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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

Is it Better to Have a Bigger Role on a Smaller Team?

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

Our reader poll today asks: Would you rather have a larger leadership role on a smaller team or a smaller leadership role on a bigger team? – I want the larger leadership role on a smaller team: 79.09% – I prefer the smaller leadership role as part of a bigger team: 20.91% The Head of the Dog. The preference is clear – people would rather be the head of the dog rather than the tail of the lion. Said differently, taking the larger leadership role is much more preferred even if it’s on a smaller team. This is a common dynamic that’s worth understanding in more depth. It’s only logical. As leaders, many of us seek to have as much impact as possible. To do so, we like some measure of control and being on a smaller team gives us exactly that. One thought – don’t dismiss that smaller leadership role on a bigger team. It might give you the visibility required to jump to the bigger leadership role on the bigger team. 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!

Mitigating the Threat You Face from Substitute Products

September 16, 2015 /0 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

One of the biggest threats your business faces is the threat of substitute products and services. There’s always somewhere else your customers can spend money. If you’re expansive in your thinking, you’ll identify the real threats you face and you can mitigate them accordingly. A good business plan or strategic plan has to spell out what the threats are to your product. One of the biggest threats you’ll face is substitute products. What can replace your product? What can solve the customer’s problem just as easily and do it cheaper? What substitutes are competing for the same dollars that you are? Remember, it may not be a direct competitor to you. Be able to articulate what those substitutes are and why your customer is going to choose your product versus that substitute. For example, I had a guy come to me with his awesome business idea. The problem he articulated was when he gets his socks out of the dryer they’re not matched and he takes him a lot of time to match his socks together. He shared his business idea was for RFID pairing of his socks. He wanted to put a small device in each sock, and then when he held them close together they would beep. I looked at him and I said, “You know the substitute to your product, right?” He said, “No, I’m not sure. We don’t have any competition.” I said, “Well, I just tie my socks together.” His whole business plan fell apart in that moment. There are Always Alternatives There are always alternatives to your product. I worked at a consumer packaged goods company and that company sold lawn and garden products. Our CEO said, “You know who our biggest competitor is?” We were waiting for him to name our biggest competitor […]

6 Strategies for Leading Your Team Through Conflict

September 14, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

When your key team members have conflict, the work environment can become toxic and the entire team can be affected. Here is a 6-step strategy for bringing valuable team members together, and handling conflicts. Today’s post is by Susan Foster, author of It’s Not Rocket Science (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Rebecca and John are smart, capable executives who are effective and talented in their respective functions. They are both key to your team’s success—and they are constantly at each other’s throats. It started with something minor, and it has escalated with every interaction and project. Now every team meeting is being undermined by their disagreements, and they are coming to you to plead their own cases and get their way. You cannot imagine your organization being as effective without either one – but they are driving you crazy! So far, you’ve stayed out of it. It is becoming evident, however, that your expectation that they will settle their differences is not going to happen. And it has come to your attention that it is creating a toxic environment for the whole team. Although the names have been changed, I was the leader in a situation like this – and I failed at confronting this situation early on. I learned some real lessons through it all, and now help leaders deal with conflicts in their organizations. Conflict Happens Let’s face it: Conflict is a part of team dynamics. As long as humans work together, there will be disagreements. Knowing why people disagree, having a process to resolve conflicts in place, and knowing when to step in is the job of the leader.

How do you handle things when a team member disappoints you?

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

Our reader poll today asks: How do you handle things when a team member disappoints you? – I provide pointed feedback: 83.77% – I avoid the conflict and keep it to myself: 3.51% – I withdraw from working with them: 6.36% – I ignore it and give them another chance: 6.36% Tackle issues head-on. Feedback is a gift. Delivering clear messages when things go off-track is the key to preventing future issues. While it’s hard to deal with being disappointed by a team member and it’s uncomfortable to let them know they’ve done so, avoiding the issue just sets you up for future problems. There are huge benefits to providing prompt feedback. It’s encouraging to see such a large percentage of you subscribe to that line of thinking. 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 Principle-Based Behaviors Drive Culture and Accountability

September 9, 2015 /2 Comments/in Career, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Culture is the sum of your daily actions. How can you direct the actions of large organizations without micromanaging everyone? Simple. Use principle-based leadership tied to accountability to drive the behavior changes you’re looking for. Once you understand your accountabilities as a leader, and you’ve clearly defined them for the members of your team, you need to start thinking about the broader organization and how you can create a culture of accountability. Culture is nothing more than the sum of our daily actions. To change culture, you’re going to want to put in place a set of principles for how you want people to behave. Those principles are going to drive daily behaviors. Make no mistake about it – changing your culture will take time. Culture will not change overnight. But reinforcing small behaviors every single day, over time, are going to create that strong culture of accountability. Your values need to be articulated and clarified in a manner that everyone in the organization understands them. You also need to give your people the latitude to behave in a manner where they’re not afraid of taking a risk and trying to live up to those values. For example, I ran a large customer service organization at one point and we said we wanted to commit to the customer to give them great service. We knew we had financial obligations to the broader organization. What we did was we said we’re going to tell our associates who are on the phone with our customers to ask themselves one question: “Is this right for the customer?” Whatever they were thinking about doing during the interaction with the customer, they had to ask themselves “is this right for the customer?”. If the answer was yes, they should do it. If the answer was […]

Why I Stopped Using PowerPoint – And Why I Started Again

September 7, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger /by Mike Figliuolo

PowerPoint is a great tool but only if used correctly. Walking away from it for a year can teach some great lessons on how to be a better communicator. Today’s post is by Dan Ward, author of The Simplicity Cycle (CLICK HERE to get your copy). In January of 2014 I began a year-long experiment in professional communication. The experiment was simple: I abruptly stopped using PowerPoint. At the time I was an active duty military officer in charge of an $84MM radar program, so this was not exactly a common practice. I also frequently speak at conferences and give guest lectures at local universities. PowerPoint is very much the default and I wanted to see what would happen if I took an alternative path. Spoiler alert: it worked beautifully. To be clear, I’ve seen and given plenty of good presentations using PPT charts over the years. I read Garr Reynold’s outstanding book Presentation Zen and took it seriously. I studied the best presenters I could find, the TED talkers and Edward Tufte’s of the world, blending their techniques with my own style. I dedicated myself to the discipline of making charts with clarity and empathy, charts designed to foster genuine human connections. Then one day I quit using PPT entirely. I loved it, and apparently my audiences did too. This new approach meant I spent zero time fussing with fonts and formats, looking for lame clip art (or non-lame clip art), or polishing bullet points. Not that I was doing a lot of that previously, but now I did none of it.

How effective are you at driving innovation?

September 3, 2015 /1 Comment/in Innovation, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How effective are you at driving innovation? Very — I generate a ton of innovative ideas: 37.68% Kind of — I’ll be inspired from time to time: 51.84% Infrequently — Inspiration is hard to find: 7.65% Rarely — I can’t remember my last great idea: 2.83% Innovation takes Time. The day to day can consume us leaving us precious little time for innovation. And there’s a big difference between incrementalism and true innovation. To generate those truly big ideas, try carving out at least two focused hours per month for you and your team to ask some challenging innovation questions that will help you find those big ideas. Dedicated time and a rigorous approach to innovation will make all the difference between ideas and big ideas. 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!

3 Common – and Dangerous – Myths About Business Plans

September 2, 2015 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Business plans aren’t only for entrepreneurs. Any new venture requires thorough planning before you launch it if you want a reasonable chance of success. There are a lot of myths about business plans out there. Today I’d like to debunk three of the biggest ones. It’s exciting launching a new business. Whether you’re building a new venture from scratch or creating something new within a large corporation, remember the old adage that “only fools rush in.” One of the biggest mistakes you can make during an exciting launch is saying, “I’m too busy to write a business plan.” More often than not, that lack of planning will come back to haunt you. There are three common myths about writing a business plan—and buying into them can signal the beginning of the end for your venture. Myth 1: Business plans are only for new startups seeking funding “I don’t have to write a business plan! I’m not launching some brand new startup.” Notice it’s called a “business plan”—not a “startup plan.” If you’re going to invest in building a business venture, you need to think things through. You’ll be risking money, time, energy, and effort in the hopes of building something great. Isn’t that investment worth a little planning? A good business plan will help you think through how you’re going to spend those investments wisely. It’ll also point out where your biggest risks are and provide direction on how you can mitigate them. If you are launching a startup, you absolutely need a business plan even if you’re not seeking outside funding. You’ll be investing your own personal time, energy, and funds and those investments come with a true opportunity cost as well. But business plans for existing organizations looking to expand or build new divisions are even more critical […]

6 Tips for Advancing your Career

August 31, 2015 /2 Comments/in Career, Guest Blogger /by Mike Figliuolo

If you’re looking to advance your career (who isn’t?), these 6 tips will help you clarify where you’re going as well as how to get there. Today’s post is by Alex Jones of DeVry University. Advancing your career is something that you should always be thinking about. If you aren’t working to advance your career, you may fall behind. No matter what sort of situation you’re in, even if you’re comfortable in your current job, you should keep your mind open to opportunities and ways you can move forward. One of the most important things to remember about your career, especially career advancement, is that the only person working on your career is you. What this means is that if you want to move in a new direction or to move up within your current field, you need to take responsibility and action in order to make it happen. While showcasing hard work and proving yourself as a valuable asset at work is a great way to earn a promotion and advance your career within your current company, oftentimes people need to look outside their current job to further their career. If you are looking to advance outside your current job or want to make a larger career change, there is more that you can do than put in extra effort. Check out this list of tips to help you advance your career or to make a career change: Goals This may be the most important aspect of making a career move or advancing your career. Without goals to guide you, it’s hard to know what direction you’re going to move toward. Sit down and make a list of what you want, whether it’s a type of work, raise in salary, new title, amount of responsibility or other traits you […]

If someone on your team hates their job, what do you do?

August 27, 2015 /1 Comment/in Career, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: If someone on your team hates their job, what do you do? – Nothing — it’s up to them to find happiness: 7.24% – Point out the good things about their role: 27.35% – Change their role to make them happy: 7.81% – Encourage them to find another role: 57.6% If you don’t like the job, take action. We’ll frequently have team members who aren’t happy in their roles. Your job as their leader is to help them find their passion for their job. One way to do so is to help them see their work through a different lens and point out the good about their role. The second is to encourage them to find a role that’s better suited to them. Sometimes you have to push them and remind them that if they don’t like their role, they should actively seek out a new one. Don’t just sit there and do nothing – push your people to where they’ll be happiest, even if that requires leaving your team. 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!

11 Business Lessons You Can’t Survive Without

August 26, 2015 /1 Comment/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Running a business is an exercise in fear, excitement, fear, elation, fear, hard work, and fear. Did I mention fear? In the 11 years I’ve been running my firm, I’ve learned a few indispensable lessons that apply no only to entrepreneurs but to business folks in all walks of life. Yesterday was our 11th birthday. 11. thoughtLEADERS, LLC turned 11 yesterday. I’m still in shock over the milestone. “Why are you in shock, Mike? Don’t you believe in yourself and your business?” Absofrickinlutely. That’s the only reason it’s survived 11 years. I believe in it more than you can imagine. During that time, I’ve learned a great deal and I’ve grown as a businessman every single day. Every setback was a learning opportunity. Every success has pushed me closer to the next chasm to jump. What I’d like to do today is share 11 pieces of advice that can hopefully help you be more successful in your work (and life) as well. This guidance doesn’t only apply to entrepreneurs. It’s for business people in all walks of life. I hope you find them helpful. 1. Your business will change. Either you can change it or the market will change it for you. Change is the constant. It’s easy to get locked in on a model that works to the exclusion of other opportunities or ideas. For the longest time I railed against putting our content in video form. “You can’t learn our stuff from online videos.” It took me a while to come around and only once I met the amazing folks at lynda.com did I warm to the idea. My fear was putting our stuff on video would cannibalize our core in-person training. Instead, it’s reinforced that training and has given us broader visibility to new customers. So far […]

Lessons in Trust from a Navy SEAL

August 24, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Trust is the glue that holds a team together. Without it, the team becomes dysfunctional. A leader’s role is to build and foster that trust to such levels that the team members know their colleagues have their backs. Today’s post is by Rob Roy, author of The Navy SEAL Art of War (CLICK HERE to get your copy). “I knew wherever I was that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would come, if alive.” – General William T. Sherman to General Ulysses S. Grant I love this simple note from Sherman to Grant. It spoke of the remarkable bond of trust between two military men—a bond that is the very bedrock of what it means to be a SEAL team member. Without trust, there is no SEAL team. Some people think I am crazy to consider entering a smoke-filled room filled with bad guys with guns who want to shoot me. But I do it with gusto because I trust my teammates. And because of that trust, the attack can proceed. I can’t do my job—clear the left side of the room—unless I can trust that the guy coming in right behind me will do his job and clear the right side. We trust and rely on each other. Just to be clear, it takes a tremendous amount of discipline not to look to the right when I am clearing my left-side space. But that’s the beauty—and the benefit—of trust. And it’s funny—with trust comes success. For the record, there are plenty of guys I didn’t like or could not stand on my Teams. But I trusted them. I trusted their professionalism and talents. Through the prism of shared adversity and experiences, I grew to have faith in the competence, integrity, and motivation […]