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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How Important Is This to You?
If you have ever wondered how a conflict exploded over a seemingly trivial matter or action, it’s because it wasn’t inconsequential to them.
When people bring issues to your attention to discuss or resolve, it’s a good idea to ask them this question before attending to it: How important is this to you?
Creating a new habit is never easy. It requires real discipline to adhere to a new routine. What isn’t obvious is how frequently the routine needs to be repeated before a habit is formed. New behaviors that don’t occur daily seldom become habits. The human brain is hard-wired to create new connections. When a behavior is repeated regularly, especially in the same environment, the brain gradually encodes it as a routine action
Leaders naturally discriminate between team members based on track record, reliability, and skill.
Giving team members a letter grade to capture the difference between them is somewhat of a parlor game for leaders. They love to argue about how many A-players they have on the team and why others don’t make that grade. Every leader wants more A-players and fewer C-players. The question is: What specifically defines the difference?
When team members focus on the smallest steps, the larger objective not only seems more achievable, but progress toward it continues.The best leaders know that the smallest goal can sometimes be the largest motivation.
Leaders who care too much about the happiness of others and have a strong need to be liked by them often reward people indiscriminately. When they fail to tie their caring and rewards to measurable goals, a sense of entitlement is usually the result.
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.