Leadership Caffeine Archives

Leadership Caffeine™: A Mostly Thoughtful Guide to Surviving Bad Leadership Days

Even the most dedicated and experienced of leaders will admit that there are more than a few days when they wonder whether it might not be a lot less stressful to hang up their leadership cleats in favor of an individual contributor role. Like marriage, not every day as a leader is filled with wine and roses. There are many days when you will drive home from work wondering whether you truly accomplished anything, and others when you will feel like you just took a few steps in the wrong direction.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:41:31-05:00December 7th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|16 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™: Five Simple Suggestions for Minimizing Management Myopia

Participate in or monitor enough management team conversations and you will invariably conclude that it’s darned hard for these teams to spend quality time discussing external issues. The gravitational pull of internal “stuff” is overwhelming and resists all attempts to move the conversation to topics outside of the firm’s four walls, preferring instead to keep managers focused on the nuances of their own operations. The result is a self-fulfilling management myopia where the view on the world is grossly limited to the immediate surroundings…and ranges as far as the eyes can see outside conference room windows.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:41:41-05:00November 29th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|10 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™: A Leader’s List of Thanks-Giving

Note from Art: I'm getting a jump-start on my Thanksgiving post in the hope that you have the opportunity during this holiday-shortened work week to reach out and say "Thanks" to those that you have the privilege of leading and serving. Here are my thoughts on what a leader should be thankful for:

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:41:44-05:00November 22nd, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|5 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Don’t Wait for the Title to Start Leading

The time to start leading is now, long before anyone has bestowed the title of leader on you. Much like the famous trio of Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Woodman of Oz-fame, they didn’t really need the Wizard to bestow a brain, courage or a heart, and you don’t need someone to anoint you as a leader before you can start learning and practicing. The great news is that today’s organizations are filled with opportunities for you to easily and informally develop both your leadership and your followership skills.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:41:50-05:00November 15th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|7 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Develop the Courage to Derail the Bad Decision Train

The “bad decision train” is difficult to stop or derail once it gets moving. It seems to take extra-ordinary courage to admit that you are wrong. A combination of ego and fear often prevail, driving us to go all-in when we should fold and walk away. While the instinct to pursue bad decisions with more bad decisions might be difficult to overcome, it is critical that leaders fight this tendency by fostering a culture that encourages teams and individuals to challenge decisions, particularly when new facts and lessons learned begin to point towards a different direction.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:41:52-05:00November 9th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|8 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Bringing Confidence Back

Confidence is a powerful force in the workplace for individuals and for teams. It’s that extra-added something that allows us to look at the world through eyes that see opportunities to pursue, challenges that exist to be met and new heights within easy reach. Unfortunately, given the beat-down that most of the world has been taking for the past year or two, confidence is in short supply in the workplace. It's time to bring confidence back.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:42:58-05:00November 2nd, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|11 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Engage With a Purpose

A fair number of leaders that I encounter are busy floating along on the current created by the urgent daily events in the workplace. This never-ending flow of “stuff to do” numbs their leadership senses and dulls their performance edges as weeks and months and quarters give way to more weeks, months and quarters. It’s like sitting in the leadership equivalent of a lazy river at the local water park. It’s time to quit doing everything and getting nothing important done in the process.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:00-05:00October 26th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|14 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™: Surviving as a Leader When Things Go Horribly Wrong

When faced with unexpected challenges, a good friend of mine intones what I believe is a fitting old Yiddish quote, “Man Plans and God Laughs.” Our modern incarnation of that is a less reverent but eminently understandable, “Stuff Happens.” My word choice here is the less frequently referenced “S-word” from this common phrase. Learning to cope with the unexpected deviation from your most carefully laid plans is an important part of growing up as a leader. Here are 7 suggestions for developing your crisis leadership skills.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:04-05:00October 18th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|17 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Be the Example

I recently found myself as a guest speaker in a good-natured discussion with my audience about the challenges that mid-level managers face in trying to facilitate positive culture change while working in a toxic or at least a less than ideal work environment. I opt for the affirmative in this debate, and often find myself arguing the minority opinion. I absolutely have strong convictions about the ability of one individual or a small group of individuals to catalyze positive environmental change in the most challenging of environments.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:09-05:00October 11th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|6 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Character Forged in Defeat

Winning is great. It’s often the culmination of years of hard work, a relentless focus on condition and outstanding execution. What high school or college football coach hasn’t hung a poster in the locker or training room with Vince Lombardi’s inspirational quote: “I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious” It’s easy to lose track of the reality that most victories are forged in the emotional blast furnace of prior losses.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:12-05:00October 4th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|3 Comments