Transactional
“We don’t do transactional, we do relationship with our clients.” Everything is transactional. They have different depths, dynamics and trade-offs. Are some business relationship something more, though? And here comes the thing: it’s not about the transaction itself, it’s about the meaning. And there are meaningful relationships. And others that are not. Which ones are the ones that will make YOU, and your customers grow? On which ones would you rather focus on?
Real questions
“There are enough real questions and issues to solve – let’s not solve problems that don’t exist [like stop calling soft skills, something else].” That was a reply to Soft Skills from 2 days ago. Real questions will NEVER get all the time and dedication and focus to be solved as A real question. They’re not in siloes. Everything is connected and interdependent. Problems are not mutually exclusive: If you fix A, you can’t fix B. Because something’s been in use for a long time (hello, status…
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Sometimes you need time to regroup. Do it with intention. That beats busy-ness. Always.
Soft skills
What’s that even supposed to mean: soft skills? Next-level thought leadershit? As you can feel, I have an itch with the term “soft skills”. What’s “soft” about… leadership? communication? empathy? honesty? trust? Is it soft because you can’t measure it? Just as you can’t measure love, right? So love is soft. Makes you soft. And, as soft, it can be disposable. Or is it?
Repeating yourself
To be a “thought leader”, they say you need to be authentic, original and come up with new, innovative, disruptive ideas that no one has ever said before. That you can’t repeat yourself. Buillshit. It’s fine to repeat yourself. In fact, do that. Like in music, add some new riffs, new instruments, new versions, new interpretations. Say the same thing, in as many ways as you can. You’ll find new angles, new holes to fill, new spaces to leave, new ways to see. Just like a song and its own…
Are you waiting for the big moment?
Are you saving your BIG IDEA for when you have the big audience and everyone is waiting for what you have to say? You’re not alone. This fear hits us all the time. You think that you’ll “save” your big idea for when you’re famous / recognized and don’t want to “spend” it early in your journey. But what if you’re not spending your best ideas? What if you’re refining them, live, with an audience? Think of it like a song you just wrote. It sounds good in your head, but unless someone else…
What it takes to see under the surface
Understanding. Yeah, that simple. Understanding of principles, of the conditions, of the stakes themselves. Diving is a different kind of fun (from snorkeling), you can explore for longer what’s underwater. Even prepare to study things in their own environment. And understanding comes from getting prepared, do the thing and increase the level of difficulty / complexity. You need trained skills to get oriented. To look for different landmarks: the coral reef, a slope, the boat’s shadow, the…
Below the surface
To go below the surface, you need special gear —more than just a snorkel and fins. And the stakes also get higher. What do you think it takes to see under?
Snorkeling and business
For snorkeling, you: don’t need quite a lot of equipment: usually just a snorkel, a vest to float and fins. stay on the surface, need lots of sun protection, the risk on it is VERY minimal. have fun, yet, you can’t really explore for longer then what your lungs can hold to see below (a starfish, an angel fish, coral…) have a simpler sense of orientation: you stick your face off the water and figure out where you are. On the other side, you also experience more resistance: sun, wind,…
Thought leadershit
“You can produce thought leadership.”It’s bullshit. That’s like saying that you can produce leaders. A step-by-step process where you get a person in and, like an output, they return being leaders. That can be anything but leadership. Just think about it: if it were the case, why don’t we have more, better leaders? Leadership is the personal decision to help others to do and be at their best. It’s not about having followers, but to open the path for others so that they can lead. First,…