Scott Belsky’s brilliant and accessible The Messy Middle is full of lessons for founders about endurance, courage and being a great communicator. Nothing makes me happier than reading leaders who have been converted write about the essential power of communication.
Here’s Scott on leading through the dark, lean years:
“I would characterize much of my first few years leading my team at Behance as an adventure in manufacturing motivation. We would celebrate any new customers, even if the overall numbers were tiny. We would celebrate completing a page of tasks on the wall or bashing a particularly elusive bug in the software with cheap champagne. Whatever we could re-purpose as a milestone, we would. It is hard to summon a sense of hope and self-worth when you’re on your own. So you squeeze out any semblance of progress you can find, and then you celebrate it.”
Here’s Scott on being “the steward of perspective”:
“Teams need to be reminded where they are and what progress they are making. As a leader, you are your team’s window. You need to call out and describe the landmarks that you pass along the way, constantly reinforce the terrain you have already covered, and prepare folks for the map ahead…You’re the narrator of this journey…your perspective during the most difficult times will help your team defy their own self-doubt…there is always a way forward so long as you explain it.”
Here’s Scott on the paramount importance of being an internal marketer:
“Perhaps one of the most important unspoken roles of a leader through the messy middle of a project is that of internal marketer. For all the emphasis around obsessing over your customers and your public brand and message, there is surprisingly little focus on the internal brand and message…You may have a colleague or department that oversees external marketing, but you are the chief internal marketer. Your team’s understanding of priorities and perception of their own progress is in your hands.”
The common thread in all of these examples is clear. You have to keep talking to your people. All the time. It’s your job as the leader to contextualize, to recognize, to motivate. Leadership is a mantle. That mantle requires constant communication. Accepting and embracing that is what makes good leaders great ones.
Your business must scale, and you must scale with it. Great communicators create the change they want to see in the world. poseycorp helps innovators build powerful messages and the skill to deliver them so they can break through the noise and be heard! Click here to receive pragmatic communications advice in your inbox every month.
