The only promise you can always keep is: I am here, now.
And so many fail to deliver that, while attempting to keep promises that are larger than life.
Anchor your feet to the ground.
Tag: communication
Little and difficult
It’s incredible how little people need.
Attention.
Care.
Support.
It’s equally incredible how difficult it is to give that to them. Unconditionally.
Taking time
Don’t underestimate the effect of taking time.
Before sending out an important email.
Before replying to an unnerving message.
Before making a crucial decision.
Contrary to waiting, taking time is an intentional effort. It requires you to get out of the current situation and of the flow of emotions to make some distance between you and the subject of the intended action. It gives space for relaxation and reflection. It gifts clarity of mind.
Some decisions
There are some decisions you make as a company that go beyond the mere consequences of the decision.
Whether or not you will send a notification to a customer when a contract is up for auto-renewal.
Whether or not you will require a credit card to do a free trial.
Whether or not you are going to hire that talented woman who has just informed you they are pregnant.
Whether or not you will let go that nice colleague who is under-performing.
Whether or not only managers are allowed to talk at company updates.
Whether or not you are going to raise the salaries or invest in the tenth project management tool.
We are used to think of culture, values, and principles as something very abstract, something intangible, something that reads nicely on the career page of the website. But the truth is that some decisions determine what a company stands for much more strongly and definitively than any two lines crafted by the most skilled copywriter.
Ask, resist, and frame
Three things you can start doing right away to unlock other people’s potential.
- Ask clear, open questions – Abuse what and how, get rid of be and do. One example: instead of are you happy with the project? ask what are you happy about with this project?
- Resist giving answers – Even when you know and are sure, an answer not given gives the possibility to the other person to figure it out. Go back to #1 and ask things like what will do with this information? or how do you plan to tackle this issue? or what’s the next step to figure this out?
- Frame everything – Help others put what they do in perspective, anchor the day-to-day in the broader picture, make evident the link with company goals, community goals, life goals. If you do #1 and #2 you should maintain the distance necessary to focus exactly on #3.
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