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.
Fixing the Fatal Flaw in New Manager Development
There’s a great deal we don’t get right in our organization when developing our first-time managers. Peel the layers of the onion and ultimately, you find a fatal flaw in the nature of the promoting manager to new manager relationship. Here are some ideas to fix that flaw:
Think Differently About Engaging with Your Organization’s Top Leaders
Your assumption that they’re busy doing top-leader things and don’t want to hear from you is partially flawed. Most senior leaders I’ve worked with and around love to hear from individuals at all levels. Here are five ideas to help you think differently about engaging with your organization’s top leaders:
Winning the Inner Game of Leading With Positive Self-Talk
Fear, self-doubt, and the tendency to catastrophize situations are your adversaries as a leader. The essence of life is overcoming challenges. Instead of allowing your negative emotions to rule you, engage in a little self-trickery and reset and reframe the negatives to positives.
Career Reinvention Journal—5 Reasons Why Self-Discovery is Critical for a Career Makeover
It turns out, the first place to start looking for “next” in your career is staring back at you in the mirror. Here are five reasons why the work of self-discovery is critical for a successful career pivot:
Leadership Caffeine™—Five Questions that Will Help You Strengthen as a Decision-Maker
Effective decision-making demands discipline and process. A good starting point is asking yourself and your team some key questions.
Insights from the Latest Feedback Boot Camp
Every few months, I run a three-hour boot camp on strengthening your skills as a receiver and a giver of feedback. Here are the top ten insights from the recent cohort group.
Fresh Opportunities for Professional Growth (and a free resource)
There’s never been a better time to help yourself or your team members move from good-to-great and add the skills essential for success in what will be a still-challenging world filled with new opportunities. Here’s our Spring 2021 Professional Development Catalog:
Leadership Caffeine™—Six Steps to Help You Start Strong with Your New Team
The point in time when you step into a new leadership role is simultaneously exciting and uncomfortable. Your start-up as the new boss is the early-awkward phase for everyone involved. Here are six steps to help you start strong with your new team:
Help Aspiring Managers Explore and Experiment Before Leaping into the Role
Moving from contributor to manager is one of the most awkward transitions a person will undertake in their working life. It’s an unnatural act, where you take almost everything you know about success in your day job and push it over into the “Never Mind” column.Instead of perpetuating the “hope” approach to identifying and developing new managers, try my favorite question, “Why manage?” three times, backed by some exploration and experimentation.