Leadership Caffeine Archives

Leadership Caffeine™-Beware the People Versus Performance Trap

Too many leaders get caught in a people versus performance trap that neither helps the people nor the team’s performance. These leaders give themselves too much credit for being able to change others, and they over-invest in the wrong people at the expense of the rest of the individuals in an organization. This pitfall of what most would describe as a thoughtful, creative and people-focused leader is all too common and left unchecked, can debilitate teams, destroy a performance culture and derail an otherwise promising leadership career.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:35-05:00November 11th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|1 Comment

Leadership Caffeine™-Finding Right is Different than Having to Be Right

I want to know what you know.” One of my early career managers used this line regularly when engaging with her team members. She was genuine in her interest in our take on problems and opportunities, and you could almost hear her mind working as she processed the information and compared and contrasted it with her own views. Her employees genuinely appreciated her effort to see a situation from multiple vantage points. Here are 6 approaches that effective leaders use to guide their teams towards right, without having to dictate direction:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:38-05:00November 4th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|8 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-The Unpopular Decisions are Yours

There will be many days in your leadership life, when you will be challenged to make decisions that carry painful implications for teams, departments and individuals. Your ability to stare straight at the unpopular and difficult issues and make a decision that is contrary to popular opinion, is core to your evolution as a leader.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:40-05:00October 29th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™:When Playing Office Politics Leave the Playground Tactics Behind

There’s no hiding from, denying or deftly side-stepping the reality that the political game…the pursuit of resources, budgets and yes, even power, is in full swing just about all of the time in most organizations. It’s too bad that most people are playing it wrong. Here are 4 ideas to help you move beyond playground tactics in your pursuit of strengthening the organization:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:41-05:00October 23rd, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|5 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Is it Time to Re-examine the Leader You’ve Become?

Taking time to reflect and re-examine your role and performance as a leader offers nothing but growth opportunities for yourself and for those who look to you to lead. Here are 5 ideas to help you reboot your drive to excel as a leader:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:43-05:00October 14th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|3 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—3 Situations to Quality Check Your Gut Instinct

While it’s clear our guts don’t do any heavy lifting when it comes to making decisions, that sense we describe as “gut feeling” is something most of us rely on to guide us through life’s challenges. However, there are at least 3 key situations where senior leaders should develop the discipline to quality check their gut instincts:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:44-05:00October 8th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|2 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—6 Ideas to Help You Prosper During Periods of Change

Contrary to how many people view and respond to change in the workplace, it’s been my experience that periods of organizational adjustment typically represent big fat beach balls of opportunity for those willing to pitch in and help. Here are 6 ideas to help you adjust to and prosper during periods of organizational change:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:45-05:00September 30th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™—Toward More Simplicity

There’s a must-read article that appeared at Fast Company a few months ago by Aaron Levie, entitled, The Simplicity Thesis. The short form is that in this world of increasing complexity, the best opportunities are for those firms, products and services that are minimally complex (simple). The same goes for those of us leading others and managing our organizations.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:52-05:00September 10th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|2 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-8 Lessons in Creative Talent Acquisition

Nothing is as important to your success as a leader as the talent you bring to bear in support of the work of your organization. Here are 8 ideas to stimulate your talent acquisition thinking and promote action:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:29:58-05:00August 27th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|2 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™: 5 Ways Leaders Can Promote an Outside-In View

Overcoming the gravitational pull of the office requires extraordinary effort. Succumb to this powerful tractor beam and your life is an endless stream of internal meetings and activities that lack any context for the realities of customers and the marketplace. Spend too much time inside your own walls, and you create your own alternate reality...one that lacks proper connectivity to the issues that should define your team’s priorities. Here are 5 ideas to help you and your team members change the view and cultivate critical marketplace context:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:30:04-05:00August 13th, 2012|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments