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
Why you need to start treating your words like Lego Blocks
Bottom-Line Up-Front: Words are what we have to inspire, motivate, clarify, empower, and enable. Yet, too often, our words work against us and create problems. Start thinking about words as building blocks of great conversations. They're like Legos, and you can...
Why you need to start treating your words like Lego Blocks
Words are what we have to inspire, motivate, clarify, empower, and enable. Yet, too often, our words work against us and create problems. Why you need to start treating your words like Legos.
First-Time Manager #16—Behaviors that Build Credibility
Credibility is the manager’s currency. Without it, you are bankrupt. Here are 16 behaviors to help you build this critical store of value as a manager:
Challenging Conversations and Career Success
Perhaps the single most valuable piece of career advice I ever received happened early in my career. I’m not certain I understood the importance of this advice at the time, but it stuck with me. The advice is:
Leadership Caffeine™—Moving Beyond Bad at the Beginning
Starting out as a manager and learning to lead is hard enough, without the obstacle course of doom many of our organizations set for us. However, there are some approaches that can help you move beyond “bad at the beginning.” Here are 3 leadership hacks to help smooth the process a bit:
The Six Stages of Career Reinvention
The idea of reinventing yourself in your career is intimidating and even overwhelming. Yet, a disciplined approach to navigating this journey will help you mitigate risk and gain traction. The six stages of career reinvention provide a framework to help you get started on this important journey.
Manager, It’s Time to Unpack Your Self-Limiting Beliefs
We’re all guilty of building obstacles to progress in our minds. Successful managers learn to unpack those obstacles and overcome the self-limiting beliefs holding them hostage. Here are 8 key questions to help:
Leadership Caffeine™—What I Learned on My Leadership Break
After more than a decade of managing and leading, I needed a break. I thought I would find satisfaction in being responsible for just one person: myself. I was wrong. It turns out, leading was a calling, but I needed a leadership break to reset and reframe. I’ve never looked back.
First-Time Manager #15—Leverage Values to Give Your Team a Voice
If you’ve ever worked for a manager who suppressed alternative views and different approaches, you know how oppressive the environment becomes in that situation. A much better approach is to build in the values that promote fierce debate and rapid resolution leading to execution. Of course, this is easier said than done. You as manager own the hard work of creating this environment. Start with the right values.
Career Reinvention—Overcoming Your View on You
For individuals considering a career makeover, it’s imperative to refresh the view on you. To introduce some objectivity into the process and navigate beyond your blindspots, consider asking for help. This article shares a number of ideas to help you better tune-in to others’ perception of your true skills and abilities.
Leadership Power-Up #3—Reframe How You Define Success
There’s a difference between trying not to fail versus striving for success. Here are 4 Leadership Power-Ups to help you spread success across your team or organization.