The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Here’s Why This Firm Will Lose the War for Talent and Fail
I received a call recently from a former colleague who was excited about an interview with a large company for a big-sounding job. The role was to build out a new facility and bring it online, and the job requirements suggested an experienced senior leader and...
Here’s Why This Firm Will Lose the War for Talent and Fail
Here are at least five ways a major organization misfired with the search for talent. Are your firm’s screening practices getting in the way of survival and success?
In Pursuit of Management Innovation in Marketing
The practice of management has evolved at a snail’s pace over the past 50 years, and one of the core tools of management and a key issue for any organization, marketing, has lagged just slightly behind.
Senior Leaders, It’s Time to Share Your Lessons Learned
I’ve had the great privilege this past year to work with a Fortune 50 company that is methodically conquering the retail world. Specifically, I’m working with a group of high-potential mid-level professionals all focused on increasing their contributions and growing their careers. During our recent time together, the program sponsors arranged for a good number of the senior executives of the corporation to sit down and share insights on how to develop as senior contributors; how to develop executive presence and in general, how to seize the opportunities being presented by the firm’s great growth. Over the course of 3 development days, we invested approximately 5 hours engaging with executives. The impact was priceless.
Leadership Caffeine™: Strengthen as a Leader by Developing as a Follower
I grew up to the refrain of “be a leader, not a follower,” and the drive to lead is part of who I am. Part and parcel of that has been a natural resistance through much of my early career to the notion that, “to be a good leader, you need to be a good follower.” For me, and I know for many others, our ambition is to drive change, right wrongs and challenge the status quo and to advance. Mentally, it’s hard to connect those core professional drives with the passive and even weak sounding notion of “following.”
Management Lessons Learned While Consuming Too Much Hospital Food
Little things make a big difference when a loved one is ill, and while our filters are tuned to high, doctors and healthcare professionals and hospitals are in the ultimate customer care business, and we as customers are quick to notice great performance as well as the occasional lapses. The many leadership and customer care observations and lessons are still top-of-mind following our recent experience, and I’ve noted a few below. It’s a fair bet that these lessons apply across disciplines and professions as well.
Health Care and Great Customer Service Alive and Well in Peoria, IL
With almost a month to observe a great number of healthcare workers, managers and teams at work, I’m much impressed with the care, compassion and dedication of almost everyone that we encountered during this sometimes frightening and always discomforting journey. And while my focus was on the care of our son, I am wired to look at the management systems and customer care approaches that tell me about the organization, its leaders and its commitment to quality. With a critical eye and some personal investment, I came away from this experience impressed.
Leadership Caffeine™: Let Your Questions Be Their Guide
The art of asking questions is a leadership power tool. A good question from a leader is like a pebble thrown into a pond. While the splash occurs at the impact point, the question encourages people to think experiment and even innovate, long after the initial asking.
The Anachronistic and Oxymoronic Tyranny of Marketing Control
The new world of marketing frightens many experienced marketing professionals. For those accustomed to believing that they have some form of inalienable right to control everything that is said or published about their firm in the name of “managing the brand,” these are difficult times, indeed.
Moving Beyond Your Fear of Delivering Constructive Feedback
Over the past several years beginning with the work for Practical Lessons in Leadership with my co-author, Rich Petro, I’ve made a professional hobby out of exploring the fascinating and very real fear that so many people have for delivering constructive feedback. One of my favorite interviews for the book was with a retired CEO who when I posed the question on whether he had any regrets, without hesitating, responded: “I really regret that I never learned how to have the tough discussions with the people that worked for me.” He quickly added, “To this day, I wonder how much money that I cost my companies.”
This most difficult of human interactions in the workplace is also one of the most important. The fear, much like the fear of public speaking is mostly in our minds, and with some deliberate practice, all of us are capable of improving our skills, and as a result, improving our performance, the performance of our teams and of our organizations.
Leadership Caffeine™: In Praise of Consistency
Take a few minutes to think about the best leaders that you’ve ever worked for. What terms best describe them? Chances are the word “consistent” didn’t show up in the top five. Perhaps it should.
Consistency may just be the very unsexy and uninspiring element to your leadership style that will help you grow your credibility and allow you to create and sustain a working atmosphere that allows your team members to prosper.