The Leadership Caffeine Blog
The Great Capitulation: Here’s Why You’re Losing Too Many Good People
Stupefaction: that feeling of distress you have when you realize you’re responsible for good people leaving your firm. -- Here's a Fun-Fact from my Career Reinvent Boot Camp programs: 50% of participants would prefer to reinvent their careers (change what they...
The Great Capitulation: Here’s Why You’re Losing Too Many Good People
Here’s a Fun-Fact from my Career Reinvent Boot Camp programs: 50% of participants would prefer to reinvent their careers (change what they do) without leaving your organization. Unfortunately, most of them end up leaving your firm. Here’s why and here are some ideas you can rethink your approach to career development in your organization:
Seek Out and Win Those Customer Moments of Truth
That moment in time when something has gone horribly wrong a customer is an ideal opportunity to not only repair but strengthen your relationship with your customer. The key however to winning a “moment of truth” is to ensure that your people recognize and immediately react. My recent experience at a local bicycle shop underscores how critical it is for your business to win those “moments of truth” every time.
Leadership Caffeine™: For a Change, Look At What’s Working
Consider these common refrains from two different leaders:Leader 1: “That’s great! Congratulations! How do we do more of that?” Leader 2: “That’s broken and we need to fix it right away.”
We have all met both of these characters. One sees opportunity and achievement and building blocks everywhere she looks and the other sees flaws and problems that need fixing. And while you are free to accuse me of making a hasty generalization here, my “blink” assessment of the two is that I want to hire or work for Leader #1
Summer Jumpstart: Must Read Management Books
A few weeks ago, I published a post on “Jumpstart Your Marketing Reading to Restart Your Brain.” Here’s my suggested summer reading list for managers looking to refresh and renew. Note…while my marketing list is relatively contemporary, the management list takes on a bit of a “classic” tone to it. That is by design.
Rethinking Talent, Leadership and the Organization
Anyone involved in leadership and responsible for the development of leaders should read the recent BusinessWeek article, “Can GE Still Manage?” The article offers a fascinating look into GE’s traditional leadership and high-potential development practices, and raises an interesting question of whether these practices still hunt in a very different world than when they were conceived. While I’m not qualified to critique GE’s approach, the article certainly begs all of us to be thinking about or rethinking everything that we take for granted in how we find and cultivate talent and how we deploy our resources.
Leadership Caffeine™-It’s Time to Frame Your Professional Positioning Strategy
What do peers and managers perceive is unique about you in the workplace? What do you do so well, so uniquely that makes people stop and take notice? What’s your personal positioning strategy that meaningfully differentiates you from others in the minds of your customers, managers and stakeholders?
You’re to be excused if you need to reach for another cup of coffee while you contemplate these “brand called me” questions that you likely only think about once every two years when you update your resume.
My New Project: Leadership Caffeine™-The Book
My long list of life-goals includes a few that are underlined and even circled to connote priority. Write one book per year is one of those that is double-underlined, circled and highlighted for emphasis. It’s high time that I quit thinking about this personal and professional Big Hairy Audacious Goal, and started executing. So, after too much thought and not enough work, I am excited to make public my next project: Leadership Caffeine-The Book. (Expect the title to evolve a bit.)
9 Tips for Nailing the Classroom Group Project Presentation
After sitting through a fair number of these presentations over the past few years, I’ve identified some common mistakes that detract from the quality of the final presentation and depress grades, not to mention instructors. The mistakes and misfires are generally a result of two issues: the very personal and irrational fear of presenting and some horrendously poor planning and coordination between group members.
Management and Career Miscellany on the Lighter Side
Management and Career Miscellany on the Lighter Side-a brief collection of anecdotes and personal perspectives on decision-making, project management, social networking. Oh, and some amusing and really bad career advice to ignore if you hear it.
Leadership Caffeine™: Learning to Adjust Your Altitude
While the phrase is most commonly referenced as attitude adjustment, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that one of the abilities that leaders must develop to be effective is the ability to adjust their altitudes. Good leaders learn to scale institutional and intellectual heights with ease and comfort, quickly adapting to the audience and situation.