If you are really good at something, there’s no reason to make others feel bad for not being at your same level.
Lift them up instead, or at the very least show them a new way to think, to act, to relate, to commit.
You’ll make your good worth it.
Tag: entrepreneurship
Diminishing returns
When you muscle through an additional hour of work at the end of an intense day, the marginal return of the additional hour is negative.
When you take on another project during a period of intense activity for the whole team, the marginal return of the additional project is negative.
When you push yourself way beyond your physical limit after two hours of intense workout, the marginal return of the additional effort is negative.
When you send just one more comment on top of a chat conversation that already features more than twenty other voices, the marginal return of the additional comment is negative.
When you read one more article on a topic you are ready to write a full thesis about, the marginal return of the additional article is negative.
The cost of not knowing when it is time to stop is diminishing returns that compound over time.
It is exhausting.
Indispensable
With some colleagues, things click right away. You trust them, they trust you. They are great to be around, deliver on their promises, they are competent and you have that feeling that you can learn a lot from them.
With some colleagues, it takes time for things to click. And that’s when things get difficult, because instead of relying on them, you create more work for yourself and other colleagues. Instead of giving them responsibilities, you start micro-managing or ignoring them. You become critical of everything they do and eventually loose any interest in even sitting down with them to have a chat.
When this is the challenge, do over communicate instead. Set ground rules and check that they still stand frequently. Be vocal about the discomfort, ask about their discomfort, and get to know them outside of what they do in their working hours.
That’s how you make yourself unique and indispensable.
Passion and distraction
There is a lot of difference between spending time and energy and resources on something you are passionate about, and spending the exact same amount of time and energy and resources on something you don’t care about.
In the first case, no matter how much you give, you will always find a bit more. You will feel recharged even after a full day of intense activity. In fact, the other stuff and the people in your life will most likely benefit from your positive attitude and adrenaline. Just because you are committed to something you love.
In the second case, the opposite is true. Even ten minutes of the activity will drain you. You will mostly complain, find issues with everything and everyone, and that attitude will spill to everything else, and everyone else, in your life.
So, the trick is this.
Do something for long enough to get committed and passionate about it, and reduce the distractions that make you feel miserable.
Easy. Not simple.
Fix my issue
Three reasons why this is a great customer service interaction.
05:46 PM | Me: Hi! We made a mistake when trying to change the credit card linked to our account. Basically, we put the wrong e-mail address, and now I have paid for a fully new account instead of payment for the account we already have. Messy, eh?
05:46 PM | Bot operator: If your scheduled payment failed, please, refer to attached Help article for instructions on how to re-process it.
05:46 PM | Bot operator: [App: Article Inserter]
05:46 PM | Bot operator: Did that answer help, or are you looking for something else?
05:46 PM | Me: Talk to a person 👤
05:46 PM | Bot operator: Sure thing! Ahrefs typically replies in under 4m.
05:48 PM | Person from Ahrefs: Hi there thanks for reaching out. Which email address did you pay by mistake to?
05:49 PM | Me: The original account is with *emailaddress*, I paid now with *emailaddress*
05:49 PM | Person from Ahrefs: I will check with our billing team to help move it over to the correct account
05:50 PM | Me: Thank you. Is there something I have to do?
05:50 PM | Person from Ahrefs: nope, please wait for 2-3 hours for the change to be complete
05:50 PM | Me: Thank you!
06:07 PM | Person from Ahrefs: Hi there, the switch is done. Kindly check *emailaddress* and confirm? Please let me know if you have any further questions.
- The person helping actually read the first message in the chat, avoiding to ask me to repeat the problem or other silly information – as so often is the case.
- In two instances, the service did underpromise and overdeliver – first for the waiting time, then for the time it would take for the change to be effective.
- The interaction was straight to the point and focused on having my problem solved – no how are you?, no hope you will have a sunny day!, no I am sorry to hear about your issue.
All in all, a billing issue was solved in 21 minutes, and I got exactly 4 minutes of interaction with a chat bot and a customer service rep.
Note: a couple of bonus points for the tool that Ahrefs is using, that first suggested a relevant article from their knowledge base in the attempt to fix my issue without interaction, then allowed me to download the full conversation without having to ask anybody.
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