Why Leaders Don't Explain Their Actions

Your people won’t understand your intentions, but they can comprehend your achievements.

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

I am a leader in my organisation, and my leadership style is clear communication. I believe in communicating the intent of my instructions so that my people know the reasons behind the decisions to enable them to exercise their judgement and be flexible with the implementation without missing the ultimate goals.

But you cannot assume your people can handle your reasoning. There are many times I rather keep the rationale to myself and only communicate the instructions. It may sound counterintuitive but let me tell you a story.

There is a story about a man building a dam to stop a flood in ancient times; the villagers did not understand what he was doing and tried various ways to stop him from destroying the land.

A few weeks later, when the flood waters came, the dam averted the flood from entering the village. Only then did the villagers understand what the man was doing.

Ordinary people do not have the bandwidth to comprehend all rationales, do not know the cause and effects of things and cannot predict what will happen in the future.

But they can see the results and enjoy the benefits.

"People cannot handle rationale. They can only celebrate success."

You can tell your people what you want to do, but you can't expect everyone to understand because people may not share the same vision, especially if they are of different intellect levels. Explanations to these people is not only redundant but counterproductive. If they know your intent they might try to stop you.

This is why dialogues between people at different cognitive levels are often like chickens and ducks chatting. The more they talk, the more they misunderstand each other.

The way to lead this group of individuals is through actions. They can’t understand rationales, but they can comprehend results. This is why people like to say, “actions speak louder than words.”

“Enforcing rules is a matter of needs and it requires no explanation.”

How to lead through actions? To manage people of different cognitive levels is to set rules. And rules, once you set them, you have to actively enforce them. When enforcing the rules, some people often can't understand them. A piece of good advice is not to explain the rules but to enforce them.

If everyone is allowed to question the rules, your rules will not be enforced, and your leadership will be lawless. There will then be one hundred and one differing ideas. Which one to listen to? You will end up with more problems. This is why western democracy is failing.

“Life is short, and the most important thing is to fulfill yourself, not to please others.”

Show the results once they are available. Amplify them and let the results speak for themselves. People won’t understand intentions, but they can celebrate successes.

This is the reason why many leaders don’t like to explain themselves. The more you explain, the more you have to defend. Just act, and let the consistent effort speaks.

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“Beauty catches attention, character catches hearts while wisdom catches thoughts”

It is a simple sentence with an impactful meaning. Wisdom comes from making mistakes, character is forged by experience, while beauty comes from the depth of the hearts.

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