The Leadership Caffeine Blog
A Simple, Powerful Fix for Feedback Problems on Your Team
Feedback is Confusing to Get Right Of all the challenges managers at all levels face, delivering constructive (and even positive) feedback is near the top of the list. There's good reason—it's a confusing topic that even the experts who study human psychology and...
A Simple, Powerful Fix for Feedback Problems on Your Team
Of all the challenges managers at all levels face, delivering constructive (and even positive) feedback is near the top of the list. There’s good reason—it’s a confusing topic that even the experts who study human psychology and neuroscience disagree on, despite mountains of research. Here are four ideas to help strengthen your feedback culture and effectiveness.
Cultivating A Constructive Response to Momentary Failure
The most successful people I’ve worked with are incredibly adept at navigating those moments of mental devastation we call failure. For anyone striving to achieve something big, great or new, failure is an inevitable part of the process of striving for success. It’s part of learning and growing and while it hurts momentarily, successful professionals process the experience in a very different fashion than those who are more easily derailed. Here are 5 constructive responses to navigating a momentary setback:
Ideas for Professional and Performance Growth for the Week of August 2, 2015
Every week I offer ideas to encourage you to stretch and grow with my ideas for Do/Experiment/Explore. For this week, I offer ideas on strengthening team performance, leveraging your operations meetings to promote managerial skills development and learning to mess with your competitors just enough to keep them off balance. Use them in great professional health!
Friday Leadership Ideas to Help You Finish Strong for July 31, 2015
Every week I share a few ideas to help you finish strong. For this week, I offer ideas on mixing up your routine to spark energy, gaining much needed marketplace context and planning for success in the new month.
Art of Managing—5 Big Lessons Learned from My Hiring Mistakes
Over an extended career, you will make more than one hiring mistake. I guarantee it. No hiring manager escapes unscathed in this process. While a misfire is inevitable, this painful mistake (for you, your firm and the hire) is packed with some powerful life and career lessons. Here are 5 big lessons I’ve learned the hard way:
Leadership Caffeine™—Resist the Urge to Shield Your Team from Bad News
In difficult situations, reality tinged with optimism and backed by encouragement serves as a more effective motivator than a saccharine-sweet message of false praise and manufactured positivity.
Friday Leadership Ideas to Help You Finish Strong for July 24, 2015
Every week I share a few ideas to help you finish strong. A great ending sets the stage for success next week. This week’s suggestions include rethinking your approach to initiative post-mortem meetings and getting into gear on your own professional development.
Ideas for Professional Growth for the Week of July 19, 2015
Every week I offer ideas to encourage you to stretch and grow. For this week, my suggestions include volunteering to solve a vexing problem, experimenting with assignment rotation and taking your team on a field trip. Use them in great professional health!
Friday Leadership Ideas to Help You Finish Strong for July 17, 2015
Every week I offer ideas to help you finish on a high note. Use the ideas to finish strong and set the stage for success heading into the new week. For today, I offer encouragement on purging unfounded criticism from the space it rents in your mind, and I’m reminding you to show appreciation for your team members during the journey. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
It’s Your Career—Try Reframing the Problems to Stimulate Success
How we frame a situation guides our development of options and biases our decisions. In my coaching work, framing is almost always an issue with under-performing professionals. Here are five common situations that can benefit from some active, personal reframing.