Leadership 101: The Comic-Con Treatment

I believe this: the biggest superpower one can have (in the lack of any real superpowers) is the ability to care deeply about something. Anything. Especially at work.

The challenge of today is that most people are apathetic towards practically everything. In their day-to-day, they have strong opinions, sure, but do they care to do anything about it beyond an occasional Facebook post? Perhaps not. In the professional sphere, folks are great at going through the motions of being a "professional", but few truly care about their work or their company's true mission.

Here's Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) talking about this issue - in the context of attending Comic-con. Watch the first one minute: Laurie states he finds it touching, the fact that people care so deeply about their superheroes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkfVElZZyNQ

My recommendation is simple. Give your work the Comic-con treatment. 

When you really care about something (other than yourself, say), what you do with it will lead to results of a different order of magnitude. Especially at work. Just putting in a 9-5 is all good, but of little consequence in the long run, but if you care, it's noticeable. People notice people who care, companies reward people who care (in the long run -- in the short run, they just get more work than others), and people who care succeed significantly more often.

Let me give you a simple example from the world of Sales/Bizdev - some sales folks care about their clients over everything else ("I'm here to help my clients") vs. sales folks who care about their targets ("I'm here to hit my targets"). Just think about how their short-term behavior would impact their long-term success in each case.

Caring, like love, is ultimately a self-serving emotion. The more you care, the more you will be cared for. And that's that.