The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Designing A Bug-Free Operating System for Great Managers
Rethinking the Operating System Needed for Manager Success Late last year, I shared an article at SmartBrief on Leadership, introducing the idea of the Manager's Operating System—a set of core programs or instructions that must be present to create a healthy working...
Designing A Bug-Free Operating System for Great Managers
Rethinking the Operating System Needed for Manager Success Late last year, I shared an article at SmartBrief on Leadership, introducing the idea of the Manager's Operating System—a set of core programs or instructions that must be present to create a healthy working...
Art’s Leadership & Management Writing for the Week Ending 1/2/16
Every week I publish posts at the Management Excellence blog (Leadership Caffeine and others) and also at the Management & Leadership site at About.com. Here’s a quick recap list with links:
The Inner Game of Leading and Your New Year’s Resolutions
In a world characterized by change, uncertainty and overload, the context for effective leadership is dramatically different today than a few mere decades ago. Leaders must adapt and importantly, today’s leaders must provide that extra layer of support needed by team members to allow them to work at their best amidst the noise. Annual resolutions aren’t enough. Here are 4 ideas to help you refresh and reset on your leadership role every day:
Leadership Caffeine™—Aligning Your Efforts to Results Ratio
If you’ve ever worked incredibly hard only to have something run off the rails or just not generate the results you were after, you understand what an imbalance in the Efforts-to-Results ratio feels like. Here are some thoughts on aligning this equation in your favor:
Just One Thing—Captain Obvious and The Fresh Start Effect
I’m not certain we needed a research study to prove that we naturally appreciate fresh-starts, nonetheless, now we have one…
Yahoo Misfires—Don’t Let this Happen to Your Firm
Yahoo—a name left over from the boom and bust period of the dot.com world—has somehow managed to limp along in a world where many struggle to understand its value proposition. According to a recent article in Forbes, the exodus of talent and the frustration found in much of the remaining workforce has much to do with the lack of clarity around strategy and direction.
Art of Managing—Avoid Strategy Malpractice with a Proper Diagnosis
If you’ve ever dealt with a complex medical issue, you understand how difficult it sometimes is to identify the real problem. Yet, pinpointing this problem is essential to developing the best possible treatment regimen. It can be a matter of life or death. The same holds true in business, where it’s essential to put time and efforts into developing an effective diagnosis of your firm’s situation:
Leadership Caffeine™—It’s Time to Become Better Informed Leadership Consumers
There’s a lot of happy talk in books, on blogs and in articles about leaders and leading. Much of the writing and commentary on leadership and leading reads like a Made-for-TV script with much of the gory and dirty content left out and the outcome predictable—the good guys always win. It’s disconnected from reality. What’s needed is a revolution in how we as consumers of leadership evaluate and select our leaders.
Just One Thing—Dream Big and Then Fight Like Heck
Our goals and big dreams often are rudely shoved out of the way in favor of the urgent issues of life as well as those activities we deem more easily achievable. Some are abandoned due to the mirage of size and complexity. “It’s too big for me to accomplish.” Or, “I’m not sure how I would even get started.” We make excuses for ourselves, mostly, because we don’t know how to fight what author Steven Pressfield calls resistance.
The Next Act—Saying “Goodbye” to Corporate Life
If you’ve decided it’s time for something new in your professional life, and if that something new goes beyond a simple job change to a vocation change, it pays to be prepared. You’ll be balancing simultaneous equations that include: reinventing yourself and your skills; starting up and building a client base or book of business, and navigating an emotional roller coaster with some high-highs, step drops and the occasional corkscrew that will find you momentarily upside down and disoriented.