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
Rebecca Homkes joins Art Petty to talk strategy and her book Survive, Reset, Thrive
I love the subtitle of Dr. Rebecca Homkes' new book: Survive, Reset, Thrive. It reads Leading breakthrough growth strategy in volatile times! Rebecca Homkes lives up to it and more in this fabulous playbook on embracing and leveraging uncertainty and navigating the...
Rebecca Homkes joins Art Petty to talk strategy and her book Survive, Reset, Thrive
Dr. Rebecca Homkes, author of Survive, Reset, Thrive—Leading breakthrough growth strategy in volatile times, joins Art Petty to talk about the book, her experiences leading high growth teams through strategy, and why we should embrace and leverage uncertainty.
Stepping In to Lead a New Group? Try This Process to Grow Trust and Gain Performance
If you’re an executive or top manager staring at a new group you’ve been assigned to lead and concluding you’ve got a lineup that looks destined for last place, it’s time to take action. Of course, most of those actions involve the person staring back at you in the mirror. Here’s a process that will help:
Career Reinvention Journal—Why Some Succeed Where Others Fail
A good number of people I encounter, talk about doing something different in their careers. For those individuals who cultivate the courage to pursue career reinvention, there are stark differences in the thinking and behaviors between those who succeed and those who don’t. Here are my observations based on several years working with dozens of aspiring career reinventors.
Why Trickle-Down Strategy Approaches Leave Your Employees Thirsty
Unless you’re in a start-up or small business, it’s impossible to have everyone in the firm physically “in-the-room” for strategy sessions. However, using a strategy-as-a-continuous-process approach, it is possible and desirable to involve everyone in the work of strategy from ideation to execution. But first, you’ve got to re-plumb the trickle-down strategy process approach to something significantly more inclusive.
Leadership Caffeine™—Six Skills Essential for Career Success
While there’s no one-formula-fits-all recipe for career success, there are common ingredients in the form of behaviors and skills. Here are the six base ingredients I see most often, albeit in different proportions
8 Ideas to Help You Regain Control at Work
It’s great to be busy, but excessive busyness comes from a flawed approach to your situation. Assert control over your priorities and time, and quit letting the lower priority items rent space in your mind. Here are 8 ideas to help:
Leading and Succeeding in the Gray-Zone
I’ve long believed learning to lead in the gray-zone inside organizations is a great approach for creating value, standing out, and getting ahead in your career. Here are 10 tips to help you tackle those vexing issues no one owns, by cultivating support and helping others succeed.
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.