The Leadership Caffeine Blog
It’s Time to Get Rid of S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Here’s Why & How
Sorry, S.M.A.R.T. Goals, But Your Day is Over OK, a confession: I wanted to title this article something like "Why Your S.M.A.R.T. Goals are Dumb, but my topic is a bit more expansive than just my disdain for that all-too-present and limiting corporate approach to...
It’s Time to Get Rid of S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Here’s Why & How
Goals are critically important in our personal and professional growth. They push us to learn, grow, and strive. We change our lives by aspiring for big goals. We motivate ourselves and our team members with properly developed, challenging goals. And we change the vector and fate of organizations through the proper use of goals. The operative phrase is “the proper use of goals.”
Few Do-Overs in Leadership, Instead, Do-Different
Unfortunately, do-overs in leadership are rare. Instead, work on rebuilding your leadership foundation mid-flight by using these three big ideas with your team.
Harnessing the Benefits of Physical Transformation for Career Reinvention
There’s a well-known mind-body connection when it comes to exercise. The hard work of career reinvention is helped considerably when you commit to a parallel activity of physical transformation
It’s Manager and Leader—Developing the Whole Professional
There’s no doubt leadership development is important. However, top leaders in successful organizations understand they owe much of their success to great managers who make their firms go and grow. They also understand the connectivity between leader and manager and they focus on developing the whole professional.
Escaping the Career Trap—Give Yourself Permission to Reinvent
For many mid-to-late career professionals, the lure of doing something different is strong. Unfortunately, the barriers in our minds are often stronger. A critical success factor is giving yourself permission to reinvent your career. Once you eliminate this hurdle, the process is navigable.
High Performance Accelerator Program from Art Petty
Filled with practical ideas and approaches to strengthen your performance as a manager, better support your team and drive results, High Performance Accelerator for Managers (live-online + mentoring) is a great next step for your professional development.
Three Lenses of Awareness to Help You Identify Emerging Leaders
Too often, the identification of emerging leaders in an organization is done haphazardly or not at all. The Three Lenses approach give you and your fellow managers a consistent framework for observing, coaching, and assessing emerging leaders on your team.
11 Principles of Positive Persuasion for Workplace Conversations
Any conversation at work where you are asking someone for something is a form of negotiation. Effective managers and leaders use the principles of positive persuasion to get what they need and strengthen relationships in the process.
Leadership Caffeine™—Lead Differently
In our development of leaders, we focus on imprinting them with the same (important) but limiting behaviors. In today’s world of change, it’s essential for us to break this mold and work harder at developing and supporting individuals who lead differently.
Fear, Self-Confidence, and Challenging Conversations
Real progress in the workplace occurs through challenging conversations. Unfortunately, fear and a lack of self-confidence often get in the way of us conducting these conversations. Here are 4 steps to help quell your fear and grow your self-confidence.









