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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Are You a Poor Listener or Just Hard to Influence?
Some leaders get a bum rap regarding their listening skills. Although they’re accused of listening poorly, in actuality, they process and comprehend what others say and mean with aplomb. Their ability to pay sharp attention to others and understand what they communicate is beyond reproach. Yet they are told repeatedly that they have lousy listening…
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Learning to Think in Opportunities, Not Problems
Ask a leader to list 10 problems faced by the team, and they won’t hesitate to rattle them off. The request for 10 more wouldn’t be a heavy lift either. But ask the same leader to list 10 opportunities for the team, and they will likely struggle to complete the assignment. Identifying 20 opportunities will…
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Why Team Members Sometimes Hear Negative Feedback as Positive
A surprising thing sometimes happens after a team member receives direct and candid negative feedback about their performance. Even though the leader believes they have been straightforward and unfiltered in their criticism, the team member does not receive the message as negative. In fact, on some occasions, they actually hear the feedback as relatively positive, or at
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Ground Rule That Fosters Healthy Team Debate
To reach the best conclusion, decision, or position, leaders and teams sometimes benefit from a full-fledged debate on the issues involved. This requires team members to stake out competing viewpoints and then advocate strongly for their preferred perspective or outcome. In any debate, team members marshal facts and make the case for the correctness of…
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How to Spot a Bureaucrat
A bureaucrat isn’t a person or role as much as it is a mindset attached to someone with legitimate status or influence at any level in an organization. Bureaucrats are made, not born, and they come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. No matter what they have been asked to do or what role they…
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Showing Team Members How to Perform With Rigor
Every leader wants their team members to perform with rigor. To leaders, this means performing a task or assignment with strict attention to detail, thoroughness in execution, and careful consideration for accuracy. No cutting corners or looking for a fast solution. Rigor is all about examining every aspect of a situation or problem with an
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Since We Can’t Agree, Let’s Vote on It
To live up to the standard of inclusion and empowerment, as well as to foster buy-in and subscription to decisions, most leaders and teams operate from the decision rule of consensus. Consensus doesn’t require that everyone agree with the decision, but it does necessitate that everyone can live with the decision and execute it as if they agreed with it. To
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Your Support Team and the Fear of Making a Mistake During Performance
Of the many fears that can undermine performance, perhaps none is more common or debilitating than the fear of making a mistake. It doesn’t take an expert to know that worrying over making mistakes is a surefire way of making more of them. Performers who allow potential mistakes or errors to enter their thought process…
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High Intellect Can Be a Barrier to Learning
Here’s a paradox: The smarter a leader is, the more likely they will eventually have troubling learning. This is not because they lack the capacity to learn. Quite the contrary. Leaders with a high intellect are uniquely positioned to grasp ideas quickly and absorb complex issues with an eye toward a practical solution. But those…
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Deliver a Tough Message in the First Two Sentences
Delivering a message others don’t want to hear isn’t easy for any leader, but it comes with the territory. Good leaders deliver tough messages because it is inherent in their role as decision-makers. Decisions and actions come with consequences. It is the leader’s job to communicate those choices and outcomes even when they know they…