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

Keys To Effective Negotiation

December 11, 2019 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Strategy /by Ryan Shaw

Mike Figliuolo, thoughtLEADERS’ Managing Director, sat down with Jim and Jan of The Leadership Podcast to discuss Negotiation. In continuation of our new collaboration with The Leadership Podcast, Mike, breaks down some of the basics of negotiation in this short form “chalk talk.” These chalk talk series are bitesize sessions on a common (but challenging) leadership issue. Jim, Jan, and Mike talk about the bi-partisan frustration that is inherent with real negotiation and breakdown why negotiation is an important part of teams and being an effective leader, no matter where you are in your career. Mike discusses some of the thought process around approaching negotiations and the necessity to change your tactics depending on the party on the other side of the discussion. Stay tuned for more of these brief Chalk Talks featuring Mike, as well as many more members of the thoughtLEADERS team.

Today’s Successful Leader Values Data, but Is Not Driven by It

December 9, 2019 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Though data is an important part of every organization, not accounting for people when you make decisions and relying strictly on data is not the way. Today’s post is by Sara Canaday, author of Leadership Unchained (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Every day we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. This information has led to some tremendous breakthroughs with the potential to improve thousands of lives. As leaders, we also have mountains of data available to us—honestly, more than we can assimilate or make sense of. Yet huge decisions are made every day based solely on the numbers. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love numbers! But, in my years working with many leaders, I’ve seen too many of them make unwarranted or uninformed decisions because they have over-relied on data. Anecdotal evidence is also critical. More importantly, one without the other is a recipe for mistakes. Let me give you an example from a story I heard while writing my new book. In 2009, Nokia was the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer. A woman named Tricia Wang was working in the company’s research department at the time, and she held the position of Technology Ethnographer. Similar to a cultural anthropologist, Wang’s job was to identify market trends and potential new customers by analyzing the qualitative side of human behavior related to cell phone usage. Wang was specifically assigned to study the preferences and habits of low-income consumers in China. To say that she immersed herself in this task is putting it mildly. She spent several years living with Chinese migrants, and she worked as a street vendor selling dumplings. She observed and interacted daily with people in neighborhood Internet cafes. She asked questions, and she listened to the answers. Really listened. Reading between the lines to capture the […]

How many professional reading books do you read in a year?

December 5, 2019 /2 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: How many professional reading books do you read in a year? None. I read other forms of content (blogs, magazines, journals): 39% A few: 1-4: 33% Several: 5-9: 13% Many: 15 or more: 5% A lot: 10-14: 5% I don’t really do any professional reading: 4% Short form doesn’t beat bookworms. Clearly a large portion (39%) of you eschew books in favor of short-form content. That’s a sign of the times for busy professionals. That said, a healthy portion (56%) of you are still hunkering down with a good business book on a regular basis. For those who aren’t reading books, I encourage you to pick up the habit. Short-form content is great but isn’t lasting. Books are more comprehensive in their thinking and can more fundamentally alter the way you look at the world because they give you a broader context and deeper insights into issues than a 600-word blog post can. Books are also a great way to decompress and get away from stressful screen time, bouncing from one site to another. The best way to get started on this habit is to ask your friends and co-workers for recommendations. They’ll know you well enough to recommend things you’ll enjoy. 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 Executive Presence

December 4, 2019 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Strategy /by Ryan Shaw

Mike Figliuolo, thoughtLEADERS’ Managing Director, sat down with Jim and Jan of The Leadership Podcast to discuss executive presence. thoughtLEADERS is proud to announce a new initiative with The Leadership Podcast to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re a bitesize session on a common (but challenging) leadership issue. In this session, Mike breaks down some of the nuance that comes along with creating and growing your executive presence. Jim, Jan, and Mike talk about the balance between “swagger” and maintaining a sense of humility in working with individuals. Their discussion breaks down the barriers that can come up with leaders who may not fully understand what exactly they are trying to convey. Mike covers a few important rules to remember as a leader, especially when working with new people and new teams, including the critical rule of listening more than you speak. Stay tuned for more of these brief Chalk Talks featuring Mike, as well as many more members of the thoughtLEADERS team.

Technology Induced Attention Deficit Disorder

December 2, 2019 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Technology has been an integral part of our lives for years now, but what happens when technology starts to make doing work even more difficult. Today’s post is by Dr. Brian Smith, author of Individual Advantages (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Patience is waning in all aspects of human interaction; impatience is being felt throughout the whole of society. Society today—today being defined as the late 1980s to the present—has undergone a rapid evolution in information collection, manipulation, storage, and presentation. Life has been transformed into an environment where information is readily available on demand. As technology has become the focal point for most of the developed world, costs for said technology have decreased rapidly—making them more readily available for people of all ages. As businesses and humans have started to rely more heavily on technology, our personal expectations have been raised across the board in every aspect of our lives. It is this fundamental change in expectation where I identified the topic for my dissertation (in 2001) long before it became a common human problem: Technology Induced Attention Deficit Disorder (TIADD). When I argued my dissertation about TIADD, I was designing and implementing ERP systems and working with companies to manage the organizational change being caused by technology’s effect on humans. Internet access rates were increasing, and you could get a 128k baud rate at home and 1,544k baud rate at work. From 2001 to now, we have seen data speeds increase more than fiftyfold. We have also expanded the influence of technology from the workplace, to home, to our back pocket. This transformation in data delivery has created the constant need for immediate gratification of knowledge; we need answers this instant. This need for immediate gratification has a negative effect on human relationships in all aspects of […]

Leadership and Change: Why Resilience is the Key to Success

November 25, 2019 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Ryan Shaw

Resilience is key to success for leaders. Resilience is a source of energy to move forward and make an impact. Five strategies can develop your resilience. Today’s post is by Beth Kennedy, author of Career ReCharge (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Several years ago, the company for which I was providing career consulting was purchased by another company. The merger resulted in an unusual circumstance for me—coaching fifteen leaders in the same organization as they transitioned to a different culture and new systems. I observed over the next twelve months that the resilient leaders were able to acknowledge the uncertainty and stress, then continue to develop their careers in the direction they wanted. Other individuals, lacking resilience, focused on the doom and gloom of the merger, which became a barrier to finding new roles, whether inside or outside the company. I identified five common strategies that these resilient people possessed as part of their career toolbox. I was amazed at how these strategies eased my own business transition. Within one month of leaving the organization where I had spent fifteen years, I had a major new training client and fifteen new leadership-coaching clients. I continue to focus on the five strategies with my leadership-coaching clients: well-being, self-awareness, brand, connection, and innovation. Well-being is about exercise, nutrition, sleep, dealing with stressors, making opportunities for fun, and relaxation—all those factors that can be a wellspring of energy if paid attention to. Self-awareness includes knowing your purpose so you can align your career with it, developing and maintaining a growth mindset, and learning your own personality type so you can deal effectively with others.