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
Manager, not interested in climbing the ladder but still want to thrive? Develop in these six areas.
To those with managerial experience who strive to do more, the climb does not always matter. It's more about finding a way to scale your impact to thrive in your career. I work with many seasoned managers who are hungry to do more, learn more, and challenge themselves...
Manager, not interested in climbing the ladder but still want to thrive? Develop in these six areas.
If you truly want to thrive and scale your impact without chasing the climb, you’ll invest in yourself and do the heavy lifting essential for growth.
Three Options to Help You Strengthen Your Feedback Skills
It turns out, a great number of us stress over giving feedback—particularly the constructive kind. Earlier in my career, this was me and it took a great mentor to help me solve this problem. I work with professionals of all types and at all levels to strengthen their skills with feedback. Here are three options to support your growth (two free, one a great value workshop).
How to tame your “I’m the smartest person in the room’ problem
A leader’s compulsion to always be the smartest person in every room not only stifles creativity but also undermines the potential of a high-performance environment. Here are ideas to help tame this destructive syndrome.
Seven Ideas to Help Harness the Power of One-on-Ones
One-on-ones are not just meetings; they are the most valuable engagements on your calendar. By applying the seven strategies outlined here, you can ensure these sessions are productive and transformative, fostering a culture of growth, trust, and innovation.
Introduction to The Manager’s Journey
Joseph W. Campbell’s description of The Hero’s Journey has 17 distinct stages, starting with The Call to Adventure, navigating The Road of Trials, and ending with the Freedom to Live. Of course, the action occurs between those stages, with untold challenges, exhilarating highs, and soul-crushing lows. Campbell might have been writing the story of The Manager’s Journey.
Feeling Invisible at Work? It’s Time for Action
If you’ve been passed over for promotion opportunities or you find yourself relegated to less-than-strategic initiatives in your organization, that creeping sense of irrelevance you are feeling might be real. As the late Andy Grove offered, “Only the paranoid survive.” Let’s channel this paranoia into some focused actions to regain your relevance.
Bad Day as a Leader? Smile and Keep Marching
Not every day in your life as a leader is a party complete with cake and ice cream. When you encounter one of those days where everything seems to be working against you, it’s time to force a smile and keep marching.
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.
Thank You to Wally Bock and Three Star Leadership
My good friend and mentor-from-a-distance, Wally Bock, announced yesterday that he will no longer be adding content to his fabulous and long-running Three Star Leadership Blog. Wally is shifting gears to focus on his book writing/coaching practice. In this article, I share my thanks and great regard for someone who has inspired me for years.
FIve Big Ideas to Help Get New Manager Development Right
Managers are the individuals we need to create engagement, deliver quality results, and serve as critical enablers of change and adaptation in our world. And if Gallup. is even half right with their measures of disengagement and their pointing to managers as the cause, we’re failing at manager development. Here are five big ideas to help.