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

When is the last time you took a vacation?

November 21, 2019 /0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: When is the last time you took a vacation? Last week: 14% Last month: 30% Last quarter: 18% 6 months ago: 14% Vacation? What’s that?: 24% Time to take a break. The 24% of you who can’t recall your last vacation are at risk for a lot of issues. Burnout, job dissatisfaction, family stress, and physical issues can all result from working too long without a break. The excuse of “I don’t have time because I have too much to do” doesn’t hold water. You have to make the time. A vacation doesn’t have to be long or expensive either. Just staying home for a few days and reconnecting with family, resting and taking some weight off your mind can work wonders. Travel can be stressful and expensive, so if you are taking a vacation requiring a trip, be sure you’re not inadvertently adding more stress to your life. For those who are demonstrating good vacation habits, bravo. Make sure your team members and colleagues do the same. Encourage them to take time off and offer to pick up the slack while they’re gone. It’s a generous offer and will benefit you and the team in the long run if everyone is rested and feels well taken care of. 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!

A Simple Way to Guide a Complex Topic: Culture

November 18, 2019 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Creating company culture is the basis of every good organization. Today’s post is by Jesse Newton, author of Simply Work (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Culture is a bit of nebulous topic. There are many different definitions and approaches for identifying and evolving culture. The well-known definition “the way we do things around here” is a pretty good way of capturing the essence of culture. I think once you realize that culture is simply the repeatable actions of a group of people, the concept becomes a little less fuzzy. The challenge, of course, is the task of changing the actions of a group of people in a particular way. Cultures embody certain characteristics or traits. They come to life in particular styles of communicating, making decisions, and approaches to getting work done. Bad organizational cultures often possess these types of characteristics or traits: Management by committee: Decisions are made by multiple individuals and consensus is required, slowing productivity. Multiple checks and balances: Decisions have to pass through multiple rounds of approvals, which inhibits speed and can discourage innovation. Pursuit of perfection: A strong desire to avoid mistakes leads to unnecessary over analysis of every piece of work, resulting in wasted time. Engage everyone: Meetings are scheduled to keep broad stakeholder groups informed of work that is being completed, resulting in excessive low-value meetings that absorb time.

When is the last time your work was praised by your boss or someone above them?

November 14, 2019 /0 Comments/in Career, Communications, Leadership, Poll /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: When is the last time your work was praised by your boss or someone above them? Very recently. Within the last couple of days: 22% Recently. Within the last week or two: 22% A while ago. Sometime last month: 16% A long time ago. Several months ago: 18% Praise? What’s that?: 21% Starved for praise. The easiest and least expensive form of reward is a simple “Thank you. Great job.” It’s disappointing that more than half of you haven’t heard praise since last month. It’s challenging to give your best at an employer and not get any recognition whatsoever for your efforts. Let’s flip this poll on its head — when is the last time you praised someone on your team? Would they answer this poll the same way? Take a moment of time to offer a genuine thank you for something they’ve done. It doesn’t have to be big. It can be as simple as recognizing their consistency of effort and that you appreciate them always delivering their work on time and to standard. We all need validation in some form. Make sure you’re providing it to your people as often as you’d like to receive it from your manager. For those who are delivering regular praise, good job — keep up the good work and your focus on motivating your team! 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!

Developing Your Team Members

November 13, 2019 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Ryan Shaw

It’s never a great idea to work in a silo, but you also have make sure you’re working with a strong team. Learn about how you can strengthen your team and your leadership. Today’s post is by Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS. Personalizing Your Leadership Approach Do you feel like you’re investing a ton of time in your people and not getting the results you expect? Do you have team members who are performing well, but you just can’t get them to improve? Are some of your team members disengaged and you worry about them leaving your organization? I’ve dealt with all of these situations, and I’ve taught countless leaders how to overcome these challenges. As a result, I developed a framework called the Leadership Matrix to help deal with these issues. I’ve also written a book that explains this matrix in depth. Here, I’ll cover how to assess how you’re spending your time and energy. How to reward and inspire your high performers. How to get results out of team members who aren’t contributing. How to train and motivate your low performers. And how to reclaim your time from team members who tend to waste it. By using this approach, you can generate better results by being more efficient in how you lead your team members.

Communication Happens: You Might As Well Do It Right

November 11, 2019 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Communication is part of every organization, making sure you do it right is the biggest thing that makes a difference. Today’s post is by Charles Morgan, author of Now, What? (CLICK HERE to get your copy). When you’re the leader of a company, or even the leader of a team within a company, you’re communicating all the time – whether you know it or not. Step back a moment and put yourself in the shoes of one of your new hires on his first day of work. After parking his car, he notices that the parking space closest to the elevator is “Reserved for CEO.” What does that tell him? Then he gets upstairs and finds that the CEO has an obscenely large corner office and all the senior executives have big offices too. Everyone else is slaving away in cubicles. And what if all the executives’ office doors are closed? What does all of that tell him?

What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to managing your time?

November 7, 2019 /0 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Poll, Project Management /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to managing your time? Too many meetings: 18% Too many emails: 22% Too many interruptions: 40% Poor calendar planning: 2% Difficulty estimating task length: 10% Something else: 7% Pardon the interruption. The clear winner in time management challenges is the dreaded interruption. Once someone breaks your concentration, it takes 5 to 15 minutes to get back on track. Find ways to minimize the interruptions. Close your door. Work in a conference room outside your normal work area. Work from home. If an interruption does happen, try telling the person “It sounds like this is an important issue. I want to give it the attention it deserves. I’m focused on something else right now. Can we set a time to reconnect later today to discuss?” It acknowledges their issue and tells them they’re important. It allows you to get back to your task. And a lot of times by the time that meeting has rolled around, the person has resolved the issue without your help. Everyone wins. If you don’t protect your time, no one else will do it for you. Be proactive about it if you want to actually get things done. 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!