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Five Ways to Fight the FUD Factor (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt)

NEW BOOK GIVEAWAY!!

20 copies available!!

Leave a comment on this guest post by Sabrina Horn to become eligible for one of 20 complimentary copies of her new book, Make It, Don’t Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success.

(Deadline for eligibility is 06/27/2021. International winners will receive electronic versions.)

As the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Here are five basic actions every leader can take to run their businesses through the fear, uncertainty, and doubt of challenging times.

1. Values – In times of crisis, reaffirm your company’s core values, as well as your value proposition. It is both grounding and inspiring for employees and customers to be reminded of what you stand for and how you remain steadfast in your mission.

2. Planning on Steroids– In turbulent times, reality may be changing every week, day, and hour.

Now is the time to flex those short-term planning muscles. Develop multiple contingencies you can use in any number of scenarios. They may be very tactical in nature, but each one is actually a strategic move to finding your way to the clear.

3. Overcommunicate – In times of uncertainty, plan to reach stakeholders more frequently than you otherwise might. When doing so, communicate with certainty and candor. It’s ok to be repetitive and reconfirm the situation. Doing so eases anxiety and provides comfort. Never say anything you do not absolutely, positively know to be true.

Bad information, like squeezed toothpaste, is impossible to put back into the tube.

4. Humility – The best leaders are secure in knowing that they don’t know everything, and they have no problem asking for help, learning from others, listening to complaints, even apologizing for their mistakes. That level of confidence and open-mindedness draws people in, demonstrates strength, and builds trust.

5. Self-Care – It can be very lonely at the top, especially during times of uncertainty.

It’s important to have people you trust to talk with. Cultivate a small personal network of mentors – the handful of people you can talk to about anything.

How might leaders fight fear, uncertainty, and doubt? FUD

Sabrina Horn is an award-winning CEO, C-suite advisor, communications expert, and author. She founded Horn Group (acquired by Finn Partners), a national public relations firm that for a quarter century, advised thousands of tech executives and their companies. Her new book, Make It, Don’t Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success(foreword by Geoffrey Moore), launches June 2021.

Sabrina talks about how to win customers when you’re company is looking for it’s first customer.

You Don’t Have to Choose: Win at Work and Succeed in Life

Scale your business. Find your freedom.

With proven systems, frameworks, and guidance, you can join other successful business owners as you scale your business, reap the fruits of high-performance, and spend more time on the things that matter most.

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The Gift of Negativity: What We Gain By Faultfinding, Nitpicking, and Naysaying

Painful experiences teach you to protect yourself. The tools of self-protection are faultfinding, nitpicking, naysaying, and quibbling.

Experience gives birth to protective negativity.

The birth of negativity:

“If a cat sits on a hot stove, that cat won’t sit on a hot stove again. That cat won’t sit on a cold stove either. That cat just don’t like stoves.” Mark Twain

A painful experience with a hot stove makes you critical, skeptical, cantankerous and disagreeable.

Negativity bias:

The gift of negativity is about NOT DOING. But ‘not doing’ doesn’t get much done.

There are a few people who think of how something might work, but in my experience, they are the dodo birds in the crowd. Faultfinding is an Olympic Sport on average teams.

Avoiding is stronger than pursuing.

People have a stronger negative reaction to losing $20 than the positive feelings they have from gaining $20. (Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow)

5 ‘advantages’ of faultfinding, nitpicking, and naysaying:

Admiration: You seem wise when you explain why something won’t work.
Time: You don’t waste energy on things that probably won’t work.
Stability: You don’t need to change when you kill ideas before they grow legs.
Power: You empower yourself by blocking other people’s ideas.
Security: You protect the status quo, even if you complain about it.

Beyond negativity:

It’s natural to say, “That won’t work.” It’s leadership to ask, “What’s useful?”

Define your goal.
Engage in open conversation.
Don’t silence reason givers – people who give reasons why something won’t work.
Evaluate suggestions, reasons, and ideas by asking, “With our goal in mind, what’s useful about that?”

The “Usefulness” lens:

“How is this useful?” empowers people to explore, adapt, or eliminate suggestions or ideas.

“What’s useful?” treats all ideas equally.

Apart from “What’s useful?”, negative bias wins.

Bonus: The ‘useful’ lens enables learning. Nitpicking blocks learning.

What ‘advantages’ do you see in faultfinding, naysaying, and nitpicking?

How might leaders create future-building conversations?

Using the Double Win to Beat Back Work That’s Out of Control

Scale your business. Find your freedom.

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How to Procrastinate Successfully and Defeat Pointless Procrastination

“In a prosperous society most misery is self-inflicted.” George Ainslie*

Squirrel chasing, avoiding discomfort, perfectionism, and waiting to the last minute are symptoms self-inflicted misery.

Procrastinators make on average $15,000 less than non-procrastinators. Nguyen, Steel, & Ferrari**

Procrastinate successfully:

Put off creative activities. Many people who come up with original ideas let them ruminate. Adam Grant

Put off low impact activities so you can do what matters.

The person who does a few quick things before beginning an important thing spends their best energy on low impact activities.

It takes courage to stop doing the next thing so you can focus on important things.

Defeat pointless procrastination:

#1. Accept it.

Procrastination is normal. Most people procrastinate from time to time. College students are the best procrastinators.

Guilt creates avoidance.

Don’t beat yourself up for procrastinating. You’re less likely to solve a problem when guilt and shame dominate your thinking.

#2. Begin strong.

Do the hard thing first. Brian Tracy says, “Eat That Frog.”

#3. Boost accessibility.

Make it easy to do things you put off. I recently put some dumbbells near the door of my office. I pump a little iron before I sit at my desk, very little.

#4. Say good enough.

Something done imperfectly is better than something not done at all. You can always improve something after you do it imperfectly.

The future is built one imperfect step at a time.

Procrastinators think, why begin if you don’t have time to finish.

#5. Improve calendar management.

The ability to manage your calendar is the ability to manage your life.

Place important items on next week’s calendar before it fills up.

Schedule free time. The procrastinator in you loves to see free time on your calendar.

Evaluate your calendar. What’s on your calendar that others might do?

Tip: Never procrastinate on bedtime.

What suggestions do you have for chronic procrastinators?

What low impact activities are better left undone or postponed?

*Ainsile, G. (2005). Precis of Breakdown of Will. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 635-673.

Dear Dan: I Put Stuff Off and Work All Weekend

**Procrastination’s Impact in the Workplace and the Workplace’s Impact on Procrastination | Joseph R. Ferrari – Academia.edu

When Is Procrastination a Matter of Mental Health?

15 Ways to Learn from Someone You Disagree With

The person next to me on the flight was slightly abrasive and borderline obnoxious. I had only tried to be polite and say “Hello” when I sat down but he took the opportunity to launch into a what’s-wrong-with-the-world tirade. Repeated attempts to work on my computer failed to dissuade my fellow traveler.

I admit I didn’t see this as an opportunity to learn anything. At best I was hoping to endure until this guy ran out of steam. But I got lucky when he said something particularly disagreeable. I didn’t argue. I just asked, “Why do you feel that way?”

He paused and considered his response. “That’s a good question. I hadn’t thought about it much.” With that, the conversation turned less oppressive.

The background and experiences he shared helped me understand why he was wound up. It didn’t make his point of view right or wrong, only different. When I took a genuine interest in what he was saying, he became less unpleasant and more relatable.

Learning from people I disagree with isn’t easy but it is almost always worthwhile. If you only converse with those who share the same point of view for the same reasons, you’ll feel validated and maybe vindicated but you won’t learn anything.

Choosing to learn from those who think differently challenges your thinking, identifies blind spots, broadens your perspective, creates connection and maybe builds a bridge to a relationship.

So how do mere mortals like us do that?

Jordan Peterson says it well, “Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.”
A close second: remember that nobody is always right or always wrong. We all have a mix of informed, uninformed and ill-informed opinions. Dropping the belief that you are always more right than others is an exercise in humility, and a reality check.
Understand why someone thinks differently than you, not just what they think differently about. You’ll learn much more from why they feel a certain way than just what they disagree about.
Treat the exchange like an inquiry, not an inquisition. When people feel challenged they usually get defensive.
Look for what you agree about and use that as a foundation. Build from whatever you can and do agree about.
Validate the other by expressing you hadn’t considered their point of view.
Ask them to explain why they disagree with what you are saying.
Appreciate that a difference of experience can easily create a difference of perspective.
Acknowledge that people draw different conclusions from the same experiences.
If you disagree, do it politely.
Don’t just disagree, but explain why.
Recap what you think the other person is saying to make sure you understand correctly.
Admit when you don’t have enough information to know if something is true or not.
Use the phrase, “In my experience.” Others can disagree with your conclusion but not what happened to you.
Thank the person for expanding your perspective (if you are truly appreciative).

I hope you don’t…

The Most Neglected and Misunderstood Tool of Leadership

Your most powerful tool of influence isn’t a strategy or technique. It’s a person.

Your most powerful tool of influence is you.

Brene’ Brown, author of, Daring Greatly, writes, “We must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen.”

Hiding behind position, title, and image weakens influence and dilutes relationships.

You don’t have to put your worst foot forward, but “best-foot leaders” give false impressions and create unrealistic expectations.

Frailty and failure:

Why hide the shaping influences on your life?

Begin your next team meeting by asking everyone to complete this sentence. “One of the things I learned from failure is….” (Answer it yourself, first.)

Healthy vulnerability strengthens connection and amplifies influence.

Advantages of letting yourself be seen:

#1. Growth. You grow and others develop when people see the real you.

Life’s most powerful lessons come to us through the vulnerability of others.

#2. Charm. Forward-facing vulnerability invites people to connect.

#3. Validation. Vulnerability is permission for others to be human.

#4. Challenge. Challenging yourself makes challenging others authentic.

#5. Humility. You develop humility when you take off your fake face and lead with your real foot.

#6. Confidence. People feel less like idiots when you share what you learned from screwing up.

#7. Friendship. You develop relationships with the “right” people when you let people see the real you.

7 ways to let yourself be seen:

Declare beliefs.
Share values and intentions.
Expose motivations.
Tell your story. (Life Story Exercise)
Reveal lessons from mistakes.
Discuss learnings. Say, “I hadn’t thought of that,” instead of pretending you knew all along.
Share influences. What are you reading? Who are your mentors, coaches, and teachers?

Tip: Novices – with a growth mindset – exert powerful influence when they let themselves be seen.

The most neglected and misunderstood tool of leadership is letting yourself be seen.

What is healthy transparency and vulnerability? Unhealthy?

What have you learned from screwing up?

The One thing I Would Say to Every Coaching Client I Have Ever Had

A friend asked me a question that infected my brain like a splinter. It was a ridiculous question that I thought myself smart enough to answer. So I did.

“When you think of all the people you have coached, what’s the one thing you would like to tell them all?”

The question seems ridiculous – leaders are individuals. But in my silly brilliance an answer came to my mind. Answers have never been a problem for me, especially wrong ones.

The one thing I would say to all the coaching clients I have ever had has four parts.

#1. Forget about perfecting any leadership skill.

Corporate knuckleheads need to measure stuff. They need to see how close to perfect they are and how far you fall short. 2+2=4 is perfect. But people aren’t equations.

Track improvement. But…

The idea of measuring something that can always be improved is hilarious.

#2. Strive to develop several leadership skills, but not at the same time.

Working to develop two leadership skills at the same time cuts effectiveness in half. Working on three leadership skills at the same time is a complete waste.

Humility develops one thing. Arrogance works on everything.

#3. Focus on three relevant skills. (See #2 above.)

Perhaps delegating, leading one-on-ones, and managing your calendar seem most relevant. Go for it! Don’t overthink it.

In a month or two, you’ll lose interest in improving your delegating skills. Pat yourself on the back and focus on the next thing.

When you develop one thing, other things improve.

#4. 80% is good enough.

Don’t polish the turd. Develop a skill to 80% and move on. The last 20% isn’t worth it.

How will you know when you’ve reached 80%? Go with your gut.

One thing: Constantly develop yourself. (Maybe the question wasn’t ridiculous.)

What’s the one thing you would say to ALL leaders?

2 Steps to Become Your Aspirational Self And Still Be Your Real Self

Growth is becoming your aspirational self, not languishing with the façade of authenticity.

Don’t turn from challenge or opportunity with self-affirming nonsense like, “It’s just not me,” or, “That’s not who I am.”

“Authenticity” is self-sabotage when it prolongs inaction, incompetence, and pitiful self-satisfaction.

The question to ask about opportunity or challenge is how does it give expression to your aspirational self?

How to become your aspirational self:

#1. Define who you aspire to become.

Make a list of people you admire. Three will do, but if you have time, list more. Beside each person’s name write the distinguishing quality or qualities you admire about them. I did this with a leader this morning. He listed three names and three qualities.

Mother Theresa – loving.
Winston Churchill – courage.
Steve Jobs – vision.

We explored what he admired until he distilled their admirable quality to one word. (It’s not necessary to limit this exercise to one quality per person.)

I looked at him and said, “This is who you aspire to become.”

When coaching, you could be less direct by asking, “How do these people reflect who you aspire to become? The next question(s) convert this exercise from insight to opportunity.

#2. Engage your aspirational self.

With your aspirational self in mind, what’s next?
How would your aspirational self handle this situation?
What would you like to do today with your aspirational self in mind?
How does becoming your aspirational self inform the way you would like to show up today?
Which decision best reflects and satisfies your aspirational self?

The people you admire reflect the person you hope to become.

Tip: While performing this exercise, don’t focus on the accomplishments of admirable people. Focus on character attributes.

Who do you admire?

How might the people you admire reflect the person you aspire to become?

Is Anyone Listening? Does Anybody Care?

I really don’t like to raise hell about bad customer service online. If you’ve read any of my social media rants, you probably find that hard to believe. I’ve made a commitment to let very few things upset me except the health and well-being of loved ones. I reserve most of my emotional energy for that. Other minor problems and inconveniences I ignore.

But I make an exception for really bad service. I believe you should never pay someone to make your life less pleasant.

So why do I make a post like this?

I do it to break through indifference and get attention. Too many customer service reps or agents are empowered to do little more than apologize. And while that is nice, it isn’t always enough.

Recently I’d been having much too regular problems with DoorDash. If I couldn’t get an explanation or resolution online, I’d call and usually get a satisfactory response (although who wants to waste time and effort getting what they paid for?).

In the transactions with restaurants, drivers and DoorDash, I noticed lots of blaming: drivers blaming restaurant blaming DoorDash blaming…you get the picture. Ultimately a company is responsible for its employees, even if they are independent contractors.

In my last encounter (spoiler alert) before closing my account, I asked to speak to someone in escalations or a supervisor. I was told someone would contact me in 24-48 hours. My late and lukewarm meal would have been long digested by then. I said that was unacceptable and requested a callback within 10 minutes or I would close my account. It wasn’t a threat so much as a clarification of consequences.

In the interest of fairness, I did get a call back that didn’t ring through on my phone. Missed the call. My bad. But there was no message. I called the missed number. It went to another rep who said they couldn’t connect me with whomever called.

Ok, so I’ll wait another 5 minutes for a callback (I waited 10 to be reasonable and it never came). I posted on Facebook and got a healthy response from others who had been frustrated by DoorDash.

Using LinkedIn, I tried to connect with two DoorDash executives. To date I’ve received no response. If there is something we all hate, it is indifference. It says “you don’t count enough to respond to.” When a leader doesn’t seem to care, how can you expect a driver or customer service rep to care?

So I quit. I closed my account and decided in the future to deal with the restaurant’s delivery or pick up orders myself. This helps the restaurant also as they no longer have to give up approximately 20% of the receipts to DoorDash for “service” which may ultimately and unfairly make the restaurant look bad, because what was delicious food when it left the restaurant became inedible as a result of poor handling during the delivery process.

DoorDash will neither fail without me nor…