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
Leadership Caffeine—Mine (and Mind) Your Mistakes for Growth
Our mistakes in pursuit of learning are the burpees, extra gym time, and leg days of our mental fitness for most of us. For those where mistakes are measured in cost or time (not life impact or safety), your mistakes measure how hard you are pushing yourself to grow....
Leadership Caffeine—Mine (and Mind) Your Mistakes for Growth
Our mistakes in pursuit of learning are the burpees, extra gym time, and leg days of our mental fitness for most of us. For those where mistakes are measured in cost or time (not life impact or safety), your mistakes measure how hard you are pushing yourself to grow. Here are ideas to turn your misfires into gold.
It’s Time to Start Teaching Your Teams to Succeed
If you’ve ever been part of a truly effective team…a high performance team, you know the experience is memorable. For those who’ve lived and thrived on a high-performance team, the memory of what it was like to work with a motivated, caring, challenging (but respectful), accomplishment-focused group of individuals provides sustenance for the lonely, near-death experiences that characterize so many other team and project experiences in the workplace.
Leadership Caffeine™-Quit Sending Mixed Signals
How consistent are you in your approaches to dealing with people and problems? Is there an early warning system in place in your office that tracks your every move from the car through the parking lot and into the office? How you respond to people and to situations (victories, losses, mistakes etc.) goes a long way to forming the working environment on your team.
The Millennial View: Fixing Our Shortcomings
Eric Rodriguez is the voice of The Millennial View here at Management Excellence. His periodic posts offer insights from early career professionals seeking to navigate their way through this challenging world. Today’s post encourages all of us, regardless of generation, to renew our commitment to overcoming the weaknesses that keep us from reaching our personal and professional goals.
Management Excellence Book Series Podcast-Full Steam Ahead
I had the pleasure to connect on the phone with Jesse Lyn Stoner, co-author with Ken Blanchard of Full Steam Ahead-Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Work and Your Life (second edition), and this podcast is the output. I like the book a great deal…and as I indicate in my intro comments, I tend to approach books on Vision with a bit of trepidation.
Frontline Leaders Help Our Firms Go and Grow
Great frontline leaders create great experiences for their employees. This flows immediately and directly to customers. And then it flows to the top and bottom lines.
Leadership Caffeine™: Six Low-Cost Ideas to Stimulate Global Awareness
I continue my own I-Biz studies outside of the classroom as I pursue my avocation as a Management and Leadership Anthropologist. In this case, my focus is on understanding how well prepared firms and managers are to enter and compete successfully on a global stage. My quick-take: for a good number, it’s important to focus on the basics. (Translation: there’s a lot of learning required to reach a reasonable level of knowledge.) While most of us have mastered the art and science of consuming products from around the globe, many firms and managers are well served to work on some fundamentals.Here are six low-cost ideas to help stimulate global discussion and understanding in your firm:
The Meeting to Decide Whether to Outsource the Call Center
Note from Art: this is a rave. I was on the receiving end of one too many miserable support experiences recently, and this is my, “I’m Madder than Hell…” response. To the Executives and CEOs who believe it is a good idea to make your customer’s lives miserable, get a clue.
Leadership Caffeine™: In the Face of Strong Headwinds, Learn to Tack
We face dozens of moments every day where instinct tells us to turn straight into the wind and apply brute force to solve problems, resolve squabbles and keep people moving. Sometimes, our instinct is wrong. Instead of offering a quick solution or mandating an end to squabbling, effective leaders adjust their course by learning to tack. Here are 5 ideas to help you learn this valuable skill when facing significant headwinds in the workplace…
Trust, Performance and Your Success
Much of who we are and what we do in our professional lives is built on an unforgiving foundation of trust. Trust is hard earned and those bestowing trust do so slowly, carefully and tentatively, all the while testing for reasons to pull back and guard this precious personal asset. True trust is rare in the workplace. It’s also critical for high performance.