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The Leadership Caffeine Blog

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Just a Little Tongue In Cheek-In Search of a New Model for Leader Selection

Jan 22, 2010

I cannot claim this as an original idea. I was re-reading Tom Kelly’s outstanding book, The Art of Innovation, based on his experience with design and innovation firm, IDEO, and I was particularly enamored by the part where Kelly describes the process of IDEO’s project teams picking their own leaders. The leaders serve at the discretion of the team. Hmmm. Maybe, just maybe, the rest of us have been going about this all wrong for all of these years.

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Leadership Caffeine™-Improving Your Leadership Effectiveness on the Fly

Jan 18, 2010

It probably comes as no surprise that the primary excuse that many leaders cite for not focusing on important priorities like coaching, feedback and development is, “ lack of time.”

I’ve heard this “excuse” over and over again in workshops and mentoring sessions. And while there’s little argument over the importance of engaging in these and other positive leadership behaviors, many individuals shrug their shoulders, admit guilt, express frustration over their inability to carve out time and cite administrative, transactional and span of control issues as impediments. What’s a harried, over-worked, time-stressed leader to do?

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Leading the Driven Individual

Jan 15, 2010

A great deal of popular leadership writing (mine included) focuses on the common issues and challenges with “typical employees.” Now before you grab a pitchfork and light the torches and start marching on this blog for my use of the term “typical,” don’t misconstrue my meaning. Yes, I know that no one is “typical” and that we all have strengths and weaknesses and that it is grossly unfair to provide such a crass label to the masses of good quality employees laboring away and earning “strongly exceeds” on our grade-inflated performance evaluations. (I can hear the pitchforks clanking again on that last shot!) Nonetheless, it was the best label I could come up with on short notice and only a few sips into my first cup of coffee, to differentiate from the subject of today’s post: The Driven Individual (DI).

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Thoughts on Leading and Managing in the Era of Disposable Workers

Jan 13, 2010

Note from Art: this topic has me deep in thought. While the issue is generally a negative one, I do wonder whether it contains the seeds of significant management and leadership revolution. I would love your thoughts here. –In case you missed it, the article, “The Disposable Worker” in the January 7, 2010 issue of BusinessWeek offers a sobering look at the increasing trend for employers “to create just-in-time labor forces that can be turned on and off like a spigot.” And guess what folks, this trend is not just for those near the bottom rungs of the ladder, this current fashion extends all the way up into the CEO Suite.

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Leadership Caffeine™: Learn to Manage Your Team’s Rhythm-6 Ideas for Improving

Jan 11, 2010

All teams and groups have a rhythm and natural energy for their tasks that ebb and flow based on a variety of factors, including personal, environmental and seasonal to name a few. As a leader, you should be aware of these cycles that are characterized by either intense creativity, outstanding productivity or on the other extreme, by a slow, plodding march through the days and weeks as if everyone’s feet were encased in clay. It’s your job to help smooth out the highs just a bit and minimize the time spent in the lows.

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Fear, Self Confidence, Development, Renewal and Branding: Content from Art in Other Publications

Jan 7, 2010

As I continue expanding my writing and publishing activities in my growing multi-media and multi-medium world with multiple blogs and an e-newsletter as well as frequent writing for other publications, I feel duty bound to highlight some of the content that you won’t catch in this blog alone. Here’s the update on what idea and action stimulating content you might have missed on my Building Better Leaders blog or in the first edition of The Management Excellence Newsletter. Enjoy!

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Leadership Caffeine™-Develop a Big Picture View or Risk Becoming a Carp

Jan 4, 2010

Far too many leaders that I work with lack awareness of the broader forces swirling around their firms, their customers and those shape-shifting clusters that we describe as industries.

Given the hurricane like market and societal forces buffeting our globe today, a strategy of boarding up the windows and hunkering down is tantamount to committing corporate suicide. Yet, mostly by the sin of omission, this is exactly what I’m observing inside too many organizations.

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The January Leadership Development Carnival-Best of 2009

Jan 3, 2010

Dan McCarthy, the proprietor of the well-named and always excellent Great Leadership Blog, is out with The January Leadership Development Carnival-The Best of 2009 Edition. I am honored to be in some great company with Dan and many, many of my absolute favorite thinkers and writers, and I encourage you to click over and spend some quality time soaking up the energy and great ideas.

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Leadership Caffeine™-An Effective Leader’s Resolutions are Calendar Blind

Dec 21, 2009

As a leader, you cannot afford to fall victim to the boom and bust cycle of annual resolutions. Rather, your challenge is a daily one, requiring you to manage your practices and habits in a program of perpetual self-improvement. Of course, identifying the right improvements requires you to have a real-time feedback system and the ability to keep your ego in check while as objectively as possible processing the daily evidence on your own performance.

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An Irreverent but Pointed Look at Feedback & An Update on the Newsletter Promotion

Dec 17, 2009

Today’s post is at my Building Better Leaders site/blog and features a slightly irreverent look at the value and need for feedback. It is entirely possible that in the course of making a point on why feedback is such a critical skill to master, I compared it to Viagra, dissed the Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler and encouraged incompetent leaders to volunteer to stand next to a wall with a blindfold on and smoke a cigarette. And yes, there is a message and at least a few ideas for you once you get beyond my slightly off-center suggestions

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