COMING AT YOU WEEK OF 3.23.21

Weekly catch up

Topics to impress your boss:

1. Looks like the Core Web Vitals update may hit retail and education sites the hardest.
2. Will Google Sandbox improve user privacy? Seems like our industry isn’t sure. Adweek asked a few of their users (113) this question and responses were almost split 50/50 (52% – no, 48% – yes).
3. The same Adweek poll as above suggests advertisers may be doing some self-reflection (or not, who knows). Almost 70% of respondents said they didn’t think the ad-tech ecosystem cares enough about privacy.
4. Newsletters are cool or you wouldn’t be here, and Facebook and Twitter know it. Twitter acquired Revue–a newsletter creation business–and now Facebook is trying to one-up them by creating its own newsletter creation and distribution tools.
5. Speaking of FB, less and less people are choosing it as their #1 social brand.
6. Starting April 15, Tiktok won’t have opt-outs for personalized ads.
7. And, Youtube is taking their shot at copying TikTok by launching Shorts.​

Topics to Slack your co-workers:

1. Anyone else get a little freaked out when they hear ‘deepfake tech’? Well, Lays set up a personalized message campaign with Messi using that foreboding tech. But it’s not actually creepy.
2. Brands like Taco Bell, Pringles, and Charmin are jumping on the NFT bandwagon. In case any billionaires read our newsletter, here’s how to buy NFTs.
3. We were heartbroken to learn that we missed out on Jell-o’s Prank Kits that gave you everything you needed for the classic stapler in Jell-o prank (high-five, Jim).
4. Zoom stuff: why you stare at yourself and how to escape a meeting.

Ask yourself this

Am I a naive leader?

​Simon Sinek is an advocate for empathy in leadership. He likes to say, “The real job of a leader is not about being in charge, it’s about taking care of those in our charge.” That’s warm and fuzzy. But when it comes to practicality, we were skeptical of some of his thoughts, such as his metaphor comparing parents to managers.

Sinek’s logic goes like this:
​parents : leaders
kid with a C on the report card : poor performing employee
parents’ decision to give child up for adoption : leader’s decision to fire employee

First of all, we’re offended that a C meant ‘poor performance’ because we used to be real proud of our Math For the Real World grade. But more critically, it felt too far to compare the parent-child relationship to a manager-employee relationship. Should we expect the same level of emotional investment from a manager as we do from a parent?

And yet, on the other hand, if we’ve learned anything from Karate Kid, it’s that the leaders who make the most impact have you do a lot of chores invest emotionally in their protégés. Good leaders care. A lot.

So, maybe it is naive of an employee to expect to find an empathetic, emotionally-invested leader in their manager. But it’s also naive for a leader to expect groundbreaking results from someone who they aren’t emotionally-invested in and who they aren’t offering empathy to.

If you’re ready to get on-board, here are some questions to gauge your empathy as a leader:

• How often do your team members admit to making a mistake (without you approaching them about it first)?
• Last team win, did you highlight team members? How much credit did you soak up?
• Last time your team had a loss, did you evaluate yourself? Specifically, what resources your team needed from you that you didn’t or couldn’t give them?

Exercise

Creativity comes in the margins

Creativity can be difficult because unlike a report, you can put in 10 hours of truly focused work and get poor results. We liked what Seth Godin had to say about creativity.

We agree our best ideas never come while thinking, “What would be a creative campaign?” However, those good ideas usually do come after thinking and brainstorming and researching.

Exercise: Do the work. Then go doodle, step out to our backyard, or go for a drive. Enjoy the fact (instead of resisting it) that creativity often thrives in relaxed, “low-stake” scenarios.

Wordless Wisdom

Is there a fitting room for choosing your professional voice?