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
Career Reinvention Journal™—Don’t Let Fear Keep You Locked in Misery
We ran our latest career-focused event the other day: How to Get Unstuck & Take Control of Your Career, and as always, the commentary from the attendees was priceless. With over 300 registered and a great group in attendance, the chat stream was in full...
Career Reinvention Journal™—Don’t Let Fear Keep You Locked in Misery
As Frank Herbert offers in the classic science fiction book, Dune, “Fear is the mind-killer.” Don’t let your instinctual reactions to the idea of making a career change keep you locked into something that no longer works for you.
Your Customer Service Tells Me All I Need to Know About Your Management Quality
Of my many quirks, one that I actually enjoy is my unceasing study of customer service. I love to observe customer service interactions and I’ve made it a habit to try and figure out why the good ones are good and the bad ones so miserable. Here are a few thoughts and few light-hearted examples to for managers everywhere to learn from.
Leadership Caffeine™ for the New Week
4 quick-shots of your favorite roast to jolt you into action in this new week. This week’s issue helps you jump start tough conversations, improve project post-mortem meetings, increase your active listening effectiveness and schedule staff meetings that people want to attend. And if you need a double-shot of motivation, visit the Leadership Caffeine category at the Management Excellence site.
Five Tips for Leading Change When You’re Not In Charge
As I continue on my career respite from managing a business that’s not mine, I’m increasingly conscious of the significant gap between the needs and ideas of employees and the attention and interest of senior managers. There are so many remarkable ideas and thoughts on improving performance that never see the light of day that it is staggering. I offer five suggestions for driving change when you’re not in charge. I’m hoping that readers will add a few more of their own.
Your Recruiting Practices Might Just Be Killing Your Business
It’s long past overdue to change the way you recruit talent. The way you’ve been doing it is wrong, and it is hurting your business. This topic is particularly important, because there is a goldmine of talent on the street in this lousy economy. Your opportunity to strengthen your firm with hungry, motivated and powerful people will never be better IF you execute properly.
The Case of the Rapidly Shrinking Attention Span
Are we losing our ability to focus? Maybe. Maybe we never had it, and it is the exception instead of the rule, but it just seems so much harder in this environment to focus on an issue and work through it to creative, complete solutions. We’re too busy racing from one sound-bite opportunity to another, focusing our precious gray matter on topics for nanoseconds before the next interruption comes along.
Podcast: Ten Big Points on Leading and Leadership, part 1 of 2
Join Art for a little less than ten minutes of Management Excellence as he shares points 1 thru 5 of his 10 Big Points on Leading and Leadership. This podcast was based on a recent guest speaking opportunity for a class of college seniors and adapted to fit anyone who...
Leadership Caffeine™ for the New Week: 5 Quick Tips to Jolt You Into Action
Whether you are Chief Executive, a functional manager or someone who leads informally on project and product teams, start your week right and put these suggestions to work. Rinse and repeat in the future. You’ll be glad that you did.
Will this Business Revolutionize How Men Shop and Rescue Me from My 1970’s Fashion Training at the Same Time?
I plan on chronicling my experience in several posts over the next few weeks, with an exciting new men’s clothing/shopping service that I was introduced to called Trunk Club. I’m not sure if I’m more excited about the solution to my fashion challenges, or the fact that this is the best recent example that I’ve seen of a service that so perfectly solves a problem that it practically sells itself.
Quick Reads and Sound Bites on Success, Career Growth and Leading
Suggested links and resources on success, career growth as a product manager and leading. Check out the review of Gladwell’s Outliers at Three Star Leadership, Career Growth and the Product Manager by Art Petty and a podcast summary of Leading from the Edge by Dennis Perkins.