Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
Half the battle is answering the tough questions.
A business plan isn’t effective because it’s a plan; it’s effective because it forces a person to answer the tough questions in writing.
1-1s result in both parties feeling fulfilled when the manager invests more in asking questions than talking.
And so on…
Stay Positive & Battle Gear Off
You want an effective marketing plan: create two columns.
Mark one as The Measurable and the other as The Unmeasurable.
Not put your tactics and strategies under each.
Are they balanced?
Can you imagine which one has more influence on the other?
Would be a bummer if that was the column you had fewer things in, wouldn’t it?
Stay Positive & Unmeasurable > Measurable
My daughter swiffered the floor (she’s three, mind you).
“Daddy, did I do a good job?”
If a good job is doing a job. Yes. If a good job is removing all of the dog hair on the floor of a room. No. If a good job is feeling proud of the effort you put in. Yes. If a good job is showing your sister how to be engaged in household chores. Yes. If a good job was doing it well enough that we don’t have to redo it again later. No.
Your team might not ask for the feedback, but they want to know if they are doing a good job.
Of course, you could make it so they don’t have to wonder what’s a good job.
Handing them the swiffer is one thing. Telling them what a good job looks like with it is a whole other.
Stay Positive & BRB, Gotta Go Reswiffer With My Daughter
It’s a beautiful expression, really. Even more so when you think about all that can be categorized under it.
Stay Positive & Ain’t Life Grand?
A leader’s job is to blend two objectives.
That’s it.
Succeed in achieving those two things together and you’ll be the most sought out leader in the world.
Stay Positive & Never Said It Was Easy, Though
There’s far too much internal debating about content, product, GTM, and alike.
At some point (and that point happens far earlier than we ever think), it’s best to put it in front of the target and get feedback.
Of course, the feedback may not be perfect. Perhaps it’s best to get thoughts from 2-3 targets to really round it out. But you don’t need far more than that to validate killing, continuing or simply shipping a project.
Asking the target (not through some formal survey or incentivized email, but on the phone, in person or on a video call) gives you the shield to protect an idea as others intend to share how they think or feel about it (or perhaps when new team members join the project and want to influence it).
“I think this works best” holds no weight against a statement like “I talked to a target prospect and they said this would be strong collateral.”
It’s not perfect, I’ll admit. But perfection isn’t the goal. Alignment and shipping the thing is.
Stay Positive & When Did You Share The Work With The Target Last?
The unpredictability of the sea is what makes it so magical.
The uncertainty is tantalizing; rather, the only thing that is certain is that it will change.
The current shifts. Different animals pop up. And you never know exactly what you’ll see what you’re out at sea.
Most of our projects and jobs and businesses are more like the sea than we acknowledge them as.
In fact, it’s when we try to see them differently than the sea that we get frustrated. When we act like consistency is permanent or tomorrow will be almost exactly like today or the guests we’ll serve next weekend will be the same kind of guests we served last weekend.
Far better to lean in, appreciate, and work with the change.
Stay Positive & Grab A Paddle
