Tag: fear

Cautionary tales

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This one here from The New York Times is a cautionary tale.

It’s about never trusting the glamour and sparkles you see on social media. Even when they seem to be selfless and well-intended.

And it’s also a tale about not confusing the object with the subject. Just because the latter is rotten, doesn’t mean the former is as well. That is to say, it is still possible to pay a fair wage to your employees, build a good company, and not be a total asshole.

This other one from The Guardian is also a cautionary tale.

It’s about the inevitability of being caught at fault when you are a public figure. It’s about the fascination of newspapers of any kind and size for stories which are not stories. It’s about the need to accept that the better you are at what you do, the more others will try to take you down with frivolous items, leveraging both the inevitability and the fascination described above.

And it’s also a tale about letting all this wash over you and continue on your path.

Master emotions

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To be a good leader, you need to master emotions. Yours and others.

Yours, because you need to be in touch with them, be aware of them, be labelling them. And yet, you need not to be too attached to them. For example, when making decisions. In a way, you need to manage your emotions with some sort of detachment.

Others, because you need to be able to appreciate them and embrace them. You need to allocate time for others to express them, you need to be able to take them into consideration, and you need to be able to give the chance to release them.

Most leaders ignore emotions completely.

Some master theirs or others.

Few master both.

Keep things simple

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If the information can be shared in a Slack message, calling a meeting to discuss it will not make it more important.

If the product feature can be described in three words, writing four paragraphs to go through the ins-and-outs will not make it easier to sell it.

If the team is performing poorly, trying to shift the focus to a different subject, or goal, or KPI will not help them improve.

Keep things simple.

Fictitious

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Anchor your thoughts, feelings, opinions to facts. For as much as it is possible to do so.

If you think that your team is on the right track, anchor that thought to some solid evidence.

If you feel that things could be better, anchor that feeling to some solid evidence.

If you believe that version A is better than version B, anchor that feeling to some solid evidence.

Numbers, money, events, external input. Go there to find confirmation, and go there often and repeatedly.

If you don’t, you live and act in a fictitious world.

Definition

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The longer you can be without defining a situation, a person, a thought, an outcome, the more you can enjoy the moment.

When you define you draw boundaries. You set differences between what is good and what is bad. You start aiming for something different while at the same time clinging to the desire that the definition will always be valid. You build, for yourself and others, a world that is much smaller than its potential.

Defining is natural, it’s an attempt to take control of the unknown.

And the longer you can be without it, the more chances you will have.