Leadership Archives

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

October Edition of Leadership Development Carnival at Leader Talk

Becky Robinson, the articulate and highly engaging author of one of my favorite blogs, Leader Talk, has posted the October edition of the always exciting and thought-provoking Leadership Development Carnival. She appropriately names this one the Endurance Edition, in part, because she received a record number of posts from the leading leadership bloggers on the planet and brought them together in one place for your reading convenience. Plan on a rousing workout as you digest some fantastic content. Oh, and she was kind enough to include one of my posts as well!

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:13-05:00October 4th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|0 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-The Cure for Tired Leader Syndrome (TLS)

If you experience one or more of these symptoms and especially the last one, you might be suffering from Tired Leader Syndrome or TLS. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. This debilitating condition affects a high percentage of leaders that have been in the same role for too long. Left untreated, TLS is often fatal to your career as well as the careers of those in constant contact with you.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:18-05:00September 28th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|16 Comments

Building Better Leaders-One At A Time

I had an interesting kitchen table discussion recently with a friend who questioned my belief in the ability to change the world by helping support the development of effective leaders. His point: for every one person that actually “gets it” and develops into an effective, values-driven and people-focused leader, dozens of “incompetent idiots” will end up in positions of responsibility and the cycle of horrible leadership and lousy leaders will continue.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:20-05:00September 22nd, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|6 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-The Times Choose the Leaders. Is it your time?

If you’ve been around the block for a few decades as a leader, your current To-Do list doesn’t feel as good as the one you had for most of the 90’s and the middle of this decade. However, the benefit of your experience is that you know that we’ll find our way through this fog of uncertainty and fear and doubt. It doesn’t matter that you don’t know the absolute path.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:21-05:00September 20th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|10 Comments

Leaders Teach

I’ve long believed that the best leaders are teachers. Not lecturers, but teachers. As teachers, they challenge us to think, to explore, to experiment, to learn and to keep trying. (click on the title to read the entire essay.)

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:22-05:00September 15th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|16 Comments

Leadership Caffeine™-Does Your Do Match Your Tell?

Fresh on the heels of my remarkably fun and productive collaboration with Mary Jo Asmus of Intentional Leadership on “The Words of a Leader,” I feel duty bound to remind you that while words are indeed powerful tools for creation or destruction, it’s your actions that will seal your fate as a leader. Or rather, how well your actions and your words match.

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:24-05:00September 13th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|16 Comments

Two Voices on: The Words of a Leader

This dual post was the outcome of a casual exchange of thoughts via Twitter that quickly evolved into a must-write piece and fun collaboration on an important topic: the words of a leader. My partner in crime here is Mary Jo Asmus, the author of the outstanding Intentional Leadership blog...one that I turn to regularly for inspiration and insight. Good leaders are builders and they form and shape their words into phrases and questions that encourage learning and improvement and risk-taking and more learning. Good leaders are master craftsmen in many ways, and words are some of their most important tools. Less effective leaders use words like tools as well, but in this case they crassly apply the words of brute force in settings where precision is called for

By Art Petty|2024-08-08T13:43:25-05:00September 10th, 2009|1,770 Legacy Leadership Caffeine and Management Articles|13 Comments