Our daily Field Notes email is just the kind of jumpstart you need. A fast read. Maybe less than a minute. Because sometimes it just takes one insight to change the trajectory of the day.
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Unwavering Optimism During Extremely Challenging Times
We look to leaders for many things: confidence, strength, conviction, vision, and judgment, to name just a few. Of the many qualities great leaders exemplify, perhaps none is more important than the ability to remain optimistic in the face of extreme difficulty, while also objectively confronting the challenge. This duality of optimism and realism…
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Team Members Who Turn Off Their Cameras During Virtual Calls
Good leaders understand the impact facial cues and gestures, even on video, have on the meanings people ascribe to one another. They also know that face-to-face interaction fosters appreciation and deeper understanding within the team. Giving people the flexibility to participate in video or virtual calls is a great convenience for everyone. Requesting that team…
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End-User Engagement Is the Best Proof of Progress
Why do great organizations track so many varied and unique user metrics? Because at the end of the day, it is users that determine how successful an enterprise is and will be. Take a hard look at the user metrics in place in your organization. What other user metrics would give you a more accurate…
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Sometimes a Key Fact Alters the Decision
The popular process of Inverse Analysis is largely a method of finding one or more critical facts. By working backward from a desired outcome and determining the steps or conditions necessary to achieve it, critical facts often emerge that couldn’t be seen in the normal decision-making process. Leaders never know when they might stumble on…
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The Unusual Way We Protect Self-Image
Leaders orient to people in many ways. They can be people pleasers, conflict-avoiders, trash talkers, gossipmongers, straight shooters, and hard-liners. But they share one thing in common. All people, including leaders, want to be viewed positively by others. No one wants to be seen in a negative light, even if they sometimes unintentionally flip that…
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The Five Levels of Trust
We like to think of trust as a binary judgment. We either trust someone or we don’t. If only. In reality, trust is a complex feeling replete with layers or levels that work to build a pyramid of connection with others. No wonder trust is so hard to create and so easy to lose. At the…
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Developing the Superpower of Curiosity
Consider this small list as you work to create some of your own: modeling the night sky to learn astronomy, creating ice cream to learn physics, reenacting a battlefield to learn military strategy, grafting roots onto a new plant to learn botany, taking a yoga class to learn the anatomy of muscles and tendons. Seeking…
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Why Power Corrupts
Power can corrupt. No one is immune from the desire to create more self-worth. Yet there are distinctive ways to prevent the natural order of accumulating power and resources from spiraling out of control. In addition to consistent feedback, one key is to share the opportunities, experiences, and rewards with others, especially the team. Great…
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When a Situation Calls for Tough Love
Tough love is not a leadership style, nor should it be used indiscriminately. Good leaders reserve it for when a team member or family member engages in behavior that is causing extreme harm or conflict. Without it, some people won’t change or grow. As difficult as it is to master, good leaders work hard at…
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Do I Have to Be a Jerk to Succeed?
Successful jerks make for a better story than those people of talent who don’t make waves or news. It’s not that there are more jerks among successful people. It’s just that we hear a lot more about them. The real news is that becoming highly successful doesn’t make you a person of quality or stop…