Who doesn’t love campfires?
They’re warm, comforting and have crackling sounds to challenge any ASMR track. And, they’ve also served as an important destination for centuries…
A point for human connection.
Category: L&D Tools
Useful tools for L&D operators and teams.
New managers often feel the pressure to have all the answers right away.
One of the biggest lessons in leadership is learning to embrace growth, not perfection. In my years of working with people managers, I’ve seen that success comes when leaders focus on learning over knowing it all.
Here’s the truth: You don’t become a manager and suddenly know all the answers. It doesn’t work like that.
Many of us, at some point, have looked up to our bosses and thought they had it all figured out. But the reality is, they don’t. Just like everyone else, people managers are human.
And guess what? Humans mess up!
It’s important to remember that no one expects you to know it all. Instead of stressing about being perfect, focus on building a supportive environment where you and your team can grow and solve problems together.
The “I Need to Know Everything” Trap
When you’re new to managing people, it’s easy to feel like you need to have all the answers.
But this mindset can hold you back.
Being responsible for others is a big deal, but that doesn’t mean you need to be perfect. The biggest mistake you can make is pretending you know it all.
Here’s an analogy I picked up from YouTuber Ali Abdaal that fits perfectly for new managers.
Be an Archaeologist, not an Architect
So, you’re probably thinking , WTF! Is he talking about?
Stay with me here, it will come good, I promise.
When we step into people management roles it’s common to think with an architect’s mindset.
When you first become a manager, you think you need to be like an architect—someone who plans everything perfectly, with a detailed blueprint for every situation.
But here’s the catch: even the best architects, with years of experience, still make mistakes. And if you’re just starting out, you definitely won’t have all the answers.
For new people managers, and even some experienced ones, this is the classic example of running before you can walk.
Those of us with decades of experience in people management still don’t have the answer. So when you start out, you most certainly won’t either.
The problem arises that many of us become so concerned about what people think of us as managers, that we’ll stick with an architect’s mindset and pretend we know the answer to every little thing.
This will of course become troublesome for you and those you’re responsible for.
This reminds me of a classic line from the film “The Dark Knight” where the Joker reveals “Nobody panics when things go “according to plan”. Even if the plan is horrifying!”
So if being an architect isn’t going to help us succeed, then what will?
Enter the Archaeologist
Archaeologists are constant seekers of knowledge.
They don’t know everything, but they’re always digging, learning, and discovering new things.
This is not too different from the approach that people managers (and really all of us) should take to our own growth and knowledge.
It’s impossible to know everything and be perfect in every situation. Life is a continual journey of growth. We think we’re shit hot at something one week and then realise the next that we still have much to learn.
So, in sum: You don’t know it all and no one is expecting you to either.
Becoming a good manager takes time and discovery.
Why Curiosity is Key
The best managers aren’t the ones who think they know it all.
They’re the ones who are constantly learning and asking questions. No one expects you to have all the answers, but they do expect you to keep improving.
In leadership, it’s not about being perfect. It’s about being curious, seeking knowledge, and connecting with your team.
When you do that, you’ll not only grow yourself, but help others grow too.
Before you go… 👋
If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.
You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.
Accepting that one does not know the answers to everything is hard to admit for any of us.
Not only is it hard. It’s also downright frustrating when you spend every waking minute procrastinating on the thought itself.
Career decisions can be fickle. They’re most certainly full of emotions.
I want you to imagine that your skills are like an evolving jigsaw puzzle, where you can swap out pieces at any time to create the skills that you need today.
We all need to build a talent stack which enables lifelong employability and the key to this is in continually investing in your skills to be future-fit.
Make it a quarterly task to reflect on your skills and ask yourself:
1. What skills are expiring in my field of work?
2. What skills do I need to evolve i.e get better at?
3. What are the emerging skills in my industry?
It’s a simple framework but one which will help you focus on the actions you need to take to be ready for today and tomorrow.
The aim is to align your mindset to assess, build and use your skills often. This is something I kept banging on about in the How To Win In The Careerverse playbook.
Keep yourself sharp with skill health checks so you can remain at the cutting edge of career opportunities that our world has to offer.
The key to lifelong employability… be future-fit.
A lot of us don’t like to talk about it, but lifelong employability is what we are creating with building a continuous approach to learning, growth and skill development.
The ability to move fast, adapt and implement the latest thinking is what today’s world wants. And, with this skills health check, you can proactively keep ahead of the game.
Before you go… 👋
If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.
You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.
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Since early 2021, my twitter feed has been slowly blowing up the concept of NFTs on my feed.
Particularly of apes (what is with all the apes people?).
At first I thought this was some weird lockdown driven craze where people were trying to find more inventive ways to occupy their mind.
Yet, over a year later, I sit here watching images of apes, cats, bears and any other creature that can be animated being sold for thousands (in some cases millions).
I’m not here to debate the relevance or morality of NFT assets.
I’ll leave that up to your own mind.
However, what has been intriguing to me is the speed at which these projects can build, sustain and engage a community.
As part of the learning industry, where a lot of my work involves building and engaging lots of communities, my eyebrows raised in curiosity in how quickly people were building communities around these assets.
Now yes, some people obviously jump into these communities in the hopes of landing the next big money making ape collection.
But, for many others, motivations are different.
One of those motivations is connection.
We want to feel part of something, we want to be part of the tribe.
And this is something which many of these NFT projects have become good at. Even if you can right click and save an image.
It’s the community thats driving these spaces.
So, I let my curiosity drive me and I decided to do a bit of research. For the last few months, I’ve been diving into these communities.
Not so I can get my own confused looking animated creature image.
Rather, to understand how these communities are structured, what people are doing here and how the owners are keeping them engaged.
There’s no better place in the NFT world to experience all of these communities than Discord.
If you’re wondering what that is… it’s basically like a version of slack for Gamers and now NFT projects to build communities.
Let’s talk about those 3 secrets.
#1: People want to share more than just the thing you want them to share
What struck me from the get go, was just how many of these communities are not focused on solely talking about the art for sale.
I’ve seen this across all the Discord servers that I’ve joined so far.
Yes, you’ll find plenty of people who only want to talk about how much money they think they’ll make from the latest jpeg release, but you’ll find plenty more who just want to chat about, well, anything.
I suppose in some ways this is a sign of the loneliness which we often forget can occur in a world that’s never been so connected.
Not many relationships and conversations in our daily lives are meaningful.
It feels different in these communties though.
They come together under one common purpose. These people feel like they are sharing with like minded humans.
I think that’s something which can be applied to any field in which you want to create a community.
#2: Encourage idea sharing and content creation
Another thing these communities do well is to inspire its members to share their ideas on the projects and show off their own content creation skills.
I often found that projects wanted people to give their own spin on the assets being sold and encouraged this by offering premium rewards for the best stuff.
Similar to getting members to use their skills to build content which other members could benefit from.
These communities are giving people the space, encouragement and confidence to express their talents with fellow humans.
Not only this, they’re rewarding people for their contribution and engagement with the community.
This has always been a major priority for me when creating workplace learning communities.
I do not want to be the owner of a learning community.
Instead, I want it to thrive on its own through the engagement and contributions of the people involved.
And NFT communities on Discord seem to have cracked this code.
They encourage, promote and celebrate creativity, ideas and sharing with others. Isn’t this what all the social learning craze was about back in the day?
#3: Leveraging FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and being clear on the WHY
I see corporate and higher educational establishments fail getting people so excited about the output they’ll get from learning that they will kill to get it! (well hopefully not literally but you know what I mean!).
And on top of this, being crystal clear on why people should care about learning at all.
Now you’d think this is obvious but it seems not to many.
Now these NFT communities do this really, really well! Like so well, I think we should be doing marketing and people engagement case studies on them.
For these communities the drivers are clear:
- I want to own a pixelated animal because it will give me status, money, 15 mins of fame etc in today’s world (FOMO).
- I want to be part of a tribe where people appreciate, recognise and celebrate me, my thoughts and how I live (WHY).
When we look underneath it all, what we truly want is to be recognised and feel part of something.
This is what makes these communities so successful. Whether on Discord or through Twitter (another popular Web3 hangout).
What we can learn from this
We should consider:
- How can we get people so excited about learning that they’re scared to miss out?
- How can we be clear on WHY people should be part of our learning communities and share their most precious resource of time here?
So, what now?
Take time to reflect on what I’ve shared with you here.
These are just a few things I’ve noticed which can support any company, team or individual in building a community.
I’m not saying this is the right way! Just sharing some ideas from my research which could help you too.
No matter your view of this expanding world of digital collectibles.
We cannot ignore the scale at which communities are being built in this world around a common theme in such a short space of time.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this? (P.s. No I don’t want to buy your strange looking ape jpeg before you ask).
