The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Feedback is Funny—Just Not in a “Ha Ha” Kind of Way
OK, the topic of feedback isn't stand-up comedy funny. It's funny as in odd because there are so many contradictions surrounding it. What the Experts Say About Feedback Run a search on "Feedback" at Harvard Business Review (subscription), and you'll encounter these...
Feedback is Funny—Just Not in a “Ha Ha” Kind of Way
OK, the topic of feedback isn’t stand-up comedy funny. It’s funny as in odd because there are so many contradictions surrounding it. Here are five practices to help managers bring feedback to life as the performance-enhancing tool it is capable of being:
Bicycle Helmets, Texting while Driving and Project Failure
The same traits that drive people to do dumb things that they know can cause personal injury, manifest themselves in the way many organizations pursue projects. Like head injuries from a bicycle fall without a helmet and car accidents due to texting or talking on the phone, every single one of the issues above and the many more that I did not list, are easily prevented by the application of well-established professional project management practices.
The First Work Week of January, 2009: Once Again Into the Storm
Welcome to the first work week of 2009. There are no more opportunities to hide behind the holidays. It’s time to face the worst economy of our lives head on with a steely resolve to overcome and succeed. It’s also time to quit preoccupying on the negative news that bombards us and to focus on generating victories.
Managing Your Boss and Death to Slogans: Weekend Reading
Grab a cup of something hot and enjoy these two quick-reads. Patrick Lencioni offers good advice for managing upwards and Dan and Chip Heath skewer the slogan writers.
Darn It, I Cannot Resist New Year’s Resolutions
While I stand behind my post on Personal Quality Programs as the best way to make improvements in your life, I am a goal-oriented person and resolutions are like a challenge just daring me to achieve. I cannot move through the New Year holiday without organizing my ambitions into a neat little list.
So, What Are We Going to Call This Mess?
Every great disaster needs a name and it’s high time that we got on with naming this one. The sooner we name it, the sooner we can begin to put it in the rear view mirrors of our Toyota Hybrids.
The Last Yard: AT&T’s Failure to Fully Satisfy in Spite of A Competition Killing Product
The Apple iPhone is a great device and our local AT&T Store service is fine. Too bad that AT&T forget to go the last yard for the customer. There are powerful marketing lessons to be learned by observing how a company executes for customers around a category and competition-killing product.
Leader, What Are You Doing to Improve Your Value Creation?
Leadership should be one of the principal value creation components of the management system, yet poor leadership practices often result in increased complexity, added waste and blocked attempts to streamline processes and make improvements that would otherwise benefit the organization and its customers. One of the key reasons that leaders and leadership practices often fail to create value (or to create more value) is the lack of a common operational and actionable definition for the role of a leader.
Merry Christmas!
Peace on Earth. Good Will Towards All.
Effective Leaders Recognize The Power of Collaboration
The best leaders understand their role in creating the effective working environment, and they understand that part of this is creating the conditions for collaboration to take root and grow. On the other hand, ineffective leaders find ways to stifle collaboration, often through managing by fear and intimidation. Negative tactics might drive momentary compliance, but you cannot mandate creativity at the end of a gun barrel.