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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The Special Conversation Every Team Member Wants to Have With Their Leader
By focusing on who people want to be, what they want to experience, and where they want to land, leaders give team members something only they can provide. The potential impact of this conversation cannot be overstated. Many of the most important things in life are free. They just take some time and genuine interest.…
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The Role of Counterexamples in the Socratic Method
Asking great questions is what great leaders do. To fully incorporate the Socratic Method into their leadership style, the best leaders also understand the importance of counterexamples to further refine thinking about an issue or topic. Counterexamples attempt to disprove or rebut a statement of fact by offering a case or example where the viewpoint…
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Building Credibility Quickly in a New Role
Anytime a leader transitions to a new role, team members unfamiliar with them naturally become fixated on who they are and how they will lead the team. Leaders instinctively know that establishing their credibility quickly with the team is critical to their short- and long-term success. Demonstrating that they are worth following and have the…
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What Not to Presume About Large-Scale Change
As a general rule, people resist big changes. It slaps them in the face, and they often find a way to slap back. The best leaders approach an organization’s transformation by first understanding that change means movement. And movement inside an organization creates more friction than they can see. Creating change almost always takes more…
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The Ingredients of a Compelling Vision
Crafting a compelling vision for the team or organization is foundational for long-term success. A captivating vision shapes goals and strategies, motivates team members, serves as a bulwark to adversity, and unifies the competing interests of different teams or business units. A vision encourages the enterprise to focus on long-term goals rather than short-term gains.
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The Team Respects What You Inspect
The team respects whatever the leader inspects. Momentary measures garner a lot of attention and help to redirect the team to what matters. What ratio, percentage, correlation, or estimate are you using to create a sharper focus for your team? Consider trying a novel measurement to start a brand-new conversation within your team. It just…
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Secret Interview Tests Make Big Inferences From Small Acts
Good leaders may even employ one of the idiosyncratic tests popularized by news profiles of eccentric leaders, like whether they defer to others to select the wine at a restaurant or offer to pick up the tab at an interview lunch. But they don’t view the responses as a litmus test for selection. They incorporate…
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As You Assess Candidates, Don’t Overlook Their Experience With Change
Leaders lean heavily on the quality of a candidate’s experience to help them make hiring decisions. The variety of situations a candidate has likely been exposed to over time and their success in navigating them is considered a key to selecting the right candidate for any given role on the team. The general view is
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Candidness in Teams Is More Important Topically
Good teams strive to be candid in their discussions and interactions. Quality decisions depend on honest views and frank assessments. Without the ability for team members to be forthright with their opinions, problems fester and opportunities are squandered. Yet very few teams ever attain the promise of absolute candor. The many reasons people edit themselves…