Your Mid-Week Leadership Caffeine

5 Articles to Make You Think and Inspire You to Act

1. Are you and your colleagues victims of the "Creative Cliff Delusion" when it comes to brainstorming? Great article at Kellogg Insight: Keep Brainstorming--Your Best Ideas are Coming, by Brian Lucas and Loran Nordgren.

2. Wisdom from Jennifer V. Miller and her interview subject, RichTeed, in: How Do Leaders Create Continuous Improvement at her blog, The People Equation.

3. Add some power tools to your team development toolkit with this double-play (video and article) from Karin Hurt at Let's Grow Leaders: This Technique Will Get Your Team Talking About Hopes and Fears. (Recommendation: the video and article are different...watch/read both.)

4. My favorite "think differently" article this week: Don't Try to Change Your Organization: Change the Underlying Forces that Make It What It Is, by Dan Oestrich at his Unfolding Leadership blog (h/t LeadChange Group)

5. Some good ideas from Art Markman writing at FastCompany: 5 strategies for salvaging an unproductive day. My go-to for those days when it feels I'm spinning my wheels is to pick a creative project (writing, course development) that I've been delaying working on and focusing there.

Most Read in the Prior Issue

Handmade Leadership by Wally Bock.

What I'm Reading

Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small, Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results, by innovation expert, Josh Linkner. This was literally released today (4/20/21) and I'm enjoying the Kindle version. I love Josh's work/books and am excited for this one.

Leadership and Career Guidance from Art

It's been a busy week with two webinars. Enjoy these articles from the Leadership Caffeine archives:

Four Big Ideas to Help You Cultivate Influence in a Sharp-Elbowed Environment. A good number of my clients work in tough environments where the competition for resources and opportunities is fierce. If that describes your environment and you want to make a positive difference, this article is for you.

Asking the "Six Whats" Will Help You Strengthen Workplace Problem Solving. Sometimes, you just have to slow down to move faster. These questions will help.

I love to hear from readers. If you have an article to share or a topic you would like me to pursue, drop me a note.

Today's (4/21) Free Career Change Webinar

If a career change is on your mind, here's: WHY A CAREER PIVOT IS POSSIBLE (& Tips to Help You Jump Start Yours) on 4/21 at 10 AM CentralI share case studies of successful career reinventors and offer tips to help you get started. REGISTER HERE.

(If you can't make the time but want the ideas, the session is being recorded and all registrants will receive a link to the view session later.)

Upcoming Live-Online Programs

First-Time Managers Academy Live-Online (now enrolling for late April and early June cohorts). Check out last week's webinar replay: How to Thrive as a New Manager.
Career Reinvent Boot Camp: new cohort kicking off 5/5.
Feedback Skills Boot Camp (single session) on 6/8

Professional Development On-Demand

For questions or group pricing on any of the on-demand programs, drop me a note.