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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

Looking for a job? 4 Tips on How Not to be Stupid and Lazy

January 26, 2009 /3 Comments/in Career, Entrepreneur /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s a tough economy. Jobs are scarce and becoming harder to find. The talent pool is extremely deep especially given the abundance of MBAs we’ve minted over the past few years (although everyone knows I don’t care about your degree). To land that new job, it’s increasingly important to stand out from the crowd and have truly distinctive capabilities to offer. But I don’t want to talk about that today (I know – once again I’ve let you down). No. Instead I’m going to talk about the easiest ways to blow your opportunity. The overarching message of this post is don’t be stupid or lazy. Today we’re talking about the job search equivalents of having spinach in your teeth (hence the photo which I also included and forced the tie-in to the post because I think the picture is hilarious). “Gee Mike, again, that seems like an obvious point. Why are you writing about it?” To be honest? It’s because I see plenty of stupid and lazy out there and I want to keep my loyal readers from making some of these mistakes. Now let’s start with stupid and lazy.

Small is the New Big for Interns

January 22, 2009 /4 Comments/in Career /by Mike Figliuolo

How incredibly glorious is it to intern at Goldman Sachs? Or Google? Microsoft? Apple? I mean, hey, you’ll have a huge brand name on your resume when you eventually seek employment. You’ll work at beautiful corporate headquarters next to movers and shakers. How much better can it get? News flash – as a hiring manager I don’t care where you did your internship (and to be clear – in my “corporate” days I hired plenty of new hires who had prior internship experience). Want to learn more about this perspective? I’ve graciously been asked to elaborate on www.internshipratings.com. You can read the rest of the article here. I also encourage you to check out the rest of their site and their blog. They have wonderful advice both for those seeking internships as well as those offering them. I hope you enjoy the article. If you’re looking for an internship opportunity, we here at thoughtLEADERS have a few available. For more details, read about the positions HERE and HERE (there are two separate postings). – Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Influencing Your Career – Ask, Don’t Tell

January 19, 2009 /6 Comments/in Career, Communications /by Mike Figliuolo

If you’re paying attention, life can teach you wonderful little lessons along the way. Hopefully this is one of them and you don’t make the mistake a colleague of mine made. During my army days (about 10 years and 20 pounds ago) there would come a time on a duty assignment where you “came down on orders.” That’s an armyism for “we’re gonna send you someplace else because we know what’s best for you.” It was often done under the auspices of NOTA (Needs of the Army). I was a senior lieutenant stationed at beautiful and majestic Fort Carson, Colorado. I could literally walk out my back door and look at the Rockies and fish for trout on Pike’s Peak. One day my crusty old First Sergeant (who I’m pretty sure served alongside Audie Murphy) came into my office and announced “you’ve come down on orders, sir.” He smirked. That’s when things got interesting.

Happy Bloggiversary! A Leadership Principles Blast from the Past

January 12, 2009 /1 Comment/in About Us, Business Toolkit, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Happy Bloggiversary! A year. Wow. This blog has been around for a year now (and I’m sure some of you will go check the original post dates and say “it started in OCT 07” but I backdated some of the original posts…). It’s been a wonderful learning experience and I’ve met a ton of wonderful people (YOU!) along the way. In honor of the bloggiversary, I’m thrilled to bring you the first series of posts I wrote here on a set of leadership principles you can use in your day to day job. If you’ve already read them (the original set, not the set we covered starting this past October), read them again – they never get old. I’d also like to ask your help. If you’ve enjoyed this blog over the past year, I’m thrilled. In return for the tips, smiles, and perspectives we’ve provided you, I’d like to ask a simple favor. Our biggest challenge is attracting new readers (they tend to retain extremely well once they get here). I’d ask that each of you let a few of your friends or colleagues know about us and invite them to join our ranks of readers (almost 400 subscribers now). I’m not asking a lot – I’m simply asking you to spread the word. I thank you in advance for your help on this. We’ve typed over 100 posts for your enjoyment – we’re asking you to type a few emails to return the favor (I’m good at the guilt thing – I was raised in an Italian Catholic household). Now to the good stuff. Straight from the archives, here are the original leadership principles we published here.

Dale Dauten: Leave ’em wanting more so they’ll want you to present more often

January 5, 2009 /6 Comments/in Communications, Guest Blogger /by Mike Figliuolo

My new friend Dale Dauten wrote the following column after we met at a conference where he heard me speak. This column was originally published in The Arizona Daily Star. He brings some great perspectives to the table. Here’s Dale: Dale Dauten: Leave ’em wanting more so they’ll want you to present more often “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Dorothy Parker Walt Disney once pointed out that the key to success is to do something so well that people will pay to see you do it again. So, using that as a standard, here’s the question: When was the last time you saw a business presentation that you would pay to see again? OK, that’s too much to ask. How about this: When was the last time you saw a presentation that you’d want to sit through twice? If you’re a corporate employee, wouldn’t it be grand if your management actually looked forward to having you present instead of just pretending to look interested (after announcing just before you begin that they’d love to stay longer, but they have an important conference call in 15 minutes)?

Ask, But Within Reason – The 11th Leadership Principle

December 29, 2008 /2 Comments/in Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

This spin through the eleven Leadership Principles has been a fun journey. These principles are a wonderful touchstone for reminding yourself how to lead your team effectively and successfully. This post concludes that series. Let’s imagine you’ve just taken over your business unit. Your staff turnover is running 58% and right now you’re short-staffed by 20%. Three of your eight direct report manager slots are vacant (and have been for 6 months). Scary, isn’t it? Now here’s the kicker – your boss comes to you and asks you to bump your profit commitment for next year up by 10% AND to increase your market share goal by 5%. His rationale is you’re a great leader and he knows you read the thoughtLEADERS blog (couldn’t resist). What do you do? He seems to be asking the impossible, if not the insane. My recommendation: call on the 11th Leadership Principle: employ your unit in accordance with its capabilities. So how exactly does that principle help in this case? Let’s discuss…

Leadership Perspectives: “Steermanship” – Guest Blogger

December 22, 2008 /3 Comments/in Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

I am again pleased to have Bill Malkemes as a guest blogger this week. You’ll find some background on Bill at the end of this post. Enough rambling – here are Bill’s thoughts: I was reading some of the leadership material on this blog. Since I have seen Mike in action mentoring young leaders at a National Conference on Ethics in America (and was pretty impressed with his results), I thought I would see if I could write a short message at a macro level that may be useful to other readers then talk about a subject or two at the micro level. In my case I can be referred to as an “experienced” leader. As the head of my organization of high achievers it can be quite competitive for assignment of key tasks and appropriate recognition of accomplishments. In younger days it was fun to get into the details and solutions for the tasks, but now I am needed more in the management mode. So what I try to do is keep the organization vibrant with new and exciting work, appoint task leads in a fair manner, and turn them loose. I don’t call what I do leadership, although leadership does take different shapes and forms. From my perspective, I call it “steermanship.” When the work comes to you as a manager or task leader, assess the starting status and the end state that is needed. With education and experience you also get a feel for the complexity of the work and key scheduling and/or decision points that you may have to assess along the way. Although you may have a way you would do the job, I have found it enlightening to give someone the job and desired end state and have them come up with the plan, […]

Do Anything! Just Do It Now! – The 10th Leadership Principle

December 15, 2008 /6 Comments/in Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Ever seen The Outsiders? After you get over the number of famous actors crammed into it with massive amounts of Crisco in their hair (Cruise, Swayze, Lowe, Dillon, Macchio, Estevez, Diane Lane – alright, she didn’t have Crisco in her hair) you get to see the one defining scene. Ponyboy and Johnny are on the lam from the man. They’re hiding out in an abandoned church. Then it happens. For some reason a school bus full of kids is visiting the boarded up abandoned church for a school field trip (and I thought going to the museum was lame when I was a kid). Somehow the church catches fire and several children are trapped inside (apparently there weren’t as many lawyers in the 50’s because that setup screams negligence lawsuit). Ponyboy and Johnny roll up on the scene as the flames roar. Then Ponyboy does it – he demonstrates the 10th Leadership Principle in the blink of an eye. The principle is “make sound and timely decisions.” Ponyboy quickly assesses the situation and charges the building. Johnny follows without hesitation. They break into the building and save the kids from the fire. Ultimately, however, their heroic efforts cost Johnny his life.

Seven Things Most People Don’t Know About Me

December 11, 2008 /11 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

So this is a bit of a “non-traditional” post for this blog but a great idea sent to me by Lisa Hoffmann. It’s clear that blogging, twittering, linking in, facebooking, etc. are more about the conversation and relationships than traditional websites. It’s about personalization (which is a huge aspect of leadership). Knowing someone as an individual is a foundation for closer relationships and more effective leadership. It also enhances the probability that you’ll learn more rapidly because you’re better at integrating more perspectives into your decision making processes. To that end, I’m sharing seven things you may not know about me in an effort for you to get to understand the man behind the blog a little better. I’m also going to suggest seven other people you should get to know and understand. So here goes – 7 things you might not know about Mike Figliuolo:

Team Training – The 9th Leadership Principle

December 8, 2008 /4 Comments/in Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Want your team to be more successful? Try training them. Seriously. I know the economy is terrible and funds are tight but the WORST mistake you can make is skimping on your people and their development. “Gee Mike, they’re not going to change jobs in this economy so why invest?” They’re not going to change NOW but as soon as the economy picks back up, they’re gone. They’ll head to organizations that want to develop them If you saw the last poll we ran here, growth opportunities was the #1 driver of job satisfaction and idiot bosses were the #1 reason for leaving a job. Coincidence? Um… no. Training your people as a team is a critical Leadership Principle (#9 for that matter but not 9th in importance). Not only do you have to train them to be competent at what they do, you should be succession planning, building their skills and, most importantly, excessively emphasizing that you succeed or fail as a team. Why? How? Let’s discuss. First, you have to be trained. Your people follow your example and you want them to see you’re committed to development. First you have to get over yourself and accept that you need training too. The perils of thinking you’re too smart are your team doesn’t believe you when you say you’re committed to their development and you become a worthless dinosaur over time.

Some Families & Little Kids Need YOUR Help!

December 5, 2008 /5 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Upcoming Events /by Mike Figliuolo

Please note – the contribution window for this has closed. Thanks to all who supported the effort. Just because this event is closed doesn’t mean you can’t help. Go volunteer somewhere. Donate. Make someone else’s life better. Thanks! Let’s face it – you’re pretty fortunate. You’re reading this by accessing the Internet over your laptop while sitting in the comfort of your home drinking your Starbucks quad shot venti caramel macchiato. Imagine NOT being able to pay for Internet access. Imagine NOT having your laptop. Imagine NOT being in your home because you no longer have one. Pretty grim, huh? Well that’s EXACTLY the situation some folks I’d like to help are in. The Ohio State – Marion Psychology Club is sponsoring the Giving Tree Project, in which we all can help needy families during the holiday season. The families being helped are the victims of domestic violence. They’ve escaped from some terrible situations in their homes sometimes with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. They’ve found shelter and protection at Turning Point Domestic Abuse Shelter. They need YOUR help. Due to a difficult economy, the project to give them a happy holiday has not raised as much money as they’d like. I’m asking your help to solve that problem. I’m asking you to donate whatever you can to your local shelter. All funds will be used to purchase items these families desperately need (and yes, I’m kicking in a nice chunk of change too). Some of the gifts the families have requested are socks for a six year old little girl whose favorite color is purple (yes… she simply wants SOCKS for Christmas!). Another is a size 14 boys coat (the child only wants to be warm). One of the mothers is pregnant and due with a […]

Increasing Responsibility In Your Team – the 8th Leadership Principle

December 1, 2008 /2 Comments/in Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

This is perhaps the most challenging Leadership Principle because it requires you to let go, trust someone else, and lose control of the ultimate outcome. Who’s scared? I am (and have been on several occasions). Losing control can be terrifying but it’s the key to successfully implementing this principle. You know you’re successfully at the edge of control when you’re shouting like Scotty on Star Trek (“I can’t hold her cap’n! She’s breaking up!”). Developing a sense of responsibility in your subordinates and team members requires YOU to act differently before they can. This principle is all about giving your team opportunities to learn and grow. It demonstrates your interest in their growth as a professional and proves how much you trust them to work on things that really matter. Rather than belabor a long drawn out explanation of why it’s important and uncomfortable to give people responsibility (and assume risk in doing so), I encourage you to read this previous post on leading through risk-taking. Remember – your job as a leader is to set direction, provide encouragement, and take corrective action when things aren’t going well (notice I didn’t say “perform every task yourself”). Before we explore why this principle is so important, allow me to share an example of me failing at it.