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
Thank You to Wally Bock and Three Star Leadership
Yesterday's announcement from Wally Bock that he will no longer add content to his fabulous and long running Three Star Leadership blog was sad for me. Yeah, I'm selfish about people I admire and call friends. I want the ideas and exchanges to flow forever! Wally, I...
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.
Two Strategy Tools Every Leader Must Understand
For any leader or management team struggling to navigate strategy, there are two tools I find incredibly useful in helping groups navigate complexity. They share a common trait in challenging strategy groups to focus their energy on cultivating a clear picture of a firm’s reality and then defining a way forward, before defining actions. Too many teams jump to the actions and skip the heavy lifting and deep thinking. These tools keep you honest when it comes to strategy.
Knocking the Negativity Out of Your Career and Life
“Research suggests that the human mind has a propensity to pay greater attention to and process the bad compared to the good, a phenomenon often called the negativity bias. Bad feedback has greater impact; bad impressions are quicker to form; bad information is...
First-Time Manager #8—Meet the Peers
Your promotion to front-line manager places some distance between you and your team members, however, it also offers you an entirely new peer group: other front-line managers. This article offers six ideas for you to jump-start your networking activities with your new peers.
Leadership Caffeine™—Lessons from a Failed Expedition
Building high performance teams is a critical part of a leader’s job. However, when you build the team without clarity and commitment for the mission, watch out for these 5 painful leadership lessons:
Pet Peeves: Quit Talking About Yourself—No One Cares
Why is it some people fail to talk about anything but themselves? Resist the temptation to regale others with your “I” monolog, and instead, focus on creating healthy dialog. If it doesn’t work, move on before your ears metaphorically melt.
Caretaker Managers Need Not Apply
My recent interview with a CIO from a major publicly traded firm reminds us all that some of our biggest adversaries in our push to survive in this tumultuous world are the caretaker managers inside our organizations.
Helping Your First-Time Manager Start-Up Successfully
Look around you, and you’ll see that your front-line managers are accountable for the lion’s share of people managing in your organization. Whether you call them supervisor or manager, these individuals are responsible for the teams delivering customer support,...
Harnessing the Power of the Highly Competent.
Observing someone who is highly competent at their work is inspiring. As leaders, we must invest more to find, support, and develop these high performers.
First-Time Manager #7—Beware Attempting to Fix a Difficult Employee
Your good intentions to help that difficult employee change can lead to a major misfire on your part. Recognize that it is not your job to fix a difficult employee, but rather to provide the tools, environment, timeline and accountability for the individual to change. The results are up to the individual and the implications of failure must be clear.