The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Leadership Caffeine™—Focus on Purpose and Principles, Not Tips and Hacks
We’re wired in this era to look for tips, hacks, and cheat codes, particularly for complex challenges. Who doesn’t want a shortcut that delivers the goods? Yet, some challenges don’t lend themselves to shortcuts. Take managing and leading effectively as cases in...
Leadership Caffeine™—Focus on Purpose and Principles, Not Tips and Hacks
We’re wired in this era to look for tips, hacks, and cheat codes, particularly for complex challenges. Who doesn’t want a shortcut that delivers the goods? Yet, some challenges don’t lend themselves to shortcuts. Take managing and leading effectively as cases in point.
Leadership Caffeine™ for the Week: Coffee, Your Health and 8 Suggestions to Improve Your Team’s Problem Solving Skills
The best learning opportunities in the workplace occur when individuals or teams come face to face with a vexing problem. These situations provide outstanding growth opportunities and a great chance to generate and implement innovative and creative solutions. Of course, the manager has to play by the rules.
Unfortunately, there are still a few managers and leaders out there that insist on spoiling these ripe learning opportunities by requiring you to follow a specific approach or steps in solving a problem.
A Follow-Up to My “Evil Leaders” post: Your Firm’s Values Have No Teeth
My recent post, “Why Do Evil Leaders Flourish in Some Organizations” struck a chord or at least a nerve for many, as the many insightful comments quickly outstripped the value of the original post. Thanks to all that jumped in and shared on this topic.
On the heels of what turned out to be a deluge of good thoughts on why some leaders and some people get away with less than agreeable (to the rest of us) behaviors in the workplace, I keep coming back to the topic of Values as a core issue.
The results of my informal polling as well as my formal surveying (as part of culture assessments) indicates that for many organizations, values exist as nice statements in a frame with little meaning or use in day-to-day business dealings.
Why Do Evil Leaders Flourish Inside Some Organizations?
It’s always been a mystery to me why so many arguably evil managers and leaders not only last but seem to thrive inside certain organizations.
You know the type. Hey, maybe you are one. If so, chime in. I’ve never actually heard from an evil leader that was willing to talk openly about why he is the way he is.
Evil leaders tend to fit one or more of these profiles…
Fresh Voices in Management Excellence: Greg Strouse and His Stories, Advice and Opinions on Working, Managing and Surviving the Corporate World
Searching through the sea of business and leadership blogs has become a bit like a treasure hunt. I enjoy searching for great voices that have not yet jumped out of the search engines and on to everyone’s screen. ne of those that deserves to be front and center is Greg Strouse’s Tales from an XOD, Stories, Advice and Opinions on Working, Managing and Surviving the Corporate World.
Leadership Caffeine™ for the New Week: The Words You Heard At Graduation Still Apply
Followers of this blog know that we celebrated a milestone in our home this past week as our youngest son graduated from high school. It’s an exciting and frightening experience for the child as he reaches the end of a long road with good friends and looks forward to a new and uncharted path through college.
What he doesn’t perhaps know is that is only the first of many likely experiences of becoming part of something and then moving on and leaving good colleagues behind.
21 Do’s and Don’ts to Optimize the Annual Strategy Offsite
As predictable as the change of seasons and the swooning of the Cubs in the Chicago-area, I’m starting to hear whisperings about plans for upcoming strategic planning offsites.
And while I spend a lot of time preaching to anyone that will listen that STRATEGY IS A PROCESS NOT AN EVENT, I’ve come to grips with the fact that many organizations and leaders relegate their strategic thinking time to these annual events.
If your organization treats strategic planning this way, I’ll offer a few of my hard-learned lessons in the form of 21 Do’s and Don’ts on how to optimize results and possibly even catalyze a more robust process that sustains beyond the once-a-year event.
Life, Professional Development, Quality and the Art of Ceiling Painting
Our youngest son wraps up his high school career and like many families across the country, we are holding an open house for friends and neighbors to celebrate the event.
And like many husbands in similar situations across the country, I’m in charge of finishing up those chores that I put off all winter while I was writing Leadership and the Project Manager or teaching or delivering workshops or talking about performance excellence to industry groups.
Today’s chore is to paint the kitchen ceiling.
Like almost every job in life and in business, a successful outcome is a function of detailed preparation, a good plan and painstaking attention to the issues that potentially will impact the outcome. The patching, sanding, masking, cutting-in and thorough application of paint are all critical to the final outcome. Oh, and don’t forget the drop cloths to catch collateral spatter.
Fresh Voices: Management in the 21st Century
If you are fascinated as I am about the evolution of management and its role, form and function in our current and near future world, I strongly encourage you to check out Gary Hamel’s blog post (Help Reinvent Management for the 21st Century).
This is a case where the post prompts a flood of great thoughts and ideas from some sharp people from around the globe.
Leadership Caffeine™ for the New Week: Your Message and the Chicken Salad Sandwich Test
Much of what passes for leadership conversation in the workplace is filled with unnecessary and meaningless jargon that gets in the way of the true message. It’s time to de-clutter our conversations and choose words that are meaningful and actionable to our team members.