The point in time when you step into a new leadership role is simultaneously exciting and uncomfortable. Your start-up as the new boss is the early-awkward phase for everyone involved. Here are six steps to help you start strong with your new team:
The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Help Aspiring Managers Explore and Experiment Before Leaping into the Role
Moving from contributor to manager is one of the most awkward transitions a person will undertake in their working life. It’s an unnatural act, where you take almost everything you know about success in your day job and push it over into the “Never Mind” column.Instead of perpetuating the “hope” approach to identifying and developing new managers, try my favorite question, “Why manage?” three times, backed by some exploration and experimentation.
Gray-Zone Leadership—A Powerful Formula for Career Success
It turns out, learning to spot and seize gray-zone opportunities is a spectacularly great way to get ahead in your career.
Leadership Caffeine™—Here’s Where You Should Slow Down to Move Faster
It’s easy to swallow the dogma that has emerged around the “Cult of Speed” in our management thinking and teaching. Yet, the pursuit of speed in poorly designed systems exposes weaknesses and often precipitates project, strategy, and even organizational failure. Said simply, raw speed kills. Sometimes you have to tap the brakes and slow down to ultimately move faster.
Love the Role of Manager: Six Big Reasons
There’s a reason I devote on average one-day per working week to supporting the development of new managers in my practice. It’s important. And while I spend a good deal of time highlighting the challenges of the role, there are at least six big reasons why you might love this role.
4 Ideas to Help Improve First Time Manager Selection and Success
If you are either considering the move from contributor to a manager or you are responsible for developing new managers on your team, here are four actions you can take to improve your odds of success.
Our Early 2021 Professional and Career Development Programs
We create programs to help people achieve things they never thought possible in their careers. From first-time managers to senior executives, career reinventors, people navigating challenging conversations, or individuals working to level up, we strive to bring this purpose to life in everything we do.
Ten Lessons from the Feedback Boot Camps
Here are ten lessons that emerged from the great dialog in my two recent Feedback Boot Camp workshops.
Just Announced! What You Need to Know Day One as a First Time Manager
If you are thinking of making the move to managing (or, if you have a team member considering this move), What You Need to Know Before Day One as a New Manager is a must-attend!
Leadership Caffeine™—A Haunting Tale of Critical Conversations Left Unspoken
Here’s what happens when my long-standing fear of the “conversations never spoken” in the workplace collides with a fresh viewing of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. With my sincere apologies to Charles Dickens, enjoy this fun piece with a point. –Art










