Alexander Krastev 🔖

It always comes to prioritization - which is the most important part, can I do everything by myself or should I delegate part of the tasks to someone else... Most of the time teamwork is the key so you just take the hardest tasks and then - pay forward part of the rest to other team members.

For my 15 years working with people in communications, I've acquired an all-in approach where bad habits should be addressed directly and as soon as possible. Meaning, that if you have something to share, please do - just make it in an emotionally intelligent manner and concerning the other person's individuality. If they don't accept help voluntarily, maybe a manager should be involved - not from a position of power, but probably because of higher levels of respect and experience.

Have you failed big in your marketing efforts? Okay, stuff happens! But the big win in failure is when you can analyze your steps and see what went wrong. Sometimes nothing did, the aimed outcome just wasn't achieved. So what you need to do is discuss with your team members, celebrate the effort and start again. Just make sure you take some insights from the "failed attempt" in order to improve your approach next time.

Start with a good example - no team member will be fully dedicated to providing high customer satisfaction if they see their leader neglecting the matter. Always show respect for the customers, get your hands dirty from time to time, trying to solve a hard case (e.g. a ticket or an objection), and keep reminding why your company is in business - to make its clients happy and/or successful. One more thing you can do - ask your team members how they would approach the case you'd just resolved and discuss with them the possible outcomes.

Over the years, I've noticed the difference it makes when you communicate frequently with your team and when "there is no time" is often an excuse. Monthly 101s where everyone can share their feelings and concerns are a must in this context but they also have one main advantage - you can share your positive feedback about the team member. Just saying "I saw what you did there, you did good" can be enough for the person to know there is someone out there to watch their back. Create a set of questions and use some of them in the different meetings. Try to learn more about your team members, keep notes and be the good deus ex machina when nobody is expecting. This will create an environment of psychological safety where employees will thrive.

If your personal brand-building efforts are focused on LinkedIn, there are three main directions you can go to collect social proof: - Collaborative articles (like this one) - find the topics you're best at and select articles where you can add value with your contributions. Start with articles with fewer contributors and/or fewer reactions for the "Top experts" in these topics. - Recommendations - ask your current or past customers, partners, employers, colleagues for recommendations that will go in-depth with your traits. - Skills - a section of the LinkedIn profiles that is often neglected, but offers strong social proof potential, since every contact can endorse the skills you'd included. And remember, it's okay to ask for support!