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
Our Big Goals Create Impact and Offer Priceless Journeys
The Destination is Nice, Yet the Joy is in the Journey We moved to our lake home at the tail end of the pandemic. It was a shift from our 30-year suburban Chicago-area home and a chance to run our own version of one of those home renovation shows, where we did a poor...
Our Big Goals Create Impact and Offer Priceless Journeys
I love the idea of fewer, larger goals that are not constrained to a fiscal period. These types of goals, particularly when blended with coaching, exploration, experimentation, and feedback, bring big ideas to life.
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.
Guest Post: What You Buy Reveals Your Heart’s Purpose
We personally love the idea that we can live our purpose every day, not only in our lives and career, but can extend that purpose through the choices of who we buy from and those we don’t buy from. We’re optimistic that if we follow our purpose, we’ll support a growing number of companies which are creating social good.
Leaders—Beware the Image You See in the Mirror
Leaders too often exist in a bubble of their own creation. They view their actions and utterances through their own filters and fail to take into account how they are perceived by others. Objects staring back at you in the mirror are not always as they appear.
A Manager’s Communication Rules for Survival and Success
A day in the life of a manager is a day spent navigating challenging communication situations. Successful managers understand the importance of building their messages using the three legs of the communication stool. They also understand how to apply six key rules and tools to succeed in challenging communication situations.
Thinking of Becoming a Manager? Pause and Consider These Questions
Managing can be rewarding and exciting. It also can be disastrous for your career. Before making the move to manager, ask and answer these 10 questions:
Developing the Whole Leader—The Clinic Approach
In a world where our organizations face a chronic shortage of leadership talent to navigate uncertainty and change, it’s time to rethink our approach to leadership development. In this article, I suggest an alternative approach, the clinic model for leadership development. Consider this more a “What if?” prompter on finding new ways to address the whole-person and to integrate and sustain development over time.