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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How Goals Can Make You Less Successful
As the story goes, legendary investor Warren Buffett was asked by his private pilot, Mike Flint, how to set better goals. Flint was frustrated with the progress he was making toward his aspirations and sought Buffett’s wisdom on the matter. Buffett responded by asking Flint to write down his top 25 goals in life. After he completed that
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The Ability to Distinguish Big Problems From Small Ones
For leaders, spending time on problems that others should handle is both a time-wrecker and a morale spoiler. Delegating small problems and issues to trusted colleagues is how good leaders maximize their productivity. The best leaders understand that concentrating their efforts and time on the big problems is how progress happens. Wasting time on anything
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Think About Repurposing Great Content
Leaders and teams sometimes produce some amazingly great content. For instance, a video that perfectly captures the vision, an essay on how AI will impact the team, or an Instagram post and photo describing the impact of music on well-being. The content is typically shared, receives rave reviews, and then is filed away, erased, or…
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Expressing Confidence in a Team Member’s Abilities After a Poor Performance
Compassionate leaders seek out and offer support to those team members who underperform. They ask weak performers to share their perspective as to what occurred and why. Good leaders listen actively and then volunteer their observations. After the initial discussion, they may agree that the performer needs a different game plan or strategy for the
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How Leaders State Goals Has an Impact on Action
Goals are not created or stated equally. Leaders rightly set short and long-term goals based upon the strategy and vision of the organization. But how they state them is a critical choice that is often overlooked. Goals, like many other concepts, can be stated in the positive or the negative. Consider the difference between a
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The Solace of a Third Place
Third places offer an environment where you can shift out of execution mode and immediate pressures, where you can see challenges more clearly. The most admired leaders make these spaces non-negotiable because they know their effectiveness depends on having room for reflection and renewal. Without this, leaders often remain trapped in reactive thinking, missing the…
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Drift Demands Redirection
Purpose can be more elusive than many think. We begin with absolute clarity about why we do what we do. Our purpose feels like a compass, pointing true north in every decision.Then life happens. Day by day, the urgent crowds out the important. Meetings fill our calendar. Emails flood our inbox. Fires need fighting. Slowly…
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The Benefits of Goal Rotation
High-level athletes alternate their workouts to avoid overworking one muscle group over another. This alleviates strain and allows them to focus exclusively on one area of the body without losing focus on the larger picture of well-rounded strength. Leaders would be wise to apply this same strategy to organizational goals. In an organizational setting, leaders…
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Becoming a Better Listener by ‘Checking In’ During the Conversation
Countless people have made 2025 the year they will finally improve their listening skills. This is a great goal, especially for leaders. Improving the skill to process, attend, comprehend, and confirm others in conversation is paramount for effectiveness in every arena in life. But improvement involves more than just intention. Leaders need a workable approach to become
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False Harmony In Teams
To avoid conflict and to coexist in relative peace, some teams operate in a false harmony. On these teams, getting along matters much more than reaching the best decision or talking through issues. In meetings, team members engage in surface-level agreement, skipping past candid discussion and debate on nearly every issue. They suppress conflict and disagreement