Tag: empowerment

What if

Fabrizio1 Comment

What if tomorrow, as leaders, we would make the decision to stop getting into employees’ way and let them free to self-organize and solve the problems they are hired to solve.

What if we would remove all rules and trust that people would actually do their job to the best of their ability.

What if we would decide to raise everyone’s salary, not because we have had a particularly brilliant year, not because we have reached all our targets, not because we have outperformed the competition, just because it is the right thing to do.

What if we would choose not to fire people when things don’t work, but actually challenge ourselves to find a way to make them work.

What if we would genuinely commit to work on our culture, and make that a reason why people come and stay.

What if we would agree that the measure of our success is the state in which we leave our teams when we move on, and more importantly how many leaders we helped developing.

What if we would make an intentional effort to build relationships, not with our peers, upper management, and executives, but with the people we aim to inspire and guide.

Just because you don’t know any other way, it does not mean there is no other way.

Criticism

FabrizioLeave a comment

What you do is always going to be met with criticism.

Not everybody is going to like it, not everybody is going to agree with it, not everybody is going to want to hear, read, listen more.

The way you approach this basic fact is going to determine how much you are going to achieve. Make it a focus, try to change minds, invest in proving them wrong, and you will be depleted in no time. Take it as an assumption, filter what can help you, muscle through the rest, and you’ll have a real shot at unleashing your potential.

You are not here to please everybody.

Imperfect

Fabrizio1 Comment

You are probably not the strongest.

You are probably not the smartest.

You are probably not the most fearless.

You are probably not the nicest.

You are probably not the greatest.

You are probably not the most positive.

And yet you are here. With the responsibility to make something strong, smart, fearless, nice, great, positive happen.

Work with your limits and don’t let them hold you back.

The world needs you.

Imperfect.

Doing nothing

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If you want to get everything done today, you will most likely end up doing nothing.

If you keep your queue open to the latest request, you will most likely end up doing nothing.

If you force yourself to do a task when you are just not in the right mindset, you will most likely end up doing nothing.

If you put yourself at the center of a mass distraction, you will most likely end up doing nothing.

If you are asked to explain what you do as you do it, you will most likely end up doing nothing.

There are plenty of ways to do nothing, and arguably just one to actually achieve something.

Take control of your attention.

Holding back

FabrizioLeave a comment

Fear can hold you back, and it can hold back those who look at you for guidance.

As parents, more often than not our own fears fuel the “don’t do that”, “don’t go there”, “that is not safe”. Our kids won’t climb the tree, won’t walk to the grocery shop by themselves, won’t try that stunt with their bikes, won’t go in front of the whole class to present an idea. They are marginally safer, infinitely more anxious and fearful.

And since parenting and leadership are strongly linked, you look at managers and you see how much of their fears dictates their behavior and that of their teams. Better play it safe, please upper management, don’t say when things are wrong, praise everybody, and keep communication to a minimum.

Fear is an important feeling when we label it as such. When instead we avoid it, pretend it’s not there, morph it into reality, then it becomes a blocker for our progress and for the progress of those we care about.

It’s just not worth it.