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
Provocative Perspective—The Leadership Failure of Mass Layoffs
I’ve long believed layoffs are a lagging indicator of poor leadership engaged in misguided management practices. The headlines at the time of this writing are filled with announcements of mass layoffs—mostly from Big Tech—backed with apologies from CEOs. From META CEO...
Provocative Perspective—The Leadership Failure of Mass Layoffs
I’ve long believed layoffs are a lagging indicator of poor leadership engaged in misguided management practices. The CEO apologies for these misfires ring hollow. You cannot apologize your way out of a leadership failure at scale.
It’s Always About Leadership
Leaders step up during times of crisis. This is where people in positions of responsibility finally earn the right to the “L” label. Unfortunately, in this instance, much like just about every other crisis we’ve created or viewed, leadership seems to take a holiday, replaced by “everyone for himself” and “it’s not my fault.”
Leadership Caffeine™-Success One Step at a Time
Too many people fail to overcome resistance and start moving forward. Instead of heeding Drucker’s advice, fear rents space in their minds, creating a never-ending litany of excuses that help ensure that their feet remain firmly planted in place.
Are You Running in Place When it Comes to Your Professional Development?
Unlike the resolutions that so many of us make in January and discard just as quickly by February, our own professional development requires a deliberate and consistent effort to improve. Here are 7 ideas to help you stop running in place and start moving forward.
Leadership Caffeine™: For Better Results, Quit Telling and Start Letting Go
The odd quirk that seems to bedevil so many who occupy roles of responsibility for others is their overwhelming urge to tell other people what to do. While a certain amount of “telling” is OK, particularly during crises and anything involving safety or security, for the most part, your communication efforts should focus on listening and asking. Starting this year, shift the focus to you and your role and your daily habits, and for everyone’s sake, quit telling people how to do their jobs. Here are 9 ideas to help you in this endeavor.
Thoughts on Your Personal and Professional Success in the New Year
I was truly gifted in 2011 to gain access to and work with and support some remarkable professionals across a number of different market segments…from high tech to professional services to manufacturing, and I learned something with every engagement and encounter. Here are Six Lessons Learned that Can Help Us All in the New Year:
Best of Management Excellence: Trying Not to Fail is Not the Same as Striving for Success
When we focus on not failing, fear rents most of the space in our mind, and we see monsters in need of slaying everywhere we turn. We lose track of the original vision that propelled our actions, and the sheer act of working becomes at best a passionless exercise and at worst, drudgery. Here are some thoughts as you head into the new year on rediscovering your sense of purpose in the workplace.
Best of Management Excellence: An Effective Leader’s Resolutions are Calendar Blind
I’m as guilty as the next person of finding the impending resetting of the calendar a cathartic cleansing, where the failures of the past year are suddenly washed away and replaced by the empty and unknown space filled with promise and time stretching out in front of us. There is something remarkably powerful and alluring about the chance to start-over, right wrongs and vow to do things right the next time around. Resolutions start out as good intentions early in a new year and often end up as regrets later. As a leader, you cannot afford to fall victim to the boom and bust cycle of annual resolutions. Here are eight key questions to resolve about your own leadership practices.
The Joys of the Season
With my sincere thanks for your readership during this past year, I wish you nothing but the best during the holidays and for the new year. I’m taking some time with family and look forward to renewing our pursuit of management and leadership excellence in 2012!
A Leadership Christmas Carol-Bah Humbug to These Leaders
Given the state of things in our world, perhaps for just one season, Dickens’ ghosts can shift their attention away from Scrooge and focus on a few of those truly deserving characters hiding in positions of leadership inside our organizations and governmental institutions. Here are just a few of these characters in need of a visit from the Leadership Ghosts of Past, Present and Future: