Category: leadership

Pumpkins

FabrizioLeave a comment

Which do you prefer?

Having two perfectly carved Halloween pumpkins on your doorstep – you have commissioned a master carver to create the pumpkins, you have paid dearly for them, and that allowed your dear ones to keep busy doing their own stuff.

Or having two so-and-so carved Halloween pumpkins on your doorstep – you and your dear ones have carved them together, you had a good time, you made fun of each others carving skills, and you all cherish the memory when you pass by them now.

It’s the camel dilemma all over again, isn’t it?

And the way you choose one way or the other will tell much of the type of leader you might be.

An interview is two-way

FabrizioLeave a comment

Your next boss is going to be disproportionately more important than your next role, your next company, your next sector. So, when the time comes for you to ask questions, be ready to interview them. A few ideas.

Tell me about the last time you changed your mind.

What would you do if a colleague and I disagree on how to move a project forward?

What were you doing at my age / at my level of seniority?

Tell me about the last organizational change you managed and what did you do?

What of my background do you find most interesting?

What is the number 1 problem you are trying to fix these days?

How would you react if I’d told you that I want to invest part of my working time for personal development?

I understand, it is challenging to get yourself to ask those questions. That’s because we have been told that during an interview, we ought to do anything to land the job. And that includes being nice and pleasant. And that does not include asking questions that might make the hiring manager uncomfortable.

But if they are uncomfortable with that, isn’t that a sign already? Does it not tell us they will be hiding when the time comes for them to support us? Or to tell us we are not doing a good job? Or to find a better role for ourselves, so that we could thrive in the company?

Interviews are always two-way. You can get better at extracting the information you need out of them.

Follow or not

FabrizioLeave a comment

You can read that your product makes one out of three girls feel bad about themselves, and still comment that it is more likely for it to have positive effects (it’s one out of three, after all), or that the number is only a reflection of what happens in the world.

At the end of the day, the way you choose to interpret the world is up to you.

What is up to us all, though, is choosing if we are going to follow or not.

Remote listening

FabrizioLeave a comment

One cannot overstate the importance of listening.

And now that most are relegated to their own home offices, conversations happening through a screen, listening is more challenging than ever.

We are all very busy trying to control our appearance, our background, our environment, the kids screaming in the other room, the cat jumping on the desk to broadcast their behind, the email that just came in, the little red circle signaling that somebody just sent us a message – it might be important. And the most we can do is listening while waiting for our turn to speak.

Just being mindful of this very challenge can help you find ways to overcome it.

  • Use the camera only if you can handle it, it is OK to keep it off.
  • If you are on a two-screen setup, turn off the second screen. Maximize the app you use for the call, and shut down all other distractions (email and browser, in particular).
  • Keep your hands off the mouse or trackpad.
  • Take notes on a piece of paper.
  • Use headphones.
  • Apply coaching tactics such as asking open questions and mirroring, to keep yourself engaged and the other listened (you can find some very useful ideas in this past post).

We’ve got this!

Worth following

FabrizioLeave a comment

Three people that are worth following.