Tag: trust

Not a support function

FabrizioLeave a comment

Don’t go to marketing with tasks. Go to marketing with ideas.

As marketing owns many of the communication channels of a company, marketers often find themselves swamped with (last minute) requests to push out this or that message. An upcoming webinar. The latest integration. A landing page. A logo to add somewhere. The next newsletter.

Approach marketing with ideas, instead. Ideas are broader, they give marketers the possibility to prioritise, plan, create. They stimulate ownership and foster better organization.

Marketing is not a support function.

Give before you ask

FabrizioLeave a comment

You have to give before you can ask.

Lead with your expertise, your point of view, your research, your data, your guests, your knowledge before you actually ask to sign up. Even better, never ask. Set up a vision for your world so unique and appealing that people will want to be part of it without you even having to ask.

Sometimes you might get lucky. You might have people onboard before you have to do anything. That “free trial” banner might get enough curiosity for it to actually have an impact on your top line.

But don’t let luck misdirect you.

You have to give before you can ask.

Blessings

FabrizioLeave a comment

Mistakes are a blessing.

If you have the patience to acknowledge them, accept them, analyse them, and discuss them, they are the easiest and surest way to become better at what you are trying to do.

Back to work

FabrizioLeave a comment

You can’t know the effect that a negative news – a lay-off, a missed goal, a demotion, a change in responsibilities – will have on the team you are leading.

But you can, and you should, create the space for people to talk about it. Both among themselves and with management.

Going back to work as if nothing had happened is forceful.

Not every story needs a villain

FabrizioLeave a comment

Sometimes we make decisions that have a negative impact on our community, on the people around us, on the group.

We might break a rule, or demote someone, or take a controversial stance on a shared opinion.

And when we do that, it looks like the immediate need is to degrade the object of our decision.

The rule is stupid, the person is incompetent, the shared opinion is naive.

We end up creating friction and eventually the fracture is inevitable.

We could instead own the decision. Be straightforward about it. Acknowledge that perhaps, this time, we might be seen as the bad guy, and still we believe we are doing something that make sense for the purpose we want to achieve.

It is a better way to frame what’s happening, one that goes beyond a false sense of righteousness that we too often use to shield our own responsibilities.

Not every story needs a villain.