Mike Figliuolo – Page 18 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

Balancing Risk and Empowerment in Decision Making

November 15, 2017 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Decision making is a trade-off between risk and time. As leaders, we need to create an environment where our people feel free to make decisions but that we don’t let them create too much risk. As leaders, we say we want our people to be empowered and to go out and make decisions. We say we’re okay with them making mistakes and we’ll still support them making decisions on their own. But not really. I’m lucky to have a huge leadership lab in the form of the SmartBrief on Leadership weekly pulse poll. Every week I ask a leadership-related question and thousands of people respond to those polls. Sometimes I get a little sneaky and conduct my own experiments over the period of a few weeks. I conducted one of these experiments recently. First I asked “Would you rather have a team member make decisions and make mistakes or make no decisions and leave that up to you?” Unsurprisingly, all us empowering leaders were eager to give our team members the latitude to make decisions and make mistakes. 96% of respondents said they’d rather have a team member make a decision even if they make mistakes. A measly 4% of respondents wanted the team to leave all decisions up to them. I observed we want our team members to take the initiative, take action and move things forward, even if they make mistakes. It is incumbent upon us as leaders to ensure that, when they do make mistakes, we realize we gave them the latitude to take action — handling the mistakes in that context accordingly. While we need to hold them accountable for the mistake, we also need to ensure they learn from it and do so in a way that we don’t make them afraid to make more […]

7 Irrefutable Skills That Top Leaders and High Achievers Have Mastered

November 13, 2017 /2 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

High achievers and top leaders share many traits like persistence, passion, purpose, principles, persuasion, and performance. Do you possess these qualities too? Today’s post is by Andreas Jones, author of Battle Tested Leadership (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Most leaders and high achievers are where they are today mainly due to the hard work and dedication they have put into ensuring they become successful. However, the majority of the masses think otherwise: they have this notion that this elite group of leaders and high achievers reached such level as a result of luck or opportunity that they were “privileged” to have. This notion, however, is not entirely correct because success does not happen abruptly; it takes preparation on the part of the individual to grab whatever opportunity that comes up to become successful. There are specific attributes that cut across this group of high performers, which they have cultivated and mastered through the years to place them at the positions that they are currently. I’d like to share seven irrefutable skills that have been mastered by high performing individuals in society today. Undeniable Persistence First on the list is “persistence.” As common as the word is, it is still a rare trait in most people. High achievers and top leaders in our society today know how valuable this trait is. It is not everybody that can continue on a journey or process in spite of the challenges that they encounter in the process. There’s a popular quote that says: “Quitters never win, and winners never quit,” this is not far from the truth; because when other skills fail to keep one going, it is persistence and passion that comes to the rescue. Although they might face serious setbacks and obstacles that can discourage the average person, high performers know […]

How rigorous is your approach to pricing your products or services?

November 9, 2017 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Poll, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How rigorous is your approach to pricing your products or services? – Very — we’re pretty analytical and rigorous about it: 58% – Somewhat — we do some analysis and occasionally focus on it: 29% – Not very — we infrequently analyze and focus on pricing: 8% – Not at all — we slap a price tag on it and sell, sell, sell!: 4% The Power of Pricing. An occasional focus on pricing isn’t enough. It’s perhaps one of the biggest improvement levers you have at your disposal. For traditional businesses, a 1% pricing improvement can yield a 10% profit improvement. How can you afford not to be rigorous about pricing? Not only should you evaluate how much you’re pricing – you should also consider your pricing model. The way you price your products could be less than effective. Invest the time in looking at your pricing model and the actual prices themselves. You (and your shareholders) will be happy you did! 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!

Protecting Yourself from Fraud and Identity Theft

November 8, 2017 /0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

You’re facing a much larger risk right now than you might be aware of. The odds of having your identity stolen and facing fraud committed in your name is at an all-time high. But you can do something about it if you act quickly If I told you someone was stealing money and harming your company’s reputation, you would take action pretty quickly, right? Why don’t you do the same thing with your own money and reputation? “Oh, fraud and identity theft won’t affect me. There are so many people out there to steal from.” Wrong. I don’t often write on “personal” topics but this is one that can affect your reputation, your job prospects, and it can drain your time and energy which will affect your job performance. This is serious stuff. Pay attention and take action. For context, I used to work in the credit card industry. I understand fraud, credit scores, credit bureaus, and identity theft. I know how it happens and I know what the impact can be. And right now, you’re at risk of having your identity stolen. Recently Equifax reported that 143 MILLION personal records had been stolen. That includes social security numbers, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and who knows what else. With only 300 million people in the US, there’s a pretty high probability your personal information was compromised. Mine was. My parents’ was. My daughter’s was. This is real folks. The people who stole that information fully intend on using it to take out new lines of credit in someone else’s name, max that credit out, and walk away from the mess having stolen money and goods from the credit card companies and banks. “I don’t care. It’s not my money.” you might think. No. It’s not. But it’s your name. Those […]

Increase Diversity by Focusing on Talent

November 7, 2017 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

In staffing a new facility, by emphasizing talent rather than experience, we eliminated a major barrier to employment and increased our diversity. Can you take the same approach and have the same impact on your organization? Today’s post is by Larry Sternberg, co-author of Managing to Make a Difference (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Despite research concluding that experience is a poor predictor of professional success(1), in too many situations, organizations designate experience as an absolute “must have,” a ticket to admission, in the hiring process. But lack of experience is the only deficiency that is guaranteed to correct itself over time. If you hire someone today who has zero experience, I guarantee you that three years from now he or she will have three years of experience. In most cases (I know there are exceptions) elevating experience to a “must have” is simply unwise. In the worst cases, experience requirements become a significant barrier to employment and diminish diversity. But organizations continue to overemphasize experience anyway. In the mid 1980’s I was Vice President of Human Resources for a newly formed company, The Portman Hotel Company, which was owned by the well-known architect and real estate developer, John Portman. Our first hotel was under construction near Union Square in San Francisco. Mr. Portman made it clear that he expected us to deliver truly extraordinary service. We, the operating team, were challenged to go beyond the current thinking about how to run a luxury hotel. And we were not merely encouraged to do so – we were supported. Extraordinary service requires extraordinary people. We had to hire 350 people to staff this hotel, and it was evident to us that traditional methods of recruiting and interviewing candidates were inadequate for this challenge. We engaged a firm that specialized in […]

What is your preference with respect to leadership training?

November 2, 2017 /0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: What is your preference with respect to leadership training? – I’d like to attend leadership training in-person: 75% – I’d like to take leadership training by video course: 7% – I’d like to do “on the job” versus formal leadership training: 14% – I’d like to construct self-led leadership training: 4% Live still thrives. While we hear a lot about “blended learning,” “scalable and distributed” offerings, and online training, your learners have a very clear and strong preference for in-person training. Why? As someone who has trained literally thousands of people in our classroom courses, I know it’s about the interaction and focused learning. Being in a room focused on one subject for 4 to 8 hours gets your brain in the right space to learn. You also have immediate access to an expert trainer who can answer your questions. While video and distributed learning are solid reinforcement mechanisms, clearly the classroom still rules. 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!

Getting Paid to Execute Your Strategy

November 1, 2017 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

If incentives aren’t aligned with your strategy, the likelihood of you reaching your objectives is pretty low. Be sure you clearly link your incentive plan to the strategic outcomes you’re trying to achieve. People do what they get paid to do. If incentives aren’t aligned with your goals and strategic outcomes, you’re not going to get the results you want. After you’ve defined the initiatives you want to pursue, laid out the priorities for the organization, and set goals, you have to link individual and team incentives to the successful completion of those activities. This may require changing compensation plans or offering bonuses contingent upon execution of strategic objectives. I had one client that was trying to make a massive culture shift. They were moving from a mindset where it was great to drive sales to one where they wanted to improve margin. Everyone’s incentive plan was tied to sales. The organization realized no matter how badly they wanted their sales reps to focus on selling more profitable business, they would never get there if they didn’t change the sales compensation plan. So they did. They said “No longer will you get incentive only based on sales. We’re also going to measure the profitability of the products and contracts that you sell.” Behavior changed pretty fast, and they achieved that strategic objective of expanding their margins. Using Incentives to Drive the Right Behaviors One organization I worked for had a bunch of field technicians. Those technicians were measured on their daily production. The incentive was based upon how much work the tech got done in an eight hour period. Our organization had a strategic shift where we realized production matters, but we really needed to focus more on retention. We were losing too many customers. We knew the way our […]

Overcoming Strategy Communication Pitfalls

October 30, 2017 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Strategy execution is still a relatively new topic in business and leaders struggle how to do it. They face many execution challenges and the top one is communicating the strategy. If you understand the most common pitfalls in communication, hopefully you can avoid them. Today’s post is by Robin Speculand, author of Excellence in Execution (CLICK HERE to get your copy). What are your preferences? Apple or Galaxy phones? Working in the morning or at night? Tea or coffee? Work alone or in a group? Window or aisle seat on the plane? Just as everyone will answer these questions based on their own preferences, people have their own ways of answering the call to executing a new strategy. Leaders who achieve excellence in execution recognize this as they prepare to communicate a new strategy. They consider how to respond to people’s different preferences and strive to create the right first impression. Consider that you never get a second chance to start a good execution. As an essential business topic, strategy execution is in its infancy. Yet it’s quickly evolving as leaders demand more knowledge, structure and resources on how to achieve it. When they address how to execute strategy, it’s not always with the same energy, drive and conviction they applied to crafting it. Often, they’re missing the skills and tools needed to excel in their execution efforts. A leadership team doesn’t walk into a conference room and declare, “Let’s create a bad strategy!” Although they believe they have crafted a winning strategy by the end of the planning, they only know if it’s good once it’s executed.

How empowered do you feel to make decisions affecting your team?

October 26, 2017 /0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How empowered do you feel to make decisions affecting your team? – Very — I’m in complete control: 21% – Mostly — I make all but a few key decisions: 39% – Not very — my leaders limit the decisions I can make: 26% – Not at all — I barely get to decide anything: 15% A lack of power. Seems like a lot (41%) of you have little decision making power. That has to be frustrating – both for you and for your leaders. Most leaders I know want their team members to be empowered and to take initiative. If you feel like you can’t make decisions, ask yourself if those are self-limiting beliefs. Many of your leaders want you to take initiative. Talk with them about decision parameters where you can make the call within a certain set of boundaries. They’ll be happy to make fewer decisions to let you lead the charge. If you simply assume you can’t make decisions without confirming that fact, both you and your boss might be unnecessarily frustrated. 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!

Beating the Odds by Writing Your Own Script

October 23, 2017 /1 Comment/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Sometimes the best way to come up with a creative solution to an impossible problem is to change the problem definition to create more degrees of freedom. When it looks like there’s no solution, here is a practical strategy to break through the other side by simply changing the rules. Today’s post is by Andy Cohen, author of Challenge Your Assumptions, Change Your World (CLICK HERE to get your copy). There are times in business when it feels like the evil empire is working against you. You inherit unrealistic budgets. You are forced to work with people who continually slow down your efforts. You have a great product but lack distribution. In times like these, it pays to consider the following story on how to challenge dangerous assumptions in order to turn the odds around and stack them in your favor. And it begins with the making of the first James Bond movie, Dr. No. Dr. No and His Aquarium Ken Adam was at the forefront of film history as the production designer for the original James Bond series. He introduced us to many of Bond’s signature gadgets including: an Aston Martin with real ejection seats and jetpacks that could lift a man a hundred feet into the air. One of Adam’s greatest challenges, however, was on the set design of the first James Bond film, Dr. No. For those who don’t remember, Dr. No introduced Sean Connery as 007, who upon investigating suspicious activity in Jamaica, ends up disrupting the villainous mission of a diabolical scientist whose name is the title of the film. All the clues lead Bond onto a mysterious island inhabited by a fire-breathing dragon. There he encounters the beautiful Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) diving for shells. Together they confront the dragon, a flame-throwing tank commanded […]

Is your organization rigorous about succession planning?

October 19, 2017 /0 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Poll, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: Is your organization rigorous about succession planning? – Yes. We have a thorough process for succession planning: 10% – Kind of. We do succession planning only for key roles: 38% – No. When there’s a hole, we’ll figure it out: 52% Waiting for a crisis. It’s scary to think that over half of you don’t have a plan for what happens when someone departs your organization. A key player going down can cause massive disruptions to your business, lost customers, operational risks and a host of other issues. Leaders are responsible for the smooth operation of their organization. This means sitting down and doing contingency planning for events they know will happen. Every person will leave their role whether to quitting, promotion or reorganization. Spend some time laying out a backup plan for when each team member departs. It’ll help you fill those open spots more quickly when the crisis eventually occurs. 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!

Can Thought Leadership Be Quantified and Measured? Oh YES!

October 16, 2017 /0 Comments/in Books, Career, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

The ROI of thought leadership can be hard to quantify but there is definitely a return on the investment. Positioning yourself as an expert carries huge benefits. Today’s post is by Ken Lizotte, author of The Speaker’s Edge (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Positioning yourself and your firm as a leading edge thinker and practitioner in your field involves numerous “thoughtleading” actions, e.g., publishing your ideas, speaking to targeted groups, guesting on podcasts and radio, and so forth. While all that may sound fun (or exhausting!), choosing to implement such a unique strategy may seem rife with risk, as in, ah … does it really work? Why go to the lengthy and daunting challenge of writing and publishing a book, or a series of books, if, in the end, nothing will come of it? The same holds true with speaking engagements, and media appearances. Will any or all of these tactics ever show concrete results? In other words, can a thoughtleading strategy be realistically quantified, measured and translated into a reliable return-on-investment? Happily, the answer is to this last query is… YES! Studies have shown that a quantifiable ROI of thoughtleading can in fact be discerned, although getting to the heart of the matter first requires understanding that traditional methods of measuring ROI may not always apply, due largely to the assumptions and procedures adopted by traditional ROI calculations. Instead, our current economy, with its growing emphasis on intellect-based services, as opposed to three-dimensional manufactured goods, demands alternative methods of measurement. This new equation involves the now well-recognized value of intellectual capital (or IC).