Category: leadership

More and more and more

FabrizioLeave a comment

It’s difficult to let people go where they want to go. It’s difficult in life and at work.

It’s difficult because since we were kids we have been told not to go there, not to do this, to just come here. It’s difficult because we see people going their own way as a threat to our own pursue and to our own self. It’s difficult because it is easy to look from the outside and recommend the absolute and perfect course of action. It’s difficult because we have been shown that limiting the possibilities is a way to protect, to shield, to even show we actually care.

It’s difficult. And we need to commit to doing it more and more and more.

The best fit

FabrizioLeave a comment

The bravery and determination we use when advising others should always be kept in check by the fact that when we are in a similar situation we tend to act much more cautiously and pragmatically.

A great advisor is one that helps you walk through the different options and choose the one that is the best fit for yourself.

Things in perspective

FabrizioLeave a comment

If today you have spent more time checking news sites and social media rather than doing your work, that’s ok. If you have been distracted, if you have struggled to focus, if you now feel you have achieved nothing, that’s ok. If the last minute meeting felt like just too much to take, that’s ok.

If your boss or somebody else has not extended their full support, empathy, and understanding, that is not ok.

Take your time. Breathe.

We’ve got this.

When sharing is the opposite of caring

FabrizioLeave a comment

You get out of a three-hour meeting where you have discussed important topics for the future of your team, your department, your company.

The first instinct is to share the bits and pieces of information you have collected with your peers – impressions, thoughts, gossips, directions, changes, tasks. If you are leader, you’d probably call right away an extraordinary meeting with people reporting into you, just to make sure that everybody can share in your own frustration, excitement, or whatever it is that you are feeling.

It would probably be a lot better, though, if you would take a moment to actually think about what just happened. Go for a walk. Call it a day. Take a piece of paper and write down what you have heard. Sleep on it. Go on for one or two days before talking to anybody that was not in that meeting about what comes next.

Your confusion does not have to be other people’s confusion.

Sure, sharing is fantastic and it makes you feel a little less lonely. But when you do not yet have a clear idea of what you should share, is it really worth it?

Better than two

FabrizioLeave a comment

In whatever you do, keep things simple.

One button is better than two.

One paragraph is better than two.

One message is better than two.

One minute is better than two.

One goal is better than two.

It takes time and effort to bring things to their most simple form. And it pays off a million times.