Hey Everyone,
Hope you're having a great week. Here are a few things I've been reading, writing and pondering lately. Enjoy!
1. Understanding Speed and Velocity: Saying “NO” to the Non-Essential
I needed this reminder this week. It’s one of those posts worth reading every few months.
Velocity and speed are different things. Speed is the distance traveled over time. I can run around in circles with a lot of speed and cover several miles that way, but I’m not getting anywhere. Velocity measures displacement. It’s direction-aware.
Think of it this way: I want to get from New York to L.A. Speed is flying circles around Manhattan, and velocity is hopping on a direct flight from JFK to LAX.
2. Emotional Intelligence: The Social Skills You Weren't Taught in School
I found this to be a very useful read.
Emotional intelligence is a shorthand that psychological researchers use to describe how well individuals can manage their own emotions and react to the emotions of others. People who exhibit emotional intelligence have the less obvious skills necessary to get ahead in life, such as managing conflict resolution, reading and responding to the needs of others, and keeping their own emotions from overflowing and disrupting their lives.
3. The five types of communication problems that destroy company morale
Yes, yes and more yes.
Example 1: Team A requires support from Team B on its top-priority project. But Team B considers this project low priority and drops it in favor of something else, leading to frustration from Team A.
Example 2: Person A and Person B have been given overlapping mandates. Both are trying to deliver, but their priorities are in conflict.
4. Tweet of the Week
Yes, I know it’s lame to feature my own tweet here. Seriously though, this got a great response and I’m going to make it happen. Should I use Slack, Facebook or something else?
5. Random Links
- My friends at Chorus.ai are hiring a content marketing manager in SF. This looks like a great gig.
- I recently spoke with Amanda Northcutt (Twitter/LinkedIn) for some advice on improving our sales process. It was super helpful and she’s available to help others too. Thank you Amanda!
- I recently subscribed to Adventure Journal ($60/year) and it’s amazing.
- Here are some book recommendations from Noah Kagan.
- Helpful: 26 incredibly useful things you didn’t know Google Calendar could do
Have a great weekend!
Jimmy
PS - I finally relaunched my content marketing course, 5 Days to Better Content Marketing. Join 300+ people that taken and enjoyed it.
PPS - I’m looking to partner with a few great businesses to sponsor this newsletter. It reaches a bunch of smart folks from places like Google, Apple, Spotify, New York Times, Marriott and Harvard. Shoot me an email if you're interested in working together.
PPPS - I'm now an official Ghost partner. I've been using Ghost to run my blog for years and I absolutely love it. If you signup for Ghost with my link I do get a commission, but you get an incredibly powerful and simple way to manage your website. Markdown ftw!