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
Let’s Rethink Summer School—A Program for Motivated Managers
Summer School Gets a Bad Rap OK, first, let’s take on the summer school label. As a kid growing up in Chicago, I remember thinking that people who had to go to summer school clearly did something bad during the school year. After all, summer was about riding my...
Let’s Rethink Summer School—A Program for Motivated Managers
The Summer School for Managers program offers a low-stress opportunity to sharpen your skills, network with some great people, and do it from wherever your travels take you.
4 Key Starter Ingredients for Successful Strategy Execution
Even a sound strategy process that effectively characterizes the situation and way forward still faces considerable risk in the form of strategy execution. Ultimately, the ideas are relatively easy. It’s the work of bringing strategy to life that is difficult. Here are 4 key ingredients you require for successful strategy execution.
First-Time Manager #12—This is Hard Work
The fundamentals of leading and managing aren’t incredibly difficult to understand. Applying them daily is darned hard work.
New to Managing? Gain an Edge on Success with this Program
Last chance! I’m wrapping up the 2017 incarnation of my, Succeeding as a First-Time Manager online series! There’s still time to register!
For Leaders, Results Count, But It’s How You Get There That Matters
Your efforts and teams have to produce or, you won’t be in a leadership role. IHowever, we all face a choice on style and approach. I managed to evolve from a results-focused heat-seeking-missile to a coach and sponsor whose teams consistently exceeded my and the firm’s lofty expectations.
First-Time Manager #11—Now, About Those Results…
Moving from individual contributor to manager is a challenging career step. One of the more vexing issues first-time managers encounter is learning to drive results through others. Here are at least 7 ideas you can use immediately to promote great results with your group:
Has Your Organization Fallen Victim to the Zombie Apocalypse?
In too many organizations, the absence of a galvanizing vision, meaningful, livable values, and a planning process that engages employees from top to bottom result in a form of zombie apocalypse. Instead of purpose, focus, and continuous improvement, people wander aimlessly searching for professional sustenance. If the leaders at the top won’t fix this, you need to spark the revolution from the middle.
This Sunday Morning Our Thoughts are Elsewhere
As I sat down to write my first leadership post of the week, I found myself staring out the window at my dry, midwestern lawn, and for just a moment, I wished for rain. And then the ridiculousness of that wish clubbed me over the head, given what's happening in...
5 Big Challenges of First-Time Managers (Free Webinar and New Program)
Tackling the role of First-Time Manager is challenging. Everything is new and in too many cases, there’s no one to guide your way. That’s why I created my free webinar: How to Overcome the 5 Big Challenges First-Time Managers Face, and my new distance professional learning program: How to Succeed as a First-Time Manager.
When No One Speaks the Truth at Work, You Face a Choice
We’ve all been in meetings where the latest ridiculous idea from management is greeted with what I term, aerobic head nodding. In many cases, people are afraid to speak truth to power. As a leader, you own curing this problem in your environment. As an employee, you have to decide whether you are willing to sell your self-esteem or risk ticking off your manager. If the issue is important enough, it’s an easy choice.