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™—Leadership Lessons from a Move to the Lake
My wife and I made a big move last week. We left our 30-year suburban home where we raised our sons and moved to the lake. The process took almost a year from the decision to make the move and about a day to sell. In-between, we focused on lightening our load of...
Leadership Caffeine™—Leadership Lessons from a Move to the Lake
While an incredible number of people move every year, and everyone knows what a miserable project it is, there are a surprising number of leadership lessons in these situations. Here are a few I gleaned from our recent move efforts.
Coming Soon: A Saturday Serial & A View from the Millennial Perspective
During the next few weeks, I will kick off two new features here on the blog. The first will be a Saturday Management Serial…an on-going story involving fictional firms and companies and the buffet of leadership, management and business issues that require solving by you, the readers. The second new feature will offer a view from the youngest generation in the workforce on the realities of leading, managing and developing a career. We’ve heard a great deal from the 40-something management group on the challenges of leading the generations…now, we’ll hear the story from the other side of the age fence. Coming soon!
Management Week in Review for February 18, 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 gaining control of your body language, ensuring that your participative leadership approach is genuine, and dealing with employee and management communication challenges during periods of change. Enjoy!
Management Excellence Toolkit Part 2: Mind the Decision Traps
Part 1 of this series emphasized the importance of developing, updating and referencing a Decision Journal as part of your program to improve your decision-making effectiveness. In Part 2, we focus on understanding a bit more about how we make decisions, and I introduce the topic of decision traps.
Leadership Caffeine™-Get it Right When Starting Up with Your New Team
Stepping into the role of new (to the team) leader for an existing team is a daunting task. It’s also a time rich in opportunity for everyone involved, if the new leader executes a proper start-up strategy and avoids the most common start-up pitfalls.
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!