Mike Figliuolo – Page 103 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

Why “Making the Numbers” is Stupid (Part 3 of 3: Stupidity Prevention Medicine)

July 21, 2008 /1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

In our last two sessions together, we explored how “expectations” can create a poisonous environment whereby the numbers dominate rational business decision making. We also covered some of my favorite self-defeating behaviors that can result from such a maniacal focus on the numbers. Unlike a typical critic though, I won’t simply point to a problem and walk away. Instead, I’m obligated to give you some thoughts and tools to help you solve these problems (after all, that’s what we at thoughtLEADERS are all about – real world, practical tools that can make your organization perform better). Business is a marathon. A long painful one but there’s only one goal – making it through that gruelingly long journey. Unfortunately in business, there’s no finish line. I won’t deny it’s easy to lose sight of the goal when the numerical mileposts on the way there take on a life of their own. As an aside, the reason those numbers take on such a huge presence in our lives is because they’re typically directly linked to OUR numbers (read: our paychecks and our bonuses). That close connection to something so incredibly personal makes it difficult to see “the numbers” as simply mile-markers on the way to a strategic objective (which in turn leads to the dumb behaviors outlined in the last post). That said, there are a few ways to mitigate these kinds of problems.

Why “Making the Numbers” is Stupid (Part 2 of 3: Ten Stoopid Short-Term Behaviors)

July 17, 2008 /1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

In my last post, I covered the moronic tyranny of expectations. Hopefully it’s apparent how external pressures can get an organization to focus on the wrong thing – the mile marker rather than the destination. Once your organization falls into that trap, you’re sure to see some of the following behaviors (or ones of similar colossal stupidity). These behaviors eventually become part of the culture because by performing them, the organization is simply mortgaging its future to bring forward good performance into the current period. Doing so helps meet near term expectations but then creates an even higher hurdle to meet expectations in the next period. It goes on and on until the organization crashes in a blistering ball of flames and worthless stock options (can you say Worldcom? Enron?). So without further ado, I give you some of my all-time favorite moronic business behaviors guaranteed to help you make your numbers today at the expense of your long term strategy tomorrow:

Why “Making the Numbers” is Stupid (Part 1 of 3: The Tyranny of “Expectations”)

July 14, 2008 /2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Let me be clear: I’m going to be pretty blasphemous in this post. Then again, I hope you expect nothing less from me. “Making the numbers” is stupid. It’s a crutch for being simple-minded and weak-spined. At worst, it’s a stick to beat people with which invariably leads to suboptimal, nay, outright stupid behavior. It’s one of the surest ways to guarantee you mortgage the future of your business if you allow the deleterious effects of a “make the numbers” mindset take hold. I acknowledge many of you who have responsibility for P&Ls or cost centers are about to have aneurysms right now. Chillax. I’ll ‘splain Lucy… This is too large a topic to adequately cover in a single sitting so I’m breaking it into three digestible posts. And yes, you’ll have to wait for the second and third installments… First we’ll have to look at how we get into this situation where numbers dominate rational business decision making. Second, we’ll explore the perverse behaviors that result. Finally, I’ll offer a few thoughts on how to get off the psychotic hamster wheel of numerical doom.

Joseph Michelli on Distinctive Service and Seeing the Future – Guest Blogger

July 7, 2008 /0 Comments/in Books, Customer Service, Guest Blogger, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s an honor and a privilege to bring you some thoughts from bestselling author Dr. Joseph Michelli (author of The Starbucks Experience) on using distinctive service as a strategic competitive advantage. Enough of me… here’s Joseph. We all know businesses that at one time dominated an industry. Whether it was a company like Polaroid which kept a strangle hold on instantly available pictures or Ford Motor Company with its early market prominence, many great businesses ultimately have struggled to maintain their relevance to the customer. As Mike shared with you in an earlier blog post, he and I attended an NYU/Ritz-Carlton Leadership Training course together. That program, along with an additional year of access to leadership at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, reinforced for me the importance of maintaining a constant focus on the changing wants of the customer. In my just released book, The New Gold Standard – 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, I address this issue of relevance through a business principle I termed “Define and Refine.” Much of the historic success of The Ritz-Carlton can be linked to its well-defined service culture complete with a compact and operational mission statement, a credo card carried by all employees, and daily line-ups reinforcing corporate values for every staff member. Given this tightly defined culture and iconic business status, brand relevance became a major challenge for The Ritz-Carlton.

You’ve Been Pwned!

June 30, 2008 /4 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle /by Mike Figliuolo

Given this is a short 4th of July week and I’m sure you (like me) don’t want to use too many brain cells, I figure we’ll keep it light and have some fun. Then again, fun is what it’s all about, isn’t it? So many times we while away the days being the consummate professional. We read professional journals. We write professional messages. We hold professional meetings. We wear professional clothes. Sometimes we push the limits and read SEMI-professional blogs like this one (which is a wonderful little guilty pleasure). Unfortunately this professionalism bleeds over into everything we do. Professionalism eventually becomes the ultimate buzzkill. And once that happens, life sucks. Allow me to illustrate. My son’s school has a huge outdoor games at the end of the year. There’s a picnic, games, blow-up climbing thingies, etc. Parents are invited. Here’s the first rub – it occurs during the day therefore a lot of parents don’t attend due to work. For some, that’s a reasonable reason to miss the event. For others who have flexibility, it was a lame excuse.

5 Resume Myths Debunked

June 25, 2008 /2 Comments/in Career /by Mike Figliuolo

Judging from the thousands of books and hundreds of thousands of websites on the topic, you’d think the resume is the be-all, end-all of human existence. Thousands of pages written about one or two simple pages of text. There are books, websites, training courses, DVDs and how-to guides on the subject ad nauseum. Here’s the dirty little secret – a lot of it is snake oil. Indulge me while I debunkify a la Mythbusters. Strap yourself in – I’m about to challenge “reality” which just might cause a quantum shift in the wasted-time-polishing-a-resume/job availability continuum… 1. Your resume alone can land you a job. Wrong. Too many people spend so much time and effort on their paper because they believe it is the magical key to the six figure job offer. It doesn’t get you the job. It gets you a phone call and serves as a conversation piece during interviews. If you submit your resume and get a phone call, you’ve succeeded. You’ve cut through the clutter and grabbed their attention. They’re interested in spending time getting to know you. I’ve never heard of someone landing a job with nothing but a resume (and if you have, I’d submit said hiring company is terrible at candidate diligence).

The Learning Opportunity

June 22, 2008 /0 Comments/in Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Ed Ruggero, author of The Leader’s Compass, returned the guest blog favor (click here to read Ed’s post on this blog) and has published my post about some of my screw ups as a young tank platoon leader. To read about tanks, swamps, ammo fires and butt chewings (and yes, there are some good leadership lessons in there), check out my post on Ed’s blog: MyLeadersCompass.com. – Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

3 Simple Steps for Driving Your Audience to Action

June 20, 2008 /0 Comments/in Communications, Guest Blogger /by Mike Figliuolo

Brian Clark, the founder of Copyblogger, has been gracious enough to have me as a guest blogger. The article is about how you can communicate and persuade more effectively through better audience connections. Those connections are built by starting with the audience and working backwards. To read about Hobbes, WIFY, and pushing buttons, check out my post on Copyblogger. Copyblogger has over 37,000 subscribers and over 100,000 unique monthly site visitors. The Guardian named Copyblogger one of the world’s 50 most powerful blogs. Advertising Age ranks Copyblogger as a top 5 blog about marketing. Technorati says Copyblogger is one of the 50 most popular blogs in the world, and a top 20 favorite among readers. The editors of Performancing honored Copyblogger founder and editor Brian Clark by naming him the most influential blogger of 2007, and he came in at number 30 among the 50 most influential bloggers compiled by top blogger Leo Babauta. In other words, Copyblogger is a pretty reputable place to get published. I’m grateful to Brian for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with his readers. – Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC Photo: Number 3 by Richard Whitaker

Hey Mr. Smartypants!

June 18, 2008 /4 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

You’re not as smart as you think you are. Seriously. I mean, you’re bright and literate but you’re really not as smart as you think. Neither am I. See, the thing is, as soon as you start walking around with your smartypants on, you expose yourself to the risk of career irrelevance. The world changes. Every day. The risk of thinking you’re smart is that you think you don’t need to learn anything new or change. Once that happens, you’ve doomed yourself to irrelevance just like the amazing car phone (remember those?). Smart people know a lot. Heck – some of them think they know everything (sort of like Lumbergh). They won’t tell you that because it’s boorish but trust me, they think it even at some subliminal level. You know it’s true. Because of that, they’re loathe to learn something new because by definition it means they don’t know everything. It’s easier to know it all by refusing to admit there’s anything new to know. By now, Mr. or Mrs. Smartypants has stopped reading because they know the lesson or suggestion is coming and well, gee… they already know it all so there’s no point in them continuing with the rest of the post. If you’re not a smartypants, keep reading.

Short Term Loss, Long Term Customer(s)

June 17, 2008 /3 Comments/in Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

It happened again. Not once, not twice… but three times in one week. No, I didn’t get more speeding tickets. I had three outstanding customer service experiences. So I’m on my way to a client engagement one morning. Of course, the hotel (which was fantastic – a newly renovated Hilton in Pittsburgh. I highly recommend it) did not account for my coffee drinking preferences. There were only two of the little LaVazza coffee packets (I need about six to get going – it’s a nasty habit). I downed them but it still wasn’t enough. I strolled over to the client site and stopped by the nondescript little coffee shop in the lobby. No, believe it or not it wasn’t a Starbucks despite their ubiquity. This place is called Buon Giorno and it’s located in the lobby of the ABSC building in downtown Pittsburgh (near North Shore Center by PNC Park). I looked over the fresh pastries and bagels but I was on a mission – coffee. The young lady behind the counter greeted me with a warm hello in between a lively discussion in a foreign Eastern European language I didn’t understand. She was arguing with someone unseen behind the back counter. I opened my wallet to do a cash check and saw nothing but blackness and old receipts. My eldest daughter had hit the BOD without me knowing it (Bank Of Dad). No cash whatsoever but I’m sure she enjoyed her trip to the mall. I asked the lady “do you take plastic?” You know what the answer was. My quest for caffeine screeched to a thundering halt.

New Book Recommendation – The New Gold Standard

June 16, 2008 /2 Comments/in About Us, Books, Customer Service /by Mike Figliuolo

Heads up all of you who love to better understand customer service as well as those of you who love to read! Dr. Joseph Michelli (author of The Starbucks Experience) has released his newest book on The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The book is called The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. I actually had the privilege of attending the same training session at the Ritz-Carlton as Dr. Michelli did when he was doing his research. I’m even quoted in the book (you have to read it to see what I had to say)! As all of you know, I’m pretty big on customer service, so this book is a must read from where I sit. I know you’ll value the insights he provides because I was there when he was gathering them. The Ritz-Carlton is a unique place we can all learn something from. Rather than me trying to explain what you’ll be getting out of the book, I’d rather let the professionals do it so here goes: Discover the secrets of world-class leadership!

Achieving Focus – Guest Blogger

June 12, 2008 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m thrilled to bring you Ed Ruggero as a guest blogger this week. You’ll find some background on Ed at the end of the post. I hope you enjoy his thoughts as much as I do. Here’s Ed: Recently I watched some paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division train for deployment to Iraq. At one training site engineers had constructed a roofless house with thick walls—plywood covering stacked tires—some fifteen feet high and topped with a catwalk for observers. Working in groups of five, the paratroopers gathered by the entrance in tight formations, chest to back, each man keenly aware of everyone’s location. On a signal from the leader—usually the second man in line—the point man battered open the first door and the team rushed in. They moved quickly and methodically from room to room, rifles shoulder high, firing disciplined bursts of three rounds at life-sized targets positioned inside. Often the muzzles of their weapons were just a foot away from a buddy. The first man in had to trust that the second man would immediately cover the other side of the room—the blind spot. Any one of them acting carelessly might have shot a buddy in the back. So, of necessity, the paratroopers’ movements were well-choreographed—quick and deadly. When I told my wife about the exercise, she asked if I’d ever trained with live ammunition during my time in the Army, and I said I had. “What was that like?” she wanted to know. “Well, working with live ammunition flying all over the place tends to focus your thinking,” I said.