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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Excellence Somewhere Else
Recruiting athletic talent for a Division II and III team is never easy. No matter the sport, the biggest, strongest, and fastest athletes have all been gobbled up by top-tier programs and schools. Yet, some of the most remarkable records belong to teams and coaches who compete in second-tier programs. For the best coaches, finding…
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Have You Told Them?
Truth be told, we are often immensely proud of those special people we live with, work with, and learn from for what they have overcome, what they have achieved, and who they have become. When others learn we are proud of them, they experience a sense of delight unequaled in human emotion. This is…
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You Can Never Be Too Good
As a wise person once said, “Leadership is something that you can never do as well as it can be done.” Insightful words. The same can be said about marriage, decision-making, parenting, relationships, and just about any human endeavor steeped in values. Some pursuits can never be perfected. This fact has to drive the perfectionists…
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When Someone Benefits From the Problem
In too many organizations, powerful leaders too often engage in self-interested behavior to the detriment of the organization. Don’t get caught up in the hijinks. Consider what is happening and move on to those problems others honestly want to address. You’ll be happier for it.
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Should We Encourage Lame Duck Colleagues to Stick Around?
There is little upside in allowing lame duck colleagues to hang around. The sooner they disappear, the faster others can focus on the tasks at hand. Days, not weeks, will be the best strategy for dealing with all leavers.
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How Will This Decision Make Me Look
Making quality decisions often means NOT listening to the voice of a certain someone sitting on your shoulder. That’s not your conscience speaking. That’s bias telling you to listen to what others might think. Ignore them. Your ability to consistently make great decisions depends upon it.
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The Abilene Paradox or Why False Consensus Is a Problem
False consensus is more common with groups that lack members with a diversity of experience and viewpoints, are comprised of members who highly respect each other, and are known for being highly collaborative. But no team or group is immune from this particular brand of groupthink. The best leaders don’t take the chance a team…
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Invoking Mount Olympus
Some people drop names to feel important. Others name drop as validation for what they believe. And some throw names around to signify the kind of conversations they are a part of. As annoying as name-dropping is, it relatively harmless. Unless it is used to influence others. And then it is extremely destructive. Colleagues who…
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Proactive Strategy or Self-Defeating Prophecy?
Fear of a future negative consequence from inaction often encourages proactive thinking to get ahead of the issue and cut it off at the pass. Anytime we create a solution for a problem that has yet to materialize, we are thought to be proactive, acting in anticipation to avoid an avoidable problem. Enacting solutions before…
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Go Fast or Go Far
One of the toughest challenges facing leaders is when to delegate work they themselves can do better and faster. And without the time it takes to explain and educate someone else. But the only way for others to learn and develop is to be given the chance to do what their leader can do more…