- Thoughtfully making a decision followed by thoughtful reflection.
- Listening to people who did step 1.
I’m watching “American Fiction” and can’t stop laughing at the satirical portrayal of American society. In some ways, I love the deliciously contrarian nature of the writers. On other ways, I love the family and value-driven storyline. I don’t want to get into reviewing movies. But I want to highlight how much I love that our culture is becoming more open to taking itself less seriously.
I’m fasting at the moment. Currently I’ve fasted for 5 full days. Here’s what I find interesting:I’m hardly hungry. I’ve got lots of energy. I’m productive. My output and focus this week is greater than last 30 days. I feel less anxious. I’ve fasted for extended periods of time before. 5 days is the longest. I will likely keep going. An interesting experience. I’ll do it again.
I think part of not overextending yourself is figuring out when you’ve fought the good fight.At this point, that fight is fought and it’s time to for rest.See you tomorrow.
Two team members recently started at my firm. They are going to be strong Customer Success Managers, and I’m looking forward to working for them one day. They come to me with lots of questions.Today I responded to questions a bit differently. I said, “Try to figure it out… where do things start to fall apart? What problems do you find you need to solve first in order to address your question to me?” I find the saying “don’t come to me with problems, come to me with solutions” problematic. If I’m an employee and always had a solution, what’s the benefit of my leader? I think I’m starting to prefer “come to me with the problems about your problems.”
I had some pain recently. Nothing crazy, don’t get worried. As I dealt with it I told myself I have three options: Tough it out and be macho.Cry about it. Embrace it. See it as a friction for something better.I chose option 3, and it was a great choice. Keeping the thought “eventually, it will all be over” was a remarkably calming tonic. I even focused on the pain and tried to imagine what might be causing it. I looked for words to describe it — that was fun. In a way, I danced with it. Perspective.
I usually take an emotional drain at this time of the year. This year, I feel a sense of “I’ve got this.” What’s changed? I think the answer is simple. I got out ahead of it, and took time off.Looking at life in the aggregate gives you the opportunity to see patterns. Once you see them, you can do something about it.
I don’t see many bosses invest in their teams unless there’s a problem. I wonder if that’s the wrong approach. I also notice that many orgs have “learning” benefits, but typically come loaded with a bunch of red tape. Why can’t development be easier?After talking with so many different people, I am re-affirming my opinion that the only person who you depend on to invest in you is you. A friend of mine, Brian, says he’s investing in himself so that he can develop the ability to fly. I love that. I’m investing in myself so that I have the ability to explore deeper along the margin. Invest in yourself — read blogs, go to libraries, hang out with people wiser than you. Learn form them. Dead people are often the most insightful.
You might think you have a 50% chance of getting heads or tails if you flip a coin. However, as I’m learning from statistics, you’d need to conduct a huge number of tests to average out to 50% probability. Biggest learning: when the odds are up/down, yes/no, good/evil — my hunch is choose the option that helps people the most and doesn’t cause unnecessary pain. You won’t find out until the very end whether it was right or not. Life is about leading indicators.
I wrote this to my team.A customer success team is a team of partners – (someone special) always says that. We are partners and advisors to our providers. Our goal is to challenge them with questions and partner with them to achieve their goals. We are coaches.We are not order takers and we are not customer service or support professionals. I value service and support professionals, and their skill sets are different than ours.Your customers, your clients, trust you to look after their investment. They have dreams and goals they hope their investment realizes for them. They want to tell themselves a better story about themselves and their business – they want you to help make that happen. Never take the responsibility you have for granted.I think you could say that about almost any profession.