Make Every Word Count

You’re reading an excerpt of Great Founders Write, by Ben Putano, writer, entrepreneur, and book publisher. He’s the founder of Damn Gravity Media, a publishing house that inspires and educates tomorrow’s great founders. Purchase now for lifetime access to the book and on-demand video course.

How to Turn Clarity Into a Competitive Advantage

Natalie is the CEO of an enterprise SaaS startup (real names have been changed to protect the guilty).

Every Monday morning, after making her coffee, Natalie checks her company’s Stripe dashboard to review their Net Monthly Recurring Revenue (Net MRR), the company’s North Star metric. It’s lower than she expected to see, so she shoots a direct message to her Head of Growth, Miguel.

“Hey Miguel, what’s the status on our Q3 Net MRR? We’re already a month in and don’t seem to be on track to reach the target. We need to keep up the pace or we’re going to get lapped. Let me know what I can do to help.”

Miguel is just getting ready for his week when he gets a push notification on his phone. It’s from Natalie. Miguel reads the message. Then he reads it again. What does she mean by “we’re going to get lapped?” He feels his adrenaline rising and his heart starts to race. As the head of growth, the buck stops with him. It’s his ass on the line if they don’t hit their Net MRR.

So Miguel copies Natalie’s message to his growth team’s Slack channel and DM’s the product team lead as well. He adds the note:

“This month is critical for us. Net MRR is our top priority. We have to keep pushing. Let me know what you need from me.”

The company’s sales, marketing, and engineering teams all read the message. Their collective panic rises.

What does Miguel mean by, “Net MRR is our top priority?” they wonder. Do we need to change our focus, or just keep doing what we’re doing?

What does it mean for Chris, the senior product manager, whose team has been working for six weeks on a highly requested customer feature? What about Adam, the director of marketing, who is halfway through a co-branding campaign with a channel partner? What does it mean for Nikki, the new director of sales, who has been nurturing enterprise opportunities but is still a month or two away from filling her pipeline?

Natalie’s message seemed harmless at first glance. She asked one of her team leads about a major quarterly goal. But in reality, she’s caused a wave of uncertainty throughout her company. Her lack of clarity raised more questions than her team could possibly answer.

Battling Chaos with Clarity

Being a startup founder is a stressful and lonely job. When the pressure is on, we tend to “act now and think later,” a survival instinct that keeps us safe from snakes … only to run straight into a den of lions.

In times of high pressure and uncertainty, one leadership trait is more valuable than any other: clarity.

Clear communication is the knife that cuts through chaos, giving you and your team a direction and a plan. It focuses your limited resources like a laser aimed at the single most important thing. Clarity brings sanity back to insane situations.

Meanwhile, a lack of clarity amplifies the chaos with every layer of management it passes through. Like a game of telephone, the message becomes so obscured it ceases to resemble the original intention.

In some high-stress situations, miscommunication means death. SWAT teams, emergency room staff, and air traffic control groups are some of the most effective teams on the planet. One reason is that they obsess over precise language. Every word and phrase means exactly one thing, and they always confirm with each other that they understand.

Miscommunication in business is not typically a life-or-death situation, but it can certainly kill your company.

Let’s go over Natalie’s message again. She used several words and phrases that lacked clear, singular meanings:

• “Status”—Natalie had the Stripe dashboard right in front of her, so what type of update was she looking for?

• “Keep up the pace”—Keep up the pace of what?

• “We’re going to get lapped”—Is Natalie talking about competitors, or is this a veiled threat to Miguel’s job?

• “Let me know what I can do to help”—What is Natalie really willing to do to help? This sounds more like an empty gesture than a genuine offer of support.

Miguel, when relaying the message to the growth and product teams, increased the confusion by using phrases like “Top priority” and “Keep pushing.”

Founders and startup leaders don’t intentionally send their teams into chaos with unclear communication. We assume (often wrongly) that everyone understands what we mean by certain phrases. You know what you mean when you say “top priority” but your product manager has a different definition.

Clear communication has never been more important, especially as more teams shift to distributed and remote work. You can no longer rely on body language, back channels, and the familiarity that comes from working in an office together.

What does clear writing look like, and how can you achieve clarity on a regular basis? A little planning before firing off that message goes a long way.

Clear Writing Starts with a Clear Purpose

There are many ways to ruin your writing, but the most common offense is not knowing what you’re trying to say in the first place.

Think back to Natalie’s message to Miguel. What was she trying to achieve? Was she trying to be helpful, or did she just want to put pressure on Miguel? From Miguel’s perspective, it seems like the latter. Message received loud and clear.

But let’s assume Natalie was trying to be helpful. In that case, her message failed. The unintended pressure on Miguel created uncertainty throughout the company.

Remember our powerful purpose template from earlier in this book? Let’s use it here to clarify Natalie’s message:

As a [specific user], I want to [action] so that [definition of success] + [emotional and rational benefits].

• Specific person: Miguel (head of growth)

• Action: Share perspective on the lagging Net MRR

• Success: We reach our quarterly goal

• Benefits (emotional): Have confidence and autonomy

• Benefits (rational): Allow Natalie to clear any obstacles for him

Let’s rewrite Natalie’s email using her powerful purpose:

Miguel,

Would love your thoughts on the lagging Net MRR. Is there anything standing in our way from catching up and hitting our quarterly goal?

If not, you have my full confidence. If you do see any obstacles ahead, let me know and I’ll work to get them out of your way. I’m available from 10–2 today if we need to gameplan.

Best,

Natalie

This new message has a clear purpose: to ensure the company hits their quarterly goal. Instead of applying undue pressure on Miguel, Natalie’s message has a clear ask and is genuinely helpful. It promotes clarity and action, not uncertainty.

Leadership researcher and author Brené Brown has one of my favorite sayings about communication: “Clear is kind.”

The burden of clarity is always on the communicator, not the person receiving the message. Before you send that next message, take a few moments to ensure you’re crystal clear on its purpose.

Then it’s time to write.