A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
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.
It’s somewhat astonishing how often leaders say they stand for honesty and integrity but refuse to deliver a tough and candid message to a colleague. It’s as if they believe telling people the truth only applies if the message won’t be received poorly or defensively. Delivering a tough message to a colleague isn’t easy for anyone, but it is excruciatingly painful for some.
For those who find conflict so uncomfortable as to produce anxiety, telling others what they don’t want to hear is to be avoided whenever it can be. This is a particularly damning flaw for those in the business of leading a team.
If Václav Havel could do so inside the walls of a prison, so can any leader without such draconian constraints. No matter how poisonous the workplace is, team leaders carry the antidote for their team with their decisions, rewards, behaviors, and messages. As famed motivational speaker Zig Ziglar liked to say, “Don’t let negative and toxic people rent space in your head. Raise the rent and kick them out.”
Good leaders work hard to erase the ongoing and natural doubts team members have. It’s a critical aspect of being an effective leader.
Even minor doubts can fester and shape the everyday reality of a team. So, good leaders do their best to openly address them before they turn into full-fledged skepticism. In the words of English writer Benjamin Jowett, “Doubt comes in at the window when inquiry is denied at the door.”
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Inspiring others is among the highest callings of great leaders. But could there be anything you don’t know, you haven’t heard, about how to motivate and inspire?
Could there really be a universal principle that the best leaders follow? A framework that you could follow too?
There is.
Everyone who signs up for Admired Leadership Field Notes will get instant access to our special guide that describes a powerful idea we call Fanness™ (including a special 20-minute video that really brings this idea to life).
