The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Four Big Topics from the Succeeding with Challenging Conversations Programs
Anyone who has attended one of my programs knows I genuinely geek out on sharing concepts, approaches, and tools that help us solve problems, make better decisions, lead more effectively, and communicate effectively under pressure. This latter topic—communicating...
Four Big Topics from the Succeeding with Challenging Conversations Programs
Strengthening as a workplace communicator takes focus and deliberate effort. In a summer filled with multiple corporate workshop programs focused on Succeeding with Challenging Conversations, here are four big topics that energized the groups. Use the ideas in great communication health!
Investing in and Building Strategic Partnerships that Work
The best partnerships in my experience involve deep integration of business processes, including development, sales and marketing, and customer service, all aligned around a clear audience and strategy. Inherent in this process is the need for you to invest time and money, for people, product, promotion, and programs.
Leadership Caffeine™—4 Approaches of Great Problem-Solvers who Lead
Develop a reputation as someone everyone can count on to tackle the big, ugly issues, and watch the doors open. Of course, it pays to have a strategy to avoid the traps while stepping up to solving or fixing the problems others actively avoid. Here are 4 approaches to help:
The Destructive Drumbeat of Incessant Feedback
Feedback is an important tool for managers to promote high performance and performance improvement. However, when the flow of feedback exceeds a person’s ability to process and act on it, the results include stress and disengagement. Here are ideas to help managers tailor their feedback volume and frequency to the needs and styles of their team members.
Career Reinvention Journal—Moving Beyond Fear
Of all of the monsters lurking in the dark and keeping us from moving forward or onward to new career adventures, fear is the most potent. Kicking fear to the curb through deliberate action is key to overcoming the gravitational pull it exerts on our lives and careers.
Three Questions to Help New Managers Start Strong
The work of new manager development in our organizations is mostly messy. If you’re the new manager, that’s a problem. Ditto for the promoting manager. Here are three questions to help new managers gain critical context for their challenging new roles:
Three Discussions Most Managers Don’t Have with Their Teams (But Should)
People do their best work when they have context for their labors. Here are three discussions managers should be having with their team members to promote performance and stimulate career growth.
What D-Day and Other Big Decisions in History Teach Us About Decision-Making as Leaders
History is filled with examples where a decision at a moment-in-time changed the outcome. As we commemorate the courage of those who participated in the D-Day Invasion in World War II, I look at Eisenhower’s decision that day and another fateful decision 80-years earlier that changed the course of a nation. Our workplace decisions aren’t on the same scale, yet, the big decisions at a moment in time do change the fate of organizations. What can we learn from history here?
One Communication Superpower We Should All Strive to Cultivate
Seeing situations through the eyes of others may be the most crucial skill you’re not working very hard on in your professional or personal lives. It turns out when you do this—when you truly actually strive to understand how others view situations—the world takes on a decidedly different complexion.
Two Questions Every Leader Should Ask Repeatedly
As part of your leadership improvement program, it’s important to ask for input. The answers and perhaps even more so people’s reactions and responses to your questions offer valuable clues to where you need to strengthen your performance.