The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Strengthen Your Effectiveness as a Manager with a 12-Item Daily Checklist
Checklists are a Universal Quality and Safety Tool I love checklists. Airline pilots use them. Surgeons, nurses, safety professionals, quality engineers, and individuals in every high-stakes profession use them. Thank goodness. What checklists do managers employ to...
Strengthen Your Effectiveness as a Manager with a 12-Item Daily Checklist
I love checklists. Airline pilots use them. Surgeons, nurses, safety professionals, quality engineers, and individuals in every high-stakes profession use them. Thank goodness. But what about managers? What’s on your checklist?
Leadership and Management Lessons from Chris
The Chris Christie bridge scandal offers a few too many leadership and management lessons to pass up without a few observations. Here are 7 that jump to mind:
Leadership Caffeine™: The Leader and Constancy of Purpose
Deming’s idea of Constancy of Purpose strikes me as perhaps the best way I’ve heard to describe that intangible but palpable drive that propels the most effective individuals and the most successful organizations. From long observation, this unyielding focus is often missing in our workplaces and in the behaviors of those in roles of leadership. Here are 4 ideas to promote focus and cultivate constancy of purpose on your team or in your organization:
New Leader Tuesday: Teaching is More Powerful than Criticizing
Confession time. I started by titling this post, “Even Experienced Leaders Make Rookie Mistakes,” because I’m the culprit here. I recently committed the classic gaffe of assuming that I had reasonably set expectations for performance around a set of fast moving, first-time activities. When the results didn’t meet my very clear (to me) expectations, I became a bit agitated until it dawned on me that I owned this issue.
From the Archives: 5 Priceless Lessons from Amundsen and Scott
In preparation for an upcoming presentation, I’ve become a bit obsessed with studying the 1910 expeditions and race between Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott to 90-degrees South (the South Pole). The lessons for leaders and managers practically leap off the pages of this classic example of coping with risk, uncertainty and volatility. Here are 5 of the more noteworthy lessons gained from this jour
Looking Ahead: Changes at the Management Excellence Blog in 2014
Fresh off the heels of running my annual post on the need for leaders to eschew annual resolutions in favor of a continuous refresh, I’m contradicting myself just a bit with my “blogging resolutions” for the year. I like the idea of making the goals public. Nothing like visibility to promote accountability! Here are 5 resolutions I’m making for strengthening the Management Excellence blog in the upcoming year:
Best of Leadership Caffeine™: A Leader’s Resolutions are Calendar Blind
I’m as guilty as the next person of finding the impending resetting of the calendar a cathartic cleansing, where the failures of the past year are suddenly washed away and replaced by the empty and unknown space filled with promise and time stretching out in front of us. However, if you are motivated to serve as an effective leader, you cannot afford to fall victim to the boom and bust cycle of annual resolutions. Here are six key questions to arm you with critical insights about your own performance and to help you resolve to improve your performance daily:
A Leadership Lesson from Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge offers some timeless advice for leaders of all levels during his journey of reclamation in Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol:
Guest Post: Inside the Mind of an Ethical Leader
Ethical expectations are continuing to increase as we know more about the impact of our choices on others and the planet. As leaders, we have to stay sharp, not just in terms of best leadership practices, but also in terms of our ethical competence. Guest author, Linda Fisher Thornton shares her thoughts on the mind of an ethical leader and offers guidance for all of us on the 5 levels of ethical competence:
Hug a Front Line Leader Today and They’ll Hug Your Customers
it’s critical to regularly show your appreciation for the individuals operating at the front who translate all of the lofty ideas from corporate into activities that serve and please customers. 5 Big Reasons why Great Front Line Leaders are Priceless: