Tag: team work

For all the parties

FabrizioLeave a comment

Can you ask somebody to help you?

Can you put your ego aside and recognize that somebody else might have a perspective on a matter that would actually improve your own understanding?

Can you step on your fear and embarrassment and ask a simple question that might unlock tremendous progress?

Can you suspend your judgment and assumptions and open yourself to listening to what the other has to say?

Can you accept that somebody would care as much as you do?

Help is the most precious thing there is, for all the parties involved.

We do not leverage that enough in business and organizations.

Holding back

FabrizioLeave a comment

Fear can hold you back, and it can hold back those who look at you for guidance.

As parents, more often than not our own fears fuel the “don’t do that”, “don’t go there”, “that is not safe”. Our kids won’t climb the tree, won’t walk to the grocery shop by themselves, won’t try that stunt with their bikes, won’t go in front of the whole class to present an idea. They are marginally safer, infinitely more anxious and fearful.

And since parenting and leadership are strongly linked, you look at managers and you see how much of their fears dictates their behavior and that of their teams. Better play it safe, please upper management, don’t say when things are wrong, praise everybody, and keep communication to a minimum.

Fear is an important feeling when we label it as such. When instead we avoid it, pretend it’s not there, morph it into reality, then it becomes a blocker for our progress and for the progress of those we care about.

It’s just not worth it.

Get out of the way

Fabrizio1 Comment

At your company, who is responsible for what?

Who do you go to when a new page needs to be added to the website? When a campaign is not performing well and needs changes? When you do not know if a campaign is performing well? When your new service might benefit from a repositioning? When you are considering whether to enter a new market? When a new policy needs to be reviewed?

The point is, it can’t be always the same person. That creates bottlenecks, and at the end of the day one person cannot have all the answers. Also, it can’t always be a group of people (typically the same, the management team). Seeking buy-in from everybody is in itself a bottleneck, and somebody who is good at product development is probably not the best person to advise on brand strategy.

Who is responsible for what – that is something that, as a leader, you need to figure out early on.

Once you have done that, once you have trusted somebody to make decisions, once you have agreed on how you are going to be kept in the loop, once you have defined the metrics to track to measure progress.

Just get out of the way.

Culture is alive

FabrizioLeave a comment

Culture is not a statement.

It’s not a nice quote on the wall, a deck, or the list of principles on your website. It is not something you can decide in a meeting. It is not something you can survey. It is not something you can benchmark.

Culture lives in what you do. In the habits of the day to day, in what your leadership says, in the things that get rewarded. It’s in all the meetings, in the 1-1s, in the informal chats by the coffee machine. It’s in what you communicate, what you focus your attention on every time you stand in front of the camera and broadcast to the whole company. It’s in the details. It is there when nobody is watching.

Reach out

Fabrizio1 Comment

When you are down, reach out.

Even if you don’t feel like it.

Even if you have nothing to say.

Even if you don’t know.

Even if your instict tells you not to risk it.

Even if you are sure nobody would understand.

Even when it’s pouring.

Even when you have been rejected before.

Even if they don’t care.

Connection might well be the single thing that will keep us afloat. Seek it and cultivate it. Even when you don’t feel like it.