Tag: failure

How far

Fabrizio1 Comment

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 you will be around with body and mind.

It hurts your friends, who are stuck listening to the stories you keep telling.

Many consider busyness as a measure of success. It is actually more often a measure of how far you are pushing your responsibilities.

Fair

Fabrizio1 Comment

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, apply it, and eventually spread it around. You can make it contagious, and impact those who are close to you.

And it all starts with being fair to yourself. What can you expect of you? What will you hold yourself accountable for? How will you express this to others, how will your actions impact them, and how are you going to find out?

Before asking the world to be fair, ask that of yourself. Imagine if everyone would do that.

Would you take it?

FabrizioLeave a comment

Are you into leadership because of the power, the role, the status, or because of the challenges, the responsibility, the people that allow you to lead?

It seems like a trivial question, and the answer is probably, for most, somewhat in the middle.

But I can’t count the leaders who stop at the prestige and forgo the difficult part.

What if we would start presenting promotions into leadership roles in a different way? And so, instead of saying.

You did well so far, here is a promotion, a new title, and a salary raise.

We would say.

You did well so far. Here is a chance to take this team and make it awesome, to listen to their ideas and ensure the ones that make sense get developed and the others are put on hold (perhaps forever), to raise their engagement with the company and their role even in the face of bad news – especially in the face of bad news. Do you take it?

Managers do really need to start thinking at leadership in a different way, otherwise it will continue to be the professional graveyard of people with monetary and status ambitions.

The helper

Fabrizio2 Comments

You can’t fight fear.

You cannot pretend it is not there, you cannot walk past it, turn a blind eye to it, give it another name, a different guise, a more appealing shape.

You can’t run from it, outpace it, hide in the shadow of your strenghts and possessions. That is where fear will eventually find you.

You also can’t stop and stand in front of fear. You can’t circle around it, spiral inside of it, let fear feel you are close. That is what fear craves the most.

What you can do, then, is look fear in the eyes.

Get to know it well, hold its hand, and take it with you on your journey.

You can’t fight fear, because fear is not the enemy.

Fear is just the helper.

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.

Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb.

My door is always open

Fabrizio2 Comments

If your door is always open, you should go out in the world and see what’s going on.

Way to often the open door is a lazy excuse. Sure, come to me with your questions, doubts, concerns, just don’t expect me to ask first. Because, well, you do not care.

We keep reading of how change is difficult, of how important it is to communicate, of how keeping people involved is critical to its success.

Is then my door is always open the best we can resort to?

If you care, actively ask, seek input, practice empathy, pretend candour.

If you have it all figured out instead, keep leaving your door open. No one will bother your certainty.