Mike Figliuolo – Page 45 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

How transparent are you in sharing information with your team?

August 20, 2015 /0 Comments/in Communications, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How transparent are you in sharing information with your team? – Completely — they know everything I know: 14.47% – Very — they know most things, but I hold some things back: 74.47% – Somewhat — they know the things I think they need to know: 8.3% – Not very — I share on a need-to-know basis: 1.91% – Not at all — I rarely share information with them: 0.85% Transparency rules. The more you share, the more they trust you. Even if you’re in the “very transparent” camp, you can probably share more information. Don’t just think about sharing “final” or confirmed information – giving people transparency into information in real time can quell rumors and strengthen bonds. While you may think you’re being transparent, by waiting to share information until it’s final, you’re actually promoting unhealthy dynamics on your team. So ask yourself – do I really have to withhold this information? If not, share away! 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!

Get Better Results by Looking at Your Team Differently

August 19, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Getting results out of your team is your primary responsibility. But are you thinking about their results on a relative or absolute basis? By assessing them relative to expectations not only on hard metrics but on soft ones, you’ll have a better sense of how to help them improve. Today’s post is an excerpt from my new book Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Why do you pay your team members? If you asked them, they might answer “You pay us to work.” If you ask an office-based worker what “work” means to them, you’ll get a list of typical workday activities. They read and write emails. They write reports. They go to meetings and attend conference calls. Those activities that sound appropriate enough, but they don’t give a complete picture of what “work” means to you. There are two different definitions of “work” in the dictionary. Your team members likely subscribe to the one that defines “work” as “mental or physical activity as a means of earning income; employment.” Given you’re responsible for your team achieving its goals, you probably lean toward the other one which defines “work” as “activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.” The two definitions are similar in that they revolve around physical or mental activity but they differ significantly on the purpose of the work. The implication here is you must hold your team members accountable for the results they achieve – not the activities they perform. That accountability contributes to the collective results your team delivers. Activities your team members think of as “work” are the inputs that go into getting the real outcome you desire – results that lead you to […]

Finding the Right Balance Between Instant and Delayed Gratification

August 17, 2015 /0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Wondering how to stay motivated, positive and focused at work and in your personal life? It’s a matter of finding the perfect balance between instant and delayed gratification. Today’s post is by Valeh Nazemoff, author of The Four Intelligences of the Business Mind (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Did you get promoted today? No? That’s okay. Did you lead a successful meeting? Yes? That deserves a celebration. A mistake that we make is to only reward ourselves at the end of a large project or achievement of a huge milestone. I’m here to tell you that it’s okay to celebrate along the way. Even though you may not have achieved your end goal yet, you’ve still most likely accomplished many great things on the path to your goal. It’s easy to feel frustrated and give up, but by building instant gratification into your journeys, you’ll stay motivated for longer. Allow me to explain. I love to ballroom dance and I enjoy the challenge of competition. My dance partner and I are in training for a competition in three months. Training involves practices after work and on weekends several times a week. Even though I love it, it’s easy to lose focus and discipline since the competition is so far away. So what should we do to keep in “step?”

How effectively does your team communicate using new electronic channels?

August 13, 2015 /0 Comments/in Communications, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How effectively does your team communicate using new electronic channels? – Very well — they’re “digitally fluent:” 31.08% – Well — they could use some improvement, though: 49.85% – Not well — they’ve been slow to learn new channels: 14.77% – Poorly — we may as well be using paper: 4.31% It’s not just the channel – it’s the content. Digital channels of communication are not only changing the way we share information – they’re also sharing the actual content we share. Communication has gone from linear to asynchronus. People navigate their own information flows – which aren’t always the flows you want them to follow. For you to continue communicating effectively, you must absolutely stay on top of what it takes to communicate successfully in a digital age. Shorter messages. Easier navigation. Richer media. Don’t just change the channel – change the content you’re sending through it. 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!

Dealing With a Steamroller Personality on Your Team

August 12, 2015 /1 Comment/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Steamroller personalities get results but they also cause major headaches. How can you eliminate the headaches without demoralizing the team member? That’s your key leadership challenge. Today’s post is an excerpt from my new book Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Heather joined your team a year ago. You hired her after interviewing many qualified candidates. Her résumé was far and away the best you saw. You ended the interview with a “let me convince you why you should take this job” pitch hoping you could get her to accept the role immediately. The only warning flag you saw was feedback from Heather’s references. While they confirmed the glowing results she claimed on her résumé you sensed reticence on their part. You heard their answers trail off leaving an unsaid “but…” hanging at the end. After Heather started work, you realized your assessment of her competence was right but maybe your inner voice had been correct about the doubts you had. Heather got off to a fast start and proved to be an amazing producer of results. However, Heather presented you with unexpected problems. Within a few months, all her peers mentioned she was challenging to work with. They agreed she “knows her stuff” and “gets things done” but they said she was making others unhappy in the process. Heather tended to barrel along and do her work without coordinating with others. There were several miscommunication situations where you had to intervene to smooth things over. Others found Heather unpleasant to work with. Maybe she didn’t realize she was causing conflict – or maybe she did but didn’t care. The angst she produced eroded your team’s morale. The conflict Heather created generated a great deal of stress […]

How to be a Better Leader in 10 Minutes or Less

August 10, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is the fourth in a series by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS instructor and bestselling author of Lead With a Story. You’re busy as a leader. You don’t always have time to invest in learning new leadership skills. I recognize that and I’m here to help. Below are 5 great lessons in easy-to-digest 10-minute podcasts you can listen to at your convenience. These podcasts are based on interviews with 100 executives and leaders at dozens of companies around the world as they learned their most important leadership lessons – sometimes the hard way. They feature stories from executives at Proctor & Gamble, Dollar General, Hewlett Packard, Kellogg’s, Dun & Bradstreet, Saatchi & Saatchi, Verizon, and many more. Each episode brings you an important leadership lesson through a single compelling story. These next 5 episodes will help you be more decisive, deal with difficult people, become a better problem solver, master the use of metaphors, and learn some old wisdom on diversity that will serve you well today. The $28.1 billion metaphor

Which type of skill do you value more in your team members?

August 6, 2015 /0 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: Which type of skill do you value more in your team members? – Technical — being an expert at their work is key: 18.03% – Functional — skills like leadership and problem solving are critical: 81.97% It’s the soft skills that matter. While it’s great to be a domain expert in your field, clearly leaders value functional or soft skills more. Those soft skills can be applied to a broad array of issues, opportunities, and challenges and people who possess those skills are easier to move around the organization to solve other problems. What gets even more interesting is thinking beyond functional skills to “role-based skills” like devil’s advocate, cheerleader, driver, etc. Leaders who can manage all three critical types of skills are much more likely to succeed than those who stay focused solely on the technical competencies. 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!

12 Services Every Leader Must Provide to Their Team

August 5, 2015 /1 Comment/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Great leaders get the best out of their teams by providing 12 core leadership “services”. The best leaders provide these services in an efficient and effective way. Every leader wants to give their team all the help they need. That help can come in many forms. How do leaders help their team members grow and become more autonomous? Are leaders serving their teams in the most efficient and effective way? In our new book Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results, Victor Prince and I describe the 12 “leadership services” that leaders must provide to their teams: Directing Planning: Leaders translate their vision for the organization into team goals and individual goals. Prioritizing: Leaders prioritize the individual goals into team priorities. Coordinating: Leaders use their higher seat on the org chart to provide their team members with broader organizational perspectives and make connections for them. Doing Deciding: Leaders make decisions that can’t be or shouldn’t be made by their team members. Motivating: Leaders motivate people to do things, particularly when those tasks are difficult. Clearing: Leaders help people overcome the roadblocks they face at work. Delivering

The 16th Century Word That Gives You a Strategic Advantage

August 3, 2015 /1 Comment/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

By changing the way you approach stakeholder interests, you can drive better performance. Instead of using a sequential and conflict-driven approach, you can take a different tack that promotes harmony and collaboration. Today’s post is by Nancy Falls, author of Corporate Concinnity in the Boardroom: 10 Imperatives To Drive High Performing Companies (CLICK HERE to get your copy). The year was 1531. It was the beginning of what is known as the Age of Discovery. Humans were busy mapping the world, constructing the first rudimentary watch, building empires in Persia, China and the new world. They build St. Peter’s in Rome, the first music conservatories and made discoveries in medicine, economics and astronomy. They brought potatoes from the new world to Europe. They started transatlantic slave trade, only to denounce it 50 years later. Machiavelli declared that the ends justify the means in The Prince. And just 13 years after that someone decided he was wrong and invented a word communicating the opposite thesis, that how things are done matters very much. That word was concinnity. The year was 1531. If you are like most English speakers you probably don’t know this word. You should learn it. Concinnity is the skillful and harmonious fitting together of the parts of something. Many see the word and think consensus, which must be its grammatical first cousin. I look at the word and see lots of curves and circles. It just looks like unity to me. And the word offers a breakthrough way to look at organizational leadership and governance.

Which method do you use when allocating work?

July 30, 2015 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: Which method do you use when allocating work? – To the first person available: 0.75% – Based on skill set only: 5.09% – Based on skill, availability and interest: 84.88% – I shift resources to the highest priority item: 9.28% – Based on first-in, first-out: 0% Work allocation is multi-dimensional. Clearly allocating work requires multiple factors be considered. If you’re one of the small minority of leaders using only skill set or shifting resources based on priority, consider viewing work allocation more broadly and evaluating all the critical aspects of doling out assignments. Your team will perform better, be happier, and you’ll get more work done than you will by constantly shifting things around. 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!

Read Less and Listen More to Be a Better Leader

July 29, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Sometimes you can learn more from listening than you can from reading. I know I’ve been asking you to do a lot of reading lately so today I’m changing it up and giving your eyeballs a rest. Instead I’m going to give your ears something to do with a bunch of interviews you can listen to in the spirit of becoming a better leader. Lately Victor Prince and I have been fortunate enough to have been interviewed by some really smart people about our new book Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results. In this post I’d like to share several of those interviews with you where we talk about things like leading the team you’ve got, how leadership is like value investing, and how to improve how you’re allocating your time and energy. So sit back, relax, grab a glass of wine (unless you’re at work – no wine), and listen to some fun and interesting interviews. The Investor’s Podcast This podcast answers the following questions: – How can you be more efficient in how you invest your time and energy? – How do stock investors assess the performance of leadership? Red Cape Revolution Darcy Eikenberg and Mike Figliuolo explore how to assess the members of your team and improve their performance.

Simple Leadership Techniques That Save You Time

July 27, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Leaders are tired of simply being told to “do better” and instead they hunger for practical and simple guidance on how to do that. Learn some simple techniques for being a better leader and saving time in the process. Today’s post is part two of a longer interview conducted by Wally Bock. (You can read Part 1 here). Today he interviews Mike Figliuolo about his new book Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Wally Bock: You talk about giving leaders some really simple strategies. Now, I ‘m a little new on your Lead Inside the Box method but I’ve heard in this particular song before. What’s an example of a really simple strategy? Mike Figliuolo: One example of a simple strategy is we have one archetype called a Squeaky Wheel, which is where you’re investing a lot of leadership capital in them because they’re knocking on your door, asking you questions, and asking for decisions when these are all things they could do on their own. But they’re turning out high results. Your goal there is to keep getting the same result but spend less time with them. We need to make him more self-sufficient. The strategy we recommend is what we call ‘weaning.’ You should wean them from the amount of support you give. We offer suggestions on how you wean them. Things like ‘Wally is my squeaky wheel and he comes to my office and asks me, ‘hey boss, what do you think?’ One of the simple techniques we advocate is ‘well what am I going to tell you to do Wally?’ Wally replies ‘You’re going to tell me to do this.’ You should then reply ‘Then go do that. You don’t need my guidance […]