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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The Right Leader for the Challenge
Because relationships, loyalty, and payback for hard work and past success color so many promotion decisions, selecting the best leader for the current challenge is exceedingly hard for organizations. Even Corporate Boards commonly struggle with this quandary, often landing on the wrong CEO for the task at hand. Such decisions have enormous consequences. Over time,…
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The Skills Required Before Accountability
The skill of following up, checking in, inquiring where things stand, or giving an update on their part is critical to performance. Unfortunately, many team members haven’t acquired this skill or the need for it. Leaders who demonstrate this skill through their example help others see the importance of follow-up, but it is not enough.…
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Energizing the Team That Faces Repetitive Tasks and Travel
Doing the same task or assignment is only monotonous if it is done with the same approach, with the same thinking, and with the same people. Asking people to expand their approach to include new facets, new people, and new learnings is the recipe for sustained invigoration. When travel to the same city and same…
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Leaders Can Put Too Much Faith in Personality Diagnostics
The best leaders accept the fact that the pursuit of 100 percent confidence in prediction is a fool’s errand. They work hard to stack the odds in their favor by understanding what creates success in the organization and what indicators and experiences to weigh in the decision process. Personality matters, but not more than experience,…
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Leading Those Who Rationalize Poor Performance
Requiring that team members accept full responsibility is sometimes the best path forward, but is often unnecessary and fights the human need for defensive attribution. The best leaders aren’t as concerned about the rationalization of why poor performance occurred. Instead, they ask others to focus on what they plan to do differently to change the…
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Once Interrupted, Give It Your Full Attention
Good leaders do their best to prevent distractions and avoid interruptions. Once interrupted while engaged in a task, it takes several minutes to fully reengage and become hyper-focused on the task at hand. Interruptions and unnecessary distractions are the curse of productivity. In a fun turn of words, the best advice is not to let interruptions…
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The Order of Warmth and Competence for Leaders
Across cultures, people use two fundamental judgments to assess the quality of others: warmth and competence. People who express warmth are more likeable and comfortable to be around. We find more similarity, affinity, and positivity with those we experience as warm and caring. On the other hand, those we perceive as highly competent will increase…
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Bringing Those From Another Culture Into the Conversation
Initially, team members from another culture often feel isolated in a workplace outside their country of origin. Engaging in a new workplace, often thousands of miles away, not only highlights the marked differences between cultures, but also creates a sense of disconnection. Language differences are hard enough, but when news, events, popular shows, and various…
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The Failure to Hide Negative Judgments
Leaders are naturally judgmental. They form judgments of issues and people rapidly, intuitively, and continually. They falsely believe that, because these rapid-fire judgments are unspoken, they have little or no effect on those being judged. The problem is that, as a rule, leaders are lousy at hiding their thoughts and feelings. They leak what they are thinking…
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When the Goalposts Move
Conditions sometimes change. As things shift in the marketplace, the environment, short-term financial results, and with customers and competitors, the goalposts often move, sometimes markedly so. This is an uncomfortable pivot for everyone, but especially for team members who depend on goal stability to make progress. Even teams that handle change well generally react poorly…