Tag: values

Agent or spectator

FabrizioLeave a comment

The fact with difficult conversations is that you can delay them, but you cannot delay the negative effects of the situation that made them necessary in the first place.

If a colleague is under performing and you have to pick up their slack, silence will not improve things. If your boss is not giving you what you demand, silence will not make them change. If the team you are working in has a toxic culture, silence will not make that more digestible.

Also, more likely than not, eventually the outcome you fear and that justified the delay is going to materialize no matter what. That colleague is probably going to be fired anyway, your boss is going to get rid of you, or you are going to get rid of them, the team will have to make some drastic changes one way or the other.

So, at the end of the day it is mainly a matter of being an agent of change or a spectator. The former makes you waste a lot less time, and you have no time to waste.

Care enough

FabrizioLeave a comment

Your colleague does not know how to proceed with their project, there is not much you can do about it.

The executive team has made a decision about a new direction for the company, there is not much you can do about it.

That member of your team is demotivated and you are pretty sure they have started looking for a job, there is not much you can do about it.

The agency is not delivering the quality of work you were expecting for the price you are paying, there is not much you can do about it.

Customers do not understand what you have to offer or why they should care, there is not much you can do about it.

Except, of course, there is.

There is always something you can do about it, provided you care enough. A pep talk, a note, an alternative, a plan, some learning, real positivity, an email, a smile, some words of encouragement, a lot of influencing, long term commitment, a sincere interest.

So, when you go for inertia, at least own the decision: “I am sorry, this is just not important enough for me right now to try to do something to change things”.

Hard work

FabrizioLeave a comment

Hard work, they say, will lead you to success.

But hard work is not working 14 hours a day, weekends included, allowing yourself little sleep, few acquaintances, overworking your team members, writing three paragraphs when one would be enough, replying to all incoming emails within minutes, taking more tasks than you can handle because a promotion is in the air, eating crap because you have no time, a constant status of busyness.

We should stretch the idea of hard work along time and understand that hard work is consistency, determination, showing up with no regard for the reward. Hard work is long term.

Hard work is practice.

Getting past

FabrizioLeave a comment

Life is not about avoiding problems, for the simple reason that problems, challenges, difficulties are an intrinsic part of life itself.

Life is more about identifying problems and finding the courage to stand right in front of them saying: “I will get past you”. And it is true both for the problems that surround us and for those who are within ourselves.

By the way, the better we are at dealing with the latter, the stronger and more effective we are when we tackle the former.

Straight line

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you look at success narrowly, you are pretty much stuck on a single, straight line.

It might be that achieving prestige, power, wealth is indeed your definition of success. That making as much money as possible is what drives you, what makes you feel good, your purpose in life.

But it might as well be that this version does not work for you. Actually, that is most likely. And so, what is the measure of a successful life? When you will look back at an older age, what will you see? What will you remember? What will move you to tears? Is that the next deal you are putting so much effort on? Is that the next 1,000 MQLs? Is that the role you crave to be promoted to?

Again, it might.

The problem though is that most of us are in the game just because somebody else told them that is what matters. And so we walk on the line, so desperately focused that when we stumble, we do not realize there are other lines close by to hang on to.

Life should not be miserable.

There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?

Warren Buffett