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
Final Thoughts — Lessons on Leading from Growing Up Around Dad
This article is the third and final in my series paying tribute to my Dad, who passed away late this summer. The earlier articles in this trilogy include: Leadership and Management Lessons from Losing Dad and Life and Leadership...
Final Thoughts — Lessons on Leading from Growing Up Around Dad
Dad conducted a master class in overcoming adversity as a child. From an early age placement in an orphanage to navigating poverty, suffering from severe crossed eyes until a radical surgery in his teens, he personified tenacity. We called it “sticktoitiveness,” and to Dad, this was a key to success. He carried this forward through his life.
Leadership Caffeine™—You Own Smarter, Better, Faster
There’s pressure for everything to move faster in our organizations at a time when it feels like we’re all trying to run through water or worse. Here are eight questions for you and your team to jump-start moving faster:
Think Differently About Professional Development Investments
Having spent millions of dollars of my budget and many hundreds of hours of my time, and probably tens of thousands of hours of the combined time of my team members, I’ve cultivated some strong likes/dislikes and some powerful lessons learned. Use these in outstanding professional development health with your teams and colleagues.
Leadership Caffeine™—Commit to Helping Your New Managers Succeed from the Start
If you are a manager responsible for promoting and developing a new manager, the hard work begins during selection and continues long after in the form of observing, teaching, and coaching. There are no shortcuts to building the next generation of effective managers.
Leadership Caffeine™—The Five Building Blocks of the Healthy Working Environment
It’s always bothered me that building a healthy working environment isn’t described in most managerial job descriptions. This is the most important work a manager can engage in to strengthen engagement and performance, yet working on the working environment is ignored in the daily rush for results. In this article, I offer ideas and approaches to help managers jump-start this critical work.
Mid-Week Career Caffeine—Overcoming Your Fear of Risk
The number one reason experienced, capable professionals relegate ideas of a career change to daydreams or fantasies is the fear of risk. After all, shifting from the work, firm, or vocation that’s paying the bills feels inherently risky. However, what if there were a way to manage and mitigate the majority of the risk involved with a career change? Would that make you more comfortable pursuing the career you believe is right for you at this stage of your life? I think so. Learn more in the latest Mid-Week Career Caffeine video.
Free Mini-Course on How to Set Your New Managers Up for Success
It’s vital to get the transition from contributor to manager right, and frankly, it’s often left to chance—never a good plan. Sadly, there’s still too much sink-or-swim going on when it comes to new manager development. On August 11 at noon central, I’m running my latest mini-class: How to Help Your New Managers Survive & Thrive from the Start.
Leadership Caffeine™—Rethinking Your Team’s Business Reviews and Operating Approach
While I’ve not attended your business review session, I can tell you with confidence born of experience that most of these events are painful time, productivity, and morale killers. And, in this world where COVID has taught us that quarters are like centuries and the world shifts in hours and days, I increasingly find the ubiquitous quarterly business reviews anachronistic. It’s time to change your team’s operating approach.
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.
Leadership Caffeine™— Success Demands Unity of Purpose
What we want as leaders is deep immersion from our team members. Yet, our systems, numbers, and approaches mainly generate transactional involvement. They lack unity of purpose.