Category: leadership

Stand out

Fabrizio1 Comment

One of the things that will make you stand out most in business (and not only) is to close the circle on your promises.

This is true for individual contributors, teams, departments, and organizations as a whole.

If you promise something that you know you can’t deliver, or that you consistently don’t deliver over a period of time, the promise is most likely a way for you to get out of a difficult conversation, an awkward moment, a temporary discomfort.

It is not worth it.

Say only what you know you’ll do. And if you end up not doing it, give a reason and follow up.

When you meet your commitments, you build trust, gain confidence — look, you really can do it! — and grow the kind of backbone needed to say no when you truly can’t take something on.

Whitney Johnson, You Have to Stop Canceling and Rescheduling Things. Really.

Two types

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There are two types of company.

One starts with values and sees revenue as a sort of by-product of carefully applying values in the things they do every day, whether somebody is watching or not.

One starts with revenue and sees values as an ideal that will be possible to transform into action only after reaching a certain level of revenue/success.

There is nothing inherently good or bad in one or the other, but they represent two profoundly different ways of doing things.

As a founder, you need to know what type of company you want to build and what type of people you want to work with.

As a jobseeker, you need to know in which type of company you perform better and you feel better.

Go about it intentionally. There is nothing worst than finding yourself in the wrong group.

Reporting marketing

Fabrizio1 Comment

It’s a responsibility as marketers to make marketing accessible to the rest of the organization. We are the ones good at communicating, after all.

It starts with reporting on your KPIs.

If you have 20 slides with tables filled with character size 12 numbers, covering all the regions, all the channels, all the assets, all the stages of the funnel, you are doing everybody a disservice. Nobody will understand what you are up, and by not understanding it, they will not be excited about the next thing you will present or ask money for.

Pick three numbers. Make them about awareness, conversion, and pipeline. Report on them with three slides, splashing the big number on one side and an explanation of the number on the other (what you did, what happened, why it matters, what’s next – keep it character size 30 at least). Do it every month or every quarter and let readers ask their own questions about regions, channels, assets, and so on.

That’s a way to build credibility and interest around the marketing function.

Learnings and insights

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There are different ways to share learnings and insights.

Many keep them for themselves, at most sharing with a close circle. They see learnings and insights as an advantage in a competitive environment, and they leverage them to achieve status.

Some share them all around, perhaps doing some sort of selection based on interest. They typically do that once and then assume that everyone is in the loop and will act accordingly.

A few manage them, ensuring they are properly discussed, distributed, and acted upon. They take the time to understand who can benefit from them, they organize a space to exchange opinions, they put together the right context to do some testing, they track results that inevitably lead to further learnings and insights – starting the loop once more.

Of course, this last approach is ideal. But you can’t follow that with everything. That’s why it matters to know what is important.

Tough job

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It is a challenge not to make all decisions, but when others report to you, that is the only way.

It is a challenge not to take control of every little detail, but when others report to you, that is the only way.

It is a challenge not to give your opinion on every project, but when others report to you, that is the only way.

It is a challenge not to behave as if you have all the knowledge about service, product, marketing, sales, customers, and market. But when others report to you, that is the only way.

It is a challenge not to express with words and behaviour that you are under a lot of stress and external pressure. But when others report to you, that is the only way.

Being in charge is tough job.

Fortunately, it is for you to decide if that’s for you or not.