FieldNotes
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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When Fire Drills Happen Every Day
The need to rally all resources with “all hands on deck,” as they say, happens on occasion to even the most organized leaders. But when the so-called fire drills happen with frequency on a team, something essential is amiss and the consequences can be severe. The continual thrash created by last-minute work and the rush…
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Dilemmas Are Problems That Never Get Resolved
Understanding the difference between a problem and a dilemma changes everything. Problems can be solved. Dilemmas can only be coped with. Knowing which one you confront is essential for engaging a strategy that might work.
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One of the Greatest Sports Broadcasters of All Time
With his recent passing, the voice of baseball, owned and operated by the legendary announcer Vin Scully, was finally extinguished.
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Great Cultures Are Prideful Cultures
Team members who believe deeply in what a company stands for and in the talents of their colleagues generate a feeling of organizational pride. When people feel pride they experience a boost in self-esteem and confidence and work harder to achieve the outcomes central to the organization or team’s mission. Pride is the rocket fuel…
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The Myth of Respect Through Fear
Respect is earned by engaging in the actions admired by others. No one but the leaders who depend on it admires fear.
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The Secret Decoder Ring and Strong Cultures
We often listen to the jargon, acronyms, and idioms of an organizational culture and think how ridiculous it is for people to speak in code. Once an organization embraces this need for verbal shorthand, anything complex or repetitive finds its way to an abbreviated expression.
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The Secret Sauce for Promotion Decisions
Leaders focus on many qualities when selecting, developing, and promoting colleagues in an organization. Core competencies, such as setting a clear strategy and vision, understanding and navigating the organization, and making quality decisions, allow leaders to differentiate between worthy colleagues. By assessing the skills and behaviors that contribute to superior performance, leaders discern the gap…
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Getting Others to Ask for Help When They Need It
Leveraging the skills and talents of others is why we organize and work in teams. Asking for help when we need it is both smart and imperative to produce the best work product possible. Yet, many team members become overwhelmed or disoriented during tasks and are reluctant to ask for assistance. They falter and deliver
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Excuse Me, But I Wasn’t Finished Speaking
Perhaps nothing is as annoying to people as being interrupted when they are talking. Equally irritating, if not more so, is when others talk over us while we are speaking.
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Build the Plane While Flying It
Leaders attempting to reenergize an enterprise always face a choice: fix problems before embarking on a new path forward, or forge ahead and do both concurrently. Thanks to the software companies in Silicon Valley that long ago decided to ship imperfect software and then fix it, the choice to do both at the same time…