The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Leadership Caffeine™—Good Managers Observe The Characters, Not Just the Action
I love movies and books that are more about the characters and less about the action. I’m addicted to character study so much that when presented with the opportunity to watch an action movie (where character development is typically shallow) or do something tedious...
Leadership Caffeine™—Good Managers Observe The Characters, Not Just the Action
The best managers are devoted students of the art of character study—not out of some desire to play armchair psychologist, but rather out of the desire to help.
It’s Your Career—A Guide to Becoming a Better Employee
It’sYourCareerWhile guidance on developing as a leader is plentiful…perhaps in over abundance, there’s relatively little in the daily flow of business and management writing devoted to developing as an effective employee. For just a few minutes, let’s turn the world of leadership and management advice upside down and take on the perspective of the boss and what she’s looking for from you as a member of her team. Here are 10 things the boss is looking for from effective employees:
Leadership Caffeine™—Experiment More and Prosper
In many environments, it seems that we’ve routinized creativity in leading and managing key activities and developing talent right into oblivion. It’s death (or at least plodding slow performance) by routine.
Just One Thing—Leader: To Thine Own Self Be True
I was struck by the simplicity and power of an observation from one of the (early career) participants in a recent leadership program of mine. After studying different styles and approaches and examples of leaders, he indicated that he was walking away from the program with a sense that there was no one style he was required to emulate on his path to leadership success.
New Leader Tuesday—The Feedback Series, Part 3: The Ingredients
Welcome to part 3 of The Feedback Series at Management Excellence. In part 1, we tackled the issues of fear and anxiety that keeps so many new leaders from engaging in or conducting effective feedback discussions. Part 2 emphasized the importance of assessing the feedback situation and establishing a direction for the upcoming discussion. Now, it’s time to understand and begin assembling the key ingredients in every feedback discussion.
Leadership Caffeine™—How Effective Leaders Use the Personal Pronoun “I”
Few words in the leader’s lexicon are simultaneously as powerful for building credibility and as potentially lethal for destroying credibility as the personal pronoun “I.” It works great in front of any statement where you are taking responsibility for actions or outcomes. However, place too many “I’s” in conversations that sound like, I want, I expect, I know, I did, I was right etc…and the term begins to jump out into the immediate environment with a loud bang every time it’s uttered.
New Leader Tuesday—The Feedback Series, Part 2: Classifying the Feedback Situation
While feedback is best served warm (as close to the behavioral occurrence as possible), a few quality minutes of proper preparation will dramatically improve both your confidence for engaging in the discussion and your ability to conduct a high quality discussion. An important first step after observing the positive or negative behavior is to develop an understanding of the nature of the situation and to assess the right approach to support the behavioral improvement.
Leadership Caffeine™—When a Leader Needs to Take a Break
From time to time, the hard work of being responsible for the work of others grows tiring. While much of the literature paints a picture that makes leadership sound like a calling (and for some it is), for many in roles of responsibility for teams and groups, the position was an accident, a means to advancement or something that seemed interesting at the time. Whether your issue is one of leadership fatigue or, you’re gut is telling you to stop the bus because you want to get off, it’s important to pause every once in awhile, assess your situation and either find a way to refresh and recharge, or, find a way to get off at the next stop.
New Leader Tuesday—The Feedback Series, Part 1: Moving Beyond Fear and Anxiety
Over the next few “New Leader Tuesday” posts, I will share ideas and approaches to help first-time or early career leaders navigate those initial feedback and performance discussions. The goal of the series is to help you get started with feedback early in your tenure, well-armed with good habits. Part 1 focuses on debunking the myths that keep so many managers from tackling these important discussions with their team members.
Art of Managing—The Tough Questions that Great Managers Constantly Ask Themselves
It’s all too easy to let ourselves off the hook for the performance of our teams and team members. Here are 9 sets of truly stark-naked, challenging questions that every manager must hold himself or herself accountable to asking and answering: