“Everyone has a talent. What’s rare is to follow it to the dark places where it leads.” – Erica Jong
Do you have a solid idea of what you know? Not what your jobs have been or what roles you have played but the overarching talent, wisdom, and perspective that is uniquely you?
I ask because I’ve spent the last five months trying to figure out what I know. Believe me, I understand that seems like a long time to try to answer what is a seemingly straightforward question. But I found it to be harder than I expected.
Here’s why. I’m bound by a non-compete so that I can’t fall back to the technical expertise that I’ve cultivated for my career, at least not for a few more months. But that has been an incredible opportunity for me to figure out the bigger picture. Instead of just treading the same path I’ve been walking with Microsoft SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and the other technologies, I’ve had to examine what mountain I’ve been climbing the whole time.
Here’s what I discovered. In the 25 years I’ve been helping people with their collaboration software, I’ve learned a whole lot about how to share.
Not just what buttons to push to share a file, a photo or a calendar, but what makes groups do it well – and also do it poorly.
One of the more stark examples was a team that was so good at sharing not only files but also ideas, contacts, and worries about what could go wrong, they seemed to be able to nimbly handle challenges.
And then the leadership changed to someone who criticized that they talked too much, wanted people to focus on their own tasks instead of helping others, and berated team members for anything shared before it was polished. The leader thought they were “whipping the team into shape” but one of the side effects was that they were squelching vulnerability and sharing.
A couple of months into the new leadership, the team lost a key client. In the debriefing, it became clear that team members had picked up some little warning signs. If they’d shared them, it would have helped put together the big picture that the client was at risk.
While this example is in a professional context, it happens again and again in writing groups, schools, between friends, and more.
We have to share and it’s vulnerable. So we are continually evaluating who the audience is, what are the right permissions and how to identify the right time. That applies to files as well as personal stories, social media, wisdom, and more.
This period of introspection about what I know has pushed me to launch a new podcast, How to Share. It draws not only from my interest and experience but also applicable research and wisdom. My incredible and insightful first season guests will lend their expertise on how to share things such as credit and feedback, passwords, corporate communications, as well as how to receive when others share.
Here’s a short clip from the first episode, Why We Share:
Based on recent technology changes, we learned that embedding the full YouTube video reduces listens and views. Here are some ways you can listen and watch:
- The podcast player embedded below
- Click this link to watch in a browser: Why We Share
- Subscribe to How To Share on Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Podcasts
- Subscribing to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@howtosharepodcast
I’d be honored if you’d listen, watch, provide feedback and subscribe.
On the Sharing the Heart of the Matter podcast, Vicki and I also had a fascinating podcast conversation with author Mark Wukas about his incredible debut novel The Kiss of The Night. Please check out this fantastic author and hear how he cultivated his dream to write a book and this plot for almost 40 years!
Surprised By Joy 