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How to Defuse Difficult Workplace Discussions

How to Defuse Difficult Workplace Discussions

May 16, 2013

Almost all of us get this wrong in the professional environment at some time or another. Myself included. We find ourselves in a tense situation with someone or some group who is attempting to assert a direction or insert themselves into the area we perceive as our domain, and we react by aggressively defending our position and by challenging or attacking their position. Here are five ideas to help you defuse and improve these difficult discussions:

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It’s Your Career! Now is the Time to Start Reinventing Yourself

Apr 12, 2013

When it comes to your career, the best defense is a good offense. The odds are fairly good that at some point, you will face an unexpected interruption in your employment. The issue isn’t that it happened, it’s what you do once you’re faced with this problem that is critical to your career. Here are 5 ideas to help you jump start your career reinvention now, before the old one disappears:

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New Leader Tuesday: Start Leading Before the Promotion

Apr 2, 2013

In Monday’s Leadership Caffeine post, I strongly encouraged senior managers to accelerate the pace of their leadership development activities for their high potentials. Today, it’s your turn. Quit waiting for the boss to bestow the mantle of leadership responsibility on you. Here are 5 ideas to help you gain leadership experience before the title:

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Just One Thing: Leading is Lonely Work

Mar 7, 2013

Leading is lonely work. The higher you climb on the ladder, the tougher and lonelier the decisions become. Get used to it. No one ever signed on as a senior leader because of the potential for camaraderie.

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Leadership Caffeine™: How to Survive a Sudden Promotion Into Leadership

Feb 24, 2013

One of the oddities of organizational life is the fairly frequent and sudden promotion of individuals from competent individual contributor to someone responsible for the work of others…supervisor or manager, without any visible sign of mentoring or support for the newly in-charge individual. “Congratulations…go get ‘em Tiger.” Here are 6 ideas to help you survive this challenging new assignment:

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New Leader Tuesday-Develop as a Decision Coach

Jan 29, 2013

The best leaders I’ve worked with and for are not only good decision-makers, they are effective decision-coaches. They understand the importance of teaching their teams how how to navigate the pitfalls and complexities of decision-making in pursuit of the best results for the organization. Here are 6 great habits of effective Decision-Making Coaches:

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Leadership Caffeine™-Lessons from the Wilderness

Jan 27, 2013

Instead of teaching people to work within a self-contained system where the goal is to impose order, this new world demands much more of a sense and respond style of leading. Here are 5 ideas for cultivating tolerance for adversity and uncertainty on your team:

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