The Leadership Caffeine Blog

Explore by Category:

Friday Leadership Ideas to Help You Finish Strong for June 26, 2015

Every week I share a few ideas to help you finish strong. A great ending sets the stage for success next week. For this week, I’m offering a reminder to follow-through or follow-up on the professional development activities of your team members and I suggest a fun way to stimulate ideas and discussions around topics that matter. Enjoy and use them in great professional health!

read more

Ideas for Professional Growth—Week of June 21, 2015

Every week, I provide a few simple (but not simplistic) ideas for you to Do/Experiment/Explore in support of your professional development. This week’s focus is on energizing team meetings, moving forward with an overdue difficult discussion and gleaning lessons from the great age of polar exploration. Enjoy!

read more

Friday Leadership Ideas—2 to Help You Finish Strong for June 19, 2015

Every week, I share a few ideas to help you finish strong. A great ending to your work week helps set the stage for success next Monday. For this week, I’m encouraging you to focus on assessing “what worked” and also offering an idea for you to strengthen your team’s ability to connect developments in our world to what they might mean for your firm or your customers. Enjoy!

read more

Manage How You are Perceived or Someone Else Will

As much as we would like to believe that good work is always rewarded, that’s a naive view of the realities of organizational life. You need to understand how others perceive you and focus on adjusting your behaviors to ensure that the perceptions are positive and not limiting. Here are 5 lessons on the dangers of ignoring how you are perceived from a very real case:

read more

MBA Class of 2015—It’s Time to Rededicate to Learning

(This post originally appeared at the Management Excellence Blog by Art Petty.) Every year I offer my heartfelt encouragement to the many newly minted MBA students leaving their classrooms and cohorts behind at graduation. In prior years, my “Congratulations! Now What?” post was intended to offer some transition guidance for leveraging the degree. For this year, I’m emphasizing the need for new graduates to retain their hunger for learning and shift their efforts to regular and far-reaching exploration of the ideas changing our world.

read more

Just One Thing—Push Beyond “M” for Mediocrity

(Note: this post originally appeared at the Management Excellence blog, copyright 2015 Art Petty.) Why do we fail with our initiatives (projects, strategy, leadership) in the workplace so regularly when the causes of failure are well documented and the practices to minimize the chances of failure so well identified?

read more

Level-Up™#4—Six Lessons to Help Grow Your Power at Work

(Note: this post originally appeared at the Management Excellence blog copyright 2015 Art Petty) Ask and answer a simple question: “How did the three most powerful people in your firm (without a “C” in their titles) arrive at their current positions?” The answer to this question contains some key lessons for you in your own quest to enhance your career and gain more control of your work. Here are six lessons…

read more

It’s Your Career—Priceless Perspectives of Experience

I’ve talked to many 40 and 50-something professionals on how their perspectives and attitudes on personal and career issues have changed over time. Their insights are instructive and inspirational. Enjoy! (note: this post originally appeared at the Management Excellence blog. Copyright 2015 Art Petty.)

read more

It’s Your Career—Strengthening Your Perceptual Acuity

From Art Petty, writing at the Management Excellence blog: The ability to see around corners or, see over the horizon, are two phrases that relate directly to the idea of perceptual acuity. While we’re barred by physical faculties from literally achieving those feats of optical gymnastics, as professionals, we are accountable for attempting to translate the external noise from our customers, our competitors, the new developments in technology and the many other forces propelling our world and our industries and then making decisions to either exploit opportunities or mitigate risks. Those who do this successfully…great strategists, product managers, management teams, entrepreneurs and innovators of all kinds, strive to see patterns and opportunities where the rest of us might see randomness. Here are 5 ideas to help you strengthen your professional acuity:

read more

Just One Thing—Quit Playing Down to Their Level

Good competition raises the level of performance for all involved. Whether in athletic endeavors or business, a skilled, aggressive competitor forces us to raise the quality of our own game. Strenuous competition with aggressive, skilled performers tests us physically and mentally and helps us find that extra gear needed to perform at our best. Annoyingly, the opposite also seems to hold true.

read more

Subscribe for Art’s Latest Insights