The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Three Options to Help You Strengthen Your Feedback Skills
If the Idea or Act of Giving Constructive Feedback Stresses You, You're Not Alone In a recent survey of over 500 managers, anticipating and then giving constructive feedback was found to be the number one stressor in their jobs. Ouch! 65% of them indicated they either...
Three Options to Help You Strengthen Your Feedback Skills
It turns out, a great number of us stress over giving feedback—particularly the constructive kind. Earlier in my career, this was me and it took a great mentor to help me solve this problem. I work with professionals of all types and at all levels to strengthen their skills with feedback. Here are three options to support your growth (two free, one a great value workshop).
Ten Lessons from Experienced Managers Hungry to Learn and Grow
Last week I wrapped up two different cohorts of my Experienced Manager Program. In twelve hours of program time spread over multiple sessions, the ideas and insights flowed, and I left impressed with the passion so many have for their work leading and managing. Here are some of my favorite insights from the program:
Donuts and Other Insights on Teaming from the Latest Leadership Caffeine Jam Session
Our March Leadership Caffeine Jam Session was all about finding the magic with teams. As usual, the chat stream commentary from our attendees was fabulous. I’m sharing some insights from this 50-minute session.
How Will You Describe the Leader You Aspire to Be?
If you are interested in taking that next step as a leader, it pays to silence the outside voices and spend some time mining your experiences, influences, and aspirations.
When Challenging Conversations Go Unspoken—A Leader’s Nightmares
Be very afraid of the conversations on the tough topics of performance, improvement, and innovation that aren’t taking place on your team or in your organization.
Leaders: How Hard are You Thinking About These Two BIG Issues?
There are two issues every person in a leadership role must constantly focus on and work on: (1) who they aspire to be as leaders and (2) how hard they are working at developing their skills as strategists. Anything less than daily work on these issues is a problem.
Leadership Caffeine™—If You’re Leading Change, Expect Flak
Don’t let the flak derail your transformation initiative. Instead, dive in to understand the core of any resistance better and strive to build your coalition. Transformation initiatives succeed on the strength of relationships, not ideas.
Leadership Caffeine Jam Session 4 —Rethinking Employee Career Development for This Era
I’m excited to have a great friend and fabulous expert on career development, Julie Winkle Giulioni, join the upcoming Leadership Caffeine Jam Session: Rethinking Employee Career Development for This Era on Friday, February 11 at noon central. You can register here. (This will be recorded and the video, chat stream, and mind map distributed to all registrants.)
Why You Need to Write the Manifesto for Success with Your Group
Clarifying your group’s values or creating a Manifesto for Success gives substance and meaning to the working environment you want to bring to life with your group members. This activity is essential and impactful whether you are leading a senior management team, a functional group, or a project team.
How to Maximize Value from Your Coaching Experience
I find that many participants come into coaching situations unclear on what to expect and unsure how to leverage the experience. Here are some ideas to help.









