How to communicate with your team

Recently, tandem kayaking with my cousin gave me insight into how critical big picture communication is for the healthy functioning of a team.

In a tandem kayak, you have one person sitting in the front, who acts as the navigator giving commands for which direction to paddle, to the person sitting behind. For the kayak to move efficiently, both people must paddle in sync (left and right) so that the energies of both are added instead of subtracted.

We decided to try out an experiment, where I would close my eyes and my cousin, as the navigator, would give me commands on the direction to paddle. We wanted to see how effectively I could take directions from my navigator.

Phase 1

So my cousin starts shouting out loud — “Left, Right, Left, Left, Left, Right, Left, Right, Right..”. I had a hard time keeping up with her commands of left and right as I had no clue what the next command would be — left or right. It was very stressful.

Phase 2

I asked my cousin to communicate more information about where we are headed, if we were in the right direction etc. instead of just the command of left or right. She started saying:

“We are heading in the right direction, we need to keep going straight. Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right”

“We are drifting to the wrong direction, we need to turn. Right, Right, Right”

This made a significant difference. I was able to enjoy the kayaking a lot more. We were able to synchronize our paddling much better and I even tried out a few different styles of paddling.

This got me thinking. How do I communicate with my team at work? Do I tell them exactly what action to take in the short-term or do I inspire them with a clear vision of where we are headed and allow them the space to innovate?

Are my leaders giving me a vision or a short-term action to take? If it is the latter, should I push them for a vision?