When we started our Substack, we looked around the leadership/management arena and thought "wow, it's really crowded in here." We never felt a shortage of material when we read books, watched TED talks, or took training through our workplaces. It was only when we became a content producer that we realized there's a glut of advice out there. We did a little Google Adwords research and saw that there's a lot of competition for keywords related to leadership and management. So we looked for a way to stand out. As you know, our angle is the "how NOT to be a BAD leader/avoiding failure/what are people NOT telling us."
Do you feel comfortable tackling some unusual topics? For example:
- How men can help women succeed in a male-dominated industry
- What to do when colleagues suffer personal loss, mental illness, or other life hurdles that's difficult to respond to as their boss. There are a lot of listicles out there with generalized, sanitized advice, but it would be nice to have case studies. Like if you find out that someone has ADHD or chronic depression, and the usual condolences are insufficient.
- The drawbacks of TOO MUCH empathy, listening, and emotional intelligence. Yes, it's true that we generally need more of it in the world, but individual people can overreact by learning the lessons too well and smothering their teams.
Those types of articles could provide value to readers (like us) that can't be easily found elsewhere. One of the appeals of Substack is the freedom to write unfiltered, independent articles.
This is great feedback and so valuable, thank you! I totally agree with exploring the unexamined and will take these thoughts on board. I have to be able to do it from a place of authenticity, so will ponder on these topics. thank you!
Hi Louise,
When we started our Substack, we looked around the leadership/management arena and thought "wow, it's really crowded in here." We never felt a shortage of material when we read books, watched TED talks, or took training through our workplaces. It was only when we became a content producer that we realized there's a glut of advice out there. We did a little Google Adwords research and saw that there's a lot of competition for keywords related to leadership and management. So we looked for a way to stand out. As you know, our angle is the "how NOT to be a BAD leader/avoiding failure/what are people NOT telling us."
Do you feel comfortable tackling some unusual topics? For example:
- How men can help women succeed in a male-dominated industry
- What to do when colleagues suffer personal loss, mental illness, or other life hurdles that's difficult to respond to as their boss. There are a lot of listicles out there with generalized, sanitized advice, but it would be nice to have case studies. Like if you find out that someone has ADHD or chronic depression, and the usual condolences are insufficient.
- The drawbacks of TOO MUCH empathy, listening, and emotional intelligence. Yes, it's true that we generally need more of it in the world, but individual people can overreact by learning the lessons too well and smothering their teams.
Those types of articles could provide value to readers (like us) that can't be easily found elsewhere. One of the appeals of Substack is the freedom to write unfiltered, independent articles.
This is great feedback and so valuable, thank you! I totally agree with exploring the unexamined and will take these thoughts on board. I have to be able to do it from a place of authenticity, so will ponder on these topics. thank you!