All hands on deck
When going into a strategy session, retreat or next-year planning, one thing that often happens is this: Everyone goes to work and figure the ways to make things work… by just jumping in and “brainstorming”, coming up with solutions, deciding on 500 steps ahead. It all would be good, if this pattern didn’t repeat over and over: no reflection nor pause to define what’s THE big thing. Everyone gets behind their own interpretations of the ideas and at the end of the day/session, it’s just…
Leadership stress test
“Leadership is about how to create more leaders; not attract more followers.” David Marquet Do a stress test with any “thought leadership” out there. Which one do most of them fall under? From the ones who pass the test, who do you feel like giving a shout out? Give some thought on why these and no the other ones. Here’s the thing Most “leadership” (and “thought-leadership”) goes about oneself. Choose the path to focus on others. Then, that is actual leadership.
Yes, you are
To yesterday’s email on “What’s the most important” in your business, there were interesting replies: Sustainability Profit Revenue Consistent income Me Freedom to choose Customers And so on… And, while all of them are important, ME, is the most important. Because when you’re not at your best, your work can’t be at its top. You can’t take care of your customers at your best. You can’t take care of making the best decisions to build sustainability into your business. You can’t innovate. You…
What’s the most important?
Pop quiz: What’s the most important for your business?
So, you show how great work you do and…
What to say when you’ve been ghosted. You made your proposal, sent it and… are still waiting for a reply —that might or might never arrive. Here’s what Blair Enns has to say about this and I’ve found right on point. You might wanna give it a shot. What it does It labels the situation as neutral and takes off the guilt of the other parties to say No. It asks for a detached answer, to a simple fact. It gets you out of the desperation reek when trying to get a reply. You come out as gracious…
What if
Asking this is to exercise constraints. Unlike what many people think —that to be creative, you need to have freedom— when you’re restrained is when you get to be more creative. Asking “What if” helps in thinking broadly. And that’s the first step. After that, saying “But this is all I have” will set you in a game of constraints. Where you get to push yourself on how to do things different. And depending on how these things get to be different, your approach will be more or less creative.
Does great work really matters?
The common advice is that, if you do “great work”, you’ll close more deals or that this “great work” will make you stand out —which will automatically bring you clients that value what you do. However, the only ones who can tell good enough on the outside from “great work” are your peers. On the other hand, the ones who can tell work that delivers and brings results on what your clients expect, are your clients. And they fund your mission. While “great work” is a nice way to say what you do…
The less you know…
The more knowledge and more imagination, more originality. How do you get to know more? By knowing less. And then diving deeper. Deepening your expertise. Specializing. Seeing the patterns. With that, you know “What is” and all you have to do after that is ask yourself “What could be?” Start with this: what if?
Great work is not what makes people hire you.
Really. You’ve seen this: “We do great work.” Have you ever seen anyone coming and saying: “We do shit work. Hire us. We’ll make you fail.”? Of course not. It’ll be ridiculous. Of course you want to do great work. Who would not? (taking you actually care about your customers and business). And good-fits for you are customers who actually don’t (really) care about how great work you do, but how great is the transformation you help them go through. Just think about this: If “great work” is what…
Unreadiness
You won’t ever be truly ready for things to happen. There will always be something in the way, something you’d love to know a bit more of, something you won’t completely know or any (or some) level of risk, Yet, you have to act. And own it. Especially when you’re scared AF. It’s taking that responsibility, being “accountable” and brave to make —at times— bold decisions, knowing what’s at stake and yet moving forward because it’s all about that bigger, larger thing than just you. And when you…