Tag: entrepreneurship

Better questions

FabrizioLeave a comment

Are you good?

and

Can you tell me of a time you have been good?

are clearly two very different questions.

The first one is instinctive, of course I am good. The second one activates the slow part of the brain, the reflective part, and is way more difficult to lie to.

Behavioral questions like the second one can go a long way when you are trying to figure out something in a context that easily hides facts (perhaps for totally legitimate reasons). Getting used to asking better questions is a sure way to avoid disappointment later on. And to get better answers.

Tell me about the last time you have acted as a team player.

What is an example of a thing that makes this a great place to work?

Can you tell me of the last time you used our product, what have you done with it?

How often do people in your team get promoted?

I do not know

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you let go of things you are not good at, you find the space and energy to double down on your strengths. And, equally importantly, you leave the space to others in your team to do the same.

For leaders, this is particularly crucial. We tend to think we should know it all and do it all, that if we are not going to do something is just because we really do not have time. And all that translates, day after day, into a demotivated team, poor deliveries and many chocked processes.

Not knowing is ok.

Say it out loud: “I do not know”.

It is the only possible step towards building a team that can deliver the change you are seeking.

Choice

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you have the choice, when no one is watching, do you choose the product or service you are trying to sell, or one of the alternatives?

This might seem like an unnecessary question, yet honest answers could surprise, particularly when digging into the various uses a product or service is supposed to have. At the very least, it is a good way to set expectations on what can be achieved.

Enough people

FabrizioLeave a comment

Change does not happen because you want to.

Change happens because enough people want to.

And so, the first step towards change is figuring out what others feel about it.

You might get stressed, impatient, irritated by the whole process. But if you cannot handle that, how could you handle what is coming after things have changed?

Connection

FabrizioLeave a comment

There is a very powerful idea behind the story of Sitka’s remote off-site, described in details in this worthy article (full of tactics that are also applicable to meetings, all-hands, 1-1s and any other way your company has chosen to kill employees motivation).

The idea is that when you gather a number of people in one room (physical or virtual) the easiest way to make them fall asleep or continuously check their phones is to short-list some gatekeepers of knowledge (managers, teachers, experts) and let them speak for hours on end. And then we wonder why the message did not get through, why not everybody is working towards the agreed goals, why our purpose is not shared across departments.

Even assuming that the one-to-many form of communication ever worked, it does not anymore. People do not care about targets they did not contribute to plan, or about achievements they do not understand, or about buzz words that contrast with their day-to-day experience.

Design your events for connection, engage people in conversations and ask what the expectations are. Be flexible enough to not have everything under control. And remember who your end-user is.

At Minerva, we ended up banning lectures. They’re a great way to teach — but a pretty lousy way to learn. Good for the product builder, but bad for the end-user. Same goes for events. Big retreats are an easy way to convene a large group, but a bad way to facilitate connection.

Mike Wang