Tag: empowerment

In control

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We are not in control.

We do not know how we got there, we do not know how long it will last, we do not know who will come next, we do not know if our work will be appreciated tomorrow, we do not know if the people we serve will find someone else who serves them better, we do not know for how long we can continue doing what we have done today, we do not know whether or not the rules of the game will change, when and how.

Most of our disappointments and frustrations emerge from us not recognizing this very basic fact. Once liberated from the illusion of being in control, we can start seeing the world around us as fluid and in perpetual movement.

Our role is to play along with it, not trying to freeze it.

Delivery

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If all you give your employees are tasks, you can certainly expect them to execute them, perhaps even a bit before the deadline and with a little less resources than originally planned, sometimes with some more effort than it would normally require.

Expectations, though, should not be extended to the quality of their work (it will meet specs, and that’s pretty much it) and on their commitment to finding new ways, establishing new relationships, solving new problems, identifying new interesting questions.

If all you give your employees are tasks, delivery is pretty much all you can ask in return. And that’s not something you can change with a clap of hands.

Deferring

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How many tabs do you have open in your browser? How many emails do you keep unread? How many apps do you have on your mobile? How many books and articles on your “want to read” list?

In today’s world, full of information and distraction, we have the tools to keep things in a sort of limbo that we label “I’ll do it later”, or “I’ll do it when I have time”. Truth is, later never comes, because after all we never have time.

Deferring is no longer “doing later”, rather “doing never”.

The accumulation of digital stuff to consume clutters our lives, increases our level of stress, and makes us feel as if we have achieved very little in our day. We should increase our self-awareness and be brave enough to say: “Sure, it’s interesting, but I’ll never go back to it. Let me get rid of it, right away.”

All the space is precious, even when it’s not tangible, even when we do not pay for it. Reclaiming it means freeing energy for things that matter.

How would you feel?

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What if you would become an expert in things those you seek to serve are interested in?

What if, instead of 20 blog posts a month you would write only one this time around? And then the next month. And the next. And the next.

What if you would have the time to thouroughly research your topics, interview experts, collect data, put together arguments from different areas, come up with something truly original?

What if your content would be the single choice for those you seek to serve, the only one article they would seek, wait for, read in the whole month?

How many visitors, contacts, MQLs, SQLs, opportunities, deals would you get?

And, most importantly, how would it make you feel? How would it make your audience feel?

Openly ask

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Do you ever bother to openly ask?

A team member, what they would like to work on.

A customer, how they will be using your product.

A user, what topic would they be happy receiving content about.

Your partner, how would they feel if something would happen.

Your boss, what’s keeping them up at night.

Most of our businesses and lives are based on assumptions. Sometimes we hide them under the labels “experience” and “data”, and yet assumptions they are and they will be.

Should we instead bother and ask the question?