Leadership Caffeine Archives

Leadership Caffeine™—To Be Effective, Your Do Must Match Your Tell

(Note: This post first appeared at the Management Excellence blog https://artpetty.com/blog/ by Art Petty. Copyright 2015 Art Petty.) No creature on the planet destroys credibility faster than a pontificating blow-hard of a boss who is great at turning oxygen into over-heated carbon dioxide, but not so great at overcoming the gravitational pull of his posterior to the chair and putting his own words into action. Here are 7 tips to help ensure your do matches your tell:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:24:25-05:00April 19th, 2015|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|2 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™ —The Inner Game of Leading

A great deal of what’s written and spoken about leadership focuses on describing the actions most often associated with effective leaders. The actions are tangible…we can see them and observe their impact on people and we can mimic them in our own attempts at guiding, motivating and developing others. It’s good to mimic good behaviors. However, it’s important to remember that these actions of effective leaders are backed by a strong, personal belief in purpose...

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:24:29-05:00March 29th, 2015|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—Uncertainty…Get Over It

Frankly, this is a remarkable time to be in business and to be serving in a leadership role. The risks, fears of change, possibilities of disruption or the realities of creative destruction and non-destructive creation are all facts of our business lives and they create a remarkable backdrop for us to create…to innovate. But first, we've got to fight our natural tendencies when determining how to act in this environment. Here are 3 key pitfalls to avoid and 5 key skills that leaders must cultivate to succeed in this ever-changing world:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:24:34-05:00March 1st, 2015|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—What to Do When You Grow Fatigued

Much of our common dialog around leadership focuses on the lofty and noble. That’s good and appropriate. After all there are some remarkable opportunities for growth and reward in the life of a conscientious leader. Why then is it so damned exhausting to serve as a leader? And better yet, how does someone entering the power dive of leadership fatigue find a way to pull out and continue serving enthusiastically in pursuit of the noble? Here are 10 idea to help you recover and recharge from a case of Leadership Fatigue:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:24:36-05:00February 15th, 2015|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|10 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—Know When to Assert Yourself

There are points in time when the only right choice is to assert and dictate direction or a decision. In those crucible moments for firms and teams, the failure of a leader to assert is the height of malpractice and irresponsibility.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:24:37-05:00February 8th, 2015|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|4 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—Humility and the Effective Leader

The most effective leaders I know are simultaneously courageous and humble in the face of ambiguity and adversity. Courage as we all know is essential for facing and making the tough decisions demanded in difficult situations. I referenced this attribute in my recent post, Leading into the Fog. A healthy grounding of humility serves as a powerful check and balance influence that helps effective leaders fight the pressure to make rash decisions in the drive to be perceived as omniscient.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:24:44-05:00January 25th, 2015|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|1 Comment

Leadership Caffeine™—Leading into the Fog

It’s the challenging times that build your leadership character. During the rising tide situations, the game is simplified…the way forward is clear and the challenges defined. Exploit the opportunity; move fast to deliver more; execute, execute, execute. It’s when conditions change that the view ahead becomes one giant fog bank and leading suddenly turns difficult.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:24:49-05:00January 4th, 2015|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—Your Critical Personal Performance Questions

An early career mentor offered this comment and it has been with me in one form or another throughout my career: “If you’re sleeping through the night, you’re not thinking hard enough about your job and career and you’re definitely not asking yourself the tough questions.” While I encourage a full night’s rest…we all need quality sleep to perform at our best, the second half of his advice on asking (and answering) the tough questions of ourselves is spot on. Here are at least 11 sets of challenging questions that only you can ask and answer for yourself:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:24:53-05:00December 14th, 2014|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|6 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—Is that Employee Not Right or Not Ready?

We all know that getting the right people in the right seats is a prerequisite for success. The problem comes in truly assessing whether the individual is Not Ready or Not Right for the role. Here are 4 reasons why we often fail to recognize the "Not Right" characters and 5 ideas to help you deal with this dilemma:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:25:02-05:00November 3rd, 2014|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|9 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—What Frequency are You Broadcasting On?

In a conversation with a good friend and highly respected retained search professional, the topic of a “leader’s frequency” was raised. I like the metaphor, although my friend might describe it as much more real than metaphor. In my own experience, the leaders who stand out...the ones who moved the needle for teams, individuals and organizations all broadcast on a frequency that is easy for us to hear and to understand with minimal amounts of noise to distract us from the message.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:25:05-05:00October 7th, 2014|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments