You Can't Hit a Target You Can't See: How Clear Leadership Builds Confident Teams

Welcome to the third instalment of the How Do You Eat an Elephant? series, where we're breaking down the 13 psychosocial factors in Canada's National Standard on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (CSA-Z1003).

If you've been following along, you'll know that the goal of this series is to make psychological health and safety feel less overwhelming. Rather than trying to tackle the entire Standard all at once, we're taking it one psychosocial factor at a time. Like the saying goes, you eat the proverbial elephant one bite at a time.

So far, we've explored Organizational Culture, the foundation that shapes how work gets done, and Psychological and Social Support, the relationships and resources that help people navigate challenges and thrive.

Today, we're tackling the third psychosocial factor: Clear Leadership and Expectations.

At first glance, this one seems super obvious. Of course employees should know what's expected of them. Of course leaders should communicate clearly. But after spending years working with organizations across Canada, I can tell you that unclear expectations are one of the most common (and most preventable) sources of workplace stress.

Let's dig in!

Leadership Begins Before Day One

Imagine accepting a new job. You're excited, maybe a little nervous, but looking forward to this new chapter. Then... nothing.

Days pass. Then weeks. You don't know what time you're supposed to arrive on your first day. You aren't sure where to park, what to wear or even who you'll report to when you get there. No one reaches out. No one tells the rest of the team you're coming. Before you've even stepped through the front door, you're left wondering whether anyone is actually expecting you.

Now picture this experience instead: A few days after accepting the offer, your new manager sends a quick email welcoming you to the team and your new colleagues send replies to say they're excited to meet you. The week before you start, you receive everything you need to know, like where to park, what entrance to use, what time to arrive, what to wear, what your first week will look like, who you'll be meeting, where the lunchroom is, who to contact if you have questions. Maybe someone on the team has even arranged to take you to lunch on your first day.

Nothing about the position itself has changed, but everything about your first impression has. Before you've done a single minute of work, you've already learned something important about the organization. You've learned that they plan ahead, that they communicate, that they care about your experience and that they want you to succeed.

That's leadership. That's culture. And that's psychological health and safety!

Creating a positive employee experience doesn't begin on Day One. It begins the moment someone accepts your offer. Those first interactions communicate far more than logistical details. They communicate an important message about culture, belonging, trust and expectations. They tell employees, "We've planned for you and we're excited you're here."

Clarity Is About More Than Communication

According to the National Standard, this psychosocial factor exists when employees receive clear direction, understand their roles and responsibilities, know what is expected of them and trust that leadership communicates honestly, consistently and fairly.

Notice what isn't included in that definition. It doesn't say leaders need to have all the answers, control every decision or eliminate every uncertainty. In fact, not having all the answers can be a strength. When leaders are brave enough to say, "I don't know," when they genuinely don't know, it builds trust. It shows honesty, humility and authenticity. It also gives others permission to be human, to ask questions, to take risks, to admit uncertainty and to not fear making mistakes or being wrong. That kind of vulnerability fosters psychological safety in a way that pretending to have all the answers never could.

Organizations change. Priorities shift. Budgets get cut. New opportunities emerge. No leader can prevent those things. What leaders can do is reduce the unnecessary uncertainty that comes from poor communication, vague expectations and assumptions that "everyone already knows." That kind of uncertainty isn't just frustrating, it's exhausting.

Human beings are wired to seek certainty. When information is missing, our brains naturally try to fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, we're often wrong. We wonder if we're doing something incorrectly, whether we've misunderstood instructions or whether we're falling short without realizing it. The less clarity people have, the more mental energy they spend trying to interpret expectations instead of doing meaningful work. Clarity removes that burden.

Why Leaders Sometimes Avoid Being Clear

One of the biggest surprises I've encountered in my work is that unclear leadership rarely comes from leaders who don't care. In fact, it's often the opposite.

Many leaders avoid being crystal clear because they're trying to be kind. They don't want to hurt someone's feelings. They don't want to appear demanding or controlling. They don't want to disappoint people or create conflict. They hope employees will "pick up on it," or they soften expectations because they worry that being direct might damage the relationship. Ironically, the opposite is usually true.

Consider the employee who spends six months believing they're doing an excellent job because no one has suggested otherwise, only to receive a disappointing performance review filled with concerns they've never heard before. Or the team member who unknowingly takes on work that belongs to someone else because roles were never clearly defined. Or the employee who goes home every night wondering whether they're meeting expectations because priorities seem to change every week without explanation.

None of those situations are kind, they're confusing... and confusion creates stress. Clear is kind! If we genuinely care about helping people succeed, we owe them the clarity they need to do so.

The Curse of Knowledge

There's a cognitive bias called the Curse of Knowledge (ominous sounding, huh?) and I think it explains a lot of workplace confusion.

Once we know something well, we forget what it felt like not to know it.

Leaders experience this all the time. They assume everyone understands the acronyms, the informal processes, the unwritten rules, the organizational history or what "good performance" looks like because those things have become second nature to them.

I hear it regularly during leadership training: "Well... everyone knows that."

Do they?

Or have long-time employees simply learned it over months or years of trial and error? There's a big difference.

Great leaders don't rely on assumptions. They explain expectations. They write them down. They revisit them regularly. They understand that what's obvious to them may be completely new to someone else.

(P.S. If you're interested in learning more about this very common cognitive bias, here's a great Forbes article on overcoming the Curse of Knowledge!)

Expectations Should Never Be Assumed

Every workplace has expectations that aren’t written down anywhere.

How quickly should emails be answered? Is it acceptable to leave at the end of your shift if your work is finished, or is there an expectation that everyone waits for the manager to leave? How much autonomy do employees have before checking in? Is healthy disagreement encouraged during meetings? How are decisions made?

Long-term employees eventually learn these expectations through experience, but new employees don't have that advantage. Even experienced employees can find themselves unsure if expectations have shifted or were never clearly defined in the first place.

When someone unknowingly breaks one of these unwritten rules, leaders often see it as a performance issue. Oftentimes it's actually a clarity issue, which is usually simpler to address and resolve.

A great question for leaders to ask themselves is: Would this expectation be obvious to someone who started here yesterday?

If the answer is no, don't assume any/every member of your team will figure it out, or has already. Explain it, write it down and talk about it regularly. Never confuse familiarity with clarity.

Clarity Doesn't End After Orientation

Some organizations put tremendous effort into onboarding, only to assume employees can take it from there. But leadership clarity isn't an isolated event, it's an ongoing practice.

Employees should never have to wonder what success looks like, how priorities have changed or where they should focus their energy. Those conversations shouldn't happen only during annual performance reviews or when something goes wrong. They should happen regularly through check-ins, coaching conversations and everyday communication.

One of the greatest gifts a leader can give their team isn't certainty. It's clarity.

Leaders can't promise that budgets won't change, restructuring won't happen or difficult decisions will never need to be made. What they can promise is honest communication. They can explain what they know, acknowledge what they don't know and commit to keeping people informed as situations evolve.

Clear Doesn't Mean Controlling

Some leaders hear "clear expectations" and immediately think of micromanagement. Those aren't the same thing.

Think about using a GPS. Its job isn't to tell you how to steer the vehicle, when to brake or which lane to drive in. Its job is to tell you where you're going. Once you know the destination, you're free to make hundreds of decisions along the way.

Leadership works much the same way.

Clear leaders define the destination. They explain what success looks like, why it matters and what outcomes they're trying to achieve. They then trust people to use their skills, experience and judgment to determine the best path forward.

Without that destination, employees spend their energy wondering whether they're on the right road instead of confidently moving ahead.

Clarity doesn't reduce autonomy. It creates it.

Clarity Makes Accountability Fair

One aspect of this psychosocial factor that often gets overlooked is accountability. Many leaders dread accountability conversations because they feel uncomfortable or confrontational. Yet accountability becomes much easier when expectations were clearly established from the beginning.

It's very difficult to coach someone toward an expectation they never knew existed. When expectations are vague, accountability feels personal.

When expectations are clear, accountability becomes a conversation about agreed-upon standards. That's fairer for everyone involved.

One Bite at a Time

Like every psychosocial factor we've explored so far, Clear Leadership and Expectations isn't about perfection. It's about intention.

Every email you send before a new employee's first day. Every expectation you clarify before a project begins. Every explanation you provide when priorities change. Every coaching conversation. Every follow-up.

These seemingly small moments shape how employees experience your workplace.

People genuinely want to do good work. Most don't need more motivation. They need a leader who gives them a clear target, explains what success looks like and creates an environment where they feel confident aiming for it. No one can hit a target they can't see.

Thanks for reading! Next week, we'll explore Civility and Respect, the fourth psychosocial factor in the National Standard, and what it really takes to maintain respect when people bring different perspectives, experiences and opinions to the table.

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Elizabeth Eldridge is a Psychological Health & Safety Consultant based in southern New Brunswick, Canada. In addition to keynote speaking, event emceeing, consulting services and corporate training on mental health in the workplace, she supports organizations across the country on the adoption of Canada's best practice guidelines on psychological health and safety management. She is also the Founder & President of Arpeggio Health Services which provides standardized education programs like Mental Health First Aid, The Working Mind, QPR Suicide Prevention and more.

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