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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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…
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Servant Leadership Is a Great Idea That Doesn’t Really Work
With some notable workplace exceptions, servant leadership works better in theory than in practice. The idea of selflessly leading others by putting their needs first sounds like a masterful approach to creating a positive workplace replete with motivated team members and collaborative processes. Until reality gets in the way.
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Break the Spell of the Tell
Initiative is in short supply on some teams. Team leaders push, prod, and cajole people to get them to act. Yet, people wait for instructions. When capable team members wait to be told what to do, leaders often comply, compounding an already frustrating situation.
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Recommitting to the Fundamental Practice of Listening
In every discipline, mastering fundamental skills and actions allows performers to leapfrog to new heights and prowess. The fundamentals serve as the core and foundational routines from which more complex tactics can be perfected. Without a firm grasp of the fundamentals, success is fleeting, as performers have nothing to fall back upon when execution unexplainably…