Category: culture

You’ll never get it

FabrizioLeave a comment

If after 15 months of covid crisis your organization does not have a plan to promote virtual get-togethers with colleagues, it failed.

If the only meetings are work-related meetings, if the participants rarely are from outside your team, if 1-1s keep being cancelled and postponed – because, you know, managers are busy -, it failed.

If there are no conversations around mental health, well-being, separation between work and personal life. If it is not offering some sort of incentives for therapy. It failed.

If the only times the company and the teams meet, it is the managers doing the talking, and all the other employees listening, it failed.

If what gets rewarded is still achieving personal goals, if cooperation is not actively stimulated, if teams are just a way to build walls rather than a way to reach out and help, it failed.

Just because your numbers are cool, it does not mean your people are too.

If you have not understood this during the past 15 months, you’ll probably never get it.

The lives of others

FabrizioLeave a comment

We are experts on how to live the lives of others.

We know exactly what others should do, say, wear. We know how they feel and what motivates them. We tackle their problems better than if they were our own. We plan, argue, debate for them. We know everything, we hear everything, we understand everything.

And when it is our turn, we are stuck.

We are wonderful spectators and mediocre actors.

Because being under the spotlight is never easy. It is not for us – and indeed, we come up with many excuses when that happens -, it is not for those around us.

Start here to develop empathy.

Start here to get going.

For all the parties

FabrizioLeave a comment

Can you ask somebody to help you?

Can you put your ego aside and recognize that somebody else might have a perspective on a matter that would actually improve your own understanding?

Can you step on your fear and embarrassment and ask a simple question that might unlock tremendous progress?

Can you suspend your judgment and assumptions and open yourself to listening to what the other has to say?

Can you accept that somebody would care as much as you do?

Help is the most precious thing there is, for all the parties involved.

We do not leverage that enough in business and organizations.

Get out of the way

Fabrizio1 Comment

At your company, who is responsible for what?

Who do you go to when a new page needs to be added to the website? When a campaign is not performing well and needs changes? When you do not know if a campaign is performing well? When your new service might benefit from a repositioning? When you are considering whether to enter a new market? When a new policy needs to be reviewed?

The point is, it can’t be always the same person. That creates bottlenecks, and at the end of the day one person cannot have all the answers. Also, it can’t always be a group of people (typically the same, the management team). Seeking buy-in from everybody is in itself a bottleneck, and somebody who is good at product development is probably not the best person to advise on brand strategy.

Who is responsible for what – that is something that, as a leader, you need to figure out early on.

Once you have done that, once you have trusted somebody to make decisions, once you have agreed on how you are going to be kept in the loop, once you have defined the metrics to track to measure progress.

Just get out of the way.

Slow down

Fabrizio2 Comments

We have gotten used to fast.

We want the world to move fast, we want change to happen overnight, we seek shortcuts and opportunities behind every corner.

We lose sight of the 99%.

And when that feeling is stronger, the only real thing we can do is look inside and ask how we can slow down.

Sleep.

Exercise.

Meditate.

Connect with those you care about.

Put technology aside.

Get rid of dopamine hits.

Trying to change the speed at which our world spins is pointless.

Trying to change the way we perceive such speed is wise.