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Leadership Caffeine™: 9 Ideas to Help You Jump the Gap Between Failure and Success

Jul 11, 2011

People and teams fail on their way to success all of the time. That’s great. That’s how it’s supposed to work. The people and groups I struggle with are those who just fail. Often, the gap between failure and success appears wide, deep and ominous. This perceived gap keeps people frozen in place for a long while and then as time passes, fear turns to regret. Here are 9 ideas to help you jump the gap from failure to success.

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7 Tips for Nailing Your Presentation to the Board of Directors

Jun 22, 2011

While some people view an invitation to present to the Board of Directors as a prison sentence (or worse), this truly can be a career enhancing opportunity. However, like any challenging situation, preparation and attitude are keys to success. Here are 7 tips to help ease your anxiety and ensure you stay focused on delivering a great presentation.

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Leadership Caffeine™: 4 Ideas for Navigating Organizational Politics

Jun 20, 2011

Much like the notion of “pursuing power,” the idea of “playing politics” conjures up dirty images of questionable behind-the-scenes machinations and a vision of toes or faces being stepped on by those engaged in a series of less than noble games. And while those environments exist, it’s been my experience that the political environment in most firms is a bit more collegial than the television-type drama we often associate with organizational politics. Having said that, don’t confuse collegial with noble or even nice.

It’s important for all of us to tune-in to the political environment of our organizations and learn the unwritten rules of success. The four ideas below were prompted by my observations while running a long-term project inside a very successful and aggressive large company.

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Leadership Caffeine™-Need Market Insight? Ride with a Sales Rep and Learn

Jun 13, 2011

I had just been hired on in a senior strategic marketing role in an industry new to me, and job one was acclimating to the market and industry dynamics and trying to understand what a customer looked like in this world. After the obligatory round of meetings with company executives, division heads and as many of their team members as I could convince to allocate some time, I recognized that the context, while appreciated, lacked the depth you can only gain from connecting with customers and industry players on their home turf. No rocket science here, just good common sense. Here are 5 valuable lessons I learned through the eyes and windshields of some top sales representatives.

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Three Great Hiring Habits I Learned from a Remarkable Manager

Jun 9, 2011

One mis-hire can poison the workplace pond, tarnish your reputation and impact your team’s/firm’s ability to execute. Do this a few times and your mistakes will likely knock you out of the hiring game and potentially into the cozy confines of today’s crowded unemployment lines. Unfortunately, the average manager isn’t very good at assessing talent and making the right call. Here are three great hiring habits I learned from a remarkable sales manager:

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“I finished my MBA. What’s Next?” A Few Do’s and Don’ts for New MBAs

Jun 3, 2011

All over the U.S., there’s a fresh new crop of MBA graduates leaving behind their books and case studies, and in some cases, preparing to rediscover their families after several years of their noses buried in books and their fingers glued to their keyboards. A key question on their minds is, “What’s next?” Here are seven ideas for freshly minted MBA as they navigate the end of one career journey and the beginning of the next.

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Hold It! Don’t Accept that Job Offer Until You Consider These 5 Points

Jun 1, 2011

A good friend brought me up to speed on her career challenges recently, and after listening and empathizing with the unfortunate events that led to the recent job loss, I asked her what she had learned in the process. Her response included some good nuggets of hard-earned wisdom that we can all benefit from. Here are 5 points to consider before jumping In to that cool new job:

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Dispatches from Mayo: “It’s a Privilege to Work Here”

May 28, 2011

There’s no doubt one of the most significant challenges any service organization faces is how to sustain excellence in service delivery over long periods of time. After all, service organizations live or die based on the passion and commitment of the people providing the service. Once the passion goes, the service trends to the ordinary. Or worse.

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The Millennial View: Fixing Our Shortcomings

May 13, 2011

Eric Rodriguez is the voice of The Millennial View here at Management Excellence. His periodic posts offer insights from early career professionals seeking to navigate their way through this challenging world. Today’s post encourages all of us, regardless of generation, to renew our commitment to overcoming the weaknesses that keep us from reaching our personal and professional goals.

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Leadership Caffeine™: Six Low-Cost Ideas to Stimulate Global Awareness

May 9, 2011

I continue my own I-Biz studies outside of the classroom as I pursue my avocation as a Management and Leadership Anthropologist. In this case, my focus is on understanding how well prepared firms and managers are to enter and compete successfully on a global stage. My quick-take: for a good number, it’s important to focus on the basics. (Translation: there’s a lot of learning required to reach a reasonable level of knowledge.) While most of us have mastered the art and science of consuming products from around the globe, many firms and managers are well served to work on some fundamentals.Here are six low-cost ideas to help stimulate global discussion and understanding in your firm:

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