You are probably not the strongest.
You are probably not the smartest.
You are probably not the most fearless.
You are probably not the nicest.
You are probably not the greatest.
You are probably not the most positive.
And yet you are here. With the responsibility to make something strong, smart, fearless, nice, great, positive happen.
Work with your limits and don’t let them hold you back.
The world needs you.
Imperfect.
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.
If you want to get everything done today, you will most likely end up doing nothing.
If you keep your queue open to the latest request, you will most likely end up doing nothing.
If you force yourself to do a task when you are just not in the right mindset, you will most likely end up doing nothing.
If you put yourself at the center of a mass distraction, you will most likely end up doing nothing.
If you are asked to explain what you do as you do it, you will most likely end up doing nothing.
There are plenty of ways to do nothing, and arguably just one to actually achieve something.
Take control of your attention.
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.
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.
You've got this 