The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Wrestling with Feedback Part 2—Seven Actions to Help You Succeed
In part one of this series on succeeding with feedback, I shared the reasons and research on why we struggle with the idea and act of delivering or receiving feedback. And while it seems we're wired not to like anything that challenges our sense of self, it's too...
Wrestling with Feedback Part 2—Seven Actions to Help You Succeed
For many managers, giving and receiving feedback is challenging. However, when feedback is approached properly, it can be a powerful tool for strengthening individual and group performance. Here are seven actions you can take to succeed with feedback:
How to Improve a Dysfunctional Meeting Culture Without Removing the Chairs
This is a follow-on to my recent rave against the time-wasting, dysfunctional debating society events that masquerade as meetings in many corporate settings. My drive to momentarily stay on my “effective-meeting” soapbox was galvanized yesterday, when I spoke with a good friend who had just started a new job. Her first day coincided with an operations meeting that she described as an all day rugby scrum where everyone got bloody, but no one scored.
Leader: Are Your Meetings Straight Out of A Dilbert Comic Strip?
My observation is that only a minority of leaders (managers, supervisors, executives, project managers) understand how to properly prepare a team for and run an effective, purposeful and productive meeting. Ironically, look at the Outlook calendars of most people operating inside corporate walls, and their schedules are filled with one meeting after another. With all of these unproductive meetings to attend, who has time to work?
Why Strategy is the Leader’s Most Potent Tool
Leading is more than just being the person in charge. It’s about selecting and developing talent, providing direction and motivation, creating the effective working environment and providing consistent and timely feedback on performance. The “direction and motivation” component comes directly from the leader’s understanding of the firm’s strategic environment (market forces, competitors, customers) as well as the direction and strategies (goals/actions) that have been selected by an organization’s management. Strategy is context that gives meaning and purpose to individual roles and group activities and goals.
Coping Strategies for the Project Manager Facing an Executive Mandate on Schedule
A management team well attuned to rapidly emerging market forces might recognize an opportunity that can be leveraged for significant gain and competitive advantage if the organization acts quickly. It is management’s prerogative and responsibility to identify and motivate the organization to act and seize these opportunities, even at the expense of order and business as usual.
Training for the Swimming Leg of the Leadership Triathlon
Feedback is the leadership triathlon equivalent of the swimming leg. Everyone knows that it is the difference maker in overall performance, but because it’s hard, uncomfortable and easy to flounder with, many choose to de-emphasize or even ignore it.
Read Any Good Cultures Lately? Honing an Essential Career Skill.
Every organization has a distinct culture defined by its history, norms, values, and behaviors, and every team in an organization develops its own subculture. Learning to read a culture and adapt your style to fit (or at least complement it) is essential to success regardless of your level or role. It’s also something that can be honed as a skill through increased awareness and consistent application of a few basic approaches.
Management by Jane: Leading Effectively from the Middle
“Jane” is a senior leader exerting broad influence on an organization, while sitting smack in the middle of the organization chart. She’s a testament to the power of maintaining the right attitude on all fronts, and she clearly has learned several of the most valuable lessons of leadership: select great people, deal with them openly and honestly, provide opportunities and challenges and let them do what they do best.
Is It True That No One Likes The Project Manager?
The role of Project Manager is difficult. This is an informal leadership position—one of those with most of the responsibility and little of the authority. If a person is worried about being liked, this is a lousy choice of profession.
More Thoughtful Career Advice to Ignore on Your Path to Becoming a Sales Leader
From the same organization that brought you this enlightened sales manager and his timeless advice on how to prosper:
“The only way that you will succeed on my team is if you are married to the job,” and “The reason that I am not in any family vacation pictures is because I’m on the phone. If I’m in the picture, you can be sure I have a blackberry stuck to my ear,” is back with:
“The problem with you is that you care too much about people.”
I love this organization. There are very few other places where a simple phone call offers me a priceless quote on really bad ideas from lousy leaders.