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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Recognize the Smallest Changes
To encourage others to make desired personal changes, the best leaders understand the role they play, even when the changes have nothing to do with them or the goals of the team. Progress is what change is all about, and people need leaders to lend a hand in the process. The help others need most…
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A Critical Key When You Disagree
When you lead, disagreeing with others is a requirement. Making decisions, advocating for solutions, and carrying tough messages come with the job. Unfortunately, when we disagree we have been trained to tell people they are wrong before we tell them we are right. It seems only natural to do so. Telling people they are wrong…
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How to Connect Strategy to Higher Purpose
People who find their work meaningful and connected to a higher purpose work harder and stay more highly engaged. Our colleagues deliver their best effort when they feel they are part of something larger than themselves. Despite good intentions, many leaders fail to make a strong connection between their organization’s strategy and the kind of…
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THE Essential First Step to Great Decisions
Solving the wrong problem is more common for teams and leaders than we think. People with ideas and solutions jump to the head of the line and steer teams off the path. Leaders who stand for action don’t spend enough time thinking through the root cause of an issue. As a result, we often solve…
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Take a Hard Look at Their Questions
Perhaps nothing reflects our aptitude and judgment as much as the questions we ask. Asking smart, insightful, and illuminating questions requires real brainpower. A great question necessarily reflects our understanding and judgment on an issue. Maybe that’s why so many people are bad at asking them. While we might spin an answer or project false…
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Distinguishing Good From Great
Ask for advice from the wise and ancient mentors in any organization and you will likely hear among their pearls: “Always underpromise and overdeliver.” Those wise enough to heed this advice reap respect from those who lead them. Leaders understand there are always unforeseen obstacles and delays. They appreciate when team members assume there will…
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What’s Next for Me?
Navigating a career can be tricky. So many viable choices and opportunities present a challenge for even the best resume builders. The roles and positions we accept define us to the world — and even to ourselves. Advice for how to best forge a great career is plentiful, but mostly without calories. We are generally…
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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…