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
A plant closing unleashes a flood of family memories
When the headline is personal It’s rare that a story headline in my morning reads jolts me awake. This one in the WSJ did. "Storied Toolmaker Closes Its Last Hometown Plant — and Blames Its Tape Measures." (Tiered paywall) The news that Stanley (now Stanley Black...
A plant closing unleashes a flood of family memories
It’s rare that a story headline in my morning reads jolts me awake. This one in the WSJ did. “Storied Toolmaker Closes Its Last Hometown Plant — and Blames Its Tape Measures.”
Feeling Increasingly Irrelevant at Work? Assess and Take Action
In our unsettled era, wondering whether you are still relevant in your workplace is the stuff of sleepless nights. It’s essential to gauge whether your uneasy feeling is real or just a product of our odd times. If your suspicions are confirmed, it’s time to take action.
Six Big Insights from the Six-Hour Career Energize Program Beta Sessions
Six big insights from the recent beta version of the Six-Hour Career Energize Program. It turns out there is a process for turning daydreams into reality without jumping off a cliff.
Strengthen Your Effectiveness as a Manager with a 12-Item Daily Checklist
I love checklists. Airline pilots use them. Surgeons, nurses, safety professionals, quality engineers, and individuals in every high-stakes profession use them. Thank goodness. But what about managers? What’s on your checklist?
The Culture, Strategy, and Performance Killing Spiral of Poor or No Feedback
While we regularly focus on feedback as an individual performance tool, it’s also a critical communication tool for driving improvement across groups and for processes and initiatives. Yet, this important, honest communication is in short supply in too many organizations.
Ten Questions to Support Continuous Career Growth
During our recent Leadership Caffeine Jam Session (recording and session materials/#18), I shared the ten questions I ask myself (and answer) about my career at least twice yearly. The late, great management thinker Peter Drucker suggested five questions; the other five are my add-ons.
Chronos or Kairos—Is it Your Moment for a Career Change?
I discovered recently that the ancient Greeks had two different words to explain the idea of time: Chronos and Kairos. The difference between the two is meaningful, especially if you feel the time of your life and career flying by.
A Manager’s Operating System and How it Guides Them
We’re at an all-hands, and all brains required time in our world, and the pressure is on those who manage to tap into the potential of their team members and teams. The Manager’s Operating System is a powerful tool to help create engagement and build high-performance.
It Takes Leadership Courage to Kick Conventional Wisdom to the Curb
Resilience, according to one dictionary definition, is the capacity to absorb a shock or a punch and return quickly to original form.
Life and business are filled with shocks and punches. We’ve lived this story for the past few years. And the shocks and punches keep coming, just in different forms and from unexpected places. It takes resilience and leadership courage to absorb the hits and come out stronger.
Six Big Insights from the Global Challenging Conversations Workshops
In a recent global workshop series, two groups of individuals added their international flavor to the challenging conversations, topics, and guidance. I share the highlights below.