Author: Fabrizio

It’s not you asking

FabrizioLeave a comment

You need to establish a relationship with the people you are serving, and ask them how you are doing often.

Of course, this means you might not like what they have to say, your customer satisfaction score might be low, you will have to work harder, and perhaps eventually you will have to change quite a lot of your product or service, or even get out of business.

But it’s not you asking that makes these things true.

Things are what they are, and even when we refrain from finding out – because we don’t want to know we are not liked, or find out our hard work is not hard enough, or realize we won’t get that bonus or promotion -, they will continue on their course with no regard for our preoccupation.

At least, with knowledge, we might be able to adjust just in time.

In control

FabrizioLeave a comment

We are not in control.

We do not know how we got there, we do not know how long it will last, we do not know who will come next, we do not know if our work will be appreciated tomorrow, we do not know if the people we serve will find someone else who serves them better, we do not know for how long we can continue doing what we have done today, we do not know whether or not the rules of the game will change, when and how.

Most of our disappointments and frustrations emerge from us not recognizing this very basic fact. Once liberated from the illusion of being in control, we can start seeing the world around us as fluid and in perpetual movement.

Our role is to play along with it, not trying to freeze it.

Delivery

FabrizioLeave a comment

If all you give your employees are tasks, you can certainly expect them to execute them, perhaps even a bit before the deadline and with a little less resources than originally planned, sometimes with some more effort than it would normally require.

Expectations, though, should not be extended to the quality of their work (it will meet specs, and that’s pretty much it) and on their commitment to finding new ways, establishing new relationships, solving new problems, identifying new interesting questions.

If all you give your employees are tasks, delivery is pretty much all you can ask in return. And that’s not something you can change with a clap of hands.

Deferring

FabrizioLeave a comment

How many tabs do you have open in your browser? How many emails do you keep unread? How many apps do you have on your mobile? How many books and articles on your “want to read” list?

In today’s world, full of information and distraction, we have the tools to keep things in a sort of limbo that we label “I’ll do it later”, or “I’ll do it when I have time”. Truth is, later never comes, because after all we never have time.

Deferring is no longer “doing later”, rather “doing never”.

The accumulation of digital stuff to consume clutters our lives, increases our level of stress, and makes us feel as if we have achieved very little in our day. We should increase our self-awareness and be brave enough to say: “Sure, it’s interesting, but I’ll never go back to it. Let me get rid of it, right away.”

All the space is precious, even when it’s not tangible, even when we do not pay for it. Reclaiming it means freeing energy for things that matter.

Get to their point

FabrizioLeave a comment

The more words you use to describe what you do, the less the chances it’s going to be relevant for the person you are introducing it to.

We got used to jargon, adverbs, adjectives, buzz words, complex sentences, convoluted paragraphs, confusing language tricks and zero substance. Our brain is trained to disconnect as soon as things get too fuzzy. We lose our audience before we can even explain what it is we do.

The antidote to this is talking to the people you want to serve.

For 99% of our awake time, we are ourselves people someone else wants to serve. Yet, when our roles switch, we start believing the same things that would get our attention and money need to be made more complicated.

No one has time to waste on your pitch, save them time and get to their point.