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 Caffeine™—Is There a Leadership Reset Button?
During a coaching call, a client recently commented, "I wish I could hit the reset button with my team." I've been thinking about it ever since. I know my younger self would have been quick to suggest that there were no do-overs in leadership. Perhaps I've mellowed a...
Leadership Caffeine™—Is There a Leadership Reset Button?
Are there leadership do-overs? The answer is a firm, “It depends.” In this article, I share the circumstances where it is appropriate to hit your Leadership Reset Button and I offer guidance for succeeding with this important work.
Planning Ahead for Success: Your Personal Quality Program
Take some time this week to think about areas that you would like to improve in your personal and professional lives. There’s no reason to not put the well-established quality and process improvement practices that you use everyday in your job, to work on improving your own personal and professional performance.
Your Weekend Reading Suggestions from Management Excellence
The first article is Finding and Grooming Breakthrough Innovators by Jeffrey Cohn, Jon Katzenbach and Gus Vlak. Article number two ratchets up the innovation theme with Reinventing Your Business Model by some true heavy hitters.
A Remarkable Display of Lousy Leadership in the Land of Lincoln
Lousy leaders are great teachers. Grab a front row seat here in Illinois and get ready to feel outraged at how low a leader can go. Remember to file this chapter under “leadership approaches almost certain to earn a new orange suit.”
Leader, What’s Your Questions to Comments Ratio?
Effective leaders understand that the respectful use of questioning is a powerful performance enhancement tool in the workplace. A leader’s questions challenge individuals and teams to look at issues from all angles and they help uncover ideas or suggestions that require a bit more baking.
The Pain and Promise of Collaborative Management on Display at Cisco
It’s an exciting time to be leading as the pendulum seems to be swinging away from a style of leading and working that minimized the value of the individual to one that emphasizes empowerment, creativity and the freedom for groups and individuals to think and act. It’s hard to imagine a future where this formula does not produce winners.
Planning Ahead for the Week: Three Items for Your Management Excellence “To Do” List
Every week represents an opportunity to improve your performance as a manager and leader. In spite of the setbacks of the prior week, the fire drills that caught you by surprise and your own lack of follow-through on your goals, every Monday offers a clean slate for you to fill. My very positive intent here is to offer you a few suggestions each week that will inspire your pursuit of continuous improvement. Enjoy and Prosper!
Your “Weekend Reading List” from Management Excellence
Beginning with this post, I intend to make “Your Weekend Reading List” a regular Friday feature. Most professionals that I know are too busy to carve out quality reading time during the week, and many have confided that they wish they would be more diligent about reading on the weekend. While I won’t be there to help you pick up the book or click on the link, I can at least try and remove the “I’m not sure what to read” excuse from your arsenal.
Is it Time to Tune Up Your Firm’s Values?
While Mission is the “reason for being” of a firm, the organization’s clearly stated Values are supposed to define critical behaviors, offer context for decision-making and generally serve as bedrock for defining culture. And like Mission descriptions, the Values are often collections of lofty thoughts that are so far removed from the minds and actions of employees as to be nearly useless.
The Counterintuitive Nature of Management Excellence
It takes no management skill whatsoever to spend a fortune building up clicks and it definitely takes no skill to slash budgets, cut headcount, freeze programs and hunker down and wait out the storm.
It does take remarkable management courage and skill to run against the crowd and conventional wisdom by investing in strategic initiatives and talent during tough times and resisting the temptation to chase mythical fortunes during boom times.