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
Leadership and Management Lessons from Losing Dad
In the past four months, I spent most of my time and energy advocating for my elderly father across a variety of healthcare facilities. He passed away during August, and while it was merciful for him, we're left with a gigantic hole in our family and hearts. There's...
Leadership and Management Lessons from Losing Dad
In the past four months, I spent most of my time and energy advocating for my elderly father across a variety of healthcare facilities. He passed away during August, and while it was merciful for him, we’re left with a gigantic hole in our family and hearts.
There’s also a mix of guilt, frustration, and anger at much of the healthcare management, leadership, and delivery we encountered along the way.
Fresh Lessons from the Latest Feedback Boot Camp
I run the 3-hour Feedback Skills Boot Camp program six times per year, and in every session, I’m reminded how motivated good managers are to find ways to both praise and encourage growth with their team members. Here are some of the key insights shared by the most recent cohort:
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 Leader’s Guide to Fighting Fatigue in This Era
In the best of times, leading and managing is hard work. In this era, the demands are unceasing, and it’s easy for fatigue to set in and dull a leader’s thinking. Here are seven ideas to help combat this sense of creeping fatigue:
Leadership Caffeine™—Why You Need to “Write the Rules for Success” with Your Group
There’s a simple, powerful exercise you can run with your group that will transform the working environment for the better and provide you with the critical framework for coaching you’ve been lacking. You need to Write the Rules for Success with your group.
Leadership Caffeine™—Are You the Cause of Your Team’s Creativity Deficit?
Creativity—the ability to look at complicated situations and identify novel solutions that solve problems, advance initiatives, or rewrite old rules—may be the most critical skill of all in our workplaces. As leaders, we need to foster it, stimulate it, and do everything we can to ensure we’re not the ones suppressing it. Sadly, creativity is something that many leaders trample all over in their daily activities.
Introducing the Leadership Caffeine Jam Sessions—What Webinars Should Be
Any event that brings people together and doesn’t tap into the knowledge and ideas of the participants is an event that misses the mark. It’s time for something different! Introducing the Leadership Caffeine Jam Sessions!
Leadership Caffeine™—Lessons for Transformation Learned in the Northwoods
Our organization changes don’t feel like the work of transforming a shoreline or beach, but maybe they should. Imagine if the transformation team members viewed themselves as stewards of the environment and not experts playing with boxes on an organization chart in pursuit of trivial outcomes. I suspect more of those initiatives would succeed.
Leadership Caffeine™—Rethinking New Manager Training and Development
If you consider the myriad activities that form the role of manager, including the novel and often vexing situations presented by humans in the workplace, it’s easy to see where attempts at classroom training inevitably fall short. Use the time initially to teach them to think differently about their roles and their work at start-up using these five sets of operating instructions
The Great Capitulation: Here’s Why You’re Losing Too Many Good People
Here’s a Fun-Fact from my Career Reinvent Boot Camp programs: 50% of participants would prefer to reinvent their careers (change what they do) without leaving your organization. Unfortunately, most of them end up leaving your firm. Here’s why and here are some ideas you can rethink your approach to career development in your organization: