The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Lessons from The Leap to Leader by Adam Bryant (Leadership Caffeine Jam Session #22 Rewind)
How much wisdom and great management and leadership sense can one person bring to us? Well, if you're Adam Bryant, author of The Leap to Leader: How Ambitious Managers Make the Jump to Leadership, the answer is a great deal! Adam was the guest/co-host for Leadership...
Lessons from The Leap to Leader by Adam Bryant (Leadership Caffeine Jam Session #22 Rewind)
Author, journalist, and executive coach Adam Bryant joined the recent Leadership Caffeine Jam Session to talk about the insights in his new book The Leap to Leader: How Ambitious Managers Make the Jump to Leadership. Check out the insights and wisdom and link to the replay of this information-filled session.
Character Counts When Selecting New Managers
When evaluating individuals for advancement into management roles, I prioritize character over knowledge, skills, and abilities. The latter are developed with coaching and training, however, by the time they get to you, it’s too late to teach character.
When Developing New Managers It’s Foundation First
In construction, a strong foundation is fundamental to creating a solid, resilient structure. The same applies when it comes to developing new managers. In this article, I share guidance and a framework to help with the development of strong, resilient new managers on your team.
9 Tips to Succeed at Start-Up as a First-Time Manager
The transition to manager from individual contributor is one of the more difficult in all of organizational life. Here are 9 tips to help smooth out this transition a bit and get you started heading in the right direction with your team and boss.
For Aspiring Managers—Why You Will Love Managing
We write and talk about the challenges, trials, and pitfalls of those getting started in management. What we don’t do enough of is offer some perspective on the potential for the role of manager to evolve into a rewarding career. Here’s my attempt to balance the scales a bit with at least six ideas why you will love managing. While it’s not all unicorns and rainbows, there are some truly rewarding aspects to this role.
A Workplace Communication Fable with Three Great Lessons
Challenging workplace conversations and even confrontations are inevitable. The key is to be at your best when many might be at their worst. Learn to tie these three together—own your message, manage yourself in the moment, and practice positive persuasion—and you have a bright communication future in front of you.
New Manager Development—Put Your Back Into It
New manager development in many organizations is ad hoc at best and non-existent at worst. And while short-term pressures often drive sudden decisions to move people into first-time manager roles, the potential for misfiring is high. For managers responsible for identifying and developing new managers, effort expended ahead of time in assessing the individual’s fit for the role pays dividends for all parties. Of course, this takes some time and effort ahead of the need. As my old boss would say, “You have to put your back into it.”
Career Reinvention is Never a Straight Line
There’s a process to reinventing your career. Unfortunately, for those who like things nice and tidy and linear, the process regularly involves pivoting and back-tracking plus the occasional unanticipated course correction. And while there’s no straight line or stage-gate process, the general flow of your career reinvention work eventually passes through these six steps.
The High Cost of Feedback Left Unspoken
I fret over feedback poorly provided. I also recognize that not all feedback is worth listening to—a great deal depends upon the source and the motivations of the feedback giver. However, I worry a great deal about the incredible and immeasurable cost of important feedback never given. As Deming suggests, this value is unknown and unknowable. And that worries me.
Effective Leaders Understand the Need to Create an Emotional Connection to Strategy
It’s no secret that top leaders and their management teams struggle with strategy. After all, choosing a direction, saying “no” to other opportunities and then creating a blueprint for organization-wide involvement is one of the most difficult challenges of organizational life. This challenge is made easier however, when leadership ensures all employees have the opportunity to internalize and develop an emotional connection to the strategy.