Category: leadership

Upside down

FabrizioLeave a comment

Asking questions is more important than answering them.

You should ask questions when you know everything and when you know nothing. When you are alone and when you are in good company. When things go just as you planned and when nothing seems to fit in the right place.

We tend to think that confidence equals having few doubts and that experience means you are finally in a position to dispense answers.

In reality, confidence if feeling ok with not knowing and experience means you are faster at figuring out the questions to ask.

The world is upside down.

Acceptable and achievable

FabrizioLeave a comment

The stories we are told about what leaders have done and what peers have done have a strong impact on the way we will behave.

What leaders have done shape our view of what is acceptable.

What peers have done make the acceptable desirable (and achievable) for us too.

Instead of leaving your organization in the arbitrary hands of internal gossiping and politicking, use stories strategically to guide behavior.

Windows

FabrizioLeave a comment

Recruitment is customer service.

For many employees, their first contact with your organisation is via your recruitment function. For most people, the only interaction with your organisation is with your recruitment function.

Both recruitment and customer service deal with a high volume of traffic that makes it difficult to identify what matters. And in both cases, this challenge often translates in poor service and missed opportunities.

The fact is, recruitment and customer service are windows through which people look inside the organisation. They might become employees or not, they might become customers or not. But for sure they will leave with a clear impression of what you stand for – an impression that will spread to the people with whom they will share the experience.

Recruitment and customer service are powerful tools for word-of-mouth.

It is worth investing in them with intention and strategy.

Critics, cheerleaders, and coaches

FabrizioLeave a comment

Sometimes you need a critic, as they might take you back to earth and set you on a path of improvement. Sometimes you need a cheerleader, as they might give you that boost of confidence you are lacking to truly appreciate what you have just achieved.

And you always need a coach. They will see your trajectory and help you find what you need to get there.

Give meaning

FabrizioLeave a comment

It’s not that the ideas for ways to keep your team engaged are scarce – in fact here are 37 of them.

The point is that managers struggle to understand that these days – perhaps most of the time, but these days in particular -, people do not get excited for a new work project, for the last quarter extraordinary results, or for the announcement of the new CTO.

People seek meaning, and enabling connection with peers and colleagues is one sure way to give it to them.

The fact that with remote work the task is more difficult should merely be an incentive to explore new and creative ways.