The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Leadership Caffeine™—Now is the Time to Double-Down on the Fundamentals of Effective Leadership
In the face of complexity and risk, the simplest solutions are generally the best ones. These are indeed challenging times for anyone responsible for managing and leading initiatives, teams, and functions. It might seem as if answers are hard to come by, yet, the...
Leadership Caffeine™—Now is the Time to Double-Down on the Fundamentals of Effective Leadership
In the face of complexity and risk, the simplest solutions are generally the best ones. These are indeed challenging times for anyone responsible for managing and leading initiatives, teams, and functions. It might seem as if answers are hard to come by, yet, the...
How Good Leaders Approach a Recession
While I don’t know too many business leaders that look forward to a recession, I know a few strong leaders that do a remarkable job of working through them from a “glass is half-full” perspective.
It’s not yet clear whether we are in or heading for a recession, but the topic is on the collective mind of people in the U.S. and around the world. If we are heading for recession, the right attitude and the right actions on your part will help your firm weather the storm and even prosper during or shortly after any period of business contraction.
A Dozen Interviews, Two Job Offers and Not One Discussion About Leadership.
A good friend that knows my passion for all things leadership, recently switched jobs and offered some comments on the nature of his dozen or so interviews. I paraphrase:
“My leadership skills, experience or approach were not discussed during any of the interviews.”
I was shocked.
“None of the top executives that I spoke with singled out and discussed leadership or people development during discussions about their business and strategy.”
I started to get depressed.
And: “Nope, it wasn’t covered with the recruiters either.”
I had a headache.
What gives?
More Challenges for the Technical Leader-Choosing a Successor
In my posting: Leadership Development and Technical Professionals, I talked at length about the challenges of moving from an individual contributor role in a technical environment to that of leader. The combination of lack of support/mentoring afforded these early career leaders and the personal growth that it takes to recognize that the skills that got you here are not the skills you need for success going forward, make this one of the toughest and most mismanaged transitions in business.
Over coffee with a valued associate and accomplished technical professional who has moved beyond the early-awkward phase of being a new leader, we talked about a new leadership challenge that she was facing—finding her replacement.
Merger Reality-Trust Your Gut, Not the Press Release
If your company is involved in a merger, there is one certainty. Everything will change. Regardless of the carefully crafted words in the press release. (Unless of course your company is being purchased by Warren Buffett, who is famous for only buying well-running companies and leaving them alone to run well.)
During the past few days, I talked with two associates going through mergers in very different industries, and both were attempting to convince themselves that things would be fine following the merger. They both cited the “no expectations for layoffs” verbiage in the press releases announcing their deal, and both engaged in some self-rationalization about the importance and “safety” of their respective departments. My instinct was that neither individual truly believed what they were saying. They should trust their gut on this issue.
Does the Lack of A Clear Vision Mean Your Firm Is Flying Blind?
s a strategy consultant, I see clients wrestle with the exercise of creation or articulation of a “Vision” for their business on a regular basis. In some environments, the exercise of clarifying or creating a vision is motivating and galvanizing, and for others it is futility personified. My question for the day: How important is it for an organization to have a shared vision–a view as to what the future desired state of the organization will look like?
In support of the Product Manager as MVP
Few roles in B2B and technology organizations carry loftier expectations or face more challenging tasks than that of the Product Manager. This position tends to be backed by a job description with responsibilities that makes many executive roles look tame by comparison.
The right person in this important role can mean the difference between wild success and mediocre performance for the business. And while organizations commonly under-staff (both in number and in power/experience) and over-describe (expectations are excessive), it is a thing of beauty when you latch onto a professional Product Manager that understands how to build value through this role. This super-employee operating in this tough role consistently gets my vote for MVP.
Marketing versus Sales and Corporate Tribalism
With apologies for doing a poor imitation of Jerry Seinfeld, “What is it about Sales and Marketing professionals that they just can’t seem to get along?” These two functions have battled for years and I fault the leaders of both functions as well as senior management for failing to create the conditions required for collaboration and success.
Is Your Organization Strategy-Fueled or Strategy-Starved? Part One
While some organizations are consistently high performing, the gross majority of firms operate in phases ranging from excitement and growth to malaise and meandering. If you are growing and changing, that is good, but the trick is how to sustain and even improve. If you are meandering or worse, declining, the challenge is how to break out of a challenging slide.
Over the course of the next few weeks or months, I am going to develop the concept and benefits of what I describe as Strategy-Fueled Leadership. Step one in the introduction of this externally aware, results-focused approach to leading, winning in the market and developing others, is recognizing whether your own leadership style and culture are adversely impacting your organization’s performance.
Seven Key Questions for the Ambitious Aspiring Leader
The Seven Key Questions for the Ambitious Aspiring Leader are powerful conversation starters to support a manager’s leadership development activities. They are not intended to be delivered in machine-gun style, but rather to be used in concert with an approach to helping individuals discover and explore the profession of leadership. Not everyone should lead, yet someone motivated by advancement might believe that leadership is the best or only way to achieve this goal. An effective mutual discovery process is the leader’s best friend in helping identify leadership talent and in helping individuals come to their own conclusion on whether leading is a good choice for their own careers.