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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Extracting the Promise of Accountability
Leaders too often assume that in handing off work, team members understand that they are now accountable.
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Parallelism and Making Ideas Memorable
Once you understand their simple logic, parallelisms aren’t difficult to compose. We hope you will try a parallelism now and again, we hope they serve you well, but most of all, we hope they make an impact on your audience.
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Doing Your Homework About How the Business Works
Rosalind Brewer is one of two black women currently serving as CEO at a Fortune 500 company. When you know how a business truly works, the ability to lead one takes on a very different perspective. Brewer’s success reaffirms that the most powerful leadership vision is insight.
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We Like Leaders Who Amplify Our Strengths
As leaders build upon the signature capabilities of their team members, they soon learn the weaknesses gradually take care of themselves. Nothing has more improvement power than engaging preexisting strength.
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The X-Factor of Humility
The qualities that make us most different are the superpowers of great leadership. Humility is a difference maker.
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Small Promises, Small Lies
People make big inferences from small acts. The leap of judgment others make regarding small promises and lies has real teeth for how people trust or distrust leaders. It goes to prove that choices are never too small to make a difference.
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Divide and Conquer the Knottiest Problems
The algorithm of binary search, or “chop,” popularized by computer scientists reminds us of the power of subtraction in decision making. Binary chop is the process through which we can identify any specific element within an array of options.
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Giving the Proverbial Kick-in-the-Pants Pep Talk
Every once in a great while, an unmotivated team member requires a swift kick in the backside to reenergize their focus. Challenging others to step up, be accountable, and do the job is not a conversation good leaders avoid.
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Never Kiss a Fool
Leaders who select talent or interview candidates should memorize the adage, “Never kiss a fool or let a kiss fool you.”
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Innovation Requires Irreverence
Not long ago, winemaker Sean Thackrey hosted a sommelier at his California vineyard to taste some of his latest wines. When he asked his visitor what he thought of the wines, the sommelier replied that the wines didn’t taste like they were supposed to.