The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Fixing the Fatal Flaw in New Manager Development
There's a great deal we don't get right in our organization when developing our first-time managers. We under-appreciate the complexity of the transition from contributor to manager. In many environments, "sink or swim" is still the predominant development approach...
Fixing the Fatal Flaw in New Manager Development
There’s a great deal we don’t get right in our organization when developing our first-time managers. Peel the layers of the onion and ultimately, you find a fatal flaw in the nature of the promoting manager to new manager relationship. Here are some ideas to fix that flaw:
New Saturday Feature-Examples in Effective Top Leadership
One of the thoughts that jumped to mind as I followed the discussion on top leader quality was the fact that I’ve truly enjoyed the opportunity to learn from some remarkable executives during my corporate career. While the lousy leaders make great blog copy, the great leaders are the ones that shape our own perspectives and practices. As part of my small token of gratitude to these fantastic individuals, I’ll spend what I hope is a long string of Saturdays sharing the lessons learned one leader at a time.
A Friday Case Study: Welcome to Rick’s World-Where the Rules Exist for Just One Reason
Note from Art: this is my first stab at what I intend to be an on-going leadership case study serial chronicling the lives and times of some rather interesting characters. Any resemblance to individuals living, dead or otherwise (?) is most likely not accidental. Welcome to Rick’s world, where the sole mission of every manager in this production facility (one of many around the country for Mega Inc.), is to minimize the crap storms from corporate and keep the colorful and all-powerful Rick safe for yet another year.
Leading in the Trenches-What Do You Do? And No One Buys Gobbeldy Gook
OK, this might seem like an odd one, but ask most people what they do and what do you get? “I’m an accountant,” or, “I work in marketing/customer service/support” etc. Attend a business-networking event and listen to the introductions. “We’re a leader in…” or, “We make…” or, “We’re a software company… .” Boring. Hard to stimulate interest with an answer that makes someone want to reach for the bacon-wrapped water chestnut and shout, “Next!”
Leadership Caffeine™-Be the Example
I recently found myself as a guest speaker in a good-natured discussion with my audience about the challenges that mid-level managers face in trying to facilitate positive culture change while working in a toxic or at least a less than ideal work environment. I opt for the affirmative in this debate, and often find myself arguing the minority opinion. I absolutely have strong convictions about the ability of one individual or a small group of individuals to catalyze positive environmental change in the most challenging of environments.
Two-Dimensional Leader Disease
Just when you think you can’t take on one more concern, you’ve heard about two new illnesses from the Center for Leadership Disease Control here at Management Excellence. A few weeks ago, you were shocked to learn of the longstanding but freshly named malady, Tired Leader Syndrome. Adding fuel to the fire was the recent announcement here at the Center for Leadership Disease and Control at Management Excellence, that researchers have finally isolated the causes of a long-standing leadership wasting disease. This heretofore unnamed but common set of symptoms is now called Two-Dimensional Leadership Disease or TDLD for short.
Guest Post-More Leadership Lessons Learned the Wrong Way
Note from Art: It’s always fun when a post strikes a chord and compels someone to comment or even put hands to keyboard and crank out a guest post. Last week’s “Leadership Lessons Learned In a Crane and Sitting on a 5 Gallon Pail” drew upon some of my own early career memories and the formative lessons learned the hard way and served as inspiration for some interesting comments and today’s guest post.
Joe Zurawski is back with us today serving up a nice post on one of the early career experiences that shaped his own leadership development. You may recall that Joe joined us here a few months ago with his take on “Things I Wish I Knew When I Became a Leader.” Joe, welcome back and thanks for sharing!
Leadership Caffeine™-Character Forged in Defeat
Winning is great. It’s often the culmination of years of hard work, a relentless focus on condition and outstanding execution. What high school or college football coach hasn’t hung a poster in the locker or training room with Vince Lombardi’s inspirational quote: “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious”
It’s easy to lose track of the reality that most victories are forged in the emotional blast furnace of prior losses.
October Edition of Leadership Development Carnival at Leader Talk
Becky Robinson, the articulate and highly engaging author of one of my favorite blogs, Leader Talk, has posted the October edition of the always exciting and thought-provoking Leadership Development Carnival. She appropriately names this one the Endurance Edition, in part, because she received a record number of posts from the leading leadership bloggers on the planet and brought them together in one place for your reading convenience. Plan on a rousing workout as you digest some fantastic content. Oh, and she was kind enough to include one of my posts as well!
Today’s Action Item: Reinvent Self!
I know an awful lot of talented, hard-working people talking about or rehearsing for the process of reinventing their professional selves. This is the silent epidemic taking place in people over 40 that doesn’t garner the same level of attention as our anticipated flu epidemics.