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
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?
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.
Leadership Caffeine™-The Leader as Explorer
Something funny happens as we age and gain experience. Many of us expect the world to continue conforming to our view of things, which of course, it rarely does. For those that stubbornly stick to the perspective that I’m right and everyone else is wrong, the world quickly spins away and they become leadership and management relics from a bygone era. For those that have the courage to recognize that they are the ones that need to change and keep pace, everyday is a true adventure.
Boost Your Effectiveness at Work by Creating Time to Think
As challenging as it sounds, it’s important for you to find 10-minutes in your workday to block out or step away from phones and e-mail and all of the other activities that keep your brain completely occupied, and just think.
A Fresh Start, a Format Change and a New Daily Feature
Something funny happened on the way to producing and writing two blogs. I discovered that I am only capable of managing one competently. Oh, and I’m certain there are at least a few management lessons here in my blogging misfire.
In Memoriam
To those that served and to those that served and sacrificed, we honor and thank you.
The Problem(s) with Teams
It’s increasingly likely that you will spend a good deal of your professional time working on temporary teams. It’s also likely that you will experience a fair amount of frustration and even team failure along the way. Most organizations have yet to meet a problem (or opportunity) that they won’t throw a team at to solve. Let’s face it, it’s tempting to assume that a group of motivated, diverse individuals will trump the lone soldier when it comes to creativity, problem-solving and planning.
Or, at least it’s comfortable to think so.
Help Wanted: Leaders with Moral Courage
It’s nice to think that most people and most organizations if given the choice between clear right and wrong would opt for right, but reality and a solid decade of scandals, horrendous decisions and now, environmental disasters, suggests that we’re not ready to declare victory on this issue.