FieldNotes
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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Breaking Down Organizational Silos
When business units operate independently from one another, they avoid sharing information and engaging cooperatively. Over time, the silos created by this independence builds a wall between divisions, leaders and best practices. Of the many dysfunctions suffered by organizations, perhaps none is more common or corrosive than silos. In a highly siloed organization, leaders don’t
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Getting Juniors to Speak Up
Those with less experience or who are new to a team often find it hard to say what’s on their mind. The courage to speak up and express candid viewpoints in front of tenured colleagues who think they know more can prove elusive. More junior teammates find safety by observing and allowing others to create
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What Are Your Non-Negotiables?
Leaders who prefer principles and values to guide them are also often drawn to Non-Negotiables to set clear lines for personal responsibility within the team. Non-negotiables can highlight what leaders deem unacceptable from team members. The consequences of violating a non-negotiable are serious. The violation can trigger a strong reminder, difficult confrontation, or something even more severe.
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Lean Into Disagreement
Leaders don’t learn much when everyone agrees. Disagreement, on the other hand, is ripe with insight and new understanding. Leaning into difference by exploring why others hold an opposing view allows leaders to clarify their own advocacy. By engaging disagreement in a curious way, leaders who ask questions and probe the premises and arguments on
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Developing a Patient Urgency
Reed Hastings of Netflix predicted that one day people would stream their movies over the internet. To prepare for that day, he experimented with a myriad of different formats and versions over the course of a decade. When the market conditions materialized, he moved quickly to transform Netflix into a successful streaming business. Hastings demonstrated
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Excellence Through Persuasive Persistence
Restaurateur Danny Meyer learned an important insight early in his career: Getting mad about the low standards held by his staff was not a pathway to raising them. When his standards of excellence were ignored by his staff, Meyer learned to persistently show them the way he wanted things done. He chose not to lose
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Our Greatest Fear Is Looking Bad in the Eyes of Others
Common wisdom suggests that the fear of failure prevents many people from taking the initiative to try new things and taking on assignments beyond their comfort zone. In truth, it isn’t failure that scares us the most. What really haunts us is the prospect of being seen as a failure. We know too well that failure
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The Underdog Mentality
Nothing feels quite as good to a team than doing what others say they cannot do. Great leaders and teams relish this challenge and find it exhilarating. Victory as an underdog is said to be a thousand times sweeter. When you have nothing to lose, anything is possible.
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Complacency Kills
Hard-earned success has many rewards but comes with a common price. Too much success or over-the-moon expectations can create complacency.
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For the Gamblers Among Us
Becoming aware that some of the most creative people in any organization are all about the action allows leaders to put rational constraints into place that protect against any extreme downside. Who on your team needs to be monitored more closely? Good leaders stay especially attuned to those who primarily crave excitement. A check on…