Blog

It’s The Waiting That Kills You

Like a lot of folk I meet plenty of interesting people, talk and share ideas, make proposals, follow up enquiries. It’s part of what is commonly referred to as looking for work, or looking for purpose, or maybe even looking to learn. I then spend time following these things up, Sometimes a conclusion is reached, and often, at some point the dialogue just fizzles out. Calls aren’t returned, emails aren’t responded to.

I’m not talking here about speculative approaches – ones where I think I might have spotted an opportunity and take a punt. On the rare occasion I take that kind of approach – I do so with no expectation of response. No – what I’m talking about is situations where I’ve been asked to submit something to someone else for consideration, feedback, follow up conversations and so on. I’m not the only one who experiences this – am I? Does this happen to you too?

People’s plans change all the time, mine included. I understand that, and when my plans change, I let people know. It would be rude not to, wouldn’t it? Putting the simple lack of courtesy to one side, this course of action burns energy and wastes the time of the person following up. I read a very interesting piece by Alexandra Samuel on the Harvard Business Review where she talks about new opportunities which come our way and the need to think carefully about which to engage with, and which to say no to. Alexandra’s advice is quite simple, we need to learn to say no, politely and effectively.

What really hit me as I read the post, is that not saying no burdens the recipient of the proposal or enquiry too. Perhaps not as much as the person doing the following up, but the recipient still has to read the approach, ignore the approach, think about not returning that call. This stuff takes time and effort and consumes energy. We can all do without this so I think it’s time to get over the anxiety of delivering so called bad news, and as Alexandra Samuel recommends, just learn to say no. Politely and effectively.

I wrote this post in 2010. At the time I called it ‘Yes or no, but not nothing’. I’ve updated and retitled it now, in January 2016. Six years since writing this remains one of the biggest challenges I face. With help – I’ve got better at parking these stalled conversations, and even so – I’d much rather they were dealt with, rather than left to hang around on the edges of my mind, like unwelcome guests at a party. If this is something you experience and you have a useful way of dealing with it – I’d love to hear from you please.

I can live with the no far easier than the silence. A no, or even a not now, helps me plan, so let’s make 2010/2011/2012/2013/2014/2015/2016 the year of saying yes, or no, but not nothing. Thank you.

Using Commitment and Ownership to Enhance Engagement

One of the many links I followed on Twitter today took me to a very interesting piece by Terrence Seamon. The article is called “Engagement: A New Lens on Performance Review”. What I like about it is a) it’s a short and simple read and b) it ties engagement, productivity and performance together neatly. Here’s a brief extract and you can click here for the article on Terrence’s blog. Good work.

If a business leader hears about employee engagement and sees the potential in it to raise his organization’s productivity and profitability, how would he link it to his annual performance management process?

Commitment – Essentially, employee engagement comes down to commitment: How committed is the employee to the organization? Let’s cut to the quick on this and say: Employee commitment is directly related to the degree of commitment they feel from the organization. So, if you want high performance from employees, demonstrate your commitment to them. This can take a variety of forms. In the context of performance review, one thing you can do is “turn the tables” and ask the employee for feedback. Ask: How are we doing? What can we do to provide you with better support this year? What are your goals that we can help you with?

Ownership – Some employees are already highly engaged. If you could “pop the lid” on their psyches and peer inside, what would you see? One of the things you’d notice is that they have the attitude of an owner. They take ownership of the things they do. They don’t need much supervision. And they don’t need your feedback either in most cases. In fact, they are their own toughest critics most of the time.

Is Your Message Clear or Are You Contributing to the Noise?

This post is part of the Guest Blog Grand Tour over at Life Without Pants – an epic journey of over 75 guest posts. Want to learn more about Matt Cheuvront & see how far the rabbit hole goes? Subscribe to the Life Without Pants RSS feed & follow him on Twitter to keep in touch!

If you’re an avid reader of my blog…wait, you’re not reading it yet? What are you waiting for?

Ehem, anyway, if you’re an avid reader of my blog you know that I am not a man of few words – in  fact – if there’s one thing I continue to work on as a writer, it’s condensing my long winded thoughts into concise, easy to digest ideas. Because when it comes to writing, sometimes less is truly more.

Seth Godin, Carlos Miceli, & Tim Jahn are three guys I admire for their ability to say a lot without saying a lot. They represent a ‘big picture’ concept that a lot of bloggers and businesses neglect. They’re able to get their message across without clutter – they cut through the noise and get to the point. When you get wordy, when you throw a lot of messages and signals at someone, you run the risk of losing them in translation.

I’m a freelance web designer myself – and there are three things I always tell the clients I work with who are building their website or blog.

Your calls to action must be obvious

If I want to subscribe to your blog, send you an email, or buy your product. I don’t want to figure out how to do it; I just want to do it. Make sure it’s easy for your visitors to do what you want them to.

Provide easy navigation

Again, this goes along the same lines as creating clear calls to action – your page navigation needs to be clear and consistent. Leave a trail of breadcrumbs that is easy for your visitors to follow and navigate through.

Define your takeaways

On each page of your site, there needs to be a clear takeaway – whether it’s simply to read and comment on a blog post, subscribe to a newsletter, or sign up for a service – you need to define a purpose for every single page of your website – and make that purpose easy to define for your visitors.

You don’t hold your breath all the time. Sometimes a grandiose 1000 word blog post is in the cards – but never underestimate the power a few impactful words can have. Sometimes, in fact, often-times, less truly can be more. There is beauty in simplicity.