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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

7 Tips for Dealing With Irate Customers

June 29, 2015 /0 Comments/in Communications, Customer Service, Guest Blogger, Sales, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Dealing with angry customers can be one of the greatest challenges you face. Here are 7 tips for dealing with those difficult situations gracefully and effectively. Today’s post is by Mark Goulston, author of Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (CLICK HERE to get your copy). One of the things that all irate customers have in common is that they have an attitude that says “I rate better service than this and now that I have you on the phone, you’re going to pay for it!” And one of the other things about them that gets to you is you feel unjustly accused of having done this to them and that can make it difficult to remain calm. That is why the first three tips are about ways to remain or regain your calm and the final four about what to do next. 1. 3 Strikes and You’re Calm – 1. Think of the first thing you want to say or do in response to an irate customer (which is about defending or protecting yourself). Don’t do it, take a breath and exhale. 2. Then think of the second thing you want to say or do (which is about retaliating). Don’t do that, take a breath and exhale. 3. And finally think of the third thing you want to do (which is about finding a solution) and do that. 2. Assume innocence – Unless you are dealing with a truly evil person, assume that nothing is going right in the person’s life and they have chosen this interaction with you to displace all their frustration as a way of not taking it personally when it is meant for your company or product and not you.

How well do you take to being a team member on your team?

June 25, 2015 /1 Comment/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How well do you take to being “just a team member” and working alongside your team? -Very well — I easily transition into the role of team member: 58.76% -Well — sometimes I transition easily but other times I’m challenged: 34.4% -Not well — I have difficulty changing my mindset and being a team member: 5.77% -Poorly — I actively resist situations where I have to work alongside my team: 1.07% Welcome to the team. It’s easy to forget what it’s like to be a team member when you spend most of your days leading that team. If you have difficulty stepping into a team role and letting someone else lead, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. There are huge benefits to regularly assuming a team member role including better understanding the work your team does and building stronger relationships with the members of the team. So every once in a while, free yourself of the mantle of leadership, roll up your sleeves, and join the 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!

How to Use Your Power to Make Things Right

June 22, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

You have the ability to wield great power in your organization. A great purpose for doing so is promoting fairness and equality. Today’s post is by Ron Carucci, author of Rising to Power (CLICK HERE to get your copy). “It’s not fair” is probably one of the greatest laments of organizational life. People see advancement and compensation decisions, performance ratings, organizational configurations and resource allocations, and scratch their heads often unable to reconcile those choices with the principles and policies the organization claims to live by. Here is the risk for you as an executive: when people participating in any communal activity (like an organization, a school, or a nation) believe that their contribution matters and they will be rewarded accordingly, they commit differentiated effort to the cause. However, when they have been conditioned to expect capricious leadership, and rewards distributed to a privileged group despite their lack of contribution, they withdraw trust and minimize their contribution – doing the least amount to get by safely without being singled out. So it behooves executives to shape their leadership around justice and meritocracy to the fullest extent possible, even if that means unseating long standing mediocre performers and shifting resources to those leaders and businesses with the greatest promise of success. Somewhere in the organization you lead are stories of injustice; poor performance that has been over-rewarded and great performance that has been under-valued. See your positional power as a resource that, while unable to right all of the wrongs of the past, can resolve not to perpetuate them, and can shift your organization to one people can trust and participate in confidently.

How good are you at motivating yourself through challenging times?

June 18, 2015 /0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How good are you at motivating yourself through challenging times? – Extremely — challenging times simply aren’t challenging for me: 8.95% – Very — I’m able to easily motivate myself through challenges: 53.04% – Somewhat — I can get through tough times but it takes work: 33.11% – Not very — I struggle through challenging times: 4.39% – Not at all — I need a lot of help from others to overcome challenges: .51% Leaders must lead themselves. We’ll all face adversity on a regular basis. As leaders, there aren’t many people there to pick us up and motivate us through those challenges so that task falls on our own shoulders. The fastest way to pick yourself up is to establish a touchstone phrase or memory that can quickly reorient your thinking from “woe is me” to “let’s get moving.” The faster you’re able to reorient yourself, the faster you can get your team moving in a productive direction as well. 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 Secrets to Hiring Stars for Your High Performing Team

June 17, 2015 /2 Comments/in Career, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

If you recruit and hire well, the odds of your team performing well go up dramatically. There are three key considerations for making sure you’re hiring well. If you follow these principles, you should end up with a highly-talented team much faster than you would building it from scratch. One of the most exciting aspects of building a high performing team is recruiting people to be members of that team. There’s nothing better than finding that really talented person who wants to come work with you. As you think about doing this recruiting and finding the right people, first you need to understand how to create role descriptions based on the team skill needs. Next, you need to think about hiring from non-traditional sources, based on skill sets rather than experience. Last, when you’re hiring somebody, don’t just think about the role you’re hiring them into, but think one role ahead so those people have headroom to grow when they join your team. Experience-Based Versus Skill-Based Job Descriptions Experience-based role descriptions might sound like “The individual must have five years of experience on a small business credit union underwriting team working at a small, mid-Atlantic community bank with multiple branches.” That’s a really specific description and there are very few people who probably meet those requirements. By writing a description that way, you’ve shrunk the recruiting base that you can find somebody in, and, by the way, those experiences might not be relevant to the skills the team needs. Instead, write skill-based job descriptions.

7 Keys to Being a Leader of the Future

June 15, 2015 /1 Comment/in Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Leaders of the future will need to grasp and master unprecedented complexities. There are 7 key traits that will differentiate between those leaders who can and those who can’t. Today’s post is by thougthtLEADERS instructor Maureen Metcalf in conjunction with Susan Cannon, and Mike Morrow-Fox. Current research on future trends indicates that increasing complexity, accelerating change, and near constant uncertainty is ahead. This level of challenge will most certainly exceed the capability of any nation or leader to manage it. Historically, such times have catalyzed cultural evolution. As each new stage of human culture has emerged, the requirements of leadership have shifted accordingly. In the next 10-35 years, we expect a set of new and more complex challenges to emerge, bringing with them a new paradigm of technology and economy. This will require different leadership skills than in the past, we will refer to those skills as Strategist skills. Research shows that Strategist Leaders facilitate consistent, innovative, problem solving during times of times of stress and constraint. The Wizard of Oz provides a rich metaphor emphasizing the intensity of change and the urgency of leadership that characterizes the next thirty-five years.

How prevalent is the use of buzzwords in your organization?

June 11, 2015 /2 Comments/in Communications, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How prevalent is the use of buzzwords in your organization? – Extremely — it seems like everything we say is a buzzword: 25.69% – Very — buzzwords creep into normal conversations: 40.39% – Somewhat — the occasional buzzword gets thrown around: 27.06% – Not at all — we rarely use buzzwords: 6.86% Words with no meaning. Sure, buzzwords sound great but they get in the way of communicating clearly. At worst, using buzzwords makes you sound silly or arrogant. If you want to get your point across, speak simply and directly. Leave no room for interpretation. There are some horrible phrases we tend to use and the worst of those buzzwords can make us sound ridiculous. Find better alternatives. Your team will appreciate it and you’ll make a much better impression upon those around you. 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!

Keys to More Efficient Decision Making

June 10, 2015 /1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Many decision making processes are burdensome and slow. The faster you can make better decisions, the better your organization will perform. Here’s some guidance on how to make those better, faster decisions. The other day I had the privilege of being interviewed by Dave Crenshaw on the topic of decision making. Here’s a piece of our conversation. DAVE: So let’s talk a little bit about decision-making. Funny, just before this call, I was working with somebody. They said they were a horrible decision maker. What do you typically see as the biggest problem people have when it comes to making decisions? MIKE: I think there are issues in terms of the style. It’s the biggest one that I see. And in organizations, we tend to default to a consensus-based decision-making style, where we can’t make a decision until everybody has been briefed, and everybody agrees. Unfortunately, that’s not necessary with the right decision-making style for a lot of decisions we are making every day. That approach tends to slow things down and gum things up. DC: Why do you feel we’re so dependent on the opinions of others when it comes to that decision?

6 Questions You MUST Ask to Prevent Bad Customer Service

June 8, 2015 /3 Comments/in Books, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Bad customer service has an incalculable cost and long-lasting repercussions. Here are 6 questions you can ask to prevent those issues from happening in the first place. Today’s post is by Angie Morgan, author of Leading from the Front (CLICK HERE to get your copy). It was 1984. A colleague of mine had an unpleasant exchange with a ticket agent who was rescheduling his flight. The agent made a snarky remark, further frustrating the process, and my colleague said, “I’m done with this airline.” Fast forward 31 years. My friend still hasn’t flown on the offending airline, but he has accumulated 3,000,000 miles on others. He’s now a senior leader at a Fortune 50 firm and recently held a national conference and made a request to his team not to fly on this airline either. Now, my friend’s boycott seems extreme. But is it, really? You’ve likely taken similar stands when you’ve received bad customer service. Maybe you made a silent protest, vowing never to visit a business again. Or you’ve publicized your displeasure by telling your network or writing an online review. Whenever bad service happens, there’s a cost. It could be a damaged relationship, a missed opportunity, or a dropped account. It can even result in millions of dollars of lost revenue. If you’re a manager reading this, you understand the potential impact your client-facing team has on the business. But when was the last time you challenged yourself to see if you’re doing everything you can to prevent poor customer service from happening? Ask yourself:

How engaged are the members of your team?

June 4, 2015 /0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How engaged are the members of your team? – Highly engaged: 27.49% – Mostly engaged: 48.86% – Somewhat engaged: 17.76% – Not engaged: 3.65% – Actively disengaged: 2.43% You need them all engaged. While it’s great that almost 80% of you have a mostly or highly engaged team, having 20% of people out there who aren’t is a huge drag on the organization. You’re likely spending 80% of your time on that 20% group of disengaged people. That’s a tremendous productivity drain because engagement matters more than you think it does. Spend a few days figuring out not now to cure the symptoms of their disengagement but rather how you can change their role or their perspective on their work to get them more engaged. Everyone will benefit from that small investment of time on your part. 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 Your Competencies Drive Your Strategy

June 3, 2015 /0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Core competencies can help you decide which initiatives to pursue and which ones to avoid. By appreciating what you’re great at and applying it to your initiative portfolio, you can achieve a much higher level of success. One critical aspect of strategic planning is deciding where you will or will not compete. A way I encourage organizations to think about that is to look at their core competencies. A core competency is something your organization is great at. I know your organization is probably good at a lot of things. But what are the two things you would hold up and say “we’re better than anyone else at these two competencies”? Core competencies could be things like the quality of your product, your ability to innovate, the efficiency of your supply chain, the strength of your brands, or your technology infrastructure. There are a lot of things that you could be good at, so take a step back and ask “how do we compete in the marketplace?” Your organization likely has a primary and secondary core competency. The primary competency is the one you’re going to play to first. The secondary competency is often a “platform” for making your primary competency strong. Allow me to offer a couple of examples. Starbucks. I would argue that their two core competencies are the quality of their product (primary) and their service (secondary). Procter & Gamble. Their core competencies would be product development (primary) and marketing (secondary). Once you’ve identified your two primary core competencies, it’s helpful to evaluate your initiative portfolio using those competencies as a lens. Look at Competency One and Competency Two relative to one another. Get an understanding of whether the market, the product, or the initiative you’re pursuing relies upon that core competency. Analyze the relative importance of […]

4 Steps to Transform Big Man Leadership Into Change Agent Leadership

June 1, 2015 /0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Moving from “big man leadership” to demonstrating “change agent leadership” requires you to approach your work in new ways. Here are 4 steps to making that transformation. Today’s post is by Dean Williams, author of Leadership for a Fractured World (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Leadership for a fractured world is a complex topic, and no single theory can do it justice. Traditional big man leadership that relies on prominence (“look to me”), dominance (“listen to me”) and tribalizing (“follow me”) to get things done, isn’t working anymore. Leaders who are global change agents, men and women who can act with or without formal positional authority to mobilize diverse factions to face reality, participate in interdependent problem solving, and contribute to innovative solutions with focus and speed. Big man leaders operate within the boundaries—they protect boundaries and manage boundaries, while global change agents lead by 1) crossing boundaries, 2) busting boundaries, 3) transcending boundaries, and 4) building bridges. Crossing boundaries This is about crossing the cultural, gender, geographic, structural, and professional boundaries that separate people and groups. Interdependent problems necessitate that multiple groups in a social system be mobilized as problems cannot be brought to resolution by one group acting alone or in isolation. Leadership, therefore, must be exercised not just into your own group, but into various groups and factions connected to the challenge. I recently met with some managers of a large, multinational Silicon Valley IT company. They explained how a group of senior managers in the headquarters were reluctant to cross boundaries and connect with important regional and international offices to include them in important problem solving process. Protecting turf and resources had become more important to them than promoting interdependent problem solving. Busting boundaries