If a customer leaves negative feedback, files a complaint, gets mad for something, writes a bad review, speaks ill of your product or service, stops paying you, one of two things is true.
Trying to explain they are wrong, and behaving as if 1 or 2 (or both) are not possible is simply a worthless, damaging exercise.
If even Google forgets this, it’s probably a good idea to keep it in mind in our daily marketing practices.
Not being an asshole is a daily choice.
Not letting your mood affect the way you treat others. Not setting the agenda of a company, of a department, of a team on the base of your current focus. Not having the stress derived from your position permeate every interaction, every decision, every exchange. Not allowing busyness to become the answer to all requests of help or information or attention or care. Not giving a bad day, an unsatisfactory job, a regretful life the power to determine the days, jobs and lives of those around you.
It’s not an If-This-Then-That type of situation. We have an active role in deciding how we follow up with actions and words to the circumstances of the world.
There might be mitigating circumstances, and yet we own this.
I have a tendency to get tired of things quickly.
Not that it’s always been my own choice to leave a job, yet this tendency has reflected on my professional experience so far.
For a while, I have thought that the next role, the next company, the next boss, the next team would be the “breakthrough”, the one that would stick with me and keep me motivated for long. Of course, it never was.
And so, I had to start asking some difficult questions.
What do I want? What is important to me? What would make me stick around? Why is it so that I get tired of jobs so quickly? Is there a problem with commitment? Is there a problem with purpose? Is there a problem with focus? If the choice would completely be in my power, what things would I make happen to call it a success?
When you identify a pattern and you have troubles understanding it, the absolute best thing you can do is to turn within and ask yourself some questions. It’s never the job, the people, the colleague, the managers, the roles, the tasks, the offices. Almost never, at least, and it’s a much safer bet to look at yourself in the mirror to see what you can do about it.
Culture is what you do.
It is how you treat people around you, the times you say yes to a request of help, the way you say no to preserve focus, the work you deliver every day, the amount of hours you dedicate to things that nurture your cause, the decisions you make and how you make them, the people you carry with you and those that are never part of it. It is, first and foremost, the journey and not the destination.
Not only.
Culture is what you do when no one is watching.
It’s impossible to fake culture, and so you might be on the wrong track if you regret helping others the very moment you say yes, if you get distracted from new and shiny things that lead you astray, if you surround yourself with people that are like you, think like you and act like you.
And.
Culture is what you do when things are dire.
Most are good sharing when they have plenty, cheering people up when life is wonderful, leading when the cash comes in, giving freedom when there’s not much at stake, asking people to contribute when the decision has already been taken.
Think about this as you go through history and think of examples that well represent and tell your culture. It will make it stronger.
Somebody once told me: “If you don’t tell me you don’t like it, you are the one losing, as I will go on doing it.”
A key takeaway from this article about radical candor, is that it’s not really a choice.
You might refrain from delivering criticism because of kindness, or because you don’t like being criticized in the first place, or perhaps the timing is not right, as everybody is in a hurry, and you’ll get back to it later, when the situation is calmer.
In the meantime people develop habits, that gets consolidated and more difficult to notice and adjust. You get frustrated, nurture a negative narrative about the other person, figure out ways to live with it and postpone the confrontation.
Until it all breaks down. If only..
Time and potential are wasted by not being candid in the first place.
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