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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Be Careful Not to Let Self-Assessments Harm Your Personal Development
The good news about self-assessment tools like Hogan, DISC, Calipers, the Big Five, and MBTI, among many others, is that they provide an important lens into how we orient ourselves to the world. The best self-assessments reveal how we learn, make decisions, approach relationships, and respond to situations. They clarify our tendencies and preferences for
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Using a Self-Assessment as a Team Exercise
Beyond what leaders can learn about themselves from self-assessment tools, surveys can also serve as an ideal catalyst for team discussion and group insight. Having each team member complete a self-assessment and then share the outcomes or results provides several potential discussion points and can make for an engaging team exercise. Patterns in the results
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Why We Love Taking Self-Assessment Surveys
Perhaps you have already taken and benefitted from the insights of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Gallup’s StrengthsFinder, the DISC personality assessment, the Enneagram personality typing system, or many of the other popular self-assessments. Of the many personality assessments, The Big Five Personality Traits assessment has become tremendously fashionable of late. If you haven’t already, take…
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The Emotional Impact of Great Customer Experiences
Emotion, not logic, creates the powerful customer experiences.
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The Best Way to Teach Soft Skills
While cognitive and technical skills can be learned in a rule-based way, there are no clear guidelines for how people should work and interact with others. The so-called soft or social skills — such as empathy, listening, advocacy, and conflict resolution — are difficult to teach and nearly impossible to scale across an organization. Despite…
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The Most Important Undiscussable for Your Team to Confront
There is a typical gap between what everyone on a team thinks and what gets discussed. Those topics, issues, or ideas that are too uncomfortable or embarrassing for the team to discuss remain unaddressed and unspoken. While these undiscussables help the team to avoid short-term conflict and awkwardness, they often hold the group back from…
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The Chicken and Egg of Trust and Commitment
Good leaders know that team members who trust them and are loyal to the team go above and beyond to lift themselves and others toward sustainable success. They focus their attention more easily, engage more passionately, overcome setbacks and challenges more comfortably, and behave more consistently. That’s why savvy leaders do their best to amplify…
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Character Is Revealed in Success, Not Just Failure
It is a well-known view that when things get tough, people reveal themselves. Failure can be a profound teacher, forcing people to confront their mistakes and take responsibility for them. Or not. Some people rise to the occasion when failure raises its ugly head, refusing to give up and instead displaying resilience and determination. Conversely,…
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How Do People Know If a Leader Is Sincere?
Authenticity gets all the press, but for leaders, sincerity matters more. Team members and colleagues respond differently to a leader who is sincere and expresses their genuine feelings and views without pretense. Even when they disagree, they come to trust a sincere leader who is heartfelt about what they say and do. Sincere leaders operate
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How Much Fruit Is on Your Coaching Tree?
Charting out the leaders you have developed and learning where they are now can be an illuminating exercise. Visualizing the impact you have had on others can reinforce the importance of developing others. It can even underscore why you do this work in the first place. A leader’s true legacy is in the relationships they…