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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When to Get Your Hands Dirty
“Eyes on, hands-off” captures a recipe many of the best leaders believe in. The idea is to have the pulse of what is going on at every level but to keep your hands off and allow others to do the work they know how to do. Establishing guidelines and setting guardrails at the outset of
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The Power of the Pelz Effect
The influence a leader has on those above them in an organization exerts a profound impact on how others below them view them. The question on everyone’s mind, especially when promotions, bonuses, or new policies are in play, centers on how much credibility and influence our leader has to shape the outcomes. We want our
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Command and Control Is Pernicious
More than 40 companies in the United States alone have 300,000 or more employees. Nearly a dozen organizations in the U.S. boast of more than half a million workers. And you thought you had leadership headaches! The idea of leading in these organizations boggles the mind until we understand that all large collections of people
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Leadership Is Leadership Is Leadership
If we think of leadership as situational, even fundamentally different in the many roles we play in life, we inadvertently become less effective everywhere. Conversely, leaders who understand that the foundations of leadership apply equally across all situations and with all kinds of people have a distinct advantage. We become more masterful at leadership when
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Habit Stack Your Workout
Habit stacking is an increasingly popular approach to building a new habit. By coupling two activities together, one enjoyed and one necessary, leaders make great strides in instilling a new habit. One habit stack taking firm hold with the best leaders is exercise learning. In this habit stacking, leaders listen to podcasts while they workout. Exercise learning
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Hard Truth About Why People Leave
The war on talent has new battle lines given recent changes in the workplace and the increasingly virtual nature of teamwork. Talent is more portable than ever before. Attracting top talent is a critical challenge for nearly all teams and organizations. Less obvious is the problem of taking one step forward while taking two steps
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Stop Hoarding Key Work
Your ability to delegate important work defines your success as a leader. Redirecting important work to others means you’re finally using leverage. Delegating work allows others to develop the skills essential for long-term team success. Not only does delegating work allow you the time to focus on the highest impact tasks, but it also shows
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Decisions and the Unknown Unknowns
Nearly every bad decision shares a common flaw. Something undermined the outcome we hoped for. Worse, that something is a factor not previously known to us. You may be familiar with the framework used by the American politician Donald Rumsfeld. There are known knowns, things that we know. There are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know.
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A Question for High Performers
Sometimes, high performers are highly sensitive to critique of any kind, especially after a poor performance. They bristle at even discussing the performance. They push away valuable feedback. As a result of being accustomed to performance success, this sensitivity serves as a defensive attempt to prevent others from lowering their confidence. Ironically, it is immediately
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Stop Calling for Meetings
Are you leading in a meeting culture? Meeting cultures exist in those teams and organizations where meetings have become the essence of work. In meeting cultures, spending time in meetings counts as producing results. Meetings take on so much value that pre-meetings, meetings after meetings, and meetings to plan meetings are commonplace. Leaders in these cultures