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
Wrestling With Feedback Part 3—Conduct Feedback Discussions with Empathy and Clarity
In Part 3 of this series, the emphasis is on managing the discussions successfully with empathy and clarity. It turns out when the feedback discussion goes off the rails, as happens all too often, it’s because empathy and clarity were nowhere to be found.
Four Big Ideas to Help You Cultivate Influence in a Sharp-Elbowed Environment
I love the “clean power” approach to cultivating influence because it’s how I choose to conduct myself. Many others have adopted their version of it for similar reasoning. However, not everyone plays by rules you deem fair, and not everyone has your interests at heart. Here are four ideas to help you survive and thrive when you find yourself working in a sharp-elbowed environment.
Leadership Caffeine™—Two Attitude Hacks to Help Create a Better Day
With most of us still working remotely, many of the conventions we created to tune-in and support our team members have to be rethought. I have two favorite hacks that work regardless of your location. One puts you in the right frame of mind for managing and leading, and the other helps your team frame the day for success.
Leadership Caffeine™—For Virtual Teams, Success is Still a Full Contact Activity
We talk a big game about teams in business, yet often they disappoint. Raise your hand if you’ve been on a so-called team that devolved into a debating society that went nowhere. Regardless of outcomes and experiences, we continue to throw teams at issues expecting or hoping for magic. It turns out, hope is a lousy strategy because team development demands deliberate focus and hard work.
Leadership Caffeine™—15 Simple Things You Can Do Today that Will Help
Every day, you have countless opportunities to exhibit behaviors that leave people and situations a little bit better off than you found them. Here’s a list of fifteen behaviors that will help you improve the situation for everyone:
Asking the “Six Whats” Will Help You Strengthen Workplace Problem Solving
It’s an understatement to suggest this is a time for creative problem-solving in our organizations. Yet, too often, we react to symptoms or throw solutions at poorly defined problems. The failure to get to the root cause and underlying assumptions behind something that seems to be a problem results in half-measures and new, resultant problems. Here’s a technique to stop the madness!
Leadership Caffeine™—Stop Talking, Start Asking and Listening
In this crisis environment, there are only two behaviors that will save your organization: curiosity and listening.
Leadership and Management Book Talk—Building Your Professional Library
Art Petty and Wally Bock connect on this episode of the Leadership and Management Book Talk podcast to offer our thoughts on building your professional library.
Leadership Caffeine™—Hard-Decisions, Soft-Touch
From small business owners to global corporate leaders—for anyone who cares about their employees, customers, and business partners, this is a time of sleepless nights and soul-crushing tough decisions. Yes, this is a time of hard decisions. It’s also a time for the softest of touches.









