The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Why You Should Maintain a Professional Journal—Twenty Prompts to Help You Get Started
Participants in my workshops and webinars regularly hear encouragement and reminders from me to use a professional journal. I've long believed journaling is one of the most powerful continuous improvement tools we can use in our working lives. Yet only a small number...
Why You Should Maintain a Professional Journal—Twenty Prompts to Help You Get Started
Journaling is one of the most powerful continuous improvement tools we can use in our working lives, yet many are unsure of how to get started. Here’s some guidance and twenty journaling prompts to help:
Leaders, Principles and the Pursuit of High Performance Teams
Every high performance team I’ve experienced as a participant, a sponsor or an outside advisor, was governed by an overarching set of principles or values that formed and framed the culture. And while good words alone don’t create success, the combination of the leaders and participants living and acting according to those words everyday made things work.
Leadership Caffeine™-6 Reasons Why You Should Pass on the Happy Hour Invite
Just say “No” to the post-work invite from the team for the beer. While you’ll feel torn because you enjoy social time as much as the next person, pay attention to that little voice in your mind trying to get your attention with, “You shouldn’t, you’re the boss.” No moralizing here. I’ve simply known too many who shut this voice out and paid with their credibility and on a few occasions, their jobs. Not convinced? Here are 6 reasons why I believe you should pass on the post-work happy hour invite:
Leadership Caffeine™ Podcast-Free the Idea Monkey with G. Michael Maddock
After a brief hiatus, the Leadership Caffeine podcast is back! I’m excited to be on the air again and I’m excited about the great line-up of experts, authors and executives ready to share their big ideas!
Speaking of big ideas, there’s no one better to kick us off for this round of podcasts than G. Michael Maddock (Mike), the leader of the innovation agency Maddock-Douglas, author of multiple books, serial entrepreneur and someone who is a one-person idea generating machine. Mike is here with his latest literary effort: “Free the Idea Monkey…to focus on what matters most,” a follow-on to his excellent book, Brand New: Solving the Innovation Paradox.
Energy, Engagment and Some Science to Support High Performance Team Development
As a lifelong team participant and now devotee of leveraging the power of teams, I was fascinated and excited to see the article, “The New Science of Building Great Teams,” in the April, 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review. I suspect we are all for adding some science to the stick, squishy and often problematic issue of how to get people to not only play nice together in the sandbox, but how to do so at a sustained high-level of performance. Here are a few thoughts and “blink reactions” to this interesting article and study:
At Least 10 More Things to Stop Doing if You’re the Boss
A few years ago, I wrote a post entitled, “At Least 20 Things to Stop Doing as a Leader” Reader comments quickly quadrupled that number. It seems there’s no shortage of Bad Boss habits. Here’s a few more “fresh” suggestions provided by clients for publication purposes since I wrote the original post. (Note to readers, this and the predecessor post with comments are ideal for printing and quietly leaving behind on the boss’s chair.)
Leadership Caffeine™-4 Big Reasons to Kill Your Weekly Status Meeting
Few events do more to suck the life and energy out of a team than the boss’s weekly status meeting. If you are the boss, it’s time to exorcise these from your operating routine.
7 Reasons to Be Excited About the Potential of Your Youngest Workers
It’s easy for those of us who count our career in decades to discount how well attuned our youngest workers are to what defines good leadership and good business practices. To do so, is a mistake. Here are 7 reasons why you should work harder to leverage the potential of your youngest workers:
Leadership Caffeine™: 8 Ideas for Navigating Your Leadership Mistakes
Newsflash: all good leaders make mistakes. A great number of them. Everyday. After all, there are people involved, and this would be really easy without the people. Fortunately, people are all that we have. The true test of your leadership character isn’t measured by the number of mistakes you make, but rather, by what you do moving forward once a mistake is recognized. Here are 8 ideas for effectively learning from and navigating your leadership mistakes:
Systems Thinking Meets Platform Strategy and Social Media via Nike+
While I admit to being one of those people who views the idea of running as much more attractive than the actual running part (thus far, I’ve been satisfied to pass runners on my Specialized Road Bike, thank you), I’m blown away by Nike’s strategy with their Digital Plus business and specifically, their Nike+ program for runners. If you are not a member of Nike+ or, if you are not familiar with it, put on your strategy and marketing glasses and take a close look at what they are doing to differentiate, build communities and increase the dialogue with their customers.