The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Mid-Week Career Caffeine—Overcoming Your Fear of Risk
The number one reason experienced, capable professionals relegate ideas of a career change to daydreams or fantasies is the fear of risk. After all, shifting from the work, firm, or vocation that's paying the bills feels inherently risky. However, what if there were a...
Mid-Week Career Caffeine—Overcoming Your Fear of Risk
The number one reason experienced, capable professionals relegate ideas of a career change to daydreams or fantasies is the fear of risk. After all, shifting from the work, firm, or vocation that’s paying the bills feels inherently risky. However, what if there were a way to manage and mitigate the majority of the risk involved with a career change? Would that make you more comfortable pursuing the career you believe is right for you at this stage of your life? I think so. Learn more in the latest Mid-Week Career Caffeine video.
Sales & Strategy Playbook: Competitor Acquired? It May Be a Gold-Plated, Gift-Wrapped Opportunity
In talking with a CEO friend running a smaller tech firm, he indicated that there is increasing buzz about various potential combinations and roll-ups that will impact his specific sector. He said this with a smile, and an interesting observation that “when my competitors are acquired, our business spikes and new opportunities are uncovered.”
That’s an Interesting way to look at the situation. I know a lot of people who fear the outcome of Competitor X merging with Firm Y.
Leadership Caffeine™: Taking Chances on the Talent Around You
It’s time to take some chances on the people around you. Too many leaders constrain and contain, but the very best leaders provide opportunities for their team members to achieve things that these individuals might never have believed they were capable of achieving.
Friday Fare and Summer Shorts
Fresh off of the coldest July since AD 85 here in the Chicago-area, the weather is finally warming a bit and I’m breaking out the Summer Shorts for this Friday Fare post here at Management Excellence. (Since my wife didn’t get it either, this means that today’s post is going to include brief snippets instead of my usual lengthy essays. Get it…summer shorts! Hey, I thought it was a cute play on words.)
A Fresh Voice on a Popular Topic: “Things I Wish I Knew When I Became a Leader”
A note from Art: My recent post, “Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me When I Became a Leader,” seemed to strike a familiar chord for many. I’m thrilled that it struck a chord for someone that I’ve invited to guest post for quite awhile and until now, couldn’t quite convince to put pen to paper. A good colleague and friend, Joe Zurawski, joins us today with his thoughts on early leadership missteps and lessons learned the hard way.
Enjoy Being Part of the Gang? Better Not Lead.
One of the rude awakenings for leaders promoted from within a team is the uncomfortable recognition that the easy camaraderie of the pre-promotion days immediately gives way to an awkward distancing of relationships.
Congratulations on your promotion. Oh, and you’re no longer part of the gang
Leadership Caffeine™: Resistance and the Leader
Resistance shows up in many forms in our daily lives. It’s what keeps us from eating properly, working out regularly, taking that leap into a new job that we’ve been dreaming about for years, and pushes off to some unknown point in the future, the writing of the book that nearly everyone says that they have in them. If none of those examples fit, think of something in your life that you know you should do, but haven’t found the time or had the discipline to do it. That’s resistance.
Resistance shows up in leadership settings and in the workplace in many forms:
The August Leadership Development Carnival
It is always fun to be part of the Leadership Development Carnivals, because it gives me a chance to hang out with some very accomplished leadership bloggers and thought leaders. I learn something of value from these great professionals every time, and I never mind that I benefit from being in their company!
This month’s issue of the Leadership Development Carnival is hosted at Intentional Leadership, the home of Mary Jo Asmus, one of my must-read favorites for her wisdom, insights and the fact that she exudes professionalism and that “all around great person” in everything that she writes.
18 Ideas to Avoid Becoming a Ghost While Between Jobs
I had a chance to chat with a number of recent and not so recent additions to the ranks of unemployed professionals, and to a person, they reported experiencing a range of emotions, most particularly, an uncomfortable feeling of helplessness, and in one case, an increasing sense of futility.
The individuals also agreed that the fight for economic and mental survival is a two-front war….taming the internal demons and turning what one described as creeping lethargy into action.
We discussed coping strategies, and here’s the list of very compelling suggestions offered up for anyone uncomfortably thrust into the role of formerly employed.
Ghosts of the Economy-Quiet Casualties of this Silent War
You’re to be forgiven if you’ve walked into a coffee shop, library or anyplace else where those “between jobs” congregate, and felt a chill run down your spine. It’s one of those feelings that we get when we sense that something is wrong but we can’t quite put our finger on it. Like the characters in Henry Miller’s The Turn of the Screw, it’s the flicker in the corner of our eye and the haunting sense that we just saw a ghost.