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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You Need to Disrupt Team Disrespect
Disrespect between team members can undermine morale and the goodwill to speak candidly about critical issues. Over time, team members can lose respect from their peers when they consistently underperform or demonstrate poor judgment, among other displays of incompetence. Character issues can also come into play when a team member’s choices are questioned by others
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Interruptions Are the Enemy
The best performers in any field strive to find “flow,” that elusive state where time disappears and creative insights give us the direction to achieve stunning results. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi tells us flow occurs most often when we meet complex challenges with intense concentration and the skills to master them. When we are in flow,
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Real Strategy Beats Parlor Games
We have all played the parlor game called rock, paper, scissors, usually to decide who pays the check or buys the beer. The game is fun when we are young. But we lose interest in it over time (saving it for the random moments when we need to decide who takes on an onerous task).
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Leadership Differs From Management
To say that leadership and management are fundamentally different is one of those statements that is both entirely true and woefully inadequate. Academics delight in delineating the differences to make the not-so-subtle point that one can be skilled at management but fall terribly short at leading others. They like to point out that management creates
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Old Structures Can Suffocate Execution
Sometimes a team fails to stay on topic. An organization might need more consistency in approaching a problem. Maybe the issue is a simple lack of discipline to follow through on an issue. In such cases, we see leaders create structure to address the need. Structures come in many forms. They can include rules, outlines,
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Stay in the Question
Curiosity is the key to learning, which is probably why so many successful leaders believe it to be the X factor between exceptional and average leadership. Leaders from Walt Disney, to Michael Dell, to Kat Cole name curiosity as the most important leadership quality for creating personal and professional success. Jack Dorsey found it baffling when an
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Defeat Worry in the Everyday
Leaders have a lot to worry about. Rising costs, team member and customer concerns, market shifts, and changes with suppliers or partners. All produce anxiety. The worry, at times, can even become debilitating. Learning how to stop worrying and start leading in those moments depends on the view we take with time. Worry always resides
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The Situation Never Speaks
A well-known surgeon was asked about his reputation for harsh and critical words for the teams that assisted his work in the operating room. These eruptions often occurred at critical moments when his instructions and actions depended on everyone executing flawlessly. The surgeon replied, “Everyone knows that’s not me speaking. That’s the situation speaking.” Leaders
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Suffer the Rejection Personally
Had the original Apple iPhone shipped to customers with a plastic screen rather than the Gorilla Glass made by Corning, perhaps the world would be less enthralled with smartphones. The story of how this glass came to be used on iPhones offers an important — but less obvious — leadership lesson. Prior to launching the iPhone, Steve Jobs called
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Track Your Incremental Progress
When attempting to make personal change, it is essential to be patient with yourself. This is not to say it is unimportant to hold yourself accountable for the commitments you’ve made. But the lag time between introducing a new practice and the outcomes we desire is not measured in days or weeks. Change, especially lasting