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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When an Audience Makes Matters Worse
People play to an audience, especially in conflict situations. Because identity issues important to protecting and saving face are so pervasive in conflict, the presence of others during an exchange will often intensify feelings of ridicule, embarrassment, and humiliation when even the slightest provocation exists.
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Too Far Is Just as Bad as Too Close
When we are too close to an issue, we can’t see the forest for the trees. Leaders who normally know exactly what to do about an issue can be blinded when the problem involves them or people they care deeply about.
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Learning to Agree to Disagree
Disagreeing with others is both natural and necessary. We advance our ideas by struggling through our disagreements with others and by learning how they see things differently. We gain clarity by advocating for what we believe in and hearing the arguments and reasons others offer, in both support and opposition. This is how leaders learn.
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The Personal Urgency to Achieve
Sonia Sotomayor made history in August 2009 when she was appointed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. Doing so while overcoming a lifelong battle with diabetes made her ascension to the nation’s highest court all the more impressive.
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The Best Revenge Is to Prove Them Wrong
Challenging others to work harder, smarter, and with higher purpose is something leaders do naturally. But making gloomy predictions about future success to turbo-charge motivation is a risk good leaders won’t take. There are plenty of doubters and haters in everyone’s world. Leaders never belong in that camp.
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What Senior Team Members Want But Won’t Ask For
They won’t ask for it. They won’t admit it. But the senior people in your organization need help — help with keeping pace with changes in technology.
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Please Stop Multi-Communicating
Let’s be honest. You maintain two separate conversations at the same time more than you realize. You text when you are on virtual calls. You read emails while on the phone. You glance at your phone to see who called when talking with others.
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Why Good People Act With Malice
How do normally rational and kind people come to treat people they don’t know very well with such animosity and cruelness? The answer lies in something called deindividuation, and we can learn a great deal about conflict by understanding its subversive impact on how we think.
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Passion Comes in Two Flavors
People can display passion from the inside or from the outside. Outwardly, they demonstrate their deep commitment to people, issues, and ideas through energy or dynamic action. Inwardly, they demonstrate passion through composure and firm resolve.
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When Praise Matters Most
Regardless of whatever a leader wants more of from team members, praise will prime the pump. Leaders who reward others with praise for the behaviors they want to encourage find that team members respond by replicating their efforts. Catch people doing things right. Then, let them know. This is a critical leadership skill everyone should…