Field notes

Leaders Who Can’t One Day See Themselves Working for Any of Their Team Members. Leadership on a team and the talent a leader attracts go hand-in-hand. Highly talented team members seek to work under the guidance of an experienced, confident, and strategic leader who puts the team above their own self-interests.

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.

Executive Functioning refers to higher-level cognitive skills that allow people to manage their thoughts, actions, and emotions to achieve goals. Not surprisingly, those with strong Executive Functioning are better able to adapt to new situations and solve problems they have never encountered before.

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.