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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I Can’t Do That, But I Can Do This
People appreciate that a leader has been thoughtful in their reply and values their request highly enough to suggest a substitute choice. In most cases, those making the request will feel supported by the response, even if they politely decline the replacement. The next time you must reject a request or invitation, consider the “I…
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Learn to Respond Instead of React
Learning to respond rather than react is not easy, especially for those leaders who are passionate and frank. Even leaders who recognize that strong reactions magnify negativity often struggle with making this important move. But the work is worth it. Leaders can never positively influence a negative situation with a bad reaction. Responding with just…
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Choices Only You Can Make
Warning: You already know what follows. This is only a friendly reminder. It is worthwhile to remember that only you can decide the most important ingredients of your life. The building blocks of character, productivity, and performance are exclusively up to you and only you. For instance, only you can choose your values. What is…
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How Would You Describe Yourself in One Word?
Of the many descriptors in your head, narrowing the list helps to clarify what you really believe about yourself. A great exercise is to land on the one word that best captures the essence of who you are. How would you describe yourself in one word?
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Motivating People to Fully Engage
Even the highly ambitious and driven team members leave effort on the table. Performing at 100 percent all the time is a lofty goal, but nearly impossible to realize. Even for the top performers, the gap between “all-in” every day and fully committed is small but real. For many others, a deep cavity exists between…
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Don’t Allow Team Members to Delegate Up
Guarding against this pattern requires leaders to distinguish between accommodating and helping others by doing their work. A leader who allows anyone to delegate a task they are responsible for up to them has opened the door to ineffectiveness and an unhealthy dependence on their time and talents. Good leaders delegate down and refuse to…
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Concentrated Focus and Repeat-Back Messages
We often think this process is the domain of military organizations and overlook the value of this practice in tasks such as mechanical repairs, kitchen prep and recipe execution, hospitality service, financial reporting and analysis, patient care, software testing, customer orders, and legal strategy, to name just a few. Good leaders introduce the process of…
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How a Leader Spends Money Tells You Who They Really Are
While these are broad generalizations, how leaders spend money and what it reflects is fairly obvious to everyone around them. Over time, colleagues, friends, and family members come to know how a leader views money and uses it to represent their values. Whether they put their money where their mouth is can suggest a mismatch…
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Out of Sight, Out of Mind
None of us fully knows where the workplace options of remote, partially remote, or back-to-the-office will shake out over the next few years. Expert predictions slightly favor a return to on-site work with fewer colleagues working remotely, but the nature of the workplace and the work itself influences much of how things will materialize in…
