When failure knocks at your door, you have to greet it, invite it in, make it feel comfortable, and eventually ask it to move in. Failure needs to be absorbed, somehow, in order for the learnings to become a part of you, to make you better, to prevent it from happening again. If you deny … Continue reading Existential threat
Tag: entrepreneurship
My people resist change
Three ways to go about change in companies. Engage with the people affected in time. Instead of going for behind-closed-doors decisions and big reveals, make everyone part of the process. You won't lose control, and you will win a variety of perspectives and a clear view on what the major problems will be.Meet people where … Continue reading My people resist change
Protect or build
You can protect your name, your reputation, your prestige. Or you can build it. Rarely you can do both at the same time. Protecting is about public relations, networking, promising, giving speeches. It is a reactive game. It is about ensuring that what you do determines who you are, how others see you. It is … Continue reading Protect or build
How far
At some point, you have to realize that busyness is hurting people around you. It hurts your boss, who cannot count on you to deliver what you should. It hurts colleagues and team members, who have to deal with somebody who is unprepared and unresponsive. It hurts your partner and kids, who never know when … Continue reading How far
Overestimating
We are bad at communicating in written form. We overestimate our capability to share meaning via a written message, and most importantly to share the underlying emotions, mainly because we fail to understand that our audience is often in a different state of mind. Two considerations. If you are about to send a written message, … Continue reading Overestimating
Fair
If you look around for fairness, you will find little of it. Different people see the world in different ways, and fair becomes a fluid concept when you change perspective. If you look inside for fairness, on the other hand, that is something you can more easily work with. You can train it, build it, … Continue reading Fair
Rapport
Just because you say it needs to happen, doesn't mean it will happen. If you give somebody an urgency, you better frame it in a way that makes sense to them or to the greater cause. Important is subjective, even when you are close, even when you work in the same team, even when there … Continue reading Rapport
A different way
When you feel like you want to lash out at somebody. Get aggressive, forget about manners, say it as it is. Ask a provocative question, answer in a passive aggressive tone. Send an irate reply, or no reply at all. Take it public, escalate it, raise the flag. There is one question you should ask … Continue reading A different way
Old friends
If you are a manager and you are starting at a new company, it is great that you have already some key people from your past experiences that you would like to bring onboard to fill key roles and take important responsibilities. As you do that, be mindful of two things though. The people in … Continue reading Old friends
On hold
When we hear, read, or consume content, all we get is often about us. Our fears, expectations, experience, knowledge. What we think about the author, about the medium, about the source. The day we are having, the day we are not having. Likes and dislikes. How confident we are today, what we have been told … Continue reading On hold
