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.
Search Field Notes
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.
-
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.
-
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…
-
The Invitation Says You Count, Not the Going
When you finally understand that it is the invitation, not the going, that tells other that they count, everything about relationships begins to look differently. Inviting others is a cornerstone of relational prowess. Creating events and experiences to invite others to is both fun and the first part of the equation. It doesn’t matter whether…
-
Not Invented Here
The xenophobia of ideas “not invented here” cripples organizations over the long run, and often allows competitors to destroy longstanding value by embracing better ideas and executing them with polish.
-
The Baby-Faced Assassin
Steph Curry is arguably one of the best shooters the game has ever seen, but he is more committed to helping others than he is to further perfecting his shot. His foundation (Eat. Learn. Play.) has served over a million meals to children in Oakland, California — many of which he has delivered himself. He…