Reading Time: 2 min If someone invests time with you, whether it’s to help with a project, move a sofa, or just go to the movies, it’s appropriate to thank them for their time. They willingly gave of themselves, and deserve a bit of thanks for it. What if you steal their time, though? Can you still thank them […]
Trust
A trusted partner?
Reading Time: 2 min I get a lot of spam in my inbox every day, and I’m sure you do too. Most of it is just blatant spam, but there is still a subset of it that thinks that it’s just “cold marketing” — which I still categorize as spam. I think a lot of that comes from folks […]
Humility can help you seem real
Reading Time: 3 min Starting back in 2006, Dos Equis ran a series of commercials featuring “The Most Interesting Man in the World”. If you’ve not seem any of them before, here is an example: When reading Robert Carnes’ book “The Story Cycle“, he made an interesting note about these videos and the bit of humility they always showed […]
No organization is perfect
Reading Time: 2 min You see it on Facebook with other people, and on LinkedIn with other companies – “wow, they have everything together”. We’ve learned over the years that a perfectly manicured Facebook feed often isn’t very truthful, but it can be trickier to see that in other organizations. If you see a group that puts out good […]
When your filter bubble works too well
Reading Time: 2 min Over the past decade or so, most people have been building a filter bubble around themselves — only seeing the content that they want to see, and hiding everything else. Sites like Facebook do it quietly and automatically, meaning you have to really fight if you want to keep a nuanced view of the world. […]
More content leads to shorter sales cycles
Reading Time: 2 min If the sales cycle with your company seems to be getting longer and longer, that may indicate a lack of content production on your part. Without solid, regular content, people can’t get to know and trust you until they’ve had direct conversations with you. While those conversations are essential in every case, if you can […]
Love is greater than hurt feelings
Reading Time: 2 min Despite the title, I’m not advocating for being a jerk, but I also think there are times when some hard truths that lead to hurt feelings can be a good thing. In Annie Duke’s excellent book “Quit“, she shares some insight on this from Daniel Kahneman: When I asked Daniel Kahneman what he thinks the […]
Seeking social status gives others power over you
Reading Time: < 1 min There are a lot of people with millions of followers on social media. Many call themselves “influencers” because they feel they have influence over their followers, but in most cases they really don’t. William Irvine’s excellent book “A Guide to the Good Life” says it perfectly: “If we seek social status, we give other people […]
Experts lead the process
Reading Time: < 1 min Are you an expert at what you do? If so, then you should be leading the way in conversations with your clients. Not in a pushy, obnoxious way, but you should be the one to drive things forward. In his book “The Business of Expertise“, David C. Baker compares it to other professions. When you’re […]
Mistakes versus carelessness
Reading Time: < 1 min Many times when reading books, little things pop out at me that simply help me clarify how two words relate to one another. I’ve talked about a complaint versus a problem, social networking versus social media, interpersonal empathy versus social empathy, routines versus practices, attunement versus empathy, precision versus intent, knowing versus understanding, and dozens […]