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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

Are you comfortable promoting team members to manage peers?

December 17, 2015 /0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: Are you comfortable promoting members of your team to manage former peers? – Yes — I’m fine with making those kinds of moves: 71.66% – Kind of — I know it can create awkward situations: 25.4% – No — it creates challenging dynamics: 2.94% Support their leap. Making the leap from peer to boss is one of the more challenging advancement moves people face in their career. The awkwardness of being your friends’ boss, challenges to legitimacy, and previously “confidential” perspectives now being known by the new boss will stretch the new leader’s capabilities. Your job as their boss is to help them objectively assess their team members and create a plan to lead them effectively. Be sure you invest the time to help your newly-promoted team member succeed. 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!

Best of thoughtLEADERS 2015: Even Better than Last Year

December 16, 2015 /0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Sales, Social Media, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s time again for our annual year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published over the last 12 months. Welcome to the 2015 edition of The Figgies (our SEVENTH YEAR of em! Wow!) which are the awards we give ourselves for writing awesome blog content (here are the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 editions of those awards). This is an annual event at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. This list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work. Enjoy. Share. We’ve loved writing them. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. I don’t ask a lot of you folks so I have two small requests as your holiday gift to me (you are getting me something, right?): 1. Invite all your coworkers, friends, and family to come check out the blog and become readers. The only way we all get better is by raising everyone’s game. I’m not asking a lot here. If you found this blog helpful at all this year, here’s your chance to return the favor for all our hard work. Just email folks and tell ’em to come take a look. 2. Pick up a copy of my books. They make great holiday gifts for the professionals in your life. The titles include: One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership. In the words of Roland Smith (former CEO of Wendy’s/Arby’s) “This book could change your life.” To get a sense for what the book is about, read this free ChangeThis Leadership Manifesto which is based on the book. If you like the manifesto, you’ll love the book. Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results. “Finally, a leadership book that cuts through all of the noise. This book needs to be on […]

How the Three Box Branding Model Can Change Your World

December 14, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Managing a global brand and bringing it to life at the local level has been historically challenging. A new model for setting a brand strategy then activating it and executing it can help overcome the challenges global brands face. Today’s post is by Larry Light, coauthor of New Brand Leadership (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Three simultaneous forces affect how brands must be managed today: globalization, localization, and personalization. The collision of these three forces presents challenges and opportunities for marketers. This will require changes to the enterprise and mind-set structures as well as changes to the operational systems, policies, and processes used for brands. This means creating and implementing a more meaningful, relevant, systematic, disciplined set of strategies for effective brand building. Globalization Marketing globalization refers to the benefits of cross-geography standardization, reliability, and familiarity. But, to many customers it signifies homogeneity, loss of regional authenticity, and corporate domination. It is comforting to see known logos in shopping malls around the world, but people fear the loss of identity through excessive globalization. Localization Localization refers to a special sense of place designating local uniqueness, locally sourced, locally crafted, locally owned, regionally authentic, one-of-a-kind, and so on. Localization brings a sense of cultural, ethnic, economic, and social connection. But it can become too forced, cute, involuntary, obligatory, and kitschy. Just think Venice or New York City in Las Vegas. Personalization

What’s the biggest challenge in leading a “rising star”?

December 10, 2015 /0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: What’s the biggest challenge you face when leading a “rising star”? – Keeping them challenged and engaged: 66.89% – Preventing them from leaving my team: 13.96% – Getting others to not be critical of them: 10.14% – No challenge at all! They’re great!: 9.01% Keep Them Interested. Rising stars are fabulous team members but if you’re not careful, you’ll run out of things for them to be interested in. At that point you risk either losing them or having their motivation wane. Sometimes you’ll need to help them find bigger and better roles which means pushing them off your team and into an area where there are bigger challenges for them to tackle. This notion of promoting them internally is a key to retaining them in your organization. So let go of your fear of losing them and instead help them take that next step in their career. 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!

A New Method for Influencing Others to Say Yes

December 9, 2015 /1 Comment/in Books, Communications, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s great to generate innovative ideas but if you can’t get your recommendation approved, the idea isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. The Structured Thought Process can help you crystallize your ideas in a clear and compelling way. The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved (CLICK HERE to pre-order your copy). Too Much Analysis with Too Little Message Before you learn a new way to think, it’s helpful to understand the current approach for generating recommendations. Once you see how the current process falls short, the new process I’m advocating will make more sense in terms of the rationale for why the steps are sequenced the way they are. Most people I work with on building this skill approach their work in what seems to be a logical way. When they’re asked to make a recommendation, they typically follow this approach: Step 1: Gather large amounts of data and do a lot of analysis. Step 2: Look for insights emerging from said analysis. Step 3: Assemble all the analysis into a comprehensive document to demonstrate the depth and rigor of the work they’ve performed. Step 4: Share a 30 to 60 page document in a two hour long meeting thinking they’ll impress their audience with the depths of their insights. Unfortunately Step 5 consists of the audience being frustrated and confused to the point that they don’t approve the recommendation. Instead they request a follow-up meeting to review the idea again. The worst part is, the person making the recommendation goes into Round 2 with even more data than the first time around. They do so under the mistaken assumption that their idea wasn’t approved because they didn’t have enough factual support for […]

Leadership Culture Trumps Strategy as Game Changer

December 7, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Creating a great culture is a key responsibility of leadership. When you invest in building a strong culture, the business and financial results follow. Fail to do so and your business will end up in unpleasant situations. Today’s post is by Diane K. Adams, author of It Takes More than Casual Fridays and Free Coffee (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Great leaders drive excellence in their organizations. They lay the foundation, set the tone and prove the catalyst for long-term bottom line success no matter the size of a company, the industry, or external economics. These leaders’ secret to success isn’t their strategies. It’s the pervasive cultures they create at their companies with positive values-based attitudes, real actions, and strong commitment. In turn, their teams are energized and so are their bottom lines in good economic times and bad. This connection between leadership and success isn’t abstract. Concrete results of stellar leadership include better productivity, less staff turnover, greater achievement of potential, better customer satisfaction, and better bottom lines. The proof is in the numbers. A SHRM Foundation report found that companies with outstanding leadership have: 50 percent less staff turnover 10 to 30 percent higher customer satisfaction ratings 40 percent higher employee commitment ratings Double a company’s net profit Studies from other reputable organizations—including The Hay Group, Ken Blanchard Companies, Aon Hewitt, and Corporate Executive Board—found similarly positive links between stellar leadership and company successes. The proof, too, is in the stories of extraordinary leaders whose winning approaches have helped them build successful companies.

Do leaders in your organization hoard talent?

December 3, 2015 /0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: Do leaders in your organization “hoard” talent? – Constantly — they never let go of their good people: 18.92% – Sometimes — they let good people move to new roles when forced to: 46.72% – Rarely — good talent can flow pretty easily: 30.12% – Never — our leaders are great at rotating talent: 4.25% Be a Net Exporter of Talent. While it’s hard to lose a high performer, holding onto them and hoarding them is bad for everyone involved – them, the organization, and you. For them, it stunts their career growth. Eventually they’ll seek greener pastures (which is bad for the organization when they depart for another company). That’s bad for you ultimately because you lose a key player and people won’t want to join your team out of fear they’ll eventually stagnate. Move your high performers on to bigger and better roles. It helps everyone grow in the process of doing so. 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!

Breaking Bad News: Telling Someone They Didn’t Get the Promotion

November 30, 2015 /0 Comments/in Career, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Employees who did not get a promotion they hoped for can turn sour. Here are some leadership ideas to help you handle the situation. Today’s post is by John Walston, ResourcefulManager-in-Chief at ResourcefulManager.com. Deciding who should get a promotion – and who should not – is a tough business. It isn’t so much deciding who is best qualified – that’s a pleasant task and communicating to the lucky candidate that he or she is getting the job can be a real lift for both parties. But then comes the hard part. Someone is not getting the job they wanted. That conversation is waiting for you, and it is much more difficult. It’s easier if the winning candidate is already working for your organization, while the loser would’ve been an outside hire. This often happens when you have one leading candidate who’s already inside the company, but for the sake of competition you post the job and interview a few candidates from the outside, just to have a look-see. But in the end, your inside candidate looked pretty good against what was available from the outside, so you decided to stay with the devil you know instead of the devil you don’t know. You don’t owe much to the outside candidates, so telling them they didn’t get the job isn’t emotionally trying.

Are you an enabler of your team’s poor performance?

November 26, 2015 /0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How often are you an enabler of your team’s poor performance? – Never — I hold everyone accountable for their work: 14.89% – Sometimes — I occasionally let them get away with things: 75.84% – Often — I clean up their messes and they keep making them: 7.58% – Always — I struggle to hold them accountable for their work: 1.69% Give them an inch… You’re the guardian of the standard. When you let your team members slide by and fix their shoddy work (or even worse – do it for them because it’s “easier for me to do it”) you’re an enabler of that bad behavior. Sure, it’s hard short-term to teach them and get them to fix their work but long term we all know it’s worth the effort. So take the time to shift from being an enabler to building your team’s skills. It’s best for everyone involved. 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!

4 Ways to Unlock the Innovation Power of Your Team

November 23, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Want to be a more effective innovation leader? Use these four ways of thinking—called “The Four Lenses of Innovation”—to bring out the best ideas from your team. Today’s post is by Rowan Gibson, author of The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Your company may have taken on innovation as a strategic priority or a corporate value, but what if you feel more comfortable improving execution than with being the creative leader of your team? Let’s face it: generating new ideas, recognizing those with breakthrough potential, and then mobilizing your team to drive those ideas from the mind to the market – often in the face of substantial risk and uncertainty – is not something every leader feels cut out to do. But in today’s value-based innovation economy, it’s precisely these leadership skills that need to be learned. So let’s get started. Here are four proven ways to unlock the innovation power of your team and to generate the kinds of new products, services, strategies, and business models that have the potential to drive top line growth and perhaps even revolutionize your industry. 1. Challenge Orthodoxies Remember, innovators are usually contrarians by nature. They are people who tend to question common assumptions and overturn conventional wisdom inside a company, or across a whole industry. Recall how James Dyson fundamentally reinvented the vacuum cleaner by asking why it needed a bag, and why it couldn’t be a sexy design statement instead of the ugliest thing in your home. Or how Tesla’s Elon Musk reconceived the automobile by challenging the conventional wisdom of Detroit’s seasoned executives about the viability of electric cars. Just over a decade later, every car company—and even Apple, too —is asking itself how it can learn from Musk’s […]

How analytical is your organization?

November 19, 2015 /0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How analytical is your organization? – Highly — we analyze everything sometimes at the cost of action: 42.71% – Very — we balance analysis with judgment: 27.62% – Somewhat — we do some analysis but act quickly: 19.44% – Not at all — little analysis, mostly action: 10.23% Analysis Paralysis. Doing more analysis is often a stalling tactic to avoid making a decision. There’s a limit on how much data you can gather to predict the future. Your ability to make decisions based on good data is also a function of how strong your organization’s analytics program is. If you’ve created a solid analytics team, the likelihood of making faster decisions with better data goes up significantly. So try to build a solid analytics program and once you’ve gathered sufficient data, make your decision and move on with life. 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!

7 Tips for How to Use, Not Lose, Your Power at Work

November 18, 2015 /0 Comments/in Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Getting promoted comes with an increase in power. Use that newfound power wisely. If you do, your leadership position will improve. If you don’t, it could spell disaster for you. Today’s post is by Victor Prince, one of our thoughtLEADERS instructors and co-author of Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Congratulations! You just got the big promotion to management. People now report to you, you have some budget, and you have some decision-making authority. In short, your new role comes with power. Just like electricity, power is a very useful asset but can be dangerous if misused. Here are 7 tips for how to use your power so you don’t abuse or lose it. 1. Don’t Use it for Personal Gain – Some potential pitfalls are easy to spot but many are more gray than black or white. What starts as “relationship-building” with vendors can slide into contract-steering after a few too many fancy dinners. What starts as “team-building” in the office can slide into inappropriate requests outside the office. Now that you have power at work, you have to keep a firewall between your work and personal needs so you aren’t seen as using your work power for personal gain. 2. Don’t Play Favorites – Now that you have power, people will ask you to use it to help them. They want a decision to go their way. They want more staff or a bigger piece of the budget. Whatever it is, you know and like some people more than others so you may unintentionally factor that into decisions. Favoritism is a slippery slope to trouble. People not getting favored treatment will notice and criticize you for it. People benefitting from your kindness may come to expect it. Stick to the facts and merits. Whenever making a […]