Welcome to Loden’s Leadership Conversations.
Today, let’s explore: What leaders communicate in the space between decisions and why it matters.
Gather Around, Growth Alliance Members
Leaders spend a lot of time thinking about what they say.
What they don’t spend enough time thinking about is what they don’t say. And when they don’t say it.
Here’s the pattern I’ve watched play out more times than I can count.
A difficult decision gets made. The leader communicates it clearly. The logic is sound, the delivery is professional, the words are right. And then the leader moves on to the next thing.
But the team hasn’t moved on. They are sitting in the space after the announcement, processing what it means, asking questions to each other that were never asked to the leader. And in that silence, in the absence of the leader’s voice, they are writing a story.
The story is almost never generous.
Not because the team is cynical. Because silence, in the absence of information, is interpreted as confirmation of whatever fear is already present. The team fills the quiet with the explanation that feels most consistent with what they already know, or suspect, or worry about.
I want to be specific about what this costs. Because it is not just a communication problem. It is a trust problem.
When a team consistently receives decisions without context, they stop experiencing their leader as a partner in the organization’s direction. They start experiencing them as a source of announcements. Something that happens to them rather than someone working with them.
That shift, from partner to announcement source, is one of the most damaging things that can happen to a leadership relationship. And it almost always happens not in one dramatic moment but in the accumulated weight of decisions where the reasoning arrived too late, or not at all.
The fix is not more communication. It is earlier communication.
Sharing the thinking before the conclusion. Letting the team see how the decision was made, not just what it was.
Transparency removes the friction that builds up when people are left to guess.
In the book, this is the Communication pillar. Not more updates. Fewer surprises. Leaders who communicate well aren’t the ones talking the most. They’re the ones who make sure nothing important ever catches their team off guard.
What you don’t say after a hard decision is not neutral. It is the loudest thing your team hears.
Reflection Questions:
- Think about the last significant decision your team received. Did they understand the reasoning, or just the outcome? What would have changed if they had heard the thinking first?
- Where right now are you assuming your team understands the context behind a recent decision, when the honest answer is that you haven’t fully shared it?
May your leadership journey be rich with purpose, relationships, resilience, and discovery. I look forward to exploring new insights together in our next issue.
Gearl Loden Superintendent | Executive Coach | Author, Before It Breaks
