A compass for 2021

by the Passodue team

Most people have entered 2021 with enormous expectations, as if – after such a hard and complicated 2020 – success in the next twelve months is “due to us”.

Nobody has a crystal ball to predict what will happen or a magic wand to transform events for the better; however, each one of us can take immediate action to do everything they can to live the New Year in an evolutionary spirit.

We’d like to share with you the three key words we at Passodue have chosen as a compass to guide us through 2021.

The text of this article is taken from the best wishes message included in our now classic notebooks that once again this year we have proposed at Christmas time and has been enriched with boxes providing additional information on each key word, which can help you adopt a new approach right from the beginning.

Flexibility

It represents our ability to accept the change, adapting ourselves to new and unexpected situations and conditions. It means being ready to observe reality from different points of view, having the courage to reassess and enlarge our believes concerning work, what happens, others and mostly ourselves.

Today we have the chance to revise our habits, to train and develop new skills in order to fulfill our objectives, either personal or professional.

It’s up to us to seize this precious opportunity, so that we can express our authenticity.

In order to make changes we must first of all become aware of our modes of action and then try to change something. Flexibility allows us to look at difficulties with new eyes and to find alternative means to face them. You can for example try to analyze your approach to deadlines: do you normally anticipate them or do you prefer dealing with them at the last minute? In the first case anxiety might make you act too quickly without focusing on the right priorities, while in the second case you might be overwhelmed by stress or caught off-guard by possible inconveniences. If you are an anticipator, you can start procrastinating a little (which is also a useful technique to come up with new ideas and solutions). If instead you are a latecomer, start planning your schedule better and assess timings in a realistic way.

Recommended reading:
Originals. How Non-Conformists Move the World, by Adam Grant

Authenticity

We are authentic when our actions are aligned with our deepest values, when we act according to what we believe in rather than complaining, when we comunicate our feelings and needs in the first person, with no fear of being judged.

If we take responsibility of our well-being, we’ll gain satisfaction in our lives and in business.

Starting from ourselves is the only way to give and receive from others with spirit of service.

Living in accordance with our deepest selves is the key to real happiness. This also means carrying out an activity that allows us to be ourselves and working in an environment that reflects our values. To achieve this we must first of all make contact with what we feel and start giving a name to our feelings. This will also allow us to better understand our colleagues/collaborators and to build more sincere and constructive empathetic relationships.
Before and after an important activity try and ask yourself “How am I feeling just now?” and, when faced with choosing among several options, ask yourself “How does this solution make me feel?”

Recommended reading:
Il futuro del lavoro è femmina: Come lavoreremo domani di Silvia Zanella (The future of employment is female: How will we work tomorrow, by Silvia Zanella)

Spirit of Service

Knowing ourselves lets us reveal our talents, use them and put them at the service of the community we belong to. As such, we become aware of the social responsibility which leads us towards others and which translates into actions as simple as revolutionary, i.e. paying attention to any touch points, discovering that which makes us similar, seeing diversity as a means to develop and enrich relationships.

How many times have you limited yourself in giving, for fear that there wouldn’t be enough left for you, or have you considered taking action only after verifying that the “compensation” would be appropriate?

This behaviour is human, but there is also a third option: offering, no matter what! This year we challenge you to start living asking yourself “what can I give, how can I contribute?”. Rest assured, you will achieve two valuable results:

you will obtain a lot and more, from unforeseen channels and in unexpected ways
the gratification that this brings will be the energy that keeps the virtuous cycle of “being-offering-receiving” alive

Recommended reading:
Gratitudine. La rivoluzione necessaria di Oscar Di Montigny (Gratitude. The necessary revolution by Oscar Montigny)

– – –
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
Rabindranath Tagore
– – –

This is the spirit with which we invite you to deal with your work, your relationships and your life in the year that has just started. We wish 2021 can be an opportunity of transformation for all of us!

| partem claram semper aspice |

The photos used - where not owned by the editorial team or our guests - are purchased on Adobe Stock and IStockPhoto or downloaded from platforms such as UnSplash or Pexels.

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Passodue research on issues related to sales, marketing, ethics and the centrality of human beings within the market logic, officially started in 2012. The results derived from our work are described in the publications and in the books you can find in this section.

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Passodue

Passodue is a consulting and training firm founded in 2011 by Alice Alessandri and Alberto Aleo, who decided to combine their experience and make a change in their personal and professional lives. The aim of their project is to change the mindset of the market with regards to the concepts of “sale”, “marketing” and “leadership”, and to prove that doing business ethically is possible and totally effective.