by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Marketing, Mindset, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 22 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
How to turn any venture into an admired brand
— From: Bigger Than This: How to turn any venture into an admired brand by Fabian Geyrhalter
Since I love marketing and the creativity behind it, I’m always delighted to hear how companies brand themselves. The media likes this too, and frequently we hear the branding stories about startups with innovative concepts or products becoming beloved brands, as people flock to purchase whatever they’re selling.
Rarely, if at all, do we hear about companies that sell commodities turning them into beloved brands. That is, until now. Branding Guru Fabian Geyrhalter, author of How to Launch a Brand, recently published his second book, Bigger Than This. In it, he details 8 principles that help companies who sell commodities (“products and services that have remained widely unchanged”) turn their brands around to tell empathic stories that resonate with their existing tribes and create new raving fans.
Here are the 8 principles. Follow one or follow all to position your brand strongly:
1. Tell your story. Stories are memorable and relatable. “They flip the intangible into something tangible, the unrelated into something emotional.”
2. Believe in something and be vocal about it. “Any brand can stand for something meaningful, but to do that it has to define and embody its values.” And the values need to be aligned with those of the customers and the community.
3. Root for a cause. “Identify a social cause that can be activated in an authentic way to manifest that the purpose of the product/service goes deeper than solely generating sales.”
4. Connect with your heritage. We all like to anchor ourselves to different places because we feel a sense of connection or belonging. “Connect your product with the desire of consumers to formulate a deeper connection with the place your brand will be known for.”
5. Be delighted to delight customers. “A small, unexpected gesture will lead to them seeing [your brand] as a friend.”
6. Be transparent. “Create a strategic plan on how far you will take the idea of transparency and where your brand will draw the line.”
7. Stand in solidarity with your customers. “Only deep and honest empathy will touch people’s hearts long term. A quote from Alan Alda in the book says, “… focusing on the other person’s need and not my own was the most effective way to make a sale.”
8. Customize if possible. “Start simply by using your collected customer data to create personal experiences surrounding your customer service or product interactions. Customization can start a small as that and grow from there.”
Finally, the book leaves you with this short and helpful template for a “simple positioning statement to derive the bigger story,” and it instructs to “put extra emphasis in deriving your ‘because’—your reason to believe.”
“To [target audience]
our product is the [category]
that provides [functional, symbolic or emotional benefits]
because [support/reasons to believe].”
ACTION
TODAY: Take a look at what you do or what you sell. Could your brand benefit from any of the principles above? If so, identify the one that you can start implementing today (even if just with one tiny action). Note that these principles could also apply to a personal brand. What does your online image say about you in the various social media platforms that you have? How can you tell your story in the best light possible to resonate with those you lead?
FUTURE: Run both your business and personal brands through the above principles and template. Both brands will come out stronger and better positioned to suit your goals.
Let me know if you’d like me to put together an online branding session (at no cost, of course). I know a few branding gurus and will gladly invite them to share their knowledge with us via Facebook Live or a webinar or video chat. I think we could all benefit from hearing experts in the field as to how to position our business and personal brands in a stronger way. Shoot me an email to let me know if you’re in, and I will plan accordingly if this idea gains traction. Fingers crossed!
Know someone who might like this post? Please share it via email, Facebook or Twitter!
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 31 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
Put doubts in your doubts.
— From: Simple Is the New Smart: 26 Success Strategies to Build Confidence, Inspire Yourself, and Reach Your Ultimate Potential by Rob Fazio
Whenever we are going to do something, whether for the first or the umpteenth time, doubts may creep in. It’s natural, but if left unchecked, doubts can sometimes take over and paralyze or derail us.
Rob Fazio quotes a successful strategy by Al Petitpas, renowned psychologist to athletes, that helps “turn [around] people’s level of performance in sport and life.” The secret? Putting doubts in your doubts. Here’s how it works:
1. Scan for your doubts. Make a list of your doubts. Fear is usually the strongest of all, but it could also be “something that seems as harmless as a gut feeling about who is watching you or the setup of a situation.”
2. Understand and verify. Once you have a list, you can understand the source of your doubts by asking: “Where are these doubts coming from? What are the triggers? Are they real or did you create them?” And once you’ve answered, then ask “Is there any value?” This is important to verify, because, “for example… if you feel unprepared… that may be a cue to prepare more.” This step helps you see what is real and valid, and what isn’t.
3. Identify what the doubts are preventing. Those pesky doubts always have a way of stopping us short, even if temporarily, when they appear. “The way to counteract this is by asking yourself a simple, yet powerful question: ‘What would I achieve if I didn’t have any doubts?’ This question gives us forward momentum [and creates] a vision of success that focuses on the positive.”
4. Put doubt in your doubts. Our doubts usually start with “what if…” and then we imagine the worst-case scenario. So, what if we were to turn that on its head? Shift the negative “what ifs” into “questions that guide [you] toward success”:
“What if…
→ I wasn’t afraid?
→ I didn’t think about what others think?
→ I was confident right now?
→ I was able to get out of my own way?”
5. Shout out the doubt. Take the questions above and transform them into positive, strong statements that you can believe and that resonate with you and your values. “You need to believe in yourself or no one else will.
→ ‘I wasn’t afraid?’ becomes: ‘I know how to manage my fear.’
→ ‘I didn’t think about what others think?’ becomes: ‘I care more about what I think than what others think of me.’
→ ‘I was confident right now?’ becomes: ‘I am confident and strong.’
→ ‘I was able to get out of my own way?’ becomes: ‘Who I am is my strongest asset, and I help myself win.’”
6. Replace the doubt with doing. Action cures fear. “This is where the focus happens and you shift from doubt to doing. Identify one situation where your doubts have held you back, and attack. Leverage your newfound confidence and lean into your discomfort.”
7. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. By building the habit of doubting your doubts and taking action “you will have more power and control over yourself and debilitate your doubts.” More importantly, you will be able to take action where necessary in the case of true and valid doubts (e.g. more preparation in the above example), or dispel them if they arise out of fear or out of another emotion that is not serving you at this time.
ACTION
TODAY: Take one of your doubts and run it through the steps above. What did you learn? I’m sure a positive mind shift took place!
FUTURE: Make some time in the near future to create a list of doubts and run each doubt through the steps above. Take action where you need to. Rinse and repeat as often as needed. I’m sure you will be able to lift a burden off your shoulders (the stress we undergo from our doubts is not only unnecessary but also quite draining), and have peace of mind knowing that you are moving forward towards the completion of your goals.
Like what you read? Then don’t doubt for a second and help us spread the word via email, Facebook or Twitter. Your friends with doubts will thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Growth, Marketing, Mindset, Resources, Sales
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 48 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
How to apply the Law of the Category to your benefit.
— From The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout (read a sample or watch an animated video summary of the book).
“What’s the name of the third person to fly the Atlantic Ocean solo? If you didn’t know that Bert Hinkler was the second person to fly the Atlantic, you might figure you had no chance at all to know the name of the third person. But you do. It’s Amelia Earhart. Now, is Amelia known as the third person to fly the Atlantic Ocean solo, or as the first woman to do so?”
You just witnessed in action one of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, the Law of the Category:
“If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.”
As professionals, we are constantly selling either products, services, or our efforts (say, our work to our boss) and we tend to focus on “better.” But better naturally brings a comparison: better than what? Better than X we say. And then a further comparison ensues. Ok, better than X, but can you top Y? The bar is constantly being raised to unattainable levels if we just focus on better, better, better. Let’s think new instead.
Marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout say that while “everyone talks about why their brand is better… prospects have an open mind when it comes to categories. Everyone is interested in what’s new. Few people are interested in what’s better.”
By promoting the category you are first in, you can differentiate yourself from the competition. And since every category has a leader, you can become this way the market leader in your category.
So, what category are you first in? Let me know in the comments!
ACTION
TODAY: Figure out what category you are first in. If you sell a product or service this should not be difficult, as what differentiates you from the competition is a way to define your category. If you are not in sales directly, you can create your own category in the work that you do. Are you the first to try some new strategy or method? Or the first to try out some new technology? Or the first to teach something to someone? There are so many firsts that come to mind! What can you do that can give you a leg up, and create a category of “you did this first” in the mind of the people you report to? If you can’t come up with anything, check out this post: There is no such thing as a shortage of ideas or ping me and I can help.
FUTURE: One of the ways in which you can constantly create value is by reinventing yourself, your business/work, and your categories. Make a point to review your categories at least twice a year. Are you still dominant in the one you chose? If so, congrats and keep on going. Are you still dominant but many competitors are trying to snatch your title? Come up with another, complimentary category. That way you’ll have the strength of the first one plus the additional one, and this will certainly be a further differentiator in your clients’ minds.
Know someone who can benefit from reading this post? Please share it with them via email, Facebook or Twitter — thanks a lot!
by Helena Escalante | Collaboration, Creativity, Mindset, Opportunity
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 5 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
The lone genius myth is not true, it’s about collaboration.
— From Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon (here’s a summary of the book)
As a society we’re enamored with many myths, and one of them is the one of the “lone genius.” Austin Kleon says that seeing creativity under such light portrays it as “an antisocial act, performed by only a few great figures, mostly dead men with names like Mozart, Einstein or Picasso. The rest of us are left to stand around and gawk in awe at their achievements.”
Instead, Kleon points to the way in which the renowned English musician Brian Eno views creativity as a scenius: “a whole scene of people who [are] supporting each other, looking at each other’s work, copying from each other, stealing ideas and contributing ideas.” A scenius is a model under which “great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals—artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers—who make up an ‘ecology of talent’.”
“ A scenius doesn’t take away from the achievements of those individuals; it just acknowledges that good work isn’t created in a vacuum, and that creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the results of a mind connected to other minds.”
The beauty of a scenius then, is twofold:
- It opens the door for the rest of us: “the people who don’t consider ourselves geniuses” and for whom art and creativity takes many different expressions than in its purest, most widely adopted sense. I’m subscribing here to Seth Godin’s description of art in his book The Icarus Deception: “Art is not a gene or a specific talent. Art is an attitude, culturally driven and available to anyone who chooses to adopt it. Art isn’t something sold in a gallery or performed on a stage. Art is the unique work of a human being, work that touches another. […] Seizing new ground, making connections between people or ideas, working without a map— these are works of art, and if you do them, you are an artist, regardless of whether you wear a smock, use a computer, or work with others all day long.”
- You don’t have to be a genius to be part of a scenius. To be a valued member of a scenius is not about your intelligence and talent, the school you went to, or who your parents are. It’s about your valuable contribution to the community (ideas, connections, conversations, and elevating the art form, whatever this form may be in your particular scenius).
Thankfully, we live in a time where the Internet provides lots of sceniuses where we can all contribute to something that we care about. There’s plenty of opportunity and no barrier to entry. So, what scenius will you pick and what will your contribution be? Let me know in the comments.
ACTION
TODAY: Where is your scenius? What tribe would you like to belong to? Identify where your scene is (whether in person or virtually) and make connect and contribute something today if possible (an idea, a comment, feedback, etc.). If not, schedule in your calendar when you can start contributing, and do so.
FUTURE: Now that you’ve found your scenius, take a look around. Where and what is the most valuable contribution that you can make with the resources that you have? Think: time, knowledge, resources, connections, etc. May sound trite but it’s true: you always get out what you put into it, so give it your best. If you’re hesitant about making a commitment because it seems daunting, give yourself a trial time to see if it’s a good fit. Contribute to a scenius for, say, 3-6 months and see what happens. One way or another, I’m sure you’ll be all the better for it afterwards.
Enjoyed the post? I hope so! Please share these ideas with more people via email, Facebook or Twitter — thanks a lot!
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Goals, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 43 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
Give Yourself an A.
— From The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, by Rozamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.
Because we live in an ultracompetitive society, we are constantly comparing our results to others and others’ results to ours. The result? Disappointment that we don’t measure up or that others don’t measure up to our standards, with the consequent anxiety, despair, and a bunch of other symptoms caused by this unnecessary stress. However, Ben and Roz Zander in The Art of Possibility rightly state that all of the labels we assign are merely human inventions, “so we might as well choose to invent something that brightens our life and the lives of the people around us.”
As such, they describe a fascinating tactic, the practice of giving an A*: “It’s a shift in attitude that makes it possible for you to speak freely about your own thoughts and feelings while, at the same time, you support others to be all they dream of being. The practice of giving an A transports your relationship from the world of measurement into the universe of possibility.”
You can give yourself an A, and you can also give it to “anyone in any walk of life—to a waitress, to your employer, to your mother-in-law, to the members of the opposite team, and to the drivers in traffic… This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.”
Ben Zander, who serves as musical director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (on the date of publication of this post) says that he gives all students in his class an A at the beginning of the course in exchange for writing him a letter (within the following two weeks and postdated at the end of the course) in which each student should detail “the story of what will have happened to [him/her by the end of the course] that is in line with this extraordinary grade. [The students] are to place themselves in the future, looking back, and to report on all the insights they acquired and milestones they attained during the year as if those accomplishments were already in the past.” In the letter, Zander wants them to highlight, and is especially interested in, “the person [the student] will have become [by the end of the course]… the attitude, feelings, and worldview of that person who will have done all she wished to do or become everything he wanted to be.”
“I tell them I want them to fall passionately in love with the person they are describing in their letter.”
So why not give ourselves an A today and see what happens? And how about giving it to the people that surround us? Let’s give it a try, for all we know, we may make our corner of the world a much better place!
ACTION
TODAY: Write yourself a letter explaining why you’re giving yourself an A, and date it a year from today. Describe who you will have become and why a year from now. Fall passionately in love with the person you are describing in the letter. Go make it happen!
FUTURE: Every time you find yourself unnecessarily stressed or in a pickle about something, give yourself and the people involved in it an A (no letters involved here, you can simply give them an A in your mind). See how your attitude changes. Ask yourself, “What happens if we pretend that this isn’t hard?” It’s game changing!
In my mind and in my heart you are all As, and my wish for you is to always dwell in possibility and marvel at yourself and others. I am so grateful for you being with me on this journey: EntreGurus is celebrating one month, and we have so much more to share, woo-hoo!!
Please let me know in the comments the ideas that EntreGurus has sparked in you! And a favor, please: help me share these ideas with more people via email, Facebook or Twitter. Thank you!
NOTES:
* For our international gurupies**: Grades in school in the United States are measured in a scale of A to F, with A being the highest and best grade a student can get. In other countries this would be the equivalent of 10 or 100. Simply substitute the A in this case for the highest and best grade that students can get in your country and this tactic will immediately resonate with you!
** Gurupie = blend of guru and groupie = how we fondly refer to the EntreGurus’ community, because we all follow the ideas of the gurus.
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Mindset, Planning, Time
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 11 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
Create an intermission to get started on your mission: We need to purposefully take some time off to give deep thought to what we want
— From: This Time I Dance! Creating the Work You Love by Tama J. Kieves
We’ve all heard the saying: “There are seven days in a week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday… and ‘Someday’ is NOT one of them.” So why do we tend to push our dreams, wants, and longings for someday?
Tama Kieves says, “You have no idea how much your current job [read: business / activities / routines / lifestyle] affects your thinking about your future and keeps you chained to your past. On vacation from my law firm, I got a suntan and what seemed like a brain transfusion… Outside my office, not everybody scowled and snapped and neither did I… I could not assess my job and my life while in the thick of my job that was my life.” She continues, “I’ve just noticed that we only tend to find our mission once we take an intermission from the work life that doesn’t work.”
Finding or making time off to give some serious thought to what you want, or find your true calling, or your life’s purpose is not easy. It’s not a lunch-hour activity or something you can do while running on the treadmill. Bill Gates takes “think weeks” every year, and paid and unpaid sabbaticals are on the rise in corporations. Entrepreneur Mike Karnjanaprakorn wrote about the benefits of his time off in this article. But if you absolutely, positively cannot take time off, then use your weekends to set aside time to think and then time to act.
I’ll leave you with one last beautiful quote from Tama:
“All you have to do is take a time-out and honor the purpose of that time. Then inclinations start to tap you on the shoulder. Then dreams. Then means. Just clear the space. Consciously let go of what tires you, and what inspires you will take its place.”
ACTION
TODAY: Take some time to think (1) how much time you could take, (2) when you could schedule your intermission to think about your mission, and (3) roughly how much money you’ll need to make it happen. Whether you plan to take time off in full days / weeks / months or in chunks over weekends and holidays, put it in your calendar and honor that purpose. Note that this time to think and ponder about your dreams, aspirations, goals and how to make them happen should not be a burden, nor should it deplete your savings or derail your career. NO! Just the opposite: it should give you a respite from everyday-life’s routines and craziness; and it should bring you great joy to know that you are creating the space and the time to figure out how to do what you love. Enjoy the time that you have set aside for doing this!
FUTURE: In this article from Forbes, Helen Coster quotes Dan Clements, author of Escape 101: Sabbaticals Made Simple, who talks about three steps to put your plan into action: “[1] Start an automatic savings plan, and sock away anything from $10 to $1,000 a month. [2] Choose a departure date and a length of time, and book it on all of your calendars. [3] Then tell a handful of people about your sabbatical plans, so that they can both help you plan and make sure you follow through with your decision. ‘If you don’t carve that time away, it tends to be taken from you,’ says Clements. ‘A sabbatical is one of the easiest things in the world to not do.’”
Psst! Do you know someone who could use a sabbatical or intermission? Please share this post with them and tell them to join us for daily ideas and inspiration!
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 9 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
There are 4 steps that we must go through if we want to change something
— From: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker (read a sample)
I’d venture a guess that when you look at the different areas of your life, you are pulled in two different directions. One side pulls towards feeling immense gratitude and counting your blessings. The other one pulls towards feeling that there is so much potential in you, that there’s so much more that you can do, that you are pleased but not satisfied in the area of XYZ and that if you could only… __________ (fill in the blank with your answer).
Whatever that answer is, it just means that you need to change a few things (big or small) to make it happen. However, change is easier said than done. That’s why I love what T.Harv Eker has to say about it:
“The roots create the fruits.” Imagine a tree with fruits. “In life, our fruits are called our results. [If you] don’t like them, there aren’t enough of them, they’re too small, or they don’t taste good […] you cannot change the fruits that are already hanging on the tree. You can, however, change tomorrow’s fruits. But to do so, you will have to dig below the ground and strengthen the roots.”
By digging below the ground, of course, he means taking four steps to transform our current mental blueprint and start yielding better fruits. (While in this book the methodology is applied to wealth, I believe these steps apply to all changes we want to implement.)
- Awareness: “You can’t change anything unless you know it exists.”
- Understanding: “By understanding where your ‘way of thinking’ originates, you can recognize that it has to come from outside you.” You didn’t come to this world knowing what you know. This thought that is not letting you get the best yield of fruit has had to come from some external source—family, school, culture, work, etc.—and you simply adopted it as true.
- Disassociation: “Once you realize this way of thinking isn’t you [and it isn’t serving you or holding value for you anymore], you can separate yourself from it and choose in the present whether to keep it or let it go—based on who you are today, and where you want to be tomorrow.”
- Reconditioning: Feeding your mind with new patterns of thought and actions that will guide you towards achieving your goals.
ACTION
TODAY: Set aside some time to look at the area(s) in which you’d like to yield better fruits. Examine carefully the actions that have led you there. It’s hard to look objectively at yourself, but one way I find that helps me do this, is to pretend that I am giving advice to my best friend. Detaching myself that way let’s me look at my situation differently. The “best friend” approach takes all judgment and criticism away and instead provides just constructive feedback and resources.
FUTURE: Disassociate yourself from thought patterns that no longer serve you by being aware of them when they pop up in your mind. “Unlearn” those things or habits that have not worked for you. Determine which new patters of thought and action you are going to learn next. A good way of doing this is modeling after someone who has already reached the goal you want to attain. Look for those people, ask them, or read about them, look at their mindset so that you can start emulating it.
My wish for you is that your tree of life will soon bear plenty of your desired fruits!
***
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by Helena Escalante | Mindset, Networking, Planning, Resources, Tools
TODAY’S IDEA:
There is a method to “hack” networking events for best results.
— From: Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People by Vanessa Van Edwards
Happy Friday! It’s social Friday. And whether you are at a social event for business or pleasure this weekend, you may find yourself in a room full of strangers and need to make the most out of it. Instead of dreading it, now you can hack the social scene in your favor.
Vanessa Van Edwards, behavioral investigator, and her team at Science of People studied superconnectors (those people who make the most quality contacts and who have the most robust network on LinkedIn). Science of People studied many networking events by placing cameras on the venues and looking at the patterns of people. They analyzed the foot traffic of those individuals who easily worked the room as a way to see if there were networking hacks that could be learned and applied by anyone. The verdict? Yes, there is indeed a way to work a room successfully!
Take a look at the room. “Whether you are at a networking event, holiday party, wedding, dinner at a friend’s house, or in a conference ballroom, most events have this basic setup… a social map… the start zone, the social zone, and the side zone.”
Image courtesy of Portfolio/Penguin
The start zone is where you check in, enter the room, hang your coat, etc. This is where you land when you arrive to the event and where you get prepped to network. This, as well as the side zone (where the rest rooms are or around the food tables, are the not the best zones to stay in, psychologically speaking, as people in these zones are not necessarily ready to network at that moment. Areas marked with X in the map are traps to avoid.
The social zone is the best part to stand in, optimally, as people exit the bar (areas marked with stars and the triangle between them). That is when they turn around, drink in hand, and are ready to meet and greet. At that point they’re thinking: “Who do I know?” “Who do I talk to?” And you become an instant savior if you stand there and say “Hi! It’s so nice to meet you.” It is right then and there that they will be ready to network and you can start making meaningful connections.
Who would have thought… Makes total sense, doesn’t it? Want to learn more about this? You can read here and here, and watch this five-minute video. Also, since I adapted this post from a longer book review that I wrote for The New York Public Library, you can read that here.
ACTION
TODAY: If you are going to an event today, put this to the test! If not, simply study the zones and make a note in your schedule to revisit this when you have a social event next.
FUTURE: Figure out when your next networking/social event is taking place. Make a note in your calendar to come back to revisit this post. Then when you get to your event, remember the social map, identify the zones and work the room. Once the event is over, analyze how you did compared to other times. What worked? What didn’t? How can you adapt the learning for future events?
Make a note in your calendar to come back to this post after your event and let me know how it went in the comments, please, I’d love to know.
Happy networking! 🙂
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Leadership, Planning, Tools
TODAY’S IDEA:
KISS = Keep It Super Simple
— From: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This is one of my favorite books (yes, I know, I have so many…) because the Heath brothers manage to distill the art of effective messages down to a model that they’ve called SUCCESs. The first step is an idea that applies well to messaging and also to many other areas of business and life. The concept? Keep It Super Simple (remember it by its acronym: KISS).
The important thing to understand is that by simple they don’t mean dumbing down, what they mean is finding the core of the idea. This means “stripping an idea down to it’s most critical essence.” Yet the hard part is not “weeding out superfluous and tangential elements” but discarding other ideas “that may be really important but just aren’t the most important idea.”
To further explain, the authors describe what the Army calls Commander’s Intent. “Commander’s Intent manages to align the behavior of a soldier at all levels without requiring play-by-play instructions from their leaders. When people know the desired destination, they’re free to improvise, as needed, in arriving there.”
This is important because you can plan all you want but “no plan survives contact with the enemy.” Unpredictable things always occur, yet when that happens, the goal should be to keep the intent in mind. If everyone does that, you’ll inevitable get to where you want to go, or at least move closer into that direction. Note that the Commander’s Intent applies as well to people from all walks of life: “No sales plan survives contact with the customer.” “No lesson plan survives contact with teenagers.”
The way in which you can arrive at your Commander’s Intent is by asking these two questions:
- If we do nothing else during tomorrow’s mission, we must ____________.
- The single, most important thing that we must do tomorrow is ____________.
Simple enough, don’t you think?
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
ACTION
TODAY: What are you working on where the plan did not survive contact with the intended recipient? Take a moment to ponder the two questions above to arrive at the Commander’s Intent for your project. Once you have found your core idea, then you and all involved will be able to move forward in that direction.
FUTURE: How about setting a Commander’s Intent for each project that you work or collaborate on? Share the concept of Commander’s Intent and the two questions with your team, that way everyone involved will have clarity to move towards the common goal.
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Goals, Leadership, Mindset
Neil Gaiman*
TODAY’S IDEA:
We all have impostor syndrome.
— From an anecdote in The Official Neil Gaiman Tumblr
Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is the day of love and friendship, and I hope you celebrate it with your loved ones.
As busy professionals, we are constantly juggling many priorities, and focused always on other people. We seldom stop to appreciate our efforts, to love and thank ourselves for what we do, and to celebrate our wins.
Why do we tend to neglect ourselves this way? Very likely because we suffer from impostor syndrome: we attribute our accomplishments to luck or some other factor as opposed to our efforts, and we fear that somehow, someway, we will be exposed as a “fraud” because we are not qualified or good enough to do what we do. Hmmm, sounds familiar?
The term impostor syndrome was coined by Pauline R. Clance who observed that “it’s not a syndrome or a complex or a mental illness, it’s something almost everyone experiences” and we need to “understand [that we] are not isolated in this experience.”
I know I battle impostor syndrome every single day (especially before hitting the send button on my daily emails!). And since I’m guessing that you might likely belong to this same club, I want to share this wonderful anecdote from Neil Gaiman, the famous English author, with you:
«Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.
On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.”
And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.”
And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter**, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.»
This anecdote is beautiful because it illustrates that no matter who we are and what we’ve done, big or small, we ALL feel the same way. We’re in awe of others’ accomplishments and doubt ours. Let’s embrace our shared human nature today, Valentine’s Day, and besides celebrating our love for others, let’s celebrate, thank, and love ourselves too.
ACTION
TODAY: I completely understand that this idea of celebrating our accomplishments and loving ourselves makes some of us squirm. Make this as big or as small a celebration as you feel comfortable: throw a party, or just meditate for 3 minutes, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that today you take a bit of time to think and give yourself credit for the things that you have accomplished. If you suspend any and all judgment as you’re doing this, a flash flood of gratitude will come pouring in.
FUTURE: Make this a habitual practice: as much or as little, and as often as you can (I strongly suggest though, getting out of your comfort zone in terms of frequency and intensity). Surround yourself with a circle of trusted people where you can be open about your accomplishments and where they will celebrate your wins and cheer for you.
And remember that I’m here cheering for you too! 🙂
*Photo: Kyle Cassidy [CC BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons
** Impostor vs. imposter? Both are correct!
