Breaking the Thought Leadershit Cycle
Break the cycle The point of these last emails is to provoke you and push you to question yourself what’s going on. Also, to give you some places, resources and people I’ve found that —if you take the path of making something remarkable— might help you. Remember, leadership begins with building trust. So show up with something meaningful. Show up to help, but not to give [general] advice. How can you better serve your audience? What can you bring to them that will make it worth their while?…
I’m A Thought-Leader
Now that the Leadershit part is off my system, we can talk about Thoughts today. You do produce thoughts —as opposed to… everybody else? Right… “I’m A Thought-Leader” Are you, really? Calling yourself a “thought leader” (or that you produce thought leadership) is presumptuous and means you have no agency. Most of the self-proclaimed thought-leaders sound (and feel) like this. (It’s a 4-min inspiring presentation by Pat Kelly) Just because you write/publish, it doesn’t mean your thinking…
Thought Leadershit
There’s this belief(?) that you can produce thought leadership.It’s bullshit. It’s like saying that you can produce leaders. A manufactured process (aka certifications) where you put one person in and, no matter what, they turn into leaders. That’s not leadership. That could be management school for all we know —or any online cert. Leadership is the decision to sustain an environment for others to do and be at their best. It’s not about having followers, but to open the path for others so…
Marketing bullshit
Here are some beliefs that are well-extended in business. Most of them though, take an approach from 100 years ago: an industrial era, not a knowledge era. Thought leadershit The best product wins The best marketing wins The best advertising wins Build and they’ll come You need to start with low prices to enter the market Work for free [aka pricing zero] Show your value (working for free) and then they’ll pay you. Perfect your pitch The more ads, the more they’ll buy your stuff Price is costs…
There will be more dives
You’ve seen now a bit of how diving could relate to business and how some principles could be applied. If there’s one thing I wish for you to stick with —especially in this world of uncertainty, fast-pace and busy-ness— is to Think Like A Diver. Remember to pause, assess, correct and go with your gut. You have the tools. You can make the time. Thinking like a diver will put you in advantage: you’ll see things moving in slow motion and gain perspective. If after your assessment you decide your…
Breaking a market
In an atomized market, if you do average, you get average. To stand out you need to be an outlier. Thinking as most people, in diving it could be in a very special location, a special feature, etc. However, when the space is price-driven, you need to change the context. You need to be the obvious choice. Breaking a market For the outliers in the market: they don’t focus on the price, but look for a different kind of either an offer or a different kind of buyer, like a more sophisticated…
Diving. A commodity.
A good thing and a “bad” thing. Yesterday’s email said that diving is a commodity and a scaled productized service. And that it’s a good and a bad thing. Depending on where you stand. Good thing The first organizations who entered the market chose to make it like that. They standardized the processes, the inputs, the scope. Making it happen like that allowed them to scale and propagate everywhere. With this, they can (still) capture a high volume and different fees that support their business…
Dive certifications
You know what’s interesting about dive certifications? They’re a productized service. You know how much time it’ll take you. You know the scope of work. You have a fixed, published price for it. And it’s scalable (yes, hiring more hands to do the work, but still a kind of scalability). The easy thing for the people interested in diving and get a certification is that they self-select —either by location, pricing or other benefits. Schools, certifications, dives and more are all listed and the…
A perfect combo
A clusterfuck. The perfect combo for failure. To avoid it, start Thinking Like A Diver. Clusterfuck [diving].— A hectic situation where too much is happening at once. It causes stress and can lead to uncomfortable situations for all parties involved in said clusterfuck. Underwater, it increases the risks to everyone involved —the diver himself and the ones diving along with (in so many different ways). Losing control of a situation means moving faster (causing fatigue), wasting oxygen, lose…
Seeing the unseen
How do you get to see the unseen? You dive in. You go below the surface and explore, test and find out what’s under there —what other people don’t get to see on the surface. How do you do it? Take a long step (or flip backwards) into the unknown. Feel the pressure as you go down, how it surrounds you and feels like a blanket. Know your tools and judgement. How are things going on? Is it too deep? Can I see things? Now relax and explore. Question everything. Find the gaps. It’s a new world…