Wake-Up Calls for Managers
For the hard parts no one prepares you for
When the path isn’t clear, the stakes are high, and the answers aren’t obvious—this is where managers struggle most.
Wake-Up Calls for Managers delivers practical, real-world guidance for navigating:
- Tough conversations
- Leading through uncertainty
- Building influence without authority
- Driving results through others
The Leadership Caffeine Blog
The Secret to Leadership Success Isn’t So Secret
What's Your Aspirational Leadership Self? Every year I work with hundreds of individuals in my Manager Development Program(s), and one of the key activities is defining their Leadership Charter. The Charter embodies their aspirational leadership self and is developed...
The Secret to Leadership Success Isn’t So Secret
Every year, a ridiculous number of books are written on leadership, and we consume them in volume, hoping to find the secret to leadership success. It’s not that hard, and it’s not a secret. Just ask them what they need from you.
Leadership Caffeine™ Podcast: Brook Manville on Judgment Calls
Run a literature search on decision-making, and you’ll find a broad range of content, much of it focused on the cognitive issues and traps surrounding the process, and the balance focused on the disasters so widely dissected in our culture. For a fresh and refreshing view, enter Tom Davenport and Brook Manville with their book, Judgment Calls-12 Stories of Big Decisions and the Teams that Got Them Right.
Leadership Caffeine™: Listen with Intent
Yesterday, a valued colleague described a fascinating professional interaction and used the phrase, “listening with intent.”While I imagine it is something on the level of “seek first to understand,” the phrasing works for me. It connotes a significant and deep personal investment in focusing on another human…something lacking from most of our interchanges in life and in the workplace.
Bringing Back Professional Courtesy
The issue of professional courtesy (or seeming lack thereof) came up at a recent networking group meeting. With permission, I’m sharing the spontaneous suggestion list we generated, including ideas for live and social media settings. Please add to the list and let’s all strive to put these into practice in real-time. At Least 15 Ideas to Help Bring Professional Courtesy Back:
The Cruel, Bitter and Crushing Taste of Dump-Truck Feedback
Right after avoiding it, the most commonly employed managerial strategy for dealing with feedback is, delaying it. The first approach is poor form… the latter approach is cruel.
Leading in the Matrix-7 Ideas to Cultivate the Right Skills
If speed, adaptability, learning…and the need to innovate are more than buzzwords and corporate clichés, but in fact are the requirements for success in this fast-moving world, then building cultures, teams and people capable of succeeding in the matrix must be a priority.
Leadership Caffeine™-For a Change, Do Something Unconventionally Unorthodox
We tend to love our life and work routines. They are comfortable and comforting. And while there’s a certain amount of routine that’s inherent in successfully running any organization, the best leaders seek and create opportunities to breakaway from the mind-numbing, sense-dulling pursuit of routine. Here are 5 ideas to stimulate your own-thinking on breaking the routine with your team:
Web Construction Update
I'm erring on the side of sharing a little more rather than a little less on some of the work going on here. A few days ago, I highlighted upcoming changes. Last night, the new format for the site went live, although much work continues on content refinement and new...
Leadership Caffeine™ Podcast #14-Bob Frisch on Who’s In the Room?
Bob Frisch is one smart professional, with some great guidance for senior managers and CEO’s in his new book: “Who’s In the Room? How Great Leaders Structure and Manage the Teams Around Them.” His lifetime experience as a strategy consultant working with senior management teams comes through loud and clear as he shares some fairly blunt and important perspectives on how decisions at the top are really made.
Leadership Caffeine™-Why You Might Want to Pause Before Voicing that Decision
Teaching others to employ effective decision-making processes is one of the most important and often ignored responsibilities of those in leadership roles. Unfortunately, training your team to look to you for the calls on how to fix problems and move forward is much easier than teaching your team members to stand on their own for most issues.