The Leadership Caffeine Blog

Explore by Category:

It’s Time to Get Rid of S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Here’s Why & How

It’s Time to Get Rid of S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Here’s Why & How

Goals are critically important in our personal and professional growth. They push us to learn, grow, and strive. We change our lives by aspiring for big goals. We motivate ourselves and our team members with properly developed, challenging goals. And we change the vector and fate of organizations through the proper use of goals. The operative phrase is “the proper use of goals.”

read more
How to Get Unstuck with Your Career Pivot

How to Get Unstuck with Your Career Pivot

I talk with many good people motivated to change their career vectors but unsure of what to do or even how to get started. As a result, they do nothing. They’re stuck. Maybe you’re stuck as well. Here are some tips to help you get beyond this uncomfortable state and into action:

read more
The Death of The Manager Role: What’s Really Needed

The Death of The Manager Role: What’s Really Needed

As Layoffs Climb and AI Emerges, the Predictions are Flowing Like clockwork, bad news in the economy coupled with some scary new technology brings out the pundits offering exaggerated predictions for something or another. This time, the mass layoffs in techdom and a...

read more
Ten Questions to Support Continuous Career Growth

Ten Questions to Support Continuous Career Growth

During our recent Leadership Caffeine Jam Session (recording and session materials/#18), I shared the ten questions I ask myself (and answer) about my career at least twice yearly. The late, great management thinker Peter Drucker suggested five questions; the other five are my add-ons.

read more
It Takes Leadership Courage to Kick Conventional Wisdom to the Curb

It Takes Leadership Courage to Kick Conventional Wisdom to the Curb

Resilience, according to one dictionary definition, is the capacity to absorb a shock or a punch and return quickly to original form.

Life and business are filled with shocks and punches. We’ve lived this story for the past few years. And the shocks and punches keep coming, just in different forms and from unexpected places. It takes resilience and leadership courage to absorb the hits and come out stronger.

read more
Designing A Bug-Free Operating System for Great Managers

Designing A Bug-Free Operating System for Great Managers

Rethinking the Operating System Needed for Manager Success Late last year, I shared an article at SmartBrief on Leadership, introducing the idea of the Manager's Operating System—a set of core programs or instructions that must be present to create a healthy working...

read more
We’re Evaluating Professional Development Investments the Wrong Way

We’re Evaluating Professional Development Investments the Wrong Way

The search for the return on investment from professional development activities has been a long, unresolved quest for many HR and Learning and Development professionals. It turns out we’re looking at it all wrong. The real challenge is for an organization’s managers and leaders to CREATE the return on investment from professional development.

read more
January Development Opportunities for New(er) and Experienced Managers

January Development Opportunities for New(er) and Experienced Managers

Something I always did as a corporate executive was to make sure as many of my team members as possible were set up for professional development early in the new year. I love helping my team members launch into the new year with their brains boiling with ideas, fresh approaches, and energy for the challenges ahead! Now that I’m the one doing the training and coaching, I’m excited to offer the same opportunity to you and your team members.

read more
The Old Model of Manager is Broken—It’s Time to Start Fresh

The Old Model of Manager is Broken—It’s Time to Start Fresh

It’s time to replace the tired, outdated model we have for identifying, developing, and tasking managers. Given the complexity of our environment today, we need to find new ways to harness the creative and productive power of inspired people, not send them running out the door or leave them idling in place.

read more