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
Challenging Conversation Sound Bite #3: The Fallacy of the Feedback (Praise) Sandwich
A Sandwich that Will Give Everyone Indigestion In every challenging conversations workshop I run, the topic of the feedback sandwich (aka the praise sandwich) jumps up, and we spend time sharing perspectives on the use/uselessness of this tactic. You know the...
Challenging Conversation Sound Bite #3: The Fallacy of the Feedback (Praise) Sandwich
In every challenging conversations workshop I run, the topic of the feedback sandwich (aka the praise sandwich) jumps up, and we spend time sharing perspectives on the use/uselessness of this tactic. Here are some reasons I believe you should say “No” to the praise sandwich in your feedback practices.
Guest Marketing Post-Succeeding with Video
Guest Marketing Post-Succeeding with Video: I’m not alone in my video-phobia, and in comparing notes with many of my colleagues, it seems we all struggle with the same issues. We also agree that the benefits of building a video presence strongly outweigh any of the personal reasons for avoiding this. To support our efforts, I encouraged Amber Wallor and Edgar Mourans, the two pros behind Left Hand Marketing and the drive to help small business owners and even hapless actors like me build a video presence, to offer us some guidance. Here’s a free e-book and some encouragement from Amber and Edgar.
Leadership Caffeine™—10 Situations to Throttle Back on Speed
Somewhere on the way to this world we now live and work in, “speed” became a proxy for success. Speed is undoubtedly important, but beware relying on it as the sole indicator of effectiveness. It’s a cruel tyrant, demanding fealty from followers, while discouraging critical and deep thinking and focusing solely on time-to-response as a metric of success. Here are at least 10 situations where you should resist the need for speed and call a timeout:
Great Ideas: Management & Leadership Week in Review
Every week (ok, that’s not a promise, but an aspiration), I’ll offer a few articles/posts and an occasional book suggestion, that I believe are worth sharing and worth thinking about and even acting on in our lives. This week’s selections offer inspiration for those striving to achieve, ideas on diagnosing and curing team performance problems, a resource on creating and sustaining organizational performance and some provocative thoughts on what the world needs from leaders.
Three Books to Give Away-Share Your “Best Leader” Story
I allocated a few copies of, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, for faithful readers and contributors here, and I would like nothing more than to give a few away in return for something we can all enjoy…a “Best Leader” story.
Art’s Weekly Leadership Message: It’s All in Your Attitude
Of the many things we can’t control in life and business, attitude is the one we have 100 percent power over, every single day. The best leaders know this, and they work to prepare theirs before walking through the door or engaging in the workplace.
Steve Jobs-Walking With Giants
Twentieth Century Industrialist and the founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita, established a garden outside of the firm's modest headquarters in Osaka, Japan. In this garden, he commissioned and placed statues of his heroes. Fittingly, a giant statue of Thomas...
Escaping the Gravitational Pull of the Past
If you work in a firm struggling to redefine itself and maintain its relevance in this changing world, you’re not alone. You’re also involved in a battle for your firm’s life.
Book Launch and an Offer: Let’s Get the Conversations Started!
The rolling launch of Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development continues, and I’m interested in talking to readers and their teams about all things leadership. I’ve got an offer for you to help jump-start the right conversations with your team:
Leadership Caffeine™ Podcast #9: Business Improv with Val Gee and Sarah Gee
Creativity is at a premium in our world, and subjecting our teams and audiences to mind and rear-numbing marches through an endless stream of slides is the best way I know to stifle creativity. There’s got to be a better way!
Val Gee and Sarah Gee in their recent book, Business Improv, offer both hope and some practical solutions to the aforementioned painful march through training sessions and internal meetings. Blending experiential learning and the improvisation activities practiced in the world of theater, Val and Sarah have created a wonderful collection of activities designed to both get people engaged and help them overcome the many obstacles and barriers that get in the way of creative and problem-solving discussions.