Below is an archive of every blog post shared through this site since 2010. For posts by topic, check out articles on marketing, leadership, and building new products.
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If you're a leader, you got to where you are because you think strategically and are killer at execution. You simply can't get very far without being good at both.
Now that you're in charge of people, though, your ability to increase impact depends on how well you manage OTHER people. You need your team to become smarter, sharper A-players.
Unfortunately, sometimes smart people (like you) accidentally traumatize their teams...
Read MoreIncreasing engagement is a big deal for most startups and brands. You might have a presence on a channel—Instagram, Facebook, Slack, email, or your own internal platform—but do people want to show up?
The more engaged people are, the stickier your product is, and the more reason they want to stay. The longer a customer stays, the more chances you have to ultimately make a sale. But without a strategy for increasing engagement, digital communities can easily fizzle out. This leaves you panicking for ways to get people to come back, which is not a fun spot to be in.
If you're a co-founders or marketer, here are the key elements of maintaining (and growing) community participation.
Read MoreDigital communities... Everyone seems to be talking about them.
At the altMBA, I had the privilege of building our community from scratch to 2,000+ alumni. You might have read that a community can increase engagement, build a moat around your product, and lower your cost of customer acquisition over time. All of that can be true.
You might be thinking, I'm sold. Can I skip the strategy and go straight to building my community? I want to start sending out Slack invites!
But wait:
First, having a Slack room does not equal a community. (That’s a topic for another post...) Second, you can skip straight to execution, but you might end up building the wrong thing. You could invest several months and thousands of dollars into a digital community that no one wants to be part of.
I recently had the privilege of giving a talk for Backstage Capital and their amazing early-stage portfolio companies. My talk was called “Storytelling for Technical Founders” and I shared how technical leaders can tell better stories.
Here are a few common mistakes and takeaways:
Real-life is non-linear, but stories are linear. Therefore, stories are always a simplification.
Read MoreWhether you're a changemaker within an organization, or a startup CEO running your own company, your ability to do great work is directly tied to your team's performance.
You realized this when you transitioned from an individual contributor to a people manager. But it's likely a lesson you're constantly reminded of.
Almost every week, I hear a founder say, "I'm the bottleneck for everything. How do I get my team to be as smart as I am?”
Read MoreI had the pleasure of being a guest on the Accidental Creative podcast hosted by bestselling author Todd Henry.
Our conversation is relevant if you're a creative, people manager, founder, intrapreneur, or change agent building something new.
On the episode, we dive deeper into:
+ How to embrace map-making as your core mode of operation
+ How to present your ideas so that others can receive them
+ Why it’s important to have a “spiky” point of view
It's a popular idea to delight your customers. But is there a point when you reach diminishing returns? Is there ever a reason to choose intentionally not to delight customers?
Read MoreI'm not good at holding my tongue when I sense that a train wreck might happen. If you've tried speaking up before, and no one listened, it's tempting to want to teach them a lesson.
Okay fine, well the train will crash. THEN they'll see why they should have listened to me all along...
You don't get to take the moral high ground there. If you sense that something might be wrong, speak up before it's too late.
Read More
![Make Maps, Don't Just Follow Them [Accidental Creative podcast]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a63ce8249fc2bd3d2b85ef8/1534438445182-V4OQLEPAK4OQPDLQ06Z2/Wes+Kao+Accidental+Creative+podcast.png)