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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Competing Goals Are the Source of Many Group Conflicts
Members of a Team, Directors on a Board, and Leaders of an Enterprise are often at odds with one another. They find it hard to agree and get along, often thinking that others hold a very different perspective or view than they do. That is sometimes the case, but it is far more likely something…
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No One Is Too Junior to Have the Best Idea
Over time, leaders who rely too heavily on anonymous suggestion boxes give into the suppression of open dialogue. The norm that everyone should be comfortable advocating for an idea no matter where they sit in the organization or how much experience they have is essential to establish. Faceless ideas fail to create that standard. Good…
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What Does It Really Mean to Lead by Example?
Leading by example is exceedingly hard. Not because leaders can’t set a strong example others will follow, but rather because truly leading by example requires near-perfect consistency. Any deviation, exception, hypocrisy, or departure from the example negates whatever made it so worth following to begin with. A leader who displays and acts with integrity can’t
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The Team’s Willingness to Help Others Learn
One quality great teams share is how willing experienced team members are to help others improve. On high-performing teams, veterans make themselves available and seek out less experienced colleagues with an offer: Ask me, and I’ll show you how to improve your process and performance. The desire of experienced team members to do whatever it
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Leading at the Rock Face
If a customer is truly the most important person in any organization, then becoming a customer is an elevated place for any leader. From the vantage of a customer, leading at the rock face is both reassuring and scary. Things look wildly different at the rock face. Confronting that reality is what great leaders do.
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Inside Every Leader Is a Better One
Many leaders suggest they want to be better but fail to put in the time or effort to significantly improve. Leaders are generally not lazy people and work hard to master many other skills important for their success. So why do so many leaders fail to make strides in their leadership skills? The answer is
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Machiavelli Got This Right
In 1513, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote a political treatise that was later published as The Prince. Five centuries later, this book remains one of the most influential and controversial tomes on politics and leadership. Machiavelli got a lot of things wrong in that treatise, especially justifying the use of fear as an effective leadership tactic; however, he
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Start the Work Before You Get the Assignment
When appropriately channeled, leaders reward ambition and hard work whenever they see it. They like it when people take the initiative to propose and suggest better ways of doing things. But they have the biggest soft spot for those who go the extra step and prove they are willing to do whatever it takes to
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Not Invented Here
In the eyes of effective leaders, great ideas and best practices are never sacred. They find and exploit any idea, practice, or action they think can make the team more effective. They don’t fall into the infamous trap of Not Invented Here (NIH). When it comes to leading a highly effective organization or team, the
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The Difference Between Fact, Opinion, and Truth
Denying facts in support of a view is not only irrational, but disingenuous. It suggests that objectively reaching a conclusion is less important than the ideology that is in vogue at the moment. Allowing a thinking trend or ideology to dismiss or ignore facts leads to poor quality conclusions and decisions. Smart leaders avoid this…