The Cost of Clarity in Leadership Communication

I was halfway through cueing a scene change when I realized I had been speaking for nearly three minutes straight. Explaining, clarifying, anticipating questions before they came. The change happened smoothly, but I felt it, the mental drain that comes when you have spent more words than the moment really needed.

Clarity is not free. It costs energy, attention, and intention. The best leaders know when to spend it and when to save it. It is not about saying less or more, it is about making your words do the work they are meant to do.

If you have ever wondered why communication leaves you exhausted after a long day, the answer may be in the cost of clarity.

Clarity is a choice, not an accident

Clarity does not happen because you mean well. It is the result of an active decision to make meaning accessible.

• When you are clear, you remove ambiguity for your team and create alignment faster, which saves time and reduces errors.
• Unclear direction often leads to “hidden rewrites,” the quiet fixing, double work, and frustration that surface long after the moment has passed.
• Choosing clarity means deciding in advance who needs what information, in what format, and with what tone.

It is tempting to believe that if you have said it, people have heard it. But clear communication is not about what you have delivered, it is about what has been received and understood. That shift in thinking turns clarity from a default into a discipline.

For more on how this relates to team care and burnout, see Culture, Burnout, and Why People Stay.

The cost of over-explaining and under-explaining in leadership

Every choice you make in communication has a trade-off, and both extremes have consequences.

• Over-explaining can signal a lack of trust or turn into self-protection, draining your energy and slowing momentum.
• Under-explaining forces others to fill in the blanks, which can lead to costly mistakes, confusion, or disengagement.
• The goal is not balance for balance’s sake, it is knowing your team well enough to choose the right level of detail for the moment.

Sometimes we over-explain because we are trying to avoid being misunderstood. Sometimes we under-explain because we assume the other person already knows. Both can erode trust in different ways. The cost is not always immediate, but it compounds over time.

For a deeper dive into this idea, Harvard Business Review has an insightful piece on how leaders can communicate more effectively.

Building your clarity practice

Clarity improves with intentional habits, not just with years of experience.

• Develop a few “go-to” phrases or structures that help you communicate consistently in high-pressure moments.
  For example, before a show stop, you might always start with, “Company, this is a hold. Please remain in place until given further instruction.” Or during tech, you could use the same predictable order of information every time, such as naming the cue, then the location, then the action, so people know exactly what to expect.
• Create space for feedback on your clarity and treat it as valuable data rather than a failure.
  You might end a production meeting by saying, “Is there anything I have explained today that still feels unclear or needs another pass?” Or ask your ASM, “If you had to relay this to the crew right now, what would you say?” to spot any gaps.
• Protect your bandwidth by choosing when to deliver information verbally, in writing, or in both.
  For quick, one-off instructions, a verbal note in the moment might be enough. But for complex show tracks or changeover procedures, follow your verbal explanation with a written checklist in the production binder or a Slack or Notion update so the information lives somewhere permanent.

Clarity is also about timing. You do not have to explain everything right now. You have to explain the right thing at the right time, in a way that helps the other person take action with confidence.

Closing reflection

I think back to that cue-to-cue and how much of my clarity came from trying to anticipate every possible misunderstanding. It worked in the moment, the scene change happened without a hitch, but I left with less focus for the rest of the day.

Clarity is leadership work. It is an investment you make in the trust, efficiency, and confidence of your team. The skill is not just in being clear, it is in knowing when the cost is worth it.

Key takeaways

• Clarity is a leadership choice that costs energy, and the investment should be intentional.
• Over- and under-explaining both have consequences; know your team to choose the right depth.
• A clarity practice protects your bandwidth and strengthens trust.

Bryan Runion

Production Stage Manager -UNITED STATES

Bryan Runion is a professional Production Stage Manager whose credits include: Drawn to Life (Cirque du Soleil and Disney), Netflix’s Stranger Things: The Experience, Duel Reality (7 Fingers), La Perle (Dragone), The Voice of Tolerance (The Ministry of Education, UAE); Mastercard Experiences (Mastercard); Everybody Black (World Premiere), Queens (La Jolla Playhouse), Ken Ludwig’s The Gods of Comedy (The Old Globe), TEDx (Chula Vista), Mark Morris Dance Company, Joey Alexander Trio, Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (La Jolla Music Society), The Bridges of Madison County (Arkansas Rep). Bryan earn his M.F.A. at The University of California, San Diego and his B.A. at The University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and The Stage Managers’ Association.

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