What the New Roman Missal Taught Me About Leadership

Over the last month, the Church introduced the New Roman Missal into English speaking countries. Personally, I don’t have much of an opinion about it. However, in adjusting to the new translation I have been reminded about one important aspect of leadership.
A day before Christmas Eve we celebrated Mass at the Timoinium Fairgrounds where we held our Christmas Eve Masses. We celebrated a Mass with a few people from staff as well as some volunteer ministers. The purpose of the Mass was consecrate the space (the Cow Palace) as well as the hosts that would be given for Communion. As we went through the Mass, often we were at a loss as how to respond. At one point I said to our pastor as he waited for us to respond, “We don’t know what to say.”

I have had this experience with the New Roman Missal - people just not responding because they are uncertain and unclear about what they are supposed to say. I have found myself hesitating even on responses that have not changed, responses I have said for over thirty years. With the new changes, there creeps in a little bit of doubt about what to say so I say nothing.

So how does this apply to leadership?

Uncertainty tends to lead to inaction and so if we want people to act confidently, then it is important as leaders to be incredibly clear about our expectations for people. Clarity and certainty lead to action. Uncertainty and ambiguity leads to inaction or even worst counterproductive action. One of the chief jobs of leadership is creating certainty.

As a manager or supervisor this means being clear about what an employee needs to accomplish, as well as what authority a person has to accomplish the task. Clarity means defining the problem that needs to be solved by a team. It means clarifying wins, so teams work confidently trying to accomplish the same goals. As a parent it means setting clear rules for our kids and being clear about their behavior at the dinner table, when going to bed and about fulfilling their school work. It means giving them a clear structure.

At the end of the day it is about clarity of communication - communicating with both our words and actions. As I write about this, I recognize I am not very good at this. I tend to think people can read my mind. Before leaving to visit my parents at Thanksgiving, I was getting frustrated with my kids because I didn’t think they were helping us get out the door. My wife asked me, “What do you want them to do?” I said, "I don’t know." So if I was unclear about what I wanted them to do obviously they were as well. It was poor leadership on my part to get mad at them when I hadn't communicated clear expectations.

So the first step to creating clarity is for us as leaders to identify what we are asking others to do. Then communicate it clearly, recognizing, we cannot over communicate when it comes to setting clear expectations. Before we blame employees or kids for not doing what we asked them to do we need to examine if we know what we want them to do and have communicated it very clearly.

Where have you seen uncertainty lead to inaction? How do you communicate clear expectations?