Tag: change

Ducks in a row

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you feel overwhelmed, you need to be able to take a step aside, have a look at what makes you feel that way, and put all the ducks in a row.

Tasks are not that impossible when you break them down and put the result on a list.

You’ll most likely realize not everything needs to happen at the same time. Some things might possibly not be happening at all. Your focus will be assigned to what can deliver the highest return – that is to say what can free most space from your mental, emotional, and physical clutter.

Learn to feel that sense of overwhelm approaching. The way your body reacts is often a good indicator. Then, take that step.

The pledge

FabrizioLeave a comment

Engagement is a pledge.

The deal though is no longer safety, money, and certainty in exchange for work, compliance, and loyalty.

We understand well enough that workers nowadays need to put in something more than mere hours, textbook task completion, checkbox performance. We ask them to be creative, innovative, collaborative, personal, candid, proactive.

What we struggle to understand, instead, is that the way to incentivize that has changed as well.

So, the next time you lead a project, a change, an enterprise ask yourself what your side of the pledge is.

Is it keeping everyone in the dark until the big reveal? Is it making all of the key decisions? Is it allocating five minutes at the end of the next meeting for everyone to share what they think? Is it distributing information to create hierarchies and factions?

Probably not.

Cooperate

FabrizioLeave a comment

Keep telling people about the work you do.

When you don’t, your work is nonexistent. It is not imperfect, it is not in progress, it is not almost there. It is simply nonexistent. Out of any radar.

When you do, you open yourself to your audience. You get to know what they like, what they need, what they would like to see next. You start a cooperative work, whether you realize it or not.

And you might also find unexpected contributors.

Excited by the process

FabrizioLeave a comment

The world is full with emails that lay out brilliant plans.

And it is full (though admittedly less so) with excited replies to those emails, expressing a convinced “I am in!”.

But the difference is in what comes after that.

Some people are excited by the process of getting things done, bringing the team together, convincing the skeptics, repeating the details over and over again, changing their minds, changing other people’s minds, navigating the ups and downs, waking up to failure, presenting in front of a crowd, putting in the work.

Some people are excited by the idea and see all of the above as an insurmountable obstacle.

You are probably part of one group or the other depending on circumstances. Just be aware that it is a choice you can make, an attitude you can change.

Fitting in

FabrizioLeave a comment

The problem with fit is that it tends to average.

And the even bigger problem for you is that it prevents you from being you.

When you try to fit – by using a jargon that everyone else is using, by going through a career trajectory that everybody can recognize, by telling a story that everyone feels comfortable with – you essentially hide your differences for the sake of harmony. It is normal to want to do that, even advisable in some instances.

But what happens once you are in, feel at ease, and attempt to express that part you hid? Here is a strong risk of a life of misery.

There are two things you can do to mitigate that.

First, you have to be selective with the groups you want to be part of. Not all groups are worth fitting in – which is, again, essentially losing a little part of you. Some groups are more open to differences than others – which means having to hide less, or nothing.

Second, you need to work on your story in a way that eases you into fitting in (the groups you selected). You own your story, you choose what to tell about, how to tell about it, and by making your story an expression of yourself, you signal to the group who you are and what they can expect from you.