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
Professional Development is the Gift that Keeps on Giving
A Plan for Professional Development Heading Into the New Year The best managers and executives I work with are always on the lookout for opportunities to support team member growth. As a senior executive, I went into every new year with professional development on the...
Professional Development is the Gift that Keeps on Giving
The best managers and executives I work with are always on the lookout for opportunities to support team member growth. Here’s a list of great professional development opportunities for you or your team members.
Leading to the Values
Are your firm’s values worth the price of the frames that they presently occupy while hanging in your lobby, the main conference room and your CEO’s office? What should be potent guides to behavior and frequent reference points for talent and business decisions are often nothing more than artwork.
Help Your Team Pass the “Walk in the Door” Test
As you and your team members start your days by walking through the office doors or for remote associates, logging on, can everyone connect the top priorities on their “To Do” lists to the strategic priorities of your firm?
Develop Your Talent Scouting Skills
The best leaders that I know are also the best talent scouts. They are acute observers of people and extraordinarily quick to identify individuals with potential.
Leadership Caffeine™: “How Can I Help?”
“How can I help?” These four simple words are powerful leadership tools when framed into a question and applied with genuine intent.
It’s Summer on My Calendar-Friday Shorts are Back!
I don’t care that my calendar marks a day later in June as the official start of Summer. Memorial Day has passed, the temperature and humidity in Chicago are rising and tennis with my sons is a regular evening activity. Oh, and the list of outside chores is now long enough to choke the proverbial horse. (Note: no horses were choked in the writing of this post.) Given the shift in seasons, I’m excited to bring back my Shorts feature here every Friday from June until the end of August. I’ll offer up suggested business beach reads, a resource of the week and I’ll point you to some Leadership Tips that you might have missed. Enjoy!
10 Things You Must Know About Feedback
Mastering the art and science of feedback is the closest thing you will find to a silver bullet when it comes to leading others.
If the Boss Asks You the Time, Don’t Tell Her How to Build a Watch
Just about everyone knows someone that never got the memo on how to get to the point in conversations. I warmly reference these people in my mind as Watchmakers. Instead of giving you the time of day when you ask for it, they tell you in painful detail how to build the watch. While command of detail is impressive, the need to share it with everyone that you come in contact with can be debilitating to your career.
Have You Been Observed Recently?
Professional sports teams and great athletes have long understood the power of watching game film to learn about themselves as well as the strategies and tendencies of their opponents. Aside from professional speakers, few of us in business benefit from either viewing ourselves in action on film, and sadly too few of us benefit from good feedback and mentoring from our managers and colleagues.
The Nine Credibility Builders of Effective Leaders
When it comes to leadership, your intentions count. Blind ambition might help you climb the ladder as an individual contributor, but it won’t help you galvanize groups of people to move mountains, conquer markets and develop a culture that sustains excellence. You need to work hard every day to grow your personal and professional credibility.