Its Time To Be More Direct

I was listening to the Speak with People podcast and Jason said this Brené Brown quote: “clarity is kindness.”

It made me think of a meeting I had in college. I was a leader for a nonprofit and I had two students on my team. We were in a meeting and I was supposed to be checking in on everyone’s work. The staff advisor sat in on our meeting.

A big part of our meetings was event planning. We would brainstorm, plan, and create action items all within 90 minutes. I hadn’t led meetings much and I was unsure of how to keep everyone on track. We were all over the place and we were getting little done.

After a LONG 90 minutes, I wrapped the meeting up. I sat there and was feeling down about myself. I felt like I didn’t run the meeting well. The staff advisor came back to the library and sat down with me. She looked at me and said, “Chris, being direct is being kind.”

We all have lines that stick with us. That line stuck with me.

It is simple and short: the best communicators speak with clarity and candor (while also having emotional intelligence and situational awareness).

I mean, if Brené Brown is saying it, there’s probably something there. There’s a hoops mixtape on YouTube of her and all of the wisdom nuggets she has (watch it here). It will pump you up to be a better relational person (weird, I know).