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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Rate Your Feedback Culture
Team cultures are partly defined by how leaders and team members engage in performance-related feedback. Without the candor and specificity of feedback to do things differently in the future, leaders and team members don’t develop and get better. But more is not always better. How feedback creates the everyday conversation within an organization is what…
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Be Careful Not to Punish Competence
You wouldn’t normally think that being highly effective or competent at core tasks would be a bad thing. But leaders are people, too. They want to go with their best-skilled players. All the time. So when a leader decides that every key assignment needs the attention of a particular team member, they exact an increasingly heavy
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The Secret to Leading Inexperienced Team Members
Instead of providing inexperienced team members with the context to succeed, they give them small actions to execute. It is through these actions and the relevant feedback that comes from them that novice team members begin to understand how things work. Telling them just creates confusion. Showing them is not yet possible. Directing them in…
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The Reason Not to Have a Team Meeting
Too many leaders set meetings just because they are expected to or take the place of real work. Good leaders don’t use meetings to replace productivity or simply to keep people abreast of what is going on. They challenge and question the need for any new meeting on the calendar and fine-tune existing meetings to…
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Don’t Take a Breath in a Brainstorm
Maybe some leaders believe brainstorming to be hokey or that it produces a less serious start to an important problem. Or perhaps they don’t like the whimsical nature of the exercise. But they need to get over it. Brainstorming is an important piece of work. Most problems and opportunities benefit greatly from an initial session…
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Taming the Need to Control
Leaders who stand for excellence struggle with two competing desires. On the one hand, they want to guarantee excellent outcomes by controlling the smallest details and everything connected to them. In their desire to achieve the greatest outcome, they become dictators of control. On the other hand, the best of these leaders also know that
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Turning Praise Into Encouragement
High-performing colleagues desire and deserve praise from their leaders. Team members feel appreciated and recognized for their work when they receive praise. While some people need more of it than others, no one outgrows the need to hear they are doing things well, especially from their leader. When it is specific, the impact of praise
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Getting Candidates to Talk About Their Weaknesses
Assessing the true strengths and weaknesses of a prospective team candidate is never easy. The interview process often reveals a person who doesn’t show up as the same talent later. Projecting the best possible version of themselves is an art form most candidates are prepared for. But to select the best candidate, leaders must break
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Skill and Will
When evaluating the reason for consistently poor performance by a given team member, leaders might be surprised at how often it comes down to these two foundational qualities. Without the skill and the will to succeed, team members will always struggle. Who on your team has the skill and the will? And who doesn’t? Make…
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Balancing Defense and Offense
When times get tough, leaders rethink and reimagine what is possible. Eliminating unneeded resources and cutting the fat out of the enterprise protect the organization from losses or demise. In good times, nonessential expenses rise and leaders expand resources looking for new opportunities. In lean times, managing expenses and cutting costs is the prudent course…