The Leadership Caffeine Blog
5 Things You Can Do as a Manager of New(er) Managers to Help Them Take-Off Successfully
Don't let them fly without a license! In the world of unnatural career acts, shifting from contributor to manager is at the top of the difficulty list. Imagine moving from your current day job as a contributor to one where you are now flying a passenger jet with no...
5 Things You Can Do as a Manager of New(er) Managers to Help Them Take-Off Successfully
In the world of unnatural career acts, shifting from contributor to manager is at the top of the difficulty list. Here are five things you can do as a manager of new(er) managers to help them take off successfully.
Difficult Decisions and Challenging Conversations—The Stuff of Leadership (and Organization) Success
Difficult decisions and challenging conversations are inextricably linked. You don’t get to the big decisions on strategy, structure, or talent without some tough discussions. Yet often, we as leaders fail to model the right behaviors. Here are eight ideas to help you and your team strengthen discussion and decision-making processes.
Leader: It’s Time to Develop Your Listening Muscle
One of the root causes of communication failure in the workplace is our inability to listen effectively. We’re typically distracted by our own thoughts, striving to multi-task, or, we annoyingly step all over the messages of others. However, we can improve our listening skills, and in the process, solve more problems and build performance. This article offers nine ideas to help strengthen your listening muscle.
A Framework to Help Managers Develop Emerging Leaders
There are few activities in our organizations more important than developing emerging leaders. A healthy, full pipeline of leadership talent is essential to sustain success and navigate a complex world. The Foundation + 4 Pillars framework helps guide managers in pursuit of this critical work.
Why You Need to Find Work that is Exhilarating
No job is perfect, however, when you manage to align your sense of purpose with a cause that brings this purpose to life, the work can be exhilarating at times and enjoyable all of the time. If time is running at a snail’s pace and there’s no joy in the work, it’s time to pursue a reset.
Q: How Long Will This Strategy Work Take?
In reality, the work of strategy is some of the most challenging thinking work a firm’s members will do. And truth be told, it’s never really finished. Strategy is a process, not an event, and the work of evaluating, diagnosing, and choosing are never-ending activities.
Maintaining Control When Feedback Discussions Take a Wrong Turn
Regardless of your best planning, careful observation, and deft delivery sometimes feedback discussions blow up in your face. Here are three common reactions and how to steer the feedback discussion back on track if you encounter them.
Leadership Caffeine—Strive for Your Best Leadership Self Daily
It’s easy to spend your working days in perpetual hair-on-fire mode. However, learning to lead effectively is a long-term continuous improvement project. Here are 10 ideas you can apply daily to strive to be your best leadership self.
Why Many Leaders Feel Like Misfits and What They Do About It
When you sign-on to lead, you turn in your “one of the gang” membership card. This can lead to feelings of disconnectedness and what I term: leadership misfit syndrome. Here are four ideas to help you move beyond this syndrome and strengthen your engagement and enjoyment of your role.
Of Leaders and Men: Goodbye to Eric J. Lieberman
The world became a little less creative, a little less gentle, and just a bit less interesting last week when Eric Lieberman passed away unexpectedly. Eric was a friend for twenty years. He also happened to be my boss for part of that time. Here are some reflections on life and leadership lessons I learned from him along the way.