Tag: entrepreneurship

Excited by the process

FabrizioLeave a comment

The world is full with emails that lay out brilliant plans.

And it is full (though admittedly less so) with excited replies to those emails, expressing a convinced “I am in!”.

But the difference is in what comes after that.

Some people are excited by the process of getting things done, bringing the team together, convincing the skeptics, repeating the details over and over again, changing their minds, changing other people’s minds, navigating the ups and downs, waking up to failure, presenting in front of a crowd, putting in the work.

Some people are excited by the idea and see all of the above as an insurmountable obstacle.

You are probably part of one group or the other depending on circumstances. Just be aware that it is a choice you can make, an attitude you can change.

Zero-sum

FabrizioLeave a comment

If you want people in your team to truly work as a team, help each other, keep each other accountable, and achieve common goals, then stop leveraging your position of power to get things done.

When you do that, people will think that the only way for them to get ahead is to take from their peers.

Dominance does not set a good example.

Patagonia

FabrizioLeave a comment

Imagine approaching your team with the suggestion that this year, for Black Friday, you could dedicate your site’s home page to a message of social responsibility.

Imagine suggesting that the headline could stick to the version your team crafted after months of customer research, rather than make space for the latest look-at-me PR sensation.

Imagine recommending to continue with something that has been planned for months, rather than replacing it all with some shiny hack that will boost one of the vanity metrics.

They would look at you and think you are crazy.

Unless you work at Patagonia.

Cause and effect

FabrizioLeave a comment

Not every cause leads to an effect. Not every effect can be immediately linked to a cause.

The fact is, we are not rational beings and we merely use reason to find an explanation to things that have already happened, to decisions that have already been made.

That’s why brands and stories have so much power. They don’t engage with reason and they leverage the most tribal and innate of our insticts.

Belonging.

If your company wants to measure brands and stories, if they want to find the thread that links brands and stories to material results, they are probably missing the whole point. And the opportunity to establish relationships with employees, customers, stakeholders that can determine long-term competitive advantage.

You got to have faith not to miss this opportunity.

Promotion

FabrizioLeave a comment

There are two ways organizations promote employees.

One is by tenure. The employee has been in one role for long enough that they kind of outgrew it. The promotion is often formal and comes at the end of a process. It is about dues and achievement.

The other is by stretch. The employee is given enough space that they can grow into it. The promotion is often informal and comes at the beginning of a process. It is about responsibility and potential.

The way your organization does this has much to do with whether the general belief is that trust should be earned or that trust should be given. And it says a lot about many other aspects of the culture.