Field notes

Some people make themselves hard to work with. They don’t realize how painful it is for others to collaborate and engage with them on tasks and assignments. One reason is because of their need to complain before taking action.

Distraction is the enemy of productivity. The more distracted a person is during a project, task, or meeting, the less productive they are. Toggling back and forth between full engagement and distraction all day long creates a rollercoaster of attention deficit. Even small distractions cause people to take longer to finish tasks and degrade the quality of the output.

Self-deprecation does more than display humility. Leaders who take jabs at themselves create more trust and connection with others. This is because self-deprecation disarms people and makes leaders more relatable and personable. People tend to trust leaders they find more likable.

The question every performer must ask themselves is: What are the fundamental drills and exercises I should commit to no matter how successful I become? The best performers don’t go back to basics for the simple reason that they never abandon them in the first place.

Good leaders are caring, thoughtful, and candid when giving feedback to team members. Through their feedback and advice, they attempt to amplify a team member’s strengths and help them to change or overcome their weaknesses. On occasion, a team member receiving their leader’s feedback disagrees with it and chooses not to act on it. This independence is reasonable unless the focus of the feedback concerns actions or behaviors that are having a negative impact on others.

Celebrating yourself as you hold up others and recognize their accomplishments is more common than leaders think. The statement, “I knew this would happen when you finally took my advice,” is a prime and common example.