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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Certifying Skills for Entry-Level Team Members
Certifying Skills for Entry-Level Team Members. Talented people have an intrinsic desire to advance. When leaders create a scale new team members can climb while marking their progress, they help to distinguish who is worthy of reward and opportunity. A more precise description of skill development motivates everyone to excel, even the more seasoned team…
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How You Make People Feel About Their Contribution
Good leaders make a point of telling others when they are creating a real difference. By doing so, these leaders inject them with the energy to improve their skills and achieve the excellence they are capable of. Making others feel important takes on a different shade when leaders highlight the indispensable contribution team members are…
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The Teaching Moment of Applying Values to Problems
The Teaching Moment of Applying Values to Problems. Because organizational cultures directly reflect the values team members express daily, this exercise is more important than first meets the eye. Applying values to address problems is something every leader and team member can and should get better at. Any solutions not tied to values are a…
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Why Confidence Shrinks When Dealing With Senior Leaders
Otherwise formidable and self-confident leaders can sometimes turn into shape-shifting lizards in the presence of powerful and high-status colleagues or clients. The confident style they normally exude turns to jelly. They come across as reticent, junior, passive, and obsequious. The weak style they project erodes their credibility and reduces their influence. While most people naturally…
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Overcoming Disappointment With Resolve
Jalen Hurts didn’t let failure or disappointment get in his way or derail his effort to be the best he can be. Five years later, he has the same attitude and commitment. No matter what the Super Bowl score, don’t look for Hurts to feel sorry for himself or to get down in the mouth…
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Preparing for a Big Moment
After the dedication and hard work have paid off, leaders and performers sometimes get the chance to showcase their skills and talents on a larger stage and in a bigger moment. Giving the keynote presentation, playing in the championship game, planning the pinnacle event, facilitating the critical meeting, making the final decision, starting in the…
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When the Search for the Right Answer Isn’t a Search
As leaders and teams debate viewpoints and pour through data and information searching for the right or best answer, everyone presumes to know what is meant by the right answer. What constitutes the so-called right answer in the minds of leaders and team members varies more than we generally believe. The logical presumption is that the right…
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The Timing of Feedback After Success and Failure
The Timing of Feedback After Success and Failure. Following defeat or substandard performance, leaders would do best to focus on what went well and give others time to recover from disappointment. Avoiding criticism while the failure is still raw is essential. A few hours or a day later is plenty of time for everyone to…
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All or Nothing Means I’m Always Right
All or Nothing Means I’m Always Right. Feeling strongly about an issue or person encourages even the best leaders on occasion to eliminate the gray and to see things in black and white. It is smart to remember the decisions they make are usually flawed and the people they reward sound just like them.
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Resignations Can Become Contagious
By looking forward, not backward, the best leaders weather the storm of the resignation virus and rejuvenate the team with new energy and colleagues. Inwardly they know that the best team members are far too busy growing their own lush grass to look for greener grass elsewhere. They project that confidence in everything they do…