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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Asking Questions Others Want to Ask
An unfortunate reality in many teams is the fact that wise and experienced people often speak too little, while their less experienced and less expert counterparts speak too much. Getting those more reticent to make a vocal contribution can be a real challenge for leaders who desire for everyone to be heard. When everyone’s opinion
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Consider a Needs Exchange Instead of Feedback
Some team members are hard-headed. Even after receiving the same feedback on multiple occasions, they still resist making any change. They dig in, preferring their own path, even when it continues to disappoint the team leader and produce less than stellar results. When team members remain highly resistant to feedback, the best leaders reframe the
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Leaders Ask a Better Question
The more status a leader holds in any organization or team, the more the information they receive is filtered. In other words, team members are notoriously reluctant to share their candid views upward. Even when attempting to be frank, team members commonly withhold some information or put a more positive spin on it. Truth has
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Avoid Torturing Your Underperformers
Caring about people and how they develop is what good leaders do, but sometimes caring too much can be cruel. Leaders care too much when they know team members are not up to the job but keep them in the role anyway. They often do this because they care. They want to do the right
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Tracking Potential Must Be Continuous
Matching talent to exactly the right roles is never easy. Nor does this task ever end. Not because there are always new people, but because people and their skills, talents, and aspirations change quickly. To excel, organizations and leaders need to evolve with changes in people, too. Keeping pace with those changes is what it means to
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There’s a Wrong Way to Share Wisdom
Coaching others to success often requires leaders to let go, allowing people to make their own mistakes and learn from their own experiences. Team members learn best when they get to navigate new situations without a leader nearby. Operating from their own experience and judgment, they find a path that works for them. This requires
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The Laziest People Can Be the Hardest Working People
It’s almost humorous the lengths people go to in order to prove to others they aren’t what we know them to be. A case in point is laziness. No one likes to be seen or thought of as lazy, but the reality is some people exude that quality. Because they don’t want to be judged
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Intense But Not Tense
Two letters can make a big difference. Consider leaders who create an intense work climate versus those who produce a tense environment. The best leaders strive for intensity to challenge people to excel; however, they eschew the kind of tension that undermines performance. Walking the fine line between creating intense or tense is not always obvious. Intensity creates the
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Am I the Smartest Person in the Room?
Most leaders never consider what it’s like to be in a meeting with them. In many instances, it’s not easy. This is especially true for those leaders who insist on being the smartest person in the room. The problem, of course, is not that a leader is the most intelligent person in a room. The
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How Many Direct Reports Can I Have?
A question many new leaders ask, and more experienced leaders should reconsider, regards how many direct reports a leader can manage successfully. When we examine leaders across many industries, it is not uncommon to see direct report numbers ranging from a handful to as many as 15 to 20. So, exactly how many direct reports