Always do things with the long-term in mind.
What type of person do you want to be?
What companies do you want to build?
What community do you want to live in?
If you keep your focus on the long-term, and appreciate that choices you make every day are the building blocks of what long term will look like, it will be a whole lot easier to avoid the allure of shortcuts and of short term gains.
There’s a gap between you and everyone else.
A gap between what you do and what they do. A gap between what you want and what they want. A gap between how you think things should be run and how they think things should be run. A gap between what you believe is true and what they believe is true. A gap between how you see yourself in ten years and how they see themselves (and yourself) in ten years.
It is quite easy and instinctual, in front of the gap, to either impose our point of view or completely give it up. Both are ways to avoid conflict. “You better do what I say!” or “Ok, let’s do it your way..” are shortcuts for the short terms. They work for a while. Until the other, or we, realise what it’s been renounced. Then we find the gap is still there, only wider.
Another option, more difficult to practice, taking more effort, energy and empathy, is to work to build a bridge over the gap. You build a little bit on your side, the other builds a little bit on their side. Both work to make their sides more solid, and eventually, with time, the two parts will meet.
The meeting point is something completely new, as it is not your side nor it is the other’s side. It is a new perspective, a new idea, a new way of acting, a new vision for your common future. Built on common understanding.
Great thing about bridges, others can walk on them too.
Content marketing cannot just be an excuse to collect an email address.
I give you my contact because I am interested in one piece of your content. You follow up to ask if I enjoyed it, and then you start sending out regular emails I have not asked for, on topics that barely touch on my initial interest, widening the range as time goes by. And the bottom line of each of these communication is the exhortation: “buy!”.
This is not how it’s supposed to work. This is not how it’s supposed to be effective.
It’s not, because you are breaking an early relationship based on trust. I have trusted you with my contact, and you have trusted me with your piece of content. And then, what? How would you treat a human being in a face-to-face interaction, after the initial exchange of trust?
Perhaps, asking them what their interests are. Sending them something similar to what made them give you trust, and carefully see if it works. Answering their questions if they have any. Politely enquiring on what can be done to improve the relationship.
And at some point, draw the line and quit.
There must be a moment, a time, when you’ve tried enough. A moment when it’s clear it was just a temporary exchange more than a real interest. A time when sending one additional email is more damaging than not sending it.
In a world in which everything is free (only in monetary terms), we are not used to design the “quit” stage. And yet, one of the most remarkable marketing email I remember is the one of a company who did.
Taking responsibility is important, and it shouldn’t mean we have to beat ourselves up.
Not beating ourselves up is wonderful, and it shouldn’t mean we don’t have to take responsibility.
There’s a sweet spot we are looking for here.
It’s the point at which we understand that things happening are never fully one’s fault, we recognize that we had a role in making the situation what it is, and we attempt to move forward with a small or big improvement. Possibly, bringing the others involved along with us on the same path.
If you call mean, “mean”.
Or if you call kind, “kind”.
That is OK, and despite some discomfort in the first case, people will have the tools to decide if they want to stick around or not.
The real disaster, though, is when you call mean, “kind”.
As in.
The most important asset is our people, and then people are asked for regular overtime to keep up with management/customers/partners requests.
We embrace innovation, and then to kick off a new project people have to go through a rigid approval system.
We want to hear from you, and yet it is a machine responding the call, and before I get there I have to wait 20 minute on the line.
How we name things is important. And even more important is that we follow up to the naming with actions and practices.
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