Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
The toughest decisions you’ll have to make can be made before you actually face them.
The moments that test your morality or your leadership method or your ethics can be handled ahead of time. It all has to do with establishing your values; what you demand or refuse to deal with in your work.
When you set boundaries early on, it removes the “tough” in “tough decision” in the future.
These are mine. What are yours?
Stay Positive & Values Are Everything
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We often have a dozen plans for if something goes wrong, but in the effort to lay out as many safety nets as possible, many-a-manager forgets to prepare for success.
What if your post goes viral? Are you ready to handle that influx of social engagement?
What if your pitch is such a success that they want to buy 10x the amount of product you currently have? Do you have a plan to accommodate?
Believe it or not, success is often more disruptive than failure.
Why wouldn’t you spend more time planning for it?
Stay Positive & Prepared For Things To Go Right
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Your work becomes infinitely better when you begin to notice the stories of all that’s around you.
The masterminds of our generation and each before us had the skill to recognize and appreciate the story their friends told about themselves, the story of a product they used every morning, the stories athletes would revisit each time before a performance.
Every interaction, decision and shipment of one’s work is driven by stories.
Stories we tell ourselves. Stories we hear. Stories we want to prove to be true.
And when we listen, we’re able to to make a real impact, to tell a story justice, to use a story to connect, to hear what another is truly saying.
Stay Positive & Stories Are Everything
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You might have heard the basics a thousand times before, but those around you might not have.
Maybe a teammate was working with another client before your meeting and needs to be regrounded.
Maybe you simply want to emphasize to the client that your thinking is grounded in the agreed upon essentials.
The thing about a foundation is once you let it slip away, you’re working with an entirely new pyramid and the risk of going off-brand, off-target, off-grid increases exponentially.
It’s not worth it for the extra two minutes it takes to reiterate the essentials.
Stay Positive & Grounded
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If you’re asked a question, your reaction is to answer.
Those who can take a moment to respond with a question like “What makes you ask that?” their answer to the original question can change drastically.
Sometimes it makes sense to try to fill in the story of the asker and give them a quick answer.
Other times, it makes more sense to ask them to tell you the story they are telling themselves. It provides helpful context.
Oh, and it’ll make you look smarter in the long run.
Stay Positive & Ask Before You Answer
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There’s an ol’ productivity hack of running down your list of to-dos, and if you can do something within a few minutes, then do it.
It provides mental space for tackling the bigger projects and reduces the anxiety of a long to-do list. Turns out that we see a lot of our tasks bigger than what they actually are.
However, when it comes to telling others that you’ll do something, it ought to be treated with the same three-minute rule. If you’re not able to show action toward doing what you said in the first few minutes of saying it, then don’t make the promise.
The gap of time between doing what we say is ever-shrinking. People are watching, assessing and altering the amount of trust they give someone based on how quickly you begin doing what you say you’d do.
Stay Positive & Promises Are For The Present
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You can have the most remarkable product, but people are programmed to rationalize why what they have right now is the right thing to have, even if they are irrational about it.
That’s why it’s so important to start with the pain point.
What in their story do they dislike? It’s okay to point out that bottled beer is more expensive in trades because of the weight and that they are better off trading canned beer instead.
Once you’re on the same page of what the pain point is, trust develops.
From there, your solution speaks for itself.
Stay Positive & One More Reason To Listen, Not Shout
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