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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Connecting the Shared Passions of Team Members
The best leaders are always looking for ways to connect people who share similar interests and passions. From analytics to graphic design, from singing to marathon running, leaders who learn of team member passions and link them to others with similar affections galvanize more passion throughout the organization. Team members bound by excitement get everyone…
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Leaders Don’t Always Take Yes for an Answer
Team members who avoid conflict at all costs are more common than many leaders recognize. Accepting a fast Yes from these colleagues rewards their need to dodge disagreement. Good leaders don’t accept that. Instead, they require team members to grapple with issues — even when they claim agreement is the obvious choice. Yes is sometimes…
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The Preferred Gift of Leaders
The best leaders think of themselves as bibliotherapists and act accordingly. Those around them are all the better for it.
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Team Members Who Excel Most at Managing UP
Managing UP. Good leaders recognize that managing up is an essential part of career success. They naturally favor those who make them look good. But they dig in and learn for themselves who is making the contributions necessary for team success. They don’t depend on what team members tell them or allow the charms of…
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Leaders Who Trade in Loyalty
How much does loyalty influence my decisions and judgments regarding the team? Leaders who stand steadfastly behind team members and their ideas primarily because of their loyalty create significant team dysfunction. Like so many other leadership qualities, too much of a good thing can create longterm disorder. Even loyalty.
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Withholding Praise on Purpose
Withholding Praise on Purpose. Similar to withholding praise, generating fear is all about controlling others. Not giving others what they need to feel good about themselves creates the doubt and insecurity necessary for control. Good leaders eschew this path toward encouraging high performance. They understand that leadership is about giving away control, not hoarding it.
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Stop Arguing With People Who Already Agree With You
When Your Leader Is Most Influenced by the Last Conversation. In an ever-changing world and marketplace, strategy and decision-making are increasingly complex. As a result, leaders who work through an issue with team members can find themselves waffling back and forth between alternate courses of action, all of which have their upsides and downsides. Without…
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When Your Leader Is Most Influenced by the Last Conversation
When Your Leader Is Most Influenced by the Last Conversation In an ever-changing world and marketplace, strategy and decision-making are increasingly complex. As a result, leaders who work through an issue with team members can find themselves waffling back and forth between alternate courses of action, all of which have their upsides and downsides. Without…
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The Strategic Humor of Ronald Reagan
For the best leaders, humor is a device that serves a myriad of functions. Like Reagan, wise leaders value the power of humor to achieve outcomes in a fundamentally human way. Humor binds and connects people, cultures, and differences. When used strategically, perhaps nothing has more utility to a savvy leader.
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Replay an Amazing Success
Sometimes a team or family member performs in spectacular fashion. They achieve a result or execute a process in an extraordinary way. Those around them are proud of what they have accomplished and celebrate their success. In a matter of time, emotions return to normal and the high performer begins to work hard to achieve…