The Leadership Caffeine Blog

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Two Voices on Being Heard and Not Being Heard

Mary Jo Asmus and I are back with our third collaborative blogging effort, focusing on what it means and feels like to be heard and not to be heard. Our first efforts, “Two Voices on the Words of a Leader” and “Two Voices on Humility and the Effective Leader,” remain personal and reader favorites. I like the “Words” post so much…particularly Mary Jo’s portion, that with her permission, I’m including it in my forthcoming book, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

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Management Week in Review for February 4, 2011

Every Friday, I share three thought-provoking management posts for the week. Fair warning: I take a broad view of management, so my selections will range from leadership to innovation to finance and personal development and beyond. This week’s selections feature content on assessing whether an executive coach might be right for you, dealing with the dilemma of having promoted the wrong person into management and knowing when it makes best sense to speak up or to remain quiet. Enjoy!

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Updates: The Latest e-Newsletter & My Bookstore

Management Excellence Updates for January 5, 2011:My latest e-Newsletter with subscriber-only content is out, and I’ve constructed a new bookstore (without harming any bricks or mortar), featuring my recommendations in leadership & management, strategy, innovation, marketing, history and biography. Back Thursday with my regularly scheduled blog content!

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Beware the Pull of "Us Versus Them"

’s easy to get caught up in departmental or team squabbles inside of organizations. My advice: stay clear, stay out of it and learn to think and act for yourself.

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Show Respect by Paying Attention

There are a million opportunities for us to shortchange conversations in pursuit of the urgent important. It takes discipline and the recognition that your attention as a leader is one of the best ways that you have for conveying your respect for individuals and teams.

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Want to Lead? Consider These Questions: #7 of 7

The first six questions in this series challenged you to think through issues that are both philosophical and powerfully practical. If you’ve made it through the investigation of questions 1-6, it’s time for you to consider what your daily work life will be like as a leader.

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Starting Fast as a Leader With Your New Team

The “start-up” phase with a new team is challenging for even the most experienced of leaders. If you’re an “all new” leader…someone hired from outside or at least outside of the team, there’s an inherent degree of uncertainty and apprehension about you. No one knows your style or your agenda, and frankly, while you have authority and respect conferred by title, you have not earned credibility or trust. One of the fastest ways to ramp up and help people develop some early comfort with you is to sit down and listen to them.

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8 Quick Tips to Improve Your Effectiveness with Feedback

Leaders at all levels struggle with this most important of performance tools: feedback. We delay delivering it, we water it down, we sandwich it in praise and obscure the message or, we avoid it altogether. Like anything else, practice makes perfect, and a few simple guidelines can help ease some concerns and usher in more “practice time” in your workplace.

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