Category: Leadership

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Leadership

Truth can hurt – will you allow it to change you?

panel of peopleSometimes the truth is hard to take.

Today I led a meeting where I facilitated a discussion about some key issues, lessons learned and proposed action plan to move forward on improvements.

Usually I have a pretty good read on how the meetings turn out, but I’m a bit tired and it felt a bit more serious than normal. I wondered if I had been too bold, taken the right approach, or perhaps not bold enough on a few items. One of the key leaders expressed concern that he didn’t know a certain area had as many issues as I had pointed out.

Later in the day I went to him and said I wanted to know how he felt about the discussion. He said it went well, but he was still bothered about some of the items that had been discussed. He was making it a priority to go and address them.

Sometimes we have to lead the hard conversations. Sometimes the people we share the truth with will take it hard. In the process, we might need to re-iterate what is going right, but still come back to the fact that something needs to change or improve.

At first I wasn’t sure how to feel about his reaction. Had I gone to far?

As I think about it a bit more, I’m actually pleased. He’s going to make some changes and support us in an effort to improve.

Sometimes the truth is hard to take. But, discomfort can lead to necessary changes that will improve our business, our families, our friendships, or our idea.

Embrace it!

Categories
Customer Needs Leadership Nudge

Negative Nudges – with positive results

angry man

Ok, this week I felt like I received some personal nudges that were a bit negative.

One was actually negative – a one star review on one of my online courses. I already wrote a blogpost about that one.

The other wasn’t actually negative, but it did force to get to clearer on my purpose for Nudge Village. Come to think of it, I actually wrote a blogpost about that one as well. You know, the post about “burning the ships?”
Day 39 :: my own worst enemy
Obviously, those “negative” nudges ended up being pretty powerful for me.

Why?

  • Embarrassment – They embarrassed me just a bit. After all, I’m a “Chief Nudger,” and a “Nudge Strategist.” I want to do good work and make a difference.
  • Lead by Example – Most of my day job involves leadership, management and mentoring. Yet, I couldn’t get my own website and products to clearly meet the needs of my audience? Practicing what I preach would be a first good step toward leading by example.
  • Prioritize It – I’ve been incredibly busy. Too busy. But, I have so many ideas. Why not follow them all at once? Right? Wrong. Instead of starting multiple disparate projects, it is time to get clear on 1-2 and …finish them.
  • Focus – What will the 1-2 ideas be? I’ve got to push aside what all the voices are saying (no, not in my head – all the social network voices) and decide what fits me and what fits my audience. Who is my audience anyway? Exactly. Focus.

 

Thank you shout out to the Negative Nudgers

So, I must say thank you to the negative nudgers today. They embarrassed me. I’m now back to leading by example. I’m prioritizing. I’m focusing. I re-arranged my website. I burned some ships (in the form of confusing webpages). I’ve included some new tips in my Authenticity on Twitter course. I’ve had new ideas about what to offer within my more focused website.

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p class=”impact-text”>Don’t disregard them in the future

They may embarrass you. They may make you angry. But, emotion can be good. It can lead to self-improvement. It can lead to more insights and reflection. It can lead to more blogposts on your blog about how the negative nudge changed you. Ha.

I’d say “bring ’em on,” but I have a feeling there will be more negative nudges that will come all too naturally.

For now, I’m going to use them as turning points that keep me on a growth path.

Onward and Upward…..

Categories
Books Ideas Inspiration Leadership Marketing

Anything You Want!

Just finished a great book. Remember? It is the book I ordered directly from Seth Godin’s blog post without even finding out what it was about, who the author was, etc. Now that shows Seth’s influence!

It is a cute little book. You can read it in an hour.Picture of a boy sticking his head out of the sand on the cover of Anything you Want

By Derek Sivers – Anything You Want!

Derek is the founder of CD Baby, an extremely profitable business that enabled any musicians to get started in the world of sharing their music instead of waiting for a big name to pick them up. He’s since sold the business…and the story about that is also in the book.

Why do I love his little book?

Derek is REAL. He made mistakes and shared them. He doesn’t pretend to be this power CEO that must hobnob with the big boys. He encourages all entrepreneurs to follow what makes them happy. And, that will be a different answer for each one.

He is open in sharing that you will have to make decisions along the way that may make you less money, but will make you more happy. It takes guts to run a business this way.

So many great little thoughts, but one I really liked was “Being, not having.” So often we think we need to make more, grow bigger, and have widespread influence. Instead of trying to grow big fast, focus on enjoying what you do and creating value for your customers. Figure out what you really want to spend your time doing – do you like being out and about all the time networking or do you like to keep it small and manageable and immerse yourself in the actual work? “To each his own” so to speak.

One of his business mottos was to do whatever it takes to please the customer. Derek shares the story of how he changed his feedback forms to include a space for customers to ask for whatever they wanted. Someone asked for some cinnamon gum. So, CD Baby had a worker pick up a pack at the store when they ran an errand. They included it in the customer’s order. Another asked for a squid. They complied.  How awesome is that! You think you are just filling space with some weird request to get a reaction and the company actually gets it for you!

I’d venture to say that those customers are still with him. (-:

Go buy the book! It is under $10 and worth the read. Plus, who wouldn’t like a book with this cover? A cute kid stuck in the sand.

Reminds me of a picture of my own, but I wasn’t so happy. (-;

Link to the book Anything You Want on Amazon