The Leadership Caffeine Blog
The Culture, Strategy, and Performance Killing Spiral of Poor or No Feedback
Do These Describe Your Environment? In my programs, consulting work, and coaching, I regularly encounter these situations: Managers struggling with an employee's performance, yet they've provided little to no feedback, or their feedback was watered down to the point...
The Culture, Strategy, and Performance Killing Spiral of Poor or No Feedback
While we regularly focus on feedback as an individual performance tool, it’s also a critical communication tool for driving improvement across groups and for processes and initiatives. Yet, this important, honest communication is in short supply in too many organizations.
Leveling Up in the Face of Change is THE Issue
In a recent discussion with a potential literary agent for my book proposal for, “Level-Up—The Career Guide to Surviving and Thriving in an Era of Change,” the agent suggested that books built around the theme of “change” were unlikely to sell. That perspective is preposterous. Learning to help our organizations navigate change while constantly leveling up in our own careers is a core challenge that all of us face in our professional lives. We need more help on this, not less, regardless of the views of publishers. Here’s why…
Leadership Caffeine—Teaching Your Firm to Survive a Crisis
Crises happen and the right top leadership and organizational response is essential for survival. Unfortunately, too many of these events catch our firms and top leaders unprepared. A starting point is to adopt a standard of required behaviors in the face of a crisis. Consider these “10 Commandments for Acceptable Corporate Crisis Behaviors” as a starting point.
Project Management for the Rest of Us—Getting Started
Congratulations, you’ve been named to lead an important project initiative! Now what? While the growth in formally trained and certified project managers is accelerating, in most organizations, many of the important initiatives are led by functional managers and technical experts. If you find yourself in charge of one of these programs without a background or training in project management, this new series is intended for you. This article identifies some of the critical front-end work necessary for success and offers suggested “getting started” resources.
Why Some Lead and Others Choose Not To
We criticize our leaders easily, yet few are willing to raise their hands and pay the price that comes with a leadership role. The most effective leaders understand the costs that come with the role and are driven by a higher purpose to help others.
Leadership Caffeine—Start Coloring Outside the Lines
From our earliest days in school, we are taught to “color inside the lines.” In a world where everything is changing, this advice might just contribute to the demise of your firm or career. It’s time to push beyond the boundaries of those lines that constrain so much creativity.
Today’s Interactions are Tomorrow’s Backstories
We all have a backstory. Somewhere, at some point in time, a comment, a gesture or an action by a person in a leadership role prompted an action that would ripple through our lives. How are your behaviors helping those around you create their own backstories?
Surviving and Thriving with Your Executive Sponsor (podcast)
In this podcast, I share ideas to help the project manager frame, form and manage an effective working relationship with the executive sponsor.
Leadership Lessons from the Classroom
If you choose to pay attention to your audience in the classroom (instead of preaching at them), you gain some powerful insights for leadership practices that support growth. Here are 4 leadership lessons gained from the classroom:
Creating Meaning, Purpose, and Flow at Work
Too many of us expect our firms or bosses to supply the meaning and purpose for our work. In reality, we control our own attitudes and have the ability to frame our work in ways that bring it to life for ourselves and our colleagues. If you aren’t finding meaning in your work, it’s time to take action.