The lady who sold us travel insurance last month came by to assess our current policy (with another insurance provider).

I couldn’t access my policy (no printed copy and I couldn’t log into my account) so she started off with Reyvi’s. Then she provided a slightly better offer. It wasn’t significant enough to convince us to switch.

Besides, she didn’t sell hard.

The whole thing looked like she only did it out of curiosity. I gave her my number for a follow-up. She’s curious to see what I have. However, I haven’t gotten a text from her yet. I interpret that as:

It’s pointless to have another discussion simply because what we have is already optimized to a point where there aren’t enough cost savings that would make us switch.

Using curiosity to get into the conversation is a good move. It proves how she’s been in the business for more than 20 years.

***

“How far do you need to dumb things down for everyone to get it?”

That’s the discussion my ex-manager and I had when it comes to PowerPoint presentations. Big corporate companies typically have templates for “engineers” — the highly technical people who suck at socializing with other departments. It’s easy to lose your audience the moment you start using jargon and engineering terms. But if you dumb it down too far, you’re gonna offend the experienced/technical people. So…where do you draw the line?

Simple: Focus on the audience that needs to hear the message.

Often, we try to cater to everyone when everyone is so different from each other.

***

We had our team’s “holiday lunch” this week.

The complaint I heard was: “What the hell was that? No speech, no nothing? The whole thing felt like we just decided to eat at a restaurant for lunch.”

In other words, it doesn’t qualify as a “holiday” lunch. But I get it.

Some leaders don’t fully understand the team dynamic simply because they are new. I can see the effort to create that “team dynamic” but somehow it falls flat. That’s the kind of shit that happens when you fail to understand the team.

If you cannot connect with your subordinates, it would be tough for them to follow you as a leader.