Tag: growth

Silos

FabrizioLeave a comment

If your organisation has a problem with silos – that is to say, you are dealing with departments caring mainly about their internal processes and KPIs, blaming poor results on others, not aligning around what success looks like -, the best way to break down the silos is to start a project that needs the input and commitment of people that come from the different silos.

Make them know each other, come up with ideas and execute in the same space, define success and celebrate together.

It will teach them empathy for other functions and it will allow them to take that empathy back to their respective teams.

Noticeable

FabrizioLeave a comment

You don’t notice your kids growing. There is no day when they are noticeably taller than the day before, no moment when they are noticeably smarter than the moment before, and for most developments, there is no exact time when you can say “here is when that happened!”.

Yet, they grow. Sometimes you stop and look back at old pictures, and you wonder when that happened. But they grow. You think back at how clumsy they used to be on their bike and now they speed past you. They do grow. You realise that now they are going out with their friends on their own while they used to ask you to take them everywhere.

The point is, not all growth is noticeable.

Actually. There is almost no growth that is noticeable, no progress that is material in short spans of time, no achievement that happens from one day to the next.

Growth is a process.

It’s frustrating at times. But you can’t hurry it up.

Cherish it, instead.

Zigzag

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you feel the pressure of a deadline, a lack of results, a performance review, and you still manage to let things be, that’s when you are setting yourself up for long term success.

It is the day-to-day work, the long-term commitment that set you up for the outcome. It is not the last minute urgency, the sudden opportunity, the finalisation of all minor details.

Act in the present, believe in what you did in the past, and take what’s coming tomorrow as a continuation of your journey. Zigzagging without purpose is not the solution.

When sharing is the opposite of caring

FabrizioLeave a comment

You get out of a three-hour meeting where you have discussed important topics for the future of your team, your department, your company.

The first instinct is to share the bits and pieces of information you have collected with your peers – impressions, thoughts, gossips, directions, changes, tasks. If you are leader, you’d probably call right away an extraordinary meeting with people reporting into you, just to make sure that everybody can share in your own frustration, excitement, or whatever it is that you are feeling.

It would probably be a lot better, though, if you would take a moment to actually think about what just happened. Go for a walk. Call it a day. Take a piece of paper and write down what you have heard. Sleep on it. Go on for one or two days before talking to anybody that was not in that meeting about what comes next.

Your confusion does not have to be other people’s confusion.

Sure, sharing is fantastic and it makes you feel a little less lonely. But when you do not yet have a clear idea of what you should share, is it really worth it?

Attribute this

Fabrizio1 Comment

A few years back, I got a cold connection request on LinkedIn that was different from the others one usually gets.

The person sending it – a rep for product A – had done some proper research about me. They even got to this blog (I have a link in my profile, so all legit). They read a few posts and in their request they actually commented on one of them.

I accepted their request and I did not purchase product A.

In fact, I did not even book a meeting, since it was just something out of the scope of my work.

About a year later, a colleague of mine reached out asking for a recommendation. They were unsure which one of two tools they should pick for their own work. One of the options was product A. I listened to the colleague introducing the two options, and ended up saying that I did not have a clear opinion on which one they should choose. I mentioned, though, that I had a very good experience with the sales process of product A. That resonated with my colleague, since they were having a similar experience themselves.

For many different reasons, my colleague decided to pick product A.

The morale of this story is in three parts.

First, to cut through the noise, you have to do some extra effort. Perhaps quality of outreach is more important than quantity of outreach these days.

Second, brand and reputation is about taking that extra effort and making it consistent over a period of time. It’s easy to do the hard work when it works, but it’s when you do it despite the poor results, or despite the ups-and-downs, that the hard work becomes a part of your identity that others appreciate.

And third, well. Try to attribute that sale.