Issue #1

Welcome to 2021 | What is leadership? | Jumping the WhatsApp ship

The short post

Hi, and welcome to my newsletter!

Let me get started by wishing you all a happy 2021!

2020 wasn’t a kind year - it feels like March 2020 was just last month and everything else is a blur! We are not out of the woods yet but thankfully, 2021 is looking better!

Vaccination has started and some countries such as Australia and New Zealand, have the pandemic relatively under control. May the positive trend continue.

January is usually a time for defining and committing to new goals. For me, I decided to revisit a goal I’ve had for a while now: getting back to writing!

Since transitioning from an individual contributor to a leadership role many years ago my writing took a hit. I believe it’s a mix of being in constant learning mode, re-tooling to write about less technical subjects and imposter syndrome, where I don’t think I have anything interesting to share.

I remember going through this when I first started blogging over a decade ago, so it’s not a new feeling. I also remember the good advice I received at the time telling me it was no reason not to get started!

I’m excited to share what I’ve learned - and keep learning - with you.

And how about you? Are there any goals that excite you this year? (or quarter, week, day… however small, kicking goals is still kicking goals!)

LeadBytes

Sometime last year I heard this question: What is the difference between management and leadership?

To me, the easiest way to explain it is this: leaders have willing followers.

It might sound simple but this statement has important implications. When someone has the title of manager, they have formal authority over a group of people. That says nothing as to their ability to nurture, inspire and influence their team.

Conversely, to be a leader one does not need to be a manager, only to have followers.

Leaders are passionate about their craft. That passion is infectious, it has a real impact on the people close to them. It changes how they think, what they believe in and how they talk about their work to peers, friends and family. They become advocates and willing followers.

Think about your own organisation - you already have leaders. They are the people moving the needle, influencing their organisation almost effortlessly, creating communities, causing people to follow them not because of formal authority, but because they choose to.

So can managers be leaders and vice versa? Yes. Just be mindful they are not the same thing. Learn to identify leaders and understand when you need one vs. the other. Both are important for very different reasons.

TechBytes

I’m having one of those “I told you so” moments. Back in July 2019 I broadcast to all my WhatsApp contacts that I would stop using the messaging app and invited everyone to join me either in Signal or Telegram. Here’s the proof:

Why did I do it? Zucked is the answer. This book opened my eyes to the harm Facebook can do. I went into a bit of a rabbit hole on related resources like The Four by Prof. Scott Galloway which eventually led me to reduce my footprint dramatically on both platforms. (Reducing Facebook usage actually improved my mood! But that’s for another post…)

Fast-forward 1.5 years and WhatsApp proposed a change to their terms that would finally allow them to share WhatsApp data on you with Facebook, exactly what I’ve been wanting to avoid. As a result, a large amount of users are defecting to Telegram and Signal for privacy concerns.

Just so you can have a sense of how big this movement has been so far, Telegram saw an increase of 25 million new users in the period from the 9th-12th of January, reporting a total of 500 million monthly active users.

Interesting times. Turns out a lot of people care about privacy.

So, will you join me?

Q&A

As this is the first issue, I don’t yet have reader questions to answer. Please, use this link to submit as many as you’d like. Each issue will answer 1 to 2 questions. You can also use the form to submit suggestions!