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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Is Contemporary Leadership Advice Really Just B.S.?
Great leadership doesn’t guarantee business or financial success. Instead, it promises to create the individual and team performance essential for that possibility.
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I Really Dislike One of My Team Members
Sometimes, holding your nose to avoid a foul odor also requires gazing away from the source of the scent. By focusing on the pleasant characteristics of a disfavored colleague, leaders can keep everyone engaged and working toward good outcomes. Highlighting what a leader does like or values about a colleague helps everyone to engage more…
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Leaders Who Yell and Ridicule on Purpose
Constantly yelling and carrying on doesn’t make anyone a better leader. What it does make is someone who becomes known as a screamer. And screamers are eventually ignored or marched to the nut house. Unless, they invent the iPhone.
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If You’re Not Elaborating, You’re Not Listening
If You’re Not Elaborating, You’re Not Listening. It is often the case that leaders believe themselves to be excellent listeners only to learn that others don’t feel the same. It may be that elaboration or the lack of it is the missing ingredient to this competing view. Good listeners process. Great listeners elaborate.
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Who Knew We Were in Violent Agreement?
Pointing out a leader’s need to have the last word and to be more right isn’t comfortable, but it can help a deeply troubled leader overcome a debilitating problem. Convincing someone who needs to be right that they are sometimes wrong is never fun. But it is the essential work of those who care.
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Co-Creating Organizational Change
Propelling change forward in any organization is a difficult leadership challenge. People naturally resist change and view it as uncomfortable, hard work, and time-consuming. They aren’t wrong. In the best circumstances, truly getting team members on board with a change requires a different approach. Instead of promoting the change, the best leaders co-create it with…
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Leading Colleagues Older and More Experienced Than You Are
Recently-promoted leaders who inherit a role where those they lead are older and more experienced than they are confront a unique challenge. Gaining respect, trust, and credibility from those colleagues who may resent you requires a cool mind and a strong leadership presence. In the face of this challenge, leaders who become timid, deferential, or…
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The Wheels of Team Alignment
When people are aligned, good things happen. Clearly understanding the goals, strategies, and tactics critical for success keeps everyone engaged and on point with the things that matter. A team rowing in the same direction and toward the same island is said to be aligned. This is easier said than done. What makes alignment so difficult…
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Staying in Touch With Alumni
Former colleagues are a rich source of help to leaders and organizations. Alumni who know the organization and its leaders especially well are in the perfect position to lend a hand in ways that no one else can. Staying in touch and maintaining alumni relationships can pay huge dividends. Alumni who feel connected and valued…
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If Only I Had Seen This Situation Before!
The best leaders make a conscious decision not to fall prey to this self-fulfilling thought. They remind themselves that they possess the creativity, smarts, and industry to figure out how best to proceed in a new situation. Rather than question what they don’t know regarding a situation, they rely on what they do know and…