Confusion at the top doesn't stay at the top.
I've watched this play out in dozens of organizations. When leadership is unclear about what matters, that uncertainty multiplies as it moves down the chain. Middle managers interpret in different directions. Teams hedge their bets across competing priorities. Resources scatter. Energy disperses. Everyone stays busy, but the busyness doesn't add up to anything coherent. The confusion compounds at every level until you have an organization full of capable people producing disappointing results.
But clarity works the same way. When leadership is genuinely clear, that clarity cascades too. Not just through official communications, but through every decision, every question, every allocation of attention. People start making aligned choices without needing to check. Resources naturally flow toward what matters. The organization begins moving in the same direction, not because anyone mandated it, but because the signal is finally clear enough to follow. Clarity is contagious. It just needs someone to start it.