The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Fresh Opportunities for Professional Growth (and a free resource)
There's an uptick in the optimism I'm hearing from clients, and I've noticed increased energy in the dialog and exchanges in my professional development programs. People and firms are seeing a return to growth and, in some cases, a boom period in part due to pent-up...
Fresh Opportunities for Professional Growth (and a free resource)
There’s never been a better time to help yourself or your team members move from good-to-great and add the skills essential for success in what will be a still-challenging world filled with new opportunities. Here’s our Spring 2021 Professional Development Catalog:
Leadership and the Project Manager-Critical Skills for Success and a New e-Book
Great project managers are also great leaders. The best of the project managers are senior contributors that understand their role is more about helping the group succeed than it is about conducting status meetings and revising and distributing reports.
My new e-Book, Leadership and the Project Manager—Developing the Skills that Fuel High Performance, was written to serve as a “Quick-Start” to developing as a senior contributor for anyone (certified or not) that is charged with leading and managing projects.
Leadership Caffeine™ for the New Week: Bad Coffee and The Tyranny of Consensus
Like bad coffee, I’m not particularly fond of leading by consensus or even seeking consensus as a decision-making tool. I’ve long viewed managing by consensus as a “Tyranny of Mediocrity” approach to leading and making decisions. In seeking consensus, compromises are made that eliminate the more radical, revolutionary innovations and settle on solutions that make as many parties as possible happy.
Six Strategy and Leadership Lessons from Studying World War I
I often look through the lens of history for lessons in leadership and strategy that can be applied in business. Unfortunately, it seems as most of the pivotal events of human history involve wars.
And while war is an odious event, there are many lessons to learn—both good and bad from the leaders that give birth to the events as well as from the leaders and followers that prosecute them.
Fresh Voices: Perspectives on Change, Communication and Delegation
One of my favorite outcomes of blogging has been the opportunity to meet and learn from some really sharp people that share a passion for many of the same topics that I write about: leadership excellence, high performance and personal and professional development.
Consistent with my desire to hunt for great new books, I’ve been seeking out new (to me) writers on topics that are relevant to anyone engaged in working with and leading others or focused on developing themselves. I plan on sharing these posts and authors with you from time to time, just like I would a great new book or a newly discovered writer. This week’s posts and authors include…
Leadership Caffeine™: Scouting for Talent in Unusual Places
This week’s focus is on scouting talent, and like most of my posts, I’m encouraging you to break some established rules. 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. They are also great developers of talent, but that’s a separate topic for another day.
In my experience in working around and talking with individuals that have outstanding track records in finding and developing new talent, there are three core attributes that they look for…
Why I Hate the “Sandwich” Technique for Delivering Feedback
At the risk of inviting the ire of a great number of readers and trainers, I am once again opting for the dissenting opinion on a controversial topic. I absolutely hate the use of the “sandwich” technique in delivering constructive feedback. Here’s why and here’s my guidance to help you throw away this leader’s crutch and to start delivering clear, polite feedback that supports behavioral change.
Read Art’s Latest Article: Leadership and the Millennials at CW Bulletin
For those of you that have followed this blog, heard me speak or have been a participant in one of my MBA classes or workshops, you know that I’ve opted for the dissenting opinion on this youngest generation in the workforce. I am a huge fan!
I was thrilled when the professionals at CW Bulletin, the on-line supplement to Communication World magazine invited me to share my thoughts on this new generation and to offer some guidance for leaders on how to harness the talents and fire of these young knowledge workers. The result is my latest article, aptly named: Leadership and the Millennials.
What Leadership List Are You On?
At the beginning of my leadership workshops, one of the ice-breaking activities is to have the participants think about and jot down the characteristics and behaviors of great and lousy leaders that they’ve experienced in their careers. It’s always fun to watch the small groups attack this task with relish.
Leadership Caffeine™ for the New Week: Lead with Passion!
The passion that a leader brings to his or her work is the secret sauce in a winning recipe for creating an effective working environment and developing a high performance team.
Good leaders understand their role, work hard on developing credibility, listen and ask questions and provide coaching and mentoring. Great leaders do all of that and they infuse everyone around them with a sense of excitement for the adventure.