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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Learning to Ask for Help
Get in the habit of asking for help when it isn’t critical and you’ll have an easier time finding the courage to request a hand when you need it most. Before lifting others up, a good leader must learn not to let themselves down by going it alone. Learn to ask for help.
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Why Good Working Relationships Sour and End When They Didn’t Need To
Good leaders learn that whatever is bothering them must be addressed early on. Finding a way to bring it up with the other party and explore it is how strong relationships maintain their strength. Solid working relationships can’t survive without a commitment to openly discuss the good and the bad. Learn to talk about what…
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Holding Yourself Accountable Is Easier With a Buddy
Depending on the behavior, it may be best to turn to a spouse, coach, colleague, or friend to play this role. The most important criterion is to select someone you trust that will live up to the mutual pledge to hold you accountable. They won’t accept excuses or allow you to surrender without putting up…
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Schedule a Conversation Instead of a Meeting
We attend way too many meetings and engage in too few conversations. While the best meetings have some conversation-like qualities, the idea that status, agenda, and information drive meetings makes them very different from conversations. In meetings, people often compete to stand out, get heard, and advocate for their ideas, resulting in unfocused discussions replete
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True Advocates Don’t Let Others Bad Mouth You
Trusting that the team is comprised of full-hearted advocates, leaders and team members don’t feel as if they might be judged or belittled behind their backs. This allows them to operate openly, without defensiveness, and to engage others with candor. Teams perform best when everyone believes in the good intentions of others and is willing…
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The Power of Appreciation or Not
Appreciation is an echo from the lips of leaders to the walls of great teams. People who are appreciated feel more grateful for leaders, as well. Maybe that’s what Voltaire meant when he said: “Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” By acknowledging the positive…
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True Genius Expresses Itself in Multiple Mediums
Pablo Picasso wasn’t just a world-class painter. He was also a master sculptor, a consummate printmaker, a celebrated ceramicist, and an innovative theatre designer. We often think of those with extraordinary talents as having genius. Picasso certainly fit that category and shared something all true geniuses have in common: They can express their unique insights,…
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If You Must Punish, Design Punishments That Make People Better
If You Must Punish, Design Punishments That Make People Better. When it comes to dissuading negative behaviors, penalties (losing something you already have) are better than punishments (requiring people to do something they don’t want to). This works because penalties remind people what the standards and rules are and why they can’t be violated. Nonetheless,…
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Penalty Is Better Than Punishment
Penalties and punishments are different ideas that share a similar zip code. Leaders often use the two words and ideas interchangeably without much thought. While they may sound the same, they are distinctly different in expression and effect. A penalty requires you to lose something you already have, whereas a punishment makes you engage in…
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A Handful of Great Decisions Drown Out All of the Bad Ones
Legendary investor Warren Buffett claims that investment decisions at his firm Berkshire Hathaway have been no better than so-so over nearly six decades, but that about a dozen truly good decisions have made their results sparkle in a way no one else has matched. That’s the way it works with decisions. We all make more