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
Want to Make a Career Change? Expect to Do Some Heavy Lifting
There are no quick fixes, magic beans, or silver bullets to get the work out of your career pivot project. While everyone's journey is different, there's a common thread: you have to think, think deeply, be creative, be willing to explore, and ultimately, be ready to...
Want to Make a Career Change? Expect to Do Some Heavy Lifting
There are no quick fixes, magic beans, or silver bullets to get the work out of your career pivot project. While everyone’s journey is different, there’s a common thread: you have to think, think deeply, be creative, be willing to explore, and ultimately, be ready to experiment before identifying the right “next” in your career. In other words, you need to do the heavy lifting required for a successful career pivot.
Management Week in Review for February 11, 2011
Every Friday, I share three thought-provoking management posts for the week. Fair warning: I take a broad view of management, so my selections will range from leadership to innovation to finance and personal development and beyond. This week’s selections feature content on corporate struggles in a changing world, ideas on creating organizations that drive remarkable commitment from their employees and customers, and a buffet of great leadership reading options at the February Leadership Development Carnival. Enjoy!
It’s Time to Burn the Old Script Used by New CEOs
It’s Time to Burn the Old Script Used by New CEOs. Now playing at a theater or office near you… .
Management Excellence Toolkit: Part 1-Create a Decision Journal
Your decisions define you as a leader and a manager, yet we spend very little time in our busy lives finding ways to improve our abilities in this area. This Management Excellence Toolkit Series will help you recognize the challenges and pitfalls of individual and group decision-making and offer ideas on improving performance for you and your co-workers. In Part 1, I offer guidance on creating a Decision Journal for key and strategic decisions to monitor your effectiveness over time.
Leadership Caffeine™: Learn to Make Quick Connections
In a typical day fast moving day, there are dozens of small opportunities for leaders to make or strengthen connections with team members and peers. Effective leaders strive to leverage these fleeting moments or as golden opportunities to show respect, strengthen connections and even support coalition building. The trick is to execute a deliberate “connection” strategy throughout your day.
Management Week in Review for February 4, 2011
Every Friday, I share three thought-provoking management posts for the week. Fair warning: I take a broad view of management, so my selections will range from leadership to innovation to finance and personal development and beyond. This week’s selections feature content on assessing whether an executive coach might be right for you, dealing with the dilemma of having promoted the wrong person into management and knowing when it makes best sense to speak up or to remain quiet. Enjoy!
Digging Your Way Out After the Brainstorm
There are many forms of ideation and all sorts of new tools available to facilitate web-based and remote brainstorming. The same issue in this post applies regardless of method: what are you going to do with the output?
Leadership Caffeine™: 9 Ideas for Strengthening Your Self-Esteem
While typically not a topic discussed over coffee, many leaders struggle with issues of low self-esteem. They question their abilities to cope with the problems at hand, they often doubt they are worthy of the position of leadership they occupy, and they most definitely agonize quietly over much of their professional existence. Others manifest their low self-esteem with over-the-top aggressiveness and strong controlling behaviors. Here are 9 suggestions for helping rebuild your leader’s self-esteem.
Management Week in Review for January 28, 2011
Every Friday, I share three thought-provoking management posts for the week. Fair warning: I take a broad view of management, so my selections will range from leadership to innovation to finance and personal development and beyond. This week’s selections feature content on dealing with difficult people, learning and avoiding the pitfalls of inexperienced management teams, and recognizing the need as leaders to appeal to the hearts of the people on our teams.
How to Handle a Feedback Attack from Your Boss
The tales that particularly bother me are the ones where the hard working employee is on the receiving end of a long laundry list of vague criticisms lacking supporting examples, and with expiration dates of many, many months ago. These unfortunate feedback discussions are all about ego on the part of the giver and are perceived as a sneak attack by the receiver. The giver walks away feeling like he executed on his management tasks, and the receiver walks away feeling like he was executed. People appropriately describe feeling angry, confused, frustrated and depressed after one or more feedback attacks.
While there’s no doubt this is a tough situation for the receiver, there are a number of strategies that can take the sting out of the attack and potentially help build or repair your relationship with your boss in the process.