Dance the dance between standing out and blending in Part 3
Rashi Goel
Marketing strategies and self-mastery tips you won't find in B-schools. Ex-leader at Amazon, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, L'Oréal. Voted by ET as Best Marketing Leader in India I Top 50 Influential APAC Marketers
Marketers have to dance that age-old dance between blending in and standing out -
If we copy-paste from others, we risk commoditizing our product, but if we are too different, our product might be too ahead of its time and fail.
This is also true in our personal and professional lives-
If we zag when others zig, we are labelled black sheep. If we are agreeable and mirror others, we blend into the background and are written off.
Like life, there is no one failsafe formula - blending in and standing out fall along a continuum, depending on your context.
Last week, we looked at "Same-same but different."
This week, we dive into "Hide in plain sight."
Hide in plain sight when survival is at stake
When situations are political, we feel we are in a ‘war-like’ zone. These are the symptoms.
In these situations, camouflaging or hiding in plain sight is a good strategy.
Blind courage might not be the best route.
Self-preservation until we find an escape route is best.
People change companies and teams or bide their time until they find more conducive environments.
The same goes for brands. When they are in crisis, they remain very still, even retreating, until the situation improves.
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What would you have done had you been at X (previously Twitter)?
It would have felt like the building was on fire.
It is better to try to survive while looking for an exit route. In these scenarios, quiet quitting is a good strategy.
However, it is best to avoid prolonged existence in these environments.
Professor Sutton would agree.
Life and work are littered with assholes.
Professor Bob Sutton at Stanford is not an asshole. Far from it. But he sure knows them.
He has written The No Asshole Rule, and The Asshole Survival Guide. (Must-read books for those who are struggling with bullies).
Professor Sutton gives us six questions to diagnose the situation.
It warns us to watch for ‘Asshole blindness’ - where we tell ourselves things are not as bad as they seem, and we stick on.
He also gives multiple strategies to deal with assholes. One of them is to hide in plain sight. Another is to quit.
Lastly, a sobering thought to round off this edition.
Be slow to label others as assholes, be quick to label yourself as one. -Prof. Bob Sutton
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