Giving Direction That’s Clear and Empowers Your Team
Giving direction effectively isn’t just about telling people what to do. It’s about guiding your team with clarity, purpose, and support.
Leaders can use these five key principles to improve the impact they have on their team and the outcome for the business.
A simple framework to remember: explain purpose → involve team → clarify the task and success → set deadlines → allow flexibility. Together, these steps ensure direction is clear, motivating, and actionable, while giving your team space to take ownership
To help leaders apply these principles in practice, we’ve included questions to encourage discussion and help uncover any gaps in understanding in real time.
1. Why it Matters
People want to know that their work makes a difference. When your team understands the purpose behind a task, engagement naturally increase. Take time to explain the reasoning behind your direction. Share the impact of their work on the business and how it contributes to the whole.
Check-in question for leaders:
What part of the purpose could I explain more clearly?
2. Your Team Has Helped to Shape It
Whenever possible, involve your team in shaping the plan. Collaboration builds ownership and motivation. Ask for input early. By incorporating their insights, you create a sense of shared responsibility and show that their expertise matters.
Check-in questions for leaders:
What ideas do you have for approaching this?
How would you improve or adjust this plan?
What support or resources would make this easier for you?
3. Be Specific, Very Specific
Clarity is essential. Be specific enough that your team can’t interpret the direction in multiple ways, but leave room for creativity and problem-solving. Define what needs to be accomplished and what success looks like. Your team should know how success will be evaluated. Describe tangible indicators of completion.
Check-in questions for leaders:
What part of this task feels unclear or confusing?
What additional details would help you get started?
What will success look like from your perspective?
What factors might prevent us from achieving the outcome, and how could we address them?
4. Time-Bound
Clear deadlines keep work moving and help your team prioritize. Vague instructions like “Do this when you have time” often lead to procrastination or confusion. Specify a timeframe that’s realistic and allows the team to plan. Deadlines help organize work, set priorities, and maintain momentum.
Open-ended check-in questions for leaders:
What challenges do you anticipate in meeting this deadline?
What could help you stay on track for this timeline?
5. Autonomy
While clarity is important, giving your team freedom in how they achieve the goal fosters creativity, problem-solving, and engagement. Allow team members to decide how to approach tasks within the boundaries of the direction you’ve provided. Let them choose the order of steps, the tools they use, or how they divide responsibilities.
Check-in question for leaders:
What support or advice would help you feel confident taking the lead on this?
What else do you need from me?
Putting It All Together
Applying these five principles creates direction that is clear, actionable, and motivating:
Explain the purpose.
Involve the team in shaping the plan.
Clarify the task with specific guidance and define success.
Set deadlines to maintain momentum.
Allow flexibility so the team can determine how to achieve it.
At each step, check in with your team to see what’s changed and what support might be needed.
We all know things come up nearly every day that can knock us off track, and that’s natural. We want to be ready for it and be available to help our team problem solve.
Check-ins aren’t moments to micromanage. They’re moments to demonstrate to your team that you care by seeing if there’s anything you can do to support their ability to achieve the goal.
People want to be successful. They want to do good work, but they don’t always feel comfortable asking for help. They’re afraid it might be seen as incompetence or weakness.
These old narratives still exist in many of us. Help your team to see that you value when people reach out and seek guidance. That it’s a strong indication they’re focused on the common goal and are active learners.
Giving direction doesn’t have to be complicated. It just needs to be clear, direct, and empowering.