The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Four Steps to Harness the Power of Quality Feedback
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) It's your job as a manager to build a healthy culture for your team. Part of this culture includes the universal recognition of the need to receive and give feedback in all three directions (up, down, and sideways). Effective managers take...
Four Steps to Harness the Power of Quality Feedback
In every healthy working environment, quality feedback flows in three directions: up, down, and sideways. Here are four steps for managers to take to bring the power of quality feedback to life on their teams.
Leadership Caffeine™—Navigating a Leadership Slump
Organizational life is wearing on us, and for those charged with leading and guiding others, it’s natural for fatigue to set in on occasion. However, if the fatigue lingers, you might find yourself facing a leadership slump. Here are four big ideas to help you navigate a leadership slump.
The Leadership Opportunity—Incredible Adventures in Creation Ahead
There’s the practical dimension of leading where we focus on the grind-it-out, get-things-done-through-others heavy lifting. However, there’s a higher-order opportunity with this work. The leadership opportunity is truly about the potential to create by working with the ultimate medium: the ideas and efforts of others.
Why Vague Feedback is So Destructive and What to Do About It
Vague feedback is incredibly destructive to morale and performance. This article includes guidance to strengthen your delivery of quality feedback as well as suggestions if you are on the receiving end of vague feedback.
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.