The Leadership Caffeine Blog
The Skills of Effective Diplomats Offer Guidance for Managers and Leaders
The New Model for Managers—Old School Diplomacy In a recent article at SmartBrief on Leadership, I suggested we replace our old, outdated management model with a new one right for this era. I even suggested we throw out the label "manager" in favor of something more...
The Skills of Effective Diplomats Offer Guidance for Managers and Leaders
In this article, I draw from history lessons to suggest a fresh model and set of skills based on old-school nation-state diplomacy to help today’s senior managers and organizational leaders navigate the challenges posed by varying constituent groups in our volatile era.
Just One Thing: Rewrite the Rules If You Dare
One of the most difficult but potentially compelling plays in strategy is to redefine the rules of the game. Those who write the new rules…and get them to stick, win.
New Leader Tuesday: Engage, Inform, Inspire
Those who look back and reflect upon the start-up period in their first leadership role will frequently describe this stage as having been awkward or uncomfortable. The transition from individual contributor to supervisor or manager is abrupt for many and lonely for most. Building your priorities and daily activities around the mantra, Engage, Inform, Inspire, can help you cultivate the good habits of effective leaders.
Leadership Caffeine™—Toward More Simplicity
There’s a must-read article that appeared at Fast Company a few months ago by Aaron Levie, entitled, The Simplicity Thesis. The short form is that in this world of increasing complexity, the best opportunities are for those firms, products and services that are minimally complex (simple). The same goes for those of us leading others and managing our organizations.
New Leader Tuesday-Sorry, But You Aren’t the Center of Your Team’s Universe
One of the most common tripping points of first-time leaders is to mistakenly assume that they are the geocentric center of their team’s universe. Adopt the misguided belief in a Ptolemaic view of the galaxy you lead in, and expect your team members to do everything possible to escape your gravitational pull.
Leadership Caffeine™: How to Thrive in High Pressure Conversations
Every professional faces important “moments of truth” as they navigate through their work days. Whether it’s the invitation to speak at the board meeting, the opportunity to connect one-on-one with the CEO or, a tough feedback conversation with a team member, you need to be ready to succeed in these High Value/High Risk (HV/HR) situations. Here are 5 steps to helping improve your effectiveness:
Just One Thing-Seize That Opportunity
When opportunity knocks, all too often our gut reaction is to hesitate. In more than a few situations, we might be better off telling our gut to shut-up and let our feet answer by moving forward.
New Leader Tuesday-15 Ideas to Help You Tame the Meeting Beast
Meetings are interesting beasts to deal with as a new leader. Some (OK, very few) are incredibly productive and many (most) are gigantic and misdirected time sinks. Here are 15 ideas to help you develop some effective meeting habits:
Leadership Caffeine™-8 Lessons in Creative Talent Acquisition
Nothing is as important to your success as a leader as the talent you bring to bear in support of the work of your organization. Here are 8 ideas to stimulate your talent acquisition thinking and promote action:
Getting Ahead Part 2-Jump Start Your Strategic Curiosity with Key Questions
Senior leaders value employees who are proven operators AND who are capable of looking at the bigger picture and providing help in developing the way forward for the business. Your ability to cultivate both sets of skills will help you strengthen your professional value proposition and help differentiate you from your peers. This differentiation might just be the meaningful issue for that next promotion. Here are 6 Question Sets to jump-start your strategic curiosity: