The Leadership Caffeine Blog
It Takes Leadership Courage to Kick Conventional Wisdom to the Curb
The Situation: The candidates were very different. One was the textbook choice—great pedigree, including top schools and a nice progression of assignments for name-brand firms. The other individual didn’t match up well on paper. The assignments for the other candidate...
It Takes Leadership Courage to Kick Conventional Wisdom to the Curb
Resilience, according to one dictionary definition, is the capacity to absorb a shock or a punch and return quickly to original form.
Life and business are filled with shocks and punches. We’ve lived this story for the past few years. And the shocks and punches keep coming, just in different forms and from unexpected places. It takes resilience and leadership courage to absorb the hits and come out stronger.
Fight Inertia
Recognizing the need to change something in your life or career is an essential first step. Breaking the bonds of the inertial forces that keep you tethered to the status quo is the hard part.
Legacy Beliefs—The Ties that Bind
Legacy beliefs exert a powerful force in our organizations and in our own lives. When those beliefs no longer match the external reality, our personal and business strategies come crashing down. Yet some leaders and professionals find a way to break away from the ties that bind.
Leadership Caffeine™ for the Project Manager eBook Now Available!
I am excited to announce the launch of my latest book: Leadership Caffeine for the Project Manager (and anyone responsible for leading teams, groups or committees). This e-book only offering is available at Amazon, Apple and Barnes and Noble or at my site. And every purchaser is entitled to a free download copy of my supporting workbook: Power Tools for Project Managers. Use the ideas and approaches in great project, career and team development health!
Sometimes Leading Means Eating Culture for Lunch
There’s a stark contrast between caretaker leaders focused on the status quo and leaders who lead in the face of adversity and the need to change. The latter use the firm’s culture as a tool to enable change. They also draw upon these 11 key behaviors:
10 Do’s and Don’ts for the Executive Sponsor
I fumbled through my first go-round as executive sponsor on a project team. Fortunately, a great project manager compensated for my poor performance. Fortunately, some follow-on experiences challenged me to take the role seriously. It turns out, the executive sponsor role is incredibly important to strategic project success. This article shares 10 Do’s and Don’ts for anyone stepping into the position.
New Website Launched—New Project Leadership Book Soon!
A number of long-term projects are coming to market in my world, including an all new ground-up website and the forthcoming book and related tools: Leadership Caffeine for the Project Manager. Of course, none of this is possible without the input of clients and readers and the great support from some valued allies!
Who Is Controlling Your Professional Brand?
This post points to a recent article I published at The Balance, focusing on personal-professional brand management.
Leadership Caffeine™—Spotting Leadership Potential
Identifying individuals with leadership potential remains an imperfect process in most organizations. While we have tools and models and assessments to help, experienced talent scouts rely on their own well-honed senses as they strive to identify potential future leaders. This article shares some highlights from a recent group interview on this topic.
Working with the Enemy—5 Approaches for Navigating Difficult Relationships
It is a fact of life that we will not like everyone we work with and not everyone will like us. While workplace feuds are commonplace, effective and opportunistic professionals strive to navigate those situations in the best interests of their firms and careers. This article offers five strategies for helping you navigate awkward workplace relationships.