Ryan Shaw – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Becoming a Net Exporter of Talent

April 8, 2020 /0 Comments/in Books, Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Training /by Ryan Shaw

Developing your team so well that they begin being poached by others and letting them go to those other teams is exactly how to develop your organization. Today’s post is by Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS Want to build your team? Get rid of the people who are on it. I don’t mean go about firing people in a flurry. Become what I call a “net exporter of talent.” You need to develop your people to the point that they’re ready for new challenges. Build their skills. Make them more valuable to the organization. Grow them and build upon their responsibilities. And once you can stand back and admire the fruits of your labor, send them somewhere else to work. Actually, if you’ve done a good enough job developing them, others will be trying to poach them from your team. Madness you say? Don’t be too quick to judge. The benefits of becoming a net exporter of talent are many. Before we get into them, let me elaborate on how to become said exporter. First, recognize almost everyone on your team wants to grow. Your obligation as a leader is to provide those opportunities and help people succeed in them. Once you’ve expanded the skills and scope of your team members, you’re ready to begin.

Soft Skills Make You Stronger

April 6, 2020 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Soft skills aren’t unimportant, in fact, they might be the difference between getting a job or not. Today’s post is by John Livesay, author of The Successful Pitch (CLICK HERE to get your copy). The concept of soft skills which include empathy, listening, and storytelling is known to not be as important as hard skills. If you’re an architect, your hard skills are what you learned in school, i.e. how to design a building. If you’re a lawyer your hard skills are what you learned in law school and passing the bar. If you’re a keynote speaker, your hard skills are knowing how to put together a talk that has a beginning, middle and end i.e. the craft of speaking. No matter what your profession, mastering the soft skills is what makes you stronger than your competition. Recently a top architecture firm had me speak to their team on how to build better client relationships. Their old way of winning new business was to show their design and hope that would be enough to get a new client. When a client told them they were going to hire the firm they liked the best because the project would last 5 years, they panicked. How do we become more likable they asked me?

When you get stressed out, how do you deal with it?

April 2, 2020 /0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: When you get stressed out, how do you deal with it? I go exercise. 24.38% I take time off from work. 5.48% I throw myself into my work and push through it. 28.86% I meditate. 13.31% I do something else.24.12% I never get stressed out. 3.85% Find a productive outlet. While many of you have productive places to release stress (exercise, meditation, time off or some other activity), an alarming portion of you (29%) simply push through the stress. This can work in the short term, but over time, the cumulative effects of this stress can be tremendous. Whether it’s health issues, relationship challenges, decreased performance, irritability or some other damaging effect, your desire to “push through” can have catastrophic effects. Find an outlet for your stress. Channel it into something productive (outside of doing more work). Your health, your family and your team will appreciate your new habits and you’ll perform better, be happier and be healthier in the process. Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below! – Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

How to See Your Projects to Completion

April 1, 2020 /0 Comments/in Books, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Ryan Shaw

Most of the major initiatives we pursue are conducted as projects. What do you do when those projects go up in flames? There are seven common reasons our projects go bad and the ways to avoid them. Today’s post is by Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS. Projects go off the rails all the time. Some statistics I’ve seen say only 1 in 8 projects can truly be declared as successes. Why are we so horrible at executing projects especially when we have all these “tried and true” project management methodologies? There are seven deadly killers of projects. Any one of them can undermine your project’s success. The good news is we teach people how to avoid these issues as part of our Project Management Reality course (CLICK HERE to learn more). For the benefit of all my readers, I’ve outlined these seven killers below along with ways to overcome them. Team Disengagement The team is just checked out. Low morale. Disinterest. Apathy. Their work products are late or low quality. To mitigate: ensure your project is listed on their personal goals, get their manager to commit them to the project, and show them how the project benefits them personally/professionally.

How to Coach Your Team Like an Executive Coach

March 30, 2020 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Expert tips on exactly what to say to lead your team, motivating inspiring and facilitating their efforts to great results. Today’s post is by Keren Eldad, author and TED speaker. Over the course of several years as an executive coach, I’ve been asked many times from company leaders for some pointers on how to take what they have learned in coaching back to coach their teams. Here’s the catch: they only ask for these pointers after a coaching series, making it relatively easy to help. Before the coaching series, most executives are convinced that they already function as “coach,” and that they do so very well. In my experience I have found that most leaders see themselves as inspiring and accountable from the get-go. However, through coaching, assessments and anonymous 360s, a different picture often emerges – not of a coach, but of a manager who controls and commands. These managers often find that those methods – while still prevalent and pervasive – are not effective to productivity, and in fact mostly lead to toxicity, gossip, lack of accountability, a lack of engagement, a fear of speaking up in the organization and in most cases I have witnessed: a talent retention problem. Embracing a leadership focused on coaching is far more empowering and effective. In the words of Adam Grant: “coaching might be more essential than mentoring to our careers and to our teams. Whereas mentors dole out words and wisdom, coaches roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. They don’t just believe in our potential, they get in the arena to help us realize our potential.”

How would you describe the “back office” functions at your company (finance, procurement, legal, HR, etc.)?

March 26, 2020 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll, Project Management /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: How would you describe the “back office” functions at your company (finance, procurement, legal, HR, etc.)? They occasionally add value and respond in a reasonable time. 29.78% They add value in every interaction and are highly responsive. 25.56% They are extremely frustrating and overly bureaucratic. 19.38% They rarely add value and tend to slow things down. 17.98% They make my life a nightmare, and I can’t get anything done. 7.3% Improving the back office. Eighty percent of you report your back office functions like procurement, finance, legal and HR only occasionally add value (30%) or even worse, rarely add value or make your life extremely difficult (55%). That’s alarming. But blame resides in two places. One place is with the back office. If you’re in one of these functions, remember these other groups are your customers. While policy and procedure has a place, responsiveness to their needs helps business performance. If you’re more interested in process and bureaucracy than you are in getting things done, it’s time to rethink your priorities. The other half of the blame is with those who consume back office services. Going to them with short timelines, ill-formed requests and excessive requests for exemptions doesn’t make their lives easier. You need to plan your requests better. Give them time to respond (they have a lot of customers!). Respect their rules and processes. The answer lies somewhere in the middle here (and 26% of you have found that sweet spot). It’s a partnership — treat it as such. Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below! – Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only […]