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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Preach a Reverence for Details
Walt Disney knew it. Steve Jobs lived it. Mary Barra believes it. It is the little things that count. Details really matter to those who strive for excellence and, sometimes, achieve it. Those best at what they do find that it is the nuances and smallest details that transform effort into excellence. Details often seen
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Two Words Will Elevate Your Accomplishments
We sometimes unknowingly place limits on our achievements by the precision of our goals. Setting hard targets and firm objectives can impose restrictions on what is possible. Precise goals don’t stretch the imagination. Lines in the sand make us feel great when we step over them, but they don’t challenge us to push even further.
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The Dichotomy Between Truth and Harmony
A powerful dichotomy for understanding the quality of our relationships can be found in the tension between truth and harmony. We naturally privilege one quality over the other in our relationships. Especially with those who are important to us. Truth-over-harmony relationships emphasize the candid search for answers and realities, sometimes at the expense of compromise
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You Need to Disrupt Team Disrespect
Disrespect between team members can undermine morale and the goodwill to speak candidly about critical issues. Over time, team members can lose respect from their peers when they consistently underperform or demonstrate poor judgment, among other displays of incompetence. Character issues can also come into play when a team member’s choices are questioned by others
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Interruptions Are the Enemy
The best performers in any field strive to find “flow,” that elusive state where time disappears and creative insights give us the direction to achieve stunning results. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi tells us flow occurs most often when we meet complex challenges with intense concentration and the skills to master them. When we are in flow,
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Real Strategy Beats Parlor Games
We have all played the parlor game called rock, paper, scissors, usually to decide who pays the check or buys the beer. The game is fun when we are young. But we lose interest in it over time (saving it for the random moments when we need to decide who takes on an onerous task).
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Leadership Differs From Management
To say that leadership and management are fundamentally different is one of those statements that is both entirely true and woefully inadequate. Academics delight in delineating the differences to make the not-so-subtle point that one can be skilled at management but fall terribly short at leading others. They like to point out that management creates
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Old Structures Can Suffocate Execution
Sometimes a team fails to stay on topic. An organization might need more consistency in approaching a problem. Maybe the issue is a simple lack of discipline to follow through on an issue. In such cases, we see leaders create structure to address the need. Structures come in many forms. They can include rules, outlines,
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Stay in the Question
Curiosity is the key to learning, which is probably why so many successful leaders believe it to be the X factor between exceptional and average leadership. Leaders from Walt Disney, to Michael Dell, to Kat Cole name curiosity as the most important leadership quality for creating personal and professional success. Jack Dorsey found it baffling when an
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Defeat Worry in the Everyday
Leaders have a lot to worry about. Rising costs, team member and customer concerns, market shifts, and changes with suppliers or partners. All produce anxiety. The worry, at times, can even become debilitating. Learning how to stop worrying and start leading in those moments depends on the view we take with time. Worry always resides