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
How Will You Describe the Leader You Aspire to Be?
There's no shortage of well-intended, smart people offering us advice on how to lead. However, if you are interested in taking that next step as a leader, it pays to silence the outside voices and spend some time mining your experiences, influences, and aspirations....
How Will You Describe the Leader You Aspire to Be?
If you are interested in taking that next step as a leader, it pays to silence the outside voices and spend some time mining your experiences, influences, and aspirations.
Leadership Caffeine™: Developing as a Senior Contributor
I regularly use the label “Senior Contributor” (SC) to reference a state of management maturity that tends to exist somewhere between upper mid-level management or senior knowledge worker and the executive layer. The SC is a professional (manager or individual contributor) on the brink of executive qualifications and someone that has displayed effective formal and informal leadership skills, value-creating critical and strategic thinking abilities, credible executive presence and a strong operating and quality orientation.
Want to Lead? What Skills Do I Need to Succeed? #5 of 7
The first four questions in this series challenged you to think through issues that are both philosophical and powerfully practical: Why do you want to lead? Do you understand the true role of a leader? Do you understand that the skills that made you successful as an individual contributor are not the skills that will carry you forward? Are you prepared to give up your domain expertise as your foundation for results?
If you’ve made it through the investigation of questions 1-4, it’s time for you to focus in on what it takes to be successful as a leader.
6 Steps for Avoiding Groupthink on Your Team
Groupthink is one of the nefarious decision-making missteps of teams, and a trap that many smart people and groups have fallen victim to throughout history. From the classic example cited in nearly every discussion on decision-making, the Kennedy administration’s Bay of Pigs fiasco, to Ford’s launch of the Edsel, to Neviille Chamberlin’s inner circle that believed peace with Hitler was at hand, Groupthink has earned a prominent place in our culture. And while you might not be planning an invasion or negotiation with evil dictators or planning on launching an ugly automobile, chances are that Groupthink has show up from time to time in your professional world.
Lessons On Managing Oneself
In his classic article, “Managing Oneself,” (HBR, 1999), the late, great management thinker, Peter Drucker, offered the following: “We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: if you’ve got ambition, drive and smarts, you can rise to the top of your profession-regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren’t managing their knowledge workers’ careers. Rather, we must each be our own chief executive officer.” Have you declared yourself CEO of your own career?
Leadership Caffeine™: Gut Check on Your Intestinal Fortitude
Someone asked me the other day, whether there was one quality above all others that stuck out as essential for success as a leader? Without hesitating, I responded, “intestinal fortitude.” And while the question is not dissimilar to one of those impossible to answer but fun to speculate about debates that run endlessly on sports talk shows (e.g. Who was better, Aaron or Ruth?), I’m taking sides on this one.
Happy Independence Day!
Happy Independence Day!
Want to Lead? #4 of 7. It's Time to Ask and Answer a Difficult Question
The first three questions in this series challenged you to think through issues that are both philosophical and powerfully practical. Why do you want to lead? Do you understand the true role of a leader? Do you understand that the the skills that made you successful as an individual contributor are not the skills that will carry you forward? The next question in the series builds on #3 by asking you to consider whether you are truly willing to let go of some of that expertise as part of your transformation as a leader.
Want to Lead? #3 of 7-Your Individual Contributor Skills No Longer Count!
Question number 3 in our series: Do you understand that the skills that make you successful as an individual contributor are not the skills you need to succeed as a leader?
Leadership Caffeine™: Prepare Your Mind to Conquer Presentation Anxiety
Few phrases are capable of sending shivers down a person’s spine, like, “Bob or Mary, why don’t you present your ideas at our next meeting.” Except perhaps, “Bob or Mary,” why don’t you present your ideas at our next Board of Directors meeting. For some people, this seemingly golden opportunity to show and share is akin to receiving a prison sentence with no hope for parole.