Tag: empathy

Harmony

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Respect.

For some that means being kind to others. For some that means always telling it like it is. For some it is a matter of not wasting anybody’s time. For some it’s about making everyone feel involved.

Professional.

For some that means wearing a suit during workdays. For some that means being calm and in control. For some it is a matter of delivering on the promises. For some it’s about using a given lingo when talking and presenting.

Productive.

For some that means delivering a lot. For some that means delivering well. For some it is a matter of the time it takes to do things. For some it’s about money.

The point being, there is no absolute agreement on what things mean. And just because others have a different definition, it does not mean they are less committed to achieve exactly what you say you also want to achieve.

Your role in all that is to accept this very little fact – that different people have different definitions for the same thing. Not better, not worst. Just different.

Plus, you ought it to yourself and others to set some boundaries for your own definitions, boundaries that people should not overstep if they want to do business with you.

The rest is harmony.

One more chat

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One of the biggest problems of companies that are growing is people turnover. The faster the growth, the bigger the problem.

Hiring and onboarding new people is a huge obstacle to further growth. And since growth is chaotic and managers don’t know how to manage (people), many will increasingly be demotivated, will burn out, or will simply leave. It is a spiral from which it is very difficult to get out.

The only antidote to this problem is start caring about people early on. Shifting the managerial approach from one more deal, one more feature, one more campaign to one more hour spent chatting with colleagues, both within your team and cross-functionally. Over-communicate and leave space to listen. Ensure that the team you already have will be a strong foundation for the growth that is coming.

Blow thoughts away

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A thought is just a thought.

It comes and goes. It might come back, and certainly it will go away once more.

The challenge is that often we take that thought and build our reality around it. That person is mean to mean. Nobody wants me. I am not good enough. And by doing that, we twist our reality to match the thought. The thought will stay and we become conditioned by it.

Blow thoughts away, particularly the negative, devious, perverse, mean ones. They are just thoughts, until you build them into something bigger.

Flat

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A flat organization is an opportunity for employees to speak freely, to share their opinion, to make an impact.

A flat organization is not an excuse for managers to make jokes about employees, say whatever comes to their mind, pretend they are not in charge.

It’s a thin distinction, one that is good to remember often.

Blameless

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Does the devil know he’s the devil?

Elizabeth Madox Roberts

That person you think is being mean to you, probably sees themselves as fair and balanced.

Because nobody thinks they are at fault. Nobody thinks that what they are doing is not the right thing to do in that particular time and place. Nobody wakes in the morning saying they will be the bad guy today, or they will hurt somebody, or they will make decisions that will put hundreds out of a job.

Most things merely happen. And while we like to think that there’s an hidden agenda behind them, that somebody’s masterplan is making it more difficult for us to be happy, that our antagonist is out there to get us, that’s just the delusion that comes from us being the main character to our own story.

Most things merely happen. Or at best, they are the consequence of years of inertia, of a series of actions that somebody has done without even thinking twice about them, of a lack of ownership or imagination in somebody’s writing of their own story.

Nobody can be really blamed for that.

When was it exactly that I became . . . this? By small degrees, I suppose. One act presses hard upon another, on a path we have no choice but to follow, and each time there are reasons. We do what we must, we do what we are told, we do what is easiest. What else can we do but solve one sordid problem at a time? Then one day we look up and find that we are . . . this.

Joe Abercrombie, The Last Argument of Kings