Instead of worrying about career planning, treat your professional work as a series of adventures and explorations, and prepare accordingly.
The Leadership Caffeine Blog
Leadership Caffeine™—You Decide
I hate learning about interesting leaders once they are gone. The same goes for remarkable musicians, except the musician’s output lingers, potentially inspiring new generations. The leader’s wisdom fades along with those they touched directly. Here’s some wisdom worth passing on via your own actions:
Two New Mentoring Programs for First-Time Managers
The transition from contributor to manager is awkward, clumsy, and filled with potential pitfalls. My two new First-Time Manager mentoring programs are designed to help ease the transition and increase the odds of success.
Uncover Your Backstory to Supercharge Your Professional Purpose
It turns out, a good part of success is tuning in to our true purpose and mission. It’s a lofty or squishy sounding topic that is made tangible if we spend some time uncovering our unique backstories. The events that have shaped us as humans give life and purpose to us as professionals.
Focus on First-Time Managers #1: Getting Started
Starting out successfully as a new manager is challenging. However, there’s one thing you can do to improve your odds of success from the first moment of your new role. Invest time to…
Learning to See Ambiguity as Opportunity (video)
We’re taught from an early age in school what we need to do to earn the “A.” Unfortunately, the real world isn’t that structured, predictable, or kind. Learning to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty in business is essential for survival. Learning to leverage these characteristics is essential for success.
Revisiting What It Takes to Become You at Your Best
Letting go of the past is frightening but almost always necessary for growth. However, one part of our past is worthy of retaining and reigniting: the dreams of our youth. Somewhere in those dreams were clues to our true purpose and the potential for us to be at our best. Instead of letting go, reel the thin line that still connects you to that dream and explore how you can bring it to life. Letting go in other areas is an important part of this process.
New Program Helps Drive Big Outcomes with Small Changes
Large scale organizational transformations often create more problems than they solve. That’s why my new Level-Up program focuses on identifying discrete behaviors that what adopted and reinforced, offer the potential to drive big results.
How to Set the Stage for a Great Day at Work (video)
A few years ago, I learned an invaluable lesson from a workshop group on how to set the stage for a great day at work. Enjoy and use it in great health!
Leadership Mistakes are the Foundation of Our Success
No one serves in a leadership role without making mistakes. If you screw up, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep marching—a bit wiser and a lot better prepared for the next challenge. You too will build success upon a foundation of lessons learned the hard way.









