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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

How well do you take on the role of being an informal leader?

September 8, 2016 /0 Comments/in Communications, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How well do you take on the role of being an informal leader without direct authority? – Very — I regularly step into leadership roles and lead informally: 74% – Somewhat — I occasionally step into informal leadership roles : 23% – Not very — I tend to shy away from assuming informal leadership roles: 1% – Not at all — It’s rare that I’m in the role of informal leader: 1% Leaders don’t have to be appointed. Leadership opportunities abound every day. The question is whether or not you step into the role. Those who step into them without being appointed or asked embody the definition of leadership. These roles, however, are not without risk. Three keys to successful informal leadership include taking risks, being direct, and taking action. If you’re going to step into one of these roles, do it wholeheartedly as your odds of success go up when you do. 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!

Are Great Leaders Born or Bred?

September 7, 2016 /0 Comments/in Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Are great leaders born or bred? Or is it some combination of the two? What are the defining characteristics that set great leaders apart and, more importantly, how can you build those capabilities in yourself? I had the pleasure of speaking with the great folks at Quality Digest recently. We discussed whether great leaders are born or bred as well as the characteristics that set great leaders apart. Rather than me doing a lot of typing to summarize our conversation, I’d rather share the interview with you in its entirety. It’s only 8 minutes long so grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and learn what I think sets a great leader apart from the pack. As far as the conference I mention in the interview, it’s Executive Insight 16 on November 10th and 11th in New York. My team and I will be covering topics related to the characteristics that set great leaders apart. I hope you’ll join us. We’d love to have you in attendance. Take a minute to head on over and look at Executive Insight 16’s agenda to see what the topics are then get your registration in. Early bird pricing doesn’t last much longer. I hope to see you there. – 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!

What We All Need to Learn About Sales – from a Pig

September 6, 2016 /0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Communications, Leadership, Sales, Upcoming Events /by Mike Figliuolo

Stories are a great way to connect with your customer. They can make the ordinary product or service you’re selling extraordinary by adding richness and experience to the sale. Today’s post is by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS instructor and author of Sell With a Story. He’s also a featured speaker at Executive Insight 16. In May of 2015, my wife Lisa convinced me to attend a juried art fair with her at Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio. As an artist herself, she has a sophisticated appreciation for fine art that I don’t. She can spend hours on end lazily drifting from one booth to the next, studying each piece and talking to the artists about their inspiration, medium, and techniques. Me, I just like to look at the pictures. As the day dragged on, we arrived at the booth of Chris Gug (pronounced “Goog”), a photographer known for his awe-inspiring images of marine life. His gallery is full of breathtaking underwater shots of anemones, corals, sea turtles, and whales. On a mission to find a piece for our boys’ bathroom at home, Lisa eyed a picture that, to me, looked about as out of place as a pig in the ocean. It was a picture of a pig in the ocean. She described it as inspired genius—a cute little baby piglet, up to its nostrils in salt water, snout covered with sand, dog-paddling its way straight into the camera lens. I thought it was a picture of a pig in the ocean. I asked the artist what on Earth that pig was doing in the ocean. And that’s when the magic started. Gug explained that the picture was taken in the Caribbean, just off the beach of an uninhabited Bahamian island officially named Big Major Cay. He told us that years ago, a […]

10 Key Behaviors that Drive Sales Success

September 5, 2016 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Sales success is about managing key metrics and behavior indicators. When you can systematize your selling efforts, your salesforce will be more consistent and effective. Today’s post is by Bill Bartlett, author of The Sales Coach’s Playbook (CLICK HERE to get your copy). I witnessed an interesting phenomenon last week when I was working with a client who is a business owner. He had asked me to observe a coaching session/business review he was conducting with his sales manager. The objective of the one-hour session was to determine why the salesforce was not meeting its quota and develop an action plan to resolve it. He began by admonishing the manager for the unacceptable shortfall in meeting his quota. He warned him that there would be serious consequences if it was not remedied the following quarter. For the first forty minutes of the hour, he reviewed facts and figures to support how severely it would impact not only the bottom line, but also his and his peers’ bonuses. He then devoted the remaining twenty minutes to listening to the manager provide solutions to this “crisis.” Instead of proposing suggestions, however, he responded with a litany of excuses beyond his control, such as the market’s volatility and flattening substantiated by data he had brought with him, the company’s pricing as compared to their competitors, and the loss of major accounts because their buying patterns had changed. He closed the coaching session by committing to “forcing” the sales team to work harder to remedy the shortfall, assuring the “future would be different.” My client seemed satisfied, dismissed his manager, and turned to me with a sense of gratification. He asked for my feedback and was taken aback when I predicted nothing would change in the future and sales would continue to stagnate. I […]

How do you typically generate recommendations?

September 1, 2016 /0 Comments/in Communications, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How do you typically generate recommendations? – I start with the data and see what insights come out: 63% – I start with a hypothesis, then prove/disprove it with data: 37% Step Away from the Data. While it may feel natural to start with data then look for insights, that approach is inefficient and often ineffective. It’s easy to get lost in the data and not have a clear sense for what recommendation you’re trying to make. That approach also leads to excessively complex presentations full of data but lacking clear insights. I’d suggest taking a hypothesis-driven approach. Think about what you’re trying to prove or disprove then look at the data objectively to make your case. You’ll be more focused in your efforts and your ultimate recommendation will be clearer and easier to understand. 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!

How to Select the Right Communication Vehicle

August 31, 2016 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Choosing the right communication vehicle for making a recommendation has a huge impact on whether your idea gets approved or not. If you’re thoughtful about your choice, the odds of getting to “yes” go up dramatically. The following is an excerpt from my latest book The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved (CLICK HERE to get your copy). The book spells out a straightforward process you can immediately use to get your ideas approved. The first decision to make when preparing to share your recommendation is which communication format you’ll use. You could choose to write a presentation, draft a memo, send an email, leave a voicemail, or create a business case. Your format choice should be based upon the type of information you’re presenting as well as your audience’s preferred format. If your stakeholder prefers memos, write a memo. If they want a presentation, give them one. If they like emails and you leave a voicemail, your message won’t go over as well as it could. If you deliberately ignore their communication style preference, make sure you’ve got a good reason for doing so. You might have complex data best displayed in a presentation format. If your stakeholder loves voicemails, you’d be making a mistake by translating your complex data into a format that’s not conducive to conveying that information. Imagine trying to explain a bar graph via voicemail – it doesn’t work! One principle to remember when drafting your final communication is more is not better, regardless of which communication format you use. Long presentations get painful after five pages when your audience sees they have 35 pages yet to go. People stop reading a memo after three pages. If someone has to scroll to read your entire email, it’s too […]

RAPTURE – Build a Compelling Narrative for Your Personal Brand

August 29, 2016 /0 Comments/in Books, Career, Communications, Guest Blogger /by Mike Figliuolo

Creating a compelling narrative around your personal brand is easier if you use the RAPTURE approach to defining and communicating it. Today’s post is by Jeremy Goldman and Ali B. Zagat, authors of Getting to Like (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Career advice used to center on the maxim to “do what you love.” But more and more, there’s a shift toward the idea that following your bliss is not the best way to go when it comes to your career. First of all, you run the risk of growing weary of a favorite hobby. For example, Ali loves to bake bread to relax, and make cakes and pies for her friends’ birthdays, but would not want to be a professional baker. It’s perfectly okay to use skills and strengths that you enjoy, but it’s okay to keep that as an accent rather than your focus. How do you find the exact spot where the thing that you love and the thing that other people will care about—and pay for—overlap? If the thing that you’re excited to wake up for in the morning is the same thing that makes someone say, “Wow, this is something that is truly worthwhile and helpful to me,” then that intersection is where you should be focusing your time and energy. Once you get psyched up to build your brand, you’ll want to make big changes all at once, so it can be hard to hold yourself to taking small, strategic steps. But in order to get to this new place in your life, there are a few vital points you must first consider. Here is our framework: RAPTURE

How well do you communicate decisions and manage change?

August 25, 2016 /1 Comment/in Communications, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How well do you communicate decisions and manage change? – Very — My decisions are clear and I manage change well: 39% – Somewhat — Most decisions are clear and I get through making change: 55% – Not very — My decisions could be clearer and I struggle with change: 5% – Not at all — My decisions are rarely executed effectively: 1% The decision is just the start. All too often we mistakenly believe that once we’ve made a decision, things are final. Allow me to introduce the concept of “execution risk” – the possibility a decision you’ve made isn’t executed correctly or at all. Without proper change management, the execution risk you face can be quite high especially for controversial decisions. There are two key ways to minimize execution risk – effective communications and active change management. Make sure you invest in doing those well if you want to see your decisions carried out the way you expect them to be. 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!

The Most Important Communications Tool Ever Made

August 24, 2016 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Are you tired of not getting your recommendations approved? Sick of spending countless hours on useless analysis? Frustrated by stakeholders who won’t support your idea? There’s a simple explanation for all these issues – you’re not being thoughtful about constructing your recommendations. This is a learnable skill. With the method I cover in my latest book The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved, you’ll be able to go from basic idea to approved recommendation more efficiently and effectively than you thought was possible. By using these methods, you can get to “yes” more quickly and drive the results that set you apart from the crowd. Getting ideas or projects approved and securing the resources needed to implement them is one of the greatest challenges business leaders face. The Elegant Pitch provides a simple, proven process to go from idea to approval more quickly and effectively than ever before. This is the same method used by elite strategy consulting firms such as McKinsey & Co. and Bain Consulting. But you don’t have to be a high-priced consultant to master this process – you just need to read the book! With multiple stakeholders, constrained budgets, and competing agendas, it’s difficult to cut through the clutter and garner the required support. This book holds the keys to unlocking the stakeholder support you need. Allow me to share a few thoughts on the method: I use this method all the time. I’ve taught thousands of leaders around the world how to use it. I’m a passionate believer in its effectiveness. Now I’d like to share that method with you. The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved (CLICK HERE to get your copy) spells out a straightforward process you can immediately […]

4 Keys to Organizing for Successful Leadership Development

August 22, 2016 /0 Comments/in Guest Blogger, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Successful leadership development must be personal, business-relevant, comprehensive and regular. Is your leadership development program organized for success? Today’s post is by Niels-Peter van Doorn of Borderless. If you do an online search for “leadership,” you get 493,000,000 results. That means that there is more material on leadership than you will ever be able to read. Almost every leadership expert – self-appointed or otherwise – is talking about example behaviors, coaching and inspiring people, as well as about demonstrating decisiveness and strength. What is a lot harder to find is an explanation of how leadership development can best be organized. What can you do to make sure that leadership development doesn’t get snowed under the many priorities of everyday business life? My firm Borderless recently conducted a survey among thousands of leaders worldwide. The results were shocking: Over half of the respondents claim that leadership development in their organization is ineffective and underfunded. Leadership is considered a nice-to-have rather than a business imperative. And although coaching is considered one of the best ways to develop leadership, one third of respondents are not aware of any type of coaching or mentoring going on within their organization. Based on our own extensive experience in developing leadership in multinational organizations, we have seen a shift in the way leadership development is organized: Closer to the business; with a double focus on business acumen and soft skills; and as part of everyday work, rather than as external classroom sessions. Here are our main recommendations to make sure your business profits from our experience. Make sure senior management is accountable for leadership development – and that it has an engaging vision on leadership. Fifty-seven percent of the survey respondents think that support from top management is the critical success factor that most influences leadership development […]

How effective are you at getting your recommendations approved?

August 18, 2016 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How effective are you at getting your recommendations approved? – Extremely — I always get approval on the first try: 7% – Very — I usually get approval but sometimes it takes a few tries: 69% – Somewhat — I get approval but it’s a challenge: 18% – Not very — I rarely get my recommendations approved: 5% – Not at all — My recommendations never get approved: 2% It’s all in the pitch. You’re pitching ideas all the time. The key to getting that pitch approved is making sure your communication approach is tailored to your audience. This includes thinking through that stakeholder’s “button” to determine what will spur them on to action. Remember – different stakeholders have different buttons. That means you’ll need separate communications for each. Focus on what gets their attention because that’s how you get their support. One size doesn’t fit all – it usually fits none. 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!

How a Core Idea is the Key to Getting Your Pitch Approved

August 17, 2016 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Getting your idea approved requires a clear recommendation that’s paired with a compelling reason for your stakeholder to approve your idea. If you can combine that idea with a powerful rationale, you’ll get to “yes” before you know it. The following is an excerpt from my latest book The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved (CLICK HERE to get your copy). The book spells out a straightforward process you can immediately use to get your ideas approved. Make Your Audience Care At the heart of getting your pitch approved is making your audience care about it. The best way to make them care is to explain how your idea advances their agenda. Show them how your recommendation drives a result they’re interested in. The way you make this linkage is through the creation of the Core Idea. A Core Idea is sometimes referred to as an “elevator pitch.” The reason it’s called an “elevator pitch” is because you have approximately 30 seconds to deliver your message. That’s the amount of time you’d be on the elevator with the stakeholder going from one floor to another. Imagine you get on an elevator and a senior stakeholder boards your elevator on the next floor. They proceed to ask you what you’re working on. You can either ramble on about all the data you’re gathering and the analysis you’re doing or you can give them a brief yet powerful explanation of the idea you’re pursuing and why it’s exciting. Ideally the reason it’s exciting is related to a metric or objective that stakeholder cares about. The latter approach is obviously preferable. By the time you finish your elevator ride together, the stakeholder knows what you’re working on and they’re supportive of you pursuing the idea. A […]