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
Back-to-School Time is Back to Professional Development Time
I love this time of year. The heat and humidity here in the Midwest give way to cooler, crisp air and some fabulous fall days. And, of course, it's back-to-school time. My wife went back today. The latest course I'm teaching at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay...
Back-to-School Time is Back to Professional Development Time
I love this time of year. The heat and humidity here in the Midwest give way to cooler, crisp air and some fabulous fall days. And, of course, it’s back-to-school time. It’s also time for the fall sessions of my two flagship professional development programs, the Senior Manager Program and the New(er) Manager Program.
Leadership Caffeine™—Success: It’s All in the Cause
It’s not hard to identify the ingredients essential for success on a team or in an organization. Yet, manifesting a group wildly motivated to succeed is the real issue. To do this, there must be a cause that serves as the catalyst and driver. Your numbers, goals, quarterly targets, and emotional or logical pleas aren’t enough. The right cause brings teams to life.
Leadership Power-Up—Make Time to Think Deeply
There’s ample science to conclude that we’re lousy at multi-tasking and alternatively, that taking time to reflect improves our self-efficacy and ability to learn. Unfortunately, most of us work in and contribute to a perpetual tornado of activities in our daily lives. It’s imperative for your well-being and effectiveness to find opportunities to simply pause and think deeply.
podcast: Jennifer K. Crittenden: What’s A Guy to Do? How to Work With Women (#25)
I recently had a chance to interview former executive and now author and coach, Jennifer K. Crittenden, about her latest book: What’s a Guy to Do? Working With Women, as well as her other excellent books. In this engaging 40-minute interview, Jennifer shares a wealth of great guidance for all of us. Enjoy this latest episode for the Leadership Caffeine podcast.
Last Chance to Lock-In Feedback Performance Improvement in 2018
The absence of quality feedback on the tough performance and business issues is one of the most significant maladies inhibiting performance in our workplace today. Whether it’s boss to employee, vice-versa, or peer to peer, we have to be able to talk openly about individual and group performance and cut through the noise to drive positive change. Our online, on-demand course helps you and your team solve this problem to strengthen performance.
Leadership Caffeine™—It Comes from Inside
Some individuals are thrust on to a big stage and summon the strength to lead others through perilous times. For the rest of us, we are faced with almost daily opportunities to step-up and lead on the small stage. Some look the other way and others summon the strength from somewhere inside themselves to do the right thing.
In Remembrance
In honor of Veteran’s Day 2018.
Career Shift or Job Change—Which Path is Right for You?
If you’re feeling that tug of “It’s time to do something different,” it pays to spend some time sorting through whether you are best served by a job change or a wholesale career shift. As you might imagine, the two paths are radically different in scale, scope, timing, effort, and risk.
Leadership Caffeine™—A Simple Hack to Resuscitate Your Positive Attitude
When your usual positive attitude takes a holiday and leaves you alone with your grumpier more cynical self, it’s time for action. And while the idea of turning in your resignation after telling off the higher-ups is a nice fantasy, it’s placing the blame squarely where it doesn’t belong. Instead, try this simple but powerful hack to bring your positive attitude back to life:
For Managers—The Performance Potential of a Strong Feedback Culture
Imagine there was a tool at your disposal that would help reinforce in real-time the behaviors of group members that moved the performance numbers in the right direction. Or, a tool that would get people motivated to learn, grow, and leave behind less-than-ideal behaviors in favor of new approaches and continuous improvement. Wouldn’t this be helpful?
Well, there is. It’s called performance feedback. And sadly, it’s often missing-in-action, misapplied, or, applied inconsistently, and that’s just leaving money and morale on the table.