Not listening is not only ignoring.
It is also finding weak reasons to continue on the path that is less risky, motivating the current situation with urgency, hiding behind busyness, coming up with own ways to define reality, diminishing the arguments of others, expressing agreement with words and not follow up with actions.
And most of all, it is about talking.
Sometimes we do not ask because we do not want to be an annoyance.
Our team needs a new tool to do their job, but the company is going through a difficult period, better not ask.
Our customers need a new feature, but Product already has their hands full, better not ask.
Our prospects do not understand our message, but management is solid on their vision, better not ask.
Of course, not asking simply means we are shifting the annoyance on somebody else, somebody who has less power, who is farther, whom complaints we cannot hear. Our team, our customers, our prospects.
Next time you are not asking, consider who you are annoying with your inaction. It’s a trade off, after all.
If everyone gets a reward, is the reward less important?
I guess it depends.
If you are on the receiving end, you should be proud and celebrate. I know somewhere deep inside you will feel like it does not matter, like you are not truly the one whose work is being rewarded here, like it is not important. In fact, it is. Do make it count.
If you are on the giving end, you should probably ask some questions. What are we trying to achieve? Was there unfairness we are trying to remedy to? Is this a sufficient way to do that? What message are we sending? What are we going to do with the expectation we are now creating? How will we identify top performance going forward? Do we even care?
Reward is a beautiful way for companies to tell their people they have noticed and they care. Make sure it is understood.
Writing long email messages is a disservice to your audience and to yourself.
Your audience does not have time for long, they will at best skim through the message and forget about it the moment they close it (hopefully they will not decide to follow up with another message). You will fail to get through to them, your idea will be diminished, your questions and concerns drowned in adjectives and adverbs, and you will inevitably feel the urge to explain yourself, to add more, to elaborate, in short to add to the confusion.
The time you take to make your message crisp is time well spent.
When many people have to agree on something, the final result will be mediocre.
That’s why you should design your company in a way that assigns responsibilities clearly, and then truly delegate everything that is not on your table.
It takes gut to do work that matters.
You've got this 