Clear Communication The Foundation of Every Healthy Team

Clear communication is one of the most underrated skills in hospitality leadership. Most of the problems we face do not come from lazy staff, careless decisions, or poor intentions. They come from misunderstandings. They come from assumptions. They come from leaders believing they have been clear when the people listening have actually been left to guess.

I learned this lesson slowly and painfully over the early years of Ojo Rojo.

When we opened, we had a large team and even more ambition. The building was big, the workload was intense, and the pressure to make it successful was enormous. We hired multiple managers because we wanted the structure in place for future expansion. On paper it looked impressive. In reality, it created layers that became walls more than they became bridges.

We held meetings, explained our expectations, and believed the message would travel down the chain exactly as we intended. But hospitality does not work like that. Messages change when they move through different people. Tone changes. Emphasis changes. Understanding changes. What starts out as a clear instruction becomes something else entirely by the time it reaches the floor staff.

Sometimes the message reached only one person and went no further. Sometimes it changed like a quiet game of Chinese whispers, where the final version barely resembled what was originally said. And sometimes, the most difficult one of all, someone would say they understood simply because they did not want to look unsure in front of us. They walked away uncertain and delivered something completely different.

The result was predictable. Staff were confused. Managers were inconsistent. I felt let down. They felt overwhelmed. Tension started to build quietly on both sides, and none of us realised that the root cause was not capability. It was communication.

The emotional toll of unclear communication is heavy. You repeat yourself constantly. You correct the same issues again and again. You jump in and fix things because it feels quicker. And while it might be quicker in the moment, it drains your energy until burnout becomes your daily state of being.

For a long time I believed I was being clear. But looking back, I can see that I was communicating quickly, not clearly. I was communicating from stress, not from calm. I was communicating assumptions rather than expectations. And in doing so, I became part of the problem rather than the solution.

Everything changed when I realised that communication is not about talking more. It is about speaking clearly. It is about slowing down when everything around you feels fast. It is about giving your team more than instructions. It is about giving them the expectation behind the instruction and the purpose behind the expectation.

That is what creates consistency. That is what builds trust. That is what relieves the pressure on both sides of the relationship.

One of the biggest shifts for me was learning how to give feedback in a way that built trust rather than creating tension. I now use a simple method that changed everything. Calm. Direct. Honest. Calm, so I regulate myself before speaking. Direct, so I say the actual thing rather than talking around it. Honest, so the message is truthful but without emotional charge.

This approach removed the emotional turbulence that used to sit around every difficult conversation. People can handle honesty. What they cannot handle is inconsistency.

Another part of my change came from emotional regulation. Communication collapses the moment emotion takes over. Your team does not only hear your words, they feel the state you are in when you say them. If you speak from panic, anger, impatience, or exhaustion, the message becomes distorted.

My morning breathwork practice was a turning point for me. It completely changed the tone of my leadership. When I communicated from calm, everything landed in a clearer and more respectful way. My team felt safer. I felt more grounded. Conversations stopped escalating into conflict, and clarity became much easier to achieve.

From there I created daily clarity rituals that became the backbone of our entire team structure. A simple morning briefing where we aligned on what success looked like that day. A mid shift micro check in that took less than a minute but prevented misunderstandings from growing into full problems. An end of shift debrief where we reflected on what worked well and what needed adjusting. These small rituals created a predictable rhythm, and rhythm creates safety.

When the communication rhythm improved, the culture improved. When the culture improved, the emotional load lifted. And when the emotional load lifted, my leadership became far easier to carry.

The final piece of the puzzle was building systems that supported communication instead of relying on memory or verbal instructions. Written processes, checklists, training documents, service expectations, and standards all became anchors. They protected the team from confusion and protected me from burnout. When something needed adjusting, we adjusted the system rather than relying on me to correct it repeatedly.

All of this is part of the Direct With Clarity pillar of the LEAD Well Framework.

Clear communication connects your standards, your expectations, your vision, and your team. It allows you to lead from calm rather than chaos. It creates a partnership rather than a pressure system. And it gives your team the confidence to deliver consistent results without constant supervision.

If you can master clear communication everything else in leadership becomes lighter. Your team will feel more confident. You will feel more grounded. And the culture will become far more stable. Most importantly you will be able to lead without losing yourself in the process.