Category: leadership

Empty shells

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Have you ever written down a list of the things you do?

Particularly when you feel overwhelmed, it is useful to write down on paper the things you do regularly. Emails to write, reports to compile, meetings to attend, errands to run, people to talk to, tasks to complete, projects to finalize, and so on.

Then look at the list and ask yourself: what can I delegate?

Sure, the first instinct would probably be to say nothing! But if you think long enough, if you weight the items against your purpose and who you want to be, if you ask others what they expect of you and what they will measure you by, I am confident you will end up with quite a lot you can give away.

Most of the things you do are clutter. They give you the impression of being important, and by extension they make you feel important, but they are merely empty shells very difficult to crack. And the wonderful thing is that if you trust others and ask around, if you become generous, you will find somebody for whom those things are relevant, important, purposeful.

Make the match.

Most of us are so stuck on the short-cycles of urgency that it’s difficult to even imagine changing our longer-term systems.

Amazingly, this simple non-hack (in which you spend the time to actually avoid the shortcuts that have been holding you back) might be the single most effective work you do all year.

Seth Godin, A different urgency

Insurmountable

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Nothing is easy, until it gets done.

At that point, it becomes the easiest thing you ever committed to.

That is because starting something new feels insurmountable. It makes us go against our beliefs (about ourselves and the world we live in), it forces us to question things we used to take for granted, it puts us in front of the fact we might have been wrong all along.

It is also the reason why there is rarely a deep connection between someone who has already done and someone who is about to do. To the former, the thing is trivial. To the latter, the thing is impossible.

So, if we ever want to share anything, it is important we talk about the journey rather than the destination. It’s the only way to build common ground, to put empathy at work, to elevate.

And if we want to do something, as we often do, the best way is to set out on the journey and just do it.

All-encompassing

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When you are sending a message to the mass, the tendency is to make it as all-encompassing as possible, and by doing that you probably fail to make it relatable, motivating, effective.

A great example is what happens every year when companies share season’s greetings with their audience. And as it is possible to send a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (accompanied by the emoticons of your choice) to a vast number of people, individuals got lazy as well.

Next year, instead of sending a mass message to all your team, your group of friends, your family, pick a finite number of people that had a significant impact on your life in the past twelve months, and share a personal and emotional message with them. Tell them why this Merry Christmas is different. Tell them what they mean to you. Tell them how they have succeded in their job. And let them know why you want them close in the New Year as well.

The return on this small investment will be huge.

Startup mentality

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Startup mentality is a beautiful concept we are gradually wearing out.

It is about not being stuck in hierarchies and roles, being able to spot problems and go about solving them, having the flexibility to do work that matters whenever it is easier for you, feeling at ease with change and appreciating the challenges that come with it, sharing knowledge and experience with others to get better together.

On the other hand, it should not be about getting paid only when things are good and be happy about it, being loyal to the founders no matter what they preach, being on call 24/7, working 60 hours a week for years, competing relentlessly with everybody, being too busy to share, and having a vision of you on a Tesla in three years.

It is a not so subtle difference that might make or break your company. One to remember and often repeat to your colleagues.

P.S.: it is Christmas, and I am going to give away 5 Kindle copies of Storynomics to the first 5 who comment on yesterday’s post, sharing what they are getting from this blog. It is a slow burner, and I am going to run this until January 6th.

You stay

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When you are in a bad mood, your productivity goes down. The quality of your work is not as good as usual, even getting started feels painful. You are cranky, you put negative narratives first, you fail to appreciate what good there is.

Being in a bad mood also poisons everything around you. And most importantly, it makes people in your life be in a bad mood to.

There is no remedy to being in a bad mood. It just happens.

The only sensible thing to do is put all the residual resources into breaking the direct link between the mood and yourself. Indeed, often when you are in a bad mood, you look at yourself as a bad person too. That’s dangerous.

Moods come and go. You stay, often improved. If you can appreciate this difference more, nothing will stop you.

To meet an emotion is first to acknowledge it and then to feel it enough to get the message it carries. The feeling carries the message but it isn’t the message, and we won’t get the message without feeling at least some of the emotion. The message, of course, is very likely to be a form of emerging self-knowledge.

Dan Oestreich, How To Meet A Strong Emotion