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
5 roadblocks that keep too many from making a career shift—and how to defeat them
Feeling frustrated with your career situation? You're not alone. This was a tough year for many career changers and job seekers. Record job layoffs in technology and other sectors and a tilt back to employer control in the hiring process defined much of the year. For...
5 roadblocks that keep too many from making a career shift—and how to defeat them
For many who toy with the notion of a new career direction, there are roadblocks and gremlins that often keep them from moving forward. Here are five statements I’ve encountered in the past few weeks and my thoughts for moving beyond each. (Hint: you’ll hear a theme in my guidance.)
Profile: The Perfect Trio for Business Success
What do marketing services, running coaching and popcorn have in common? In the case of three young entrepreneurs, it’s all about building businesses, learning and enjoying their careers.
Quit Outsourcing the Work of Finding and Developing Talent
The hard work of finding and developing talent cannot be outsourced by the manager to other functions. Effective managers understand the connection between owning this hard work and generating team and firm success.
Podcast: David A. Brock and the Sales Manager Survival Guide
Every professional involved with sales, managing sales or managing sales professionals will enjoy this fun interview with David A. Brock, author of: Sales Manager Survival Guide–Lessons from Sales’ Front Lines. Dave’s new book and his ample advice in this podcast offer priceless guidance for success in one of the most challenging roles in our workplace.
The Executive Leader of the Future by John Blakey
The world of business requires a new, broader sense of purpose that meets the expectations of diverse, global 21st century stakeholders. The imperative and the opportunity is for organizations to reach beyond profit as the single bottom-line measure of success and embrace the triple bottom-line of great financial results, inspiring relationships and a positive reputation in society as a whole.
Leadership Caffeine™—The Book and Coming Attractions!
As we approach another anniversary of the publication of my book, Leadership Caffeine: Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, I am pleased to share some updates and coming attractions as the Leadership Caffeine family of offerings expands.
Leadership Caffeine™–Decisions and the Least Bad Option
A good number of decisions in business (and life) include choices that beg selecting the least bad option. Do we pull in that big deal with a discount incentive to dress up this quarter’s poor numbers and in the process, create a hole for the next quarter? Do we go...
Quit Telling Us We Work Too Much
The notion of work as an addiction and the need for work-life balance may be out of balance for some of us. The issue is work-life fit, and for me (and many I know) our love of our work is who we are. In fact, it’s not work.
Your Best Work…
It is natural at some point in time to wonder whether our best work is behind us. For anyone negotiating with this creeping sense of obsolescence, you face the choice to capitulate or to reinvent. One is much harder, but the end result may well be the pinnacle of your life’s work.
A Day to Remember
To those who served and preserved our freedom, thank you.



