The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Reaching for the Executive Ranks? Part Two—Cultivating Executive Presence
Note from Art: In part one of this Reaching for the Executive Ranks series, I shared guidance on developing as a strategist. In this article, I strive to demystify what is often called "executive presence," and I share guidance and resources on strengthening yours. ...
Reaching for the Executive Ranks? Part Two—Cultivating Executive Presence
I’m fascinated by the topic of executive presence and particularly by the feedback many receive that sounds like, “You need to work on strengthening your executive presence.” This feedback typically leaves people stressed and needing clarification. In this article, I strive to demystify executive presence and offer some tips and resources for strengthening yours.
Leadership Power-Up #2—Prepare Your Attitude Daily
I have a leadership workshop participant to thank for my all-time favorite technique for preparing for a successful day.
Leadership Caffeine™—Natural Time
We struggle to force the pace of leadership development in our organizations. Instead, we need to adopt a pace that operates on a person’s natural time.
Giving Thanks for Those Who Serve
Veteran’s Day 2017. Giving thanks to those who serve today and those who have served and sacrificed to protect our freedom.
Leadership Power-Up #1—Pay it Forward
A Leadership Power-Up is a positive action you take to strengthen your energy, enthusiasm, and resolve for the hard work of guiding and developing others while driving results. This new series share simple, powerful approaches for powering up your performance as a manager and leader.
First-Time Manager #14—Management Lessons Learned the Hard Way
In workshops and live settings, I’ve been asked numerous times about my biggest mistakes as a manager. I’ve made a fair number of them over three decades of leading and managing (and I regularly share these via my cases and articles), however, my Achilles Heel earlier...
Leadership Caffeine™—Be the Hero of Your Own Story
Being the hero of your own leadership and management journey isn’t about focusing on yourself. To the contrary, it’s about focusing on those around you and striving to leave every encounter, situation, and person a bit better than how you found it. Here are 4 questions to use daily to strengthen results on your own heroic journey:
Moving Beyond a Plateau— 9 Lessons in Career Reinvention
Getting started on the hard, important work of reinventing your career is a challenging proposition. Here are 9 lessons I’ve learned from working with some great professionals on this process, along with some ideas for you to consider.
Struggling as a Manager? Try Revisiting These 3 Foundational Issues
If you’re growing frustrated and fatigued with your life as a manager, you might want to take a step-back and review and strengthen the foundation for your role. Three items provide structural integrity for your managerial foundation: role clarity, values, and connectedness
All three components inter-operate to support your effectiveness and to eliminate many challenges in this difficult role. Alternatively, the absence of the three is potentially disastrous.
Leadership Caffeine™—Communication Lessons from Charlie Brown
How confident are you that your message is getting through to others? Too often we perceive we are communicating clearly and effectively, when all anyone hears is something resembling the adults on a Charlie Brown feature. You know the noise they make: “Wah wa wa wa wah wa.” Don’t let this be you.








