Years and years ago, I was applying for an Executive Director position with an organization that had roots in the sports field management world.
I wanted to connect my leadership platform to something specific about who they were, so I built an acronym around the word FIELD:
Fearlessness. Imagination. Economic. Level-headedness. Direction.
I thought it was a smart application move. What I didn’t fully realize at the time was that I was also just describing how I actually try to operate — and that the framework would outlast that application by years, across organizations I hadn’t worked for yet, in situations I couldn’t have anticipated when I wrote it.
In other words, the acronym was opportunistic. The values weren’t. And, I felt they’re worth digging into now even in my current Director role.
F — Fearlessness
Trusted by the board to operationalize a strategic plan, I will take calculated risks as needed. I am resolved to meet tough topics and conversations head-on for the good of the association.
Fearlessness in leadership isn’t about being unafraid. It’s about being afraid and going anyway — because the association needs someone to have the conversation nobody else is having, to name the thing in the room, to make the call that doesn’t have a comfortable option.
The calculated part matters.
Recklessness isn’t courage. But when the data is in, when the thinking is done, when the right path is clear even if it’s hard — fearlessness is what moves the organization forward instead of sideways.
I — Imagination
I will not be constrained by conventional thinking. New ideas, processes, and tools are always welcome.
The associations that stay relevant are the ones where someone in leadership is genuinely curious about what’s possible, not just what’s precedented.
Imagination in an organizational context isn’t creativity for its own sake — it’s the refusal to accept “that’s how we’ve always done it” as a complete answer. Every tool, every process, every approach gets evaluated on whether it serves the mission, not on whether it’s familiar. That posture is what opens the door to the kind of structural and operational changes that actually move an organization forward.
E — Economic
I am resolved to always keep the association solvent. In doing so, I will search for and implement solutions that best leverage our available monetary, staff, and volunteer resources.
Solvency isn’t just a finance function. It’s a leadership posture. Every decision an executive director makes has a resource implication — budget, staff capacity, volunteer bandwidth. The leader who understands that operates differently than the one who sees those as someone else’s problem.
Economic thinking means knowing what you have, what it costs to do what you’re proposing, and whether the return justifies the spend. It also means knowing when the lean path is actually the stronger one.
L — Level-headedness
Emotional intelligence is a must. I will listen with emotional maturity and empathy. I will ask questions and gather available data. Then, I will strive to arrive at rational decisions and act.
This is the one I’ve been tested on most. Unhappy staff directing their feelings at me. People unloading complicated situations in heated moments. Others who believed they should be operating in a lane that was mine to manage. All of it, collectively, forced me to understand something I now consider non-negotiable in leadership: you have to gather every bit of data available before you move.
Not just the facts — the subtext.
What’s being said and what’s actually being asked. What someone is reacting to versus what they need.
Can you breathe in the moment? Can you quiet the reactionary voice in your head so you can hear between the words and decipher the real ask? Can you compartmentalize sometimes complicated, layered issues when it all comes spilling out at once?
You have to be able to answer yes. Or, you don’t have to — but you’ll wish you had.
Level-headedness isn’t passivity. It’s the discipline of not acting on the first read of a situation, because the first read is almost never the complete one. Emotional intelligence isn’t softness. It’s the capacity to hear what’s actually happening, process it fully, and then have the fearlessness to act on it when the time comes. The two values aren’t separate. They work together or they don’t work at all.
D — Direction
I will help our board turn our mission into a strong, feasible strategic plan. I will lead staff to operationalize and execute the plan. Then, we do it again.
Direction is the one that closes the loop. All of the fearlessness and imagination and economic discipline and level-headedness amounts to nothing if it doesn’t produce a clear path forward for the people who have to execute it. Strategy without operationalization is a document.
The leader’s job is to close the gap between what the board envisions and what the staff can actually build — and then to keep that cycle moving.
Plan, execute, assess, repeat. Not glamorous. Necessary.
I built FIELD for a specific application to a specific organization. It outlived that application because the values aren’t situational. They don’t change based on the organization’s size, the industry it serves, or the moment the sector is in. They’re the things I keep coming back to when a situation is hard and the right move isn’t obvious.
That’s what a leadership framework is actually for. Not to impress a search committee, but to give you something to stand on daily.
So, yeah, the acronym was a nice touch. But the rules are everlasting.
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