Field notes

Field Notes

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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Common advice for contemporary leaders is to learn how to celebrate before the project or initiative comes to a favorable conclusion. Celebrating short-term milestones and wins provides immediate motivation, boosts morale, and helps to sustain momentum during longer, challenging projects.
Excellence is a standard many people aspire to but can’t achieve. It’s not because they lack the will or skill to accomplish great things. It’s more about what discipline and learning it takes to reach the highest standard and sustain it. The foundation for the highest competence in any role or skill is aptitude, knowledge, experience, and the drive to learn.
Some leaders are great judges of talent. Using their deep experience and a well-developed template of salient qualities, they focus on attributes others miss or overlook. Through questions, observations, and secret tests, they spot extraordinary potential before anyone else does, sometimes even before the performers themselves. Their track record for selecting outstanding performers is plainly superior to everyone else.
Organizations of every kind get things done by assigning specific roles and responsibilities to specific people. In order to ensure that team members know what is expected of them and are held accountable for results, organizations create layers of hierarchy.
When we think of a clutch performance, we often imagine a sports setting where an athlete shows up well under extreme pressure. But clutch performance isn’t reserved for sports. It occurs in organizations and teams as well.