

• Here’s what we know.
• Here’s what we don’t.
• Here’s what we’re working on.

That kind of clarity creates psychological safety. It tells your team they won’t be blindsided, and that you’re through it with them.

Culture mirrors your clarity
The team takes cues from you. If you’re vague, they hesitate. If you’re honest, they get courageous.

Clarity fuels alignment. Alignment drives speed. And speed, aimed in the right direction, is how companies win.

If you want a bold, engaged, high-performing culture, it starts with creating a no BS environment. Regular updates. Honest feedback. Simple language. Clear expectations.

And above all, space for hard questions without fear of punishment.

Want a gut check?
Here’s how you know you’re not being clear enough:

• Your team says, “I didn’t know that was happening.”
• Or, “I thought we weren’t doing that anymore.”
• Or worst of all: silence.

While most believe it’s a communication issue, the root cause is a leadership clarity issue.

Write your own story
When you don’t provide facts, feelings take over. When you don’t speak up, someone else fills the silence. And when you avoid hard truths, your people stop trusting you.

So, tell the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. Lead with clarity, even when you’re still in process. And above all, love the truth, even when you don’t like it.

Because when the facts are on the table, people stop making s--- up and start building something real.

Thomas Douglas is the CEO of JMark. He can be reached at tom@jmark.com.