The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Revisiting the Connection Between Physical Transformation and Career Reinvention
There’s no separating the cascading benefits from working on both your fitness and your career at the same time. As I was talking with a member of the current Career Reinvent Boot Camp cohort the other evening, he remarked how during the month or so he’s been working...
Revisiting the Connection Between Physical Transformation and Career Reinvention
There’s no separating the cascading benefits from working on both your fitness and your career at the same time. The physical transformation feeds the career reinvention and vice-versa.
The U.S. Memorial Day Weekend
For most Americans, the Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer. This long three day weekend tends to be filled with barbecues, picnics and sporting events. Take a moment out of your activities and barbecues this weekend to live up to the spirit of the order and Remember.
Sales and Marketing: Wake Up and Start Refining Your Leads
I was reminded yesterday of one of the fundamental failure points of many marketing and sales teams: lead management. This reminder was painful.
The short-story version is that in spite of tremendous advances in technology tools to analyze, monitor and manage sales leads in the three years since I’ve been charged with doing this, many (actually, the word used was “most”) firms are less than diligent in managing leads from the initial touch-point to final disposition.
The Drive to Create—Rocket Fuel for Entrepreneurs
I sat and talked yesterday with a uniquely impressive entrepreneur. She is not yet successful, and in fact she is barely two weeks young in her new adventure. If I was asked to handicap her chances of success, the odds would be very good.
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.