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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Jumping to Conclusions About People.
The Case Against Dirty Empowerment. Empowering team members to shape outcomes doesn’t take courage. It takes an ambition to succeed through others.That sounds like leadership.
Resist Emotional Reasoning. All leaders are susceptible to emotional reasoning on occasion. But by recognizing that emotional reasoning can create a fog of delusion, leaders can prevent falling prey to this pernicious inference-making. Emotional reasoning leads to exaggerated conclusions about who leaders are and why they should avoid particular situations. Such reasoning never serves leaders well.
Getting People to Talk Candidly in Meetings. Don’t save breakouts for training and large group programs. Use them in everyday meetings to get everyone involved and talking. Effective meetings require everyone to make a contribution and to speak their mind regarding critical issues. Breakouts get that done.
Saying Yes More Slowly Will Allow You to Say No More Often. Agreeing to a request and then regretting it later is a universal experience. Leaders want to be helpful and liked by others, just like everyone else. But in their ambition to gain acceptance and please others, they sometimes say “Yes” to a request when they should have said “No.” With so much to do and so little time to do it, leaders need to get better at declining more requests and invitations so they can focus their time on what really matters.