Tag: sales

Not quite yet

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If you give people space, they will grow to fill that space.

Give them a project, a question, a challenge, a responsibility, a team, and more often than not they will rise to the occasion. That’s how growth happen, after all. You might be spending time reading, attending classes, completing certification, and that is of limited value until you test what you have learned on the field.

For most organizations, though, the rule is not quite yet. It is never the right time to give space, as there is always something else that gets in the way.

The end of the quarter.

The launch of a new product.

An important acquisition.

The flattening of the curve.

The upcoming report.

What really gets in the way is fear. What if things will not turn out as planned? A better question, of course, would be: when do things turn out as planned? And an even better one: what is the worst thing that could happen?

If you can’t manage this type of uncertainty, you are a lazy manager in a lazy organization.

I am sure that is not what you want.

What if

Fabrizio1 Comment

What if tomorrow, as leaders, we would make the decision to stop getting into employees’ way and let them free to self-organize and solve the problems they are hired to solve.

What if we would remove all rules and trust that people would actually do their job to the best of their ability.

What if we would decide to raise everyone’s salary, not because we have had a particularly brilliant year, not because we have reached all our targets, not because we have outperformed the competition, just because it is the right thing to do.

What if we would choose not to fire people when things don’t work, but actually challenge ourselves to find a way to make them work.

What if we would genuinely commit to work on our culture, and make that a reason why people come and stay.

What if we would agree that the measure of our success is the state in which we leave our teams when we move on, and more importantly how many leaders we helped developing.

What if we would make an intentional effort to build relationships, not with our peers, upper management, and executives, but with the people we aim to inspire and guide.

Just because you don’t know any other way, it does not mean there is no other way.

Questions stick

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Measure and report whatever you want, just make sure it provides an answer to a strategic question.

If the number you are sharing with your team is not a direct answer to a question, it is just a number, and I bet you will soon be tempted to report a different one when things do not go as well.

Questions stick, and they define where you are going.

The truth

FabrizioLeave a comment

The Stanford Prison Experiment is an extremely popular experiment in social psychology. It featured normal people taking on the role of prisoners and guards. And most importantly, it featured fights, abuse, dehumanization, nervous breakdowns, bullying, and more. Despite a series of dubious practices, for decades it was considered a legitimate study.

The BBC Prison Study is a not-quite-as-popular experiment in social psychology. It featured normal people taking on the role of prisoners and guards. And most importantly, it featured camaraderie, compassion, some moderate conflict over food, negotiation, the institution of a commune, and long discussions on how to govern the whole group. Despite the fact it was reality TV, it led to a number of academic papers that were eventually accepted in official psychology curricula.

The point is, not always the story that is closer to facts and reality is the most popular. A story just has to be repeated enough times to become plausible, and when that happens, it is very difficult to later convince people it was a hoax, and actually things work in a different way.

This is something we know.

And it is our responsibility as marketers, advertisers, communicators, and change-seekers, to use such power with great care.

You’ll never get it

FabrizioLeave a comment

If after 15 months of covid crisis your organization does not have a plan to promote virtual get-togethers with colleagues, it failed.

If the only meetings are work-related meetings, if the participants rarely are from outside your team, if 1-1s keep being cancelled and postponed – because, you know, managers are busy -, it failed.

If there are no conversations around mental health, well-being, separation between work and personal life. If it is not offering some sort of incentives for therapy. It failed.

If the only times the company and the teams meet, it is the managers doing the talking, and all the other employees listening, it failed.

If what gets rewarded is still achieving personal goals, if cooperation is not actively stimulated, if teams are just a way to build walls rather than a way to reach out and help, it failed.

Just because your numbers are cool, it does not mean your people are too.

If you have not understood this during the past 15 months, you’ll probably never get it.