Leadership Caffeine Archives

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

Leadership Caffeine™—In Challenging Times, Keep Fear and Failure Outside Looking In

Every organization and every team runs into challenging spots. Life and business don’t always work as planned. “Man plans and God laughs,” as my former CEO would recite. It’s the rough patches that teach you and require you to cultivate your leadership character, and part of this is keeping fear at bay and the specter of failure out of mind and out of the vocabulary of your team. Here are 6 ideas to help you fight off organizational fear and keep your team on track when the going gets rough:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:25:08-05:00September 28th, 2014|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—The Struggles Really Do Make Us Stronger

The world of leadership development lost a giant at the end of July this past summer, when Warren Bennis passed away. In tribute, I'm including his classic article, "Crucibles of Leadership" (HBR, fee required) with Robert Thomas in one of my leadership courses this year. Revisiting this article is always inspirational both for myself and for the students who share their own crucible experiences including: personal loss, business and career struggles, and being on the receiving end of discrimination, sexism and racism. A few years ago in a hiring role, I encountered two very compelling candidates. The one who had navigated her own very significant challenges got the job, in spite of her underdog position on paper. Here's why:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:25:14-05:00September 7th, 2014|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|2 Comments