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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Seek Excellence Not Perfection
In our increasingly competitive world, perfectionism is on the rise. At a time when winning creates so much social value and attention, the desire to attain perfection is a natural consequence. Perfection, by definition, requires a hyper-focus on eliminating mistakes and errors. To compete without flaws is perceived as a means to ensure victory. But
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Ask Them to Prove It
Sometimes, challenge is the best way to push others towards excellence and help them grow. The idea is to “stretch” expectations, to encourage people to believe in themselves, and to push them out of the comfort zone of the status quo or mediocrity. As one leader expresses it, “You have to teach people to get
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A Vulnerable Leader Is a Courageous Leader
One of those hard lessons in both leadership and life is internalizing the idea that asking for help when you need it is actually a strength, not a weakness. This idea is highly correlated with another difficult concept to master — admitting you don’t know, that you don’t have all of the answers, even acknowledging there
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Experience Can Be Deceiving
Experience is often weighed too heavily when assessing talent. Leaders commonly place an extra thumb on the scale of experience when judging others. They have learned, falsely, that experience is to be given reverence, much like age and wisdom. They all go hand-in-hand, or do they? Do you have 20 years of experience or one
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Are You Ready for Victory?
Athletes and entertainers have created a myriad of expressions to celebrate victory in the moment. Fist pumps, flipping bats, pointing to the sky, leaping for joy, slapping a thigh, shaking hands in the air, sliding to a stop, running in a circle, chest bumps, heart-to-heart hugs, an idiomatic dance, shedding a shirt, making a muscle,
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Do You Have a Plan B for That?
Surprises make us feel out of control. That’s true for any organization or team. Both leaders and their followers dread surprises. They know from experience that unexpected events create confusion, zap confidence, and leave everyone feeling exposed. That’s why the best leaders are always running contingency plans in their heads. They always have a Plan
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The Medium Might Be the Problem
Sometimes, the message sent is not the message received. The multiple mediums and channels we use to communicate with others make it easy to miss or ignore important messages. In a big stack of emails, for example, it is commonplace to pass over a message and simply not see it. Or, at a glance, presume
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Stoke a Healthy Fear of Failure
A devotion to succeed is naturally linked to a fear of failure for most high performers. Ask most successful leaders and performers why they have persevered, and they will tell you that a healthy fear of failure has been a driving force and motivator behind their success. Conversely, when the fear of failure becomes too strong,
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A Modern-Day Rorschach Test for Teams
Ever since Swiss psychologist, Hermann Rorschach, introduced his test using a series of inkblots to uncover patterns of thought disorder, the world has been even more fascinated with how people bring order and structure to randomness. The Rorschach test has become something of a cultural meme to explain how similar people bring a wide variety of interpretations
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Slow Down When Under Pressure
People mirror their leader’s emotion, especially under duress. The normal pattern follows a chain of emotions. Calm produces calm. Panic produces panic. Fortunately, or unfortunately, teams naturally follow their leader’s example. Leaders who learn how to stay emotionally even in high-pressure moments do their teams a tremendous service. In the cool and collected climate created