The Leadership Caffeine Blog
How to tame your “I’m the smartest person in the room’ problem
Bottom Line Up Front: A leader's compulsion to always be the smartest person in every room not only stifles creativity but also undermines the potential of a high-performance environment. Leaders must recognize and change such behaviors. Seek feedback on how others...
How to tame your “I’m the smartest person in the room’ problem
A leader’s compulsion to always be the smartest person in every room not only stifles creativity but also undermines the potential of a high-performance environment. Here are ideas to help tame this destructive syndrome.
Leadership Caffeine™—”This Is the Way It Should Be”
Teaming and collaboration experiences happen in all walks of our professional and personal lives. Some experiences working with others are draining, others passable, and just a few are energizing and even fun and successful. You can hope these fun, productive experiences emerge by chance. Or you can be deliberate about creating the conditions that improve the possibility of a great collaboration experience. I opt for improving our odds of bringing one of these productive, fun experiences to life. Here are four ideas to help:
Challenging Conversation Sound Bite #2—Look Forward in Challenging Feedback Conversations
Preoccupying on the past in feedback conversations generates stress. Instead, focus on leveraging experiences and outcomes to design for improved effectiveness in the future.
Why You Should Maintain a Professional Journal—Twenty Prompts to Help You Get Started
Journaling is one of the most powerful continuous improvement tools we can use in our working lives, yet many are unsure of how to get started. Here’s some guidance and twenty journaling prompts to help:
Challenging Conversation Sound Bite #1—Design Your Challenging Conversations for Success
During my coaching calls with leaders at all levels, much of our time is invested in how to engage and structure the conversations to uncover value for all parties. Here are some tips to help you pre-think and design your discussions to achieve successful outcomes for all parties.
Fall 2022 Leader and Manager Professional Development Programs
It’s Back-to-Professional Development Time and I’m sharing my current Fall, 2022 calendar. If strengthening your skills as a leader or your success as a manager is on your priority list (or is a priority for your team members), please consider one of our uniquely powerful programs that blend training and coaching.
Six Leadership and Management Lessons from the Pandemic to Help Navigate the Emerging Storm
The economic weather is changing, and it feels like a storm is approaching. Possibly a big one. The question on my mind is, “Will the leadership lessons of the past few years stick?”
Leadership Reminders from My Summer Vacation as a Wedding Officiant
We write and talk about succeeding as managers and leaders in this world. We spend a lot of money on training. Your humility, commitment to creating a personal experience for everyone, and your authenticity in leading from the heart may be most of what you need to succeed in your important role.
Finding Purpose in Your Role as a Manager
How do we access the power of purpose in our role when many above and around us might not be playing with the same sense of motivation? Here are some lessons from some great managers about finding and harnessing the power of purpose in their work. Read and think about how you might put their ideas to work.
How Effective Leaders Help Their Teams Turn Ideas Into Actions
Ideas are oxygen for problem-solving. Yet, all the ideas in the world won’t help you solve the challenges in front of you if you don’t have solid ideas-to-actions flow. As leaders, we need to complete the process and make sure there’s a robust Ideas-to-Actions machine operating on our teams and in our organizations. Here are approaches to help strengthen the flow of ideas into actions in your workplace: