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
Turning Your Goals (and Resolutions) Into Growth and Gold
As you approach the annual resetting of the calendar and contemplate how you will make this year different, better, and complete, here are some thoughts generated during our recent Leadership Caffeine Jam Session. (The Jam Sessions are our monthly second-Friday events...
Turning Your Goals (and Resolutions) Into Growth and Gold
As you approach the annual resetting of the calendar and contemplate how you will make this year different, better, and complete, here are some thoughts on how you can rethink your approach to your goals and turn them into growth and gold.
The Wonderful and Vexing Quality of Sticktoitiveness
Woody Allen famously offered that, “80% of success is showing up.” In my opinion, about 99% of success is Sticktoitiveness, which is much about being doggedly persistent in the face of overwhelming obstacles. That awkward non-word is one of the attributes that I look for in hiring talent and one that I’ve observed over and over again in the most successful professionals that I’ve encountered.
Leadership Caffeine™: Are You Capable of Putting It All On the Line?
Are you capable of putting it all on the line for the right issues? Your career isn’t worth a budget or a product feature or a resource squabble. Those disagreements are part of the normal process of working together, and developing effective negotiating skills and learning to give and take are what we do to help propel movement inside organizations. Putting it on the line is however worth it when the conflict involves a legal issue, or, any issues that potentially impact life or environmental safety. It’s time for all of us to build courage into our roles as leaders and to teach and reward courage on our teams.
Art to Help Kick-Off Project Leadership Forum at Harrisburg University
As a long-time, self-described zealot for the importance of project managers developing as leaders, imagine how excited I was to learn about a conference devoted to just this topic! I’ve written at length in this blog (Learning to Lead in the Project Focused World and others) and even offered up my e-book, Leadership and the Project Manager, in support of this concept. I’m even more excited to be a part of the conference as a guest keynote as Project Leadership Forum kicks-off on Thursday in Harrisburg, PA.
Leadership Caffeine™: 7 Ideas to Help Leverage Different Perspectives on Your Team
One of the most common tripping points of both early-career and experienced leaders is assuming that people are looking at issues and drawing similar conclusions. Your goal as a leader must be to help create a common picture and to facilitate the development of creative solutions. This starts with recognizing that differences in perspective are the building blocks for creative solutions.
Want Growth? You Might Try Slowing Down to Speed Up
Jocelyn R. Davis and Tom Atkinson offer some compelling thoughts on strategy in their article, “Need Speed? Slow Down,” in the May, 2010 Harvard Business Review. They describe the concept of strategic speed as one of reducing the time it takes to create value. While “reducing time” might sound like speeding up, their research results suggest the opposite.
Leadership Caffeine™: 3 Ideas for Sharpening Your Skills
Fresh from a weekend of rediscovering the lawn and gardening muscles that clearly took the winter off, I found myself happy that I was able to quickly access freshly sharpened, well-oiled tools. As any good tradesman or craftsman (or weekend gardener) will tell you, there is no substitute for the right tool, properly maintained, when you need it. The same goes for leaders.
Your Search for Leadership Wisdom Starts and Ends at the Carnival!
One of the best leadership public services you will find is Dan McCarthy’s hard work to produce the monthly Leadership Development Carnivals.
Dan scours the world far and wide for compelling content designed to inspire, energize and challenge you to step up your leadership game.
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