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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

How to Build a Great Team Like the Avengers

June 11, 2012 /13 Comments/in Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

I saw the Avengers for the third time last night. It gets awesomer every time (be sure to stay until the VERY END of the end credits – there’s a nice little treat there but I won’t spoil it). Anyway, as I watched the Avengers in action, I couldn’t help but think about how you can build and lead a team of incredibly high-performing individuals. Yes, this is another post about superheroes (click here for a fuller rundown of superhero leadership posts – they’re a lot of fun to read). Hiring high performers can be problematic (as I’ve discussed in this post). I’ve written about how you can lead high performing teams before and how you have to get out of their way. All that said, I think the Avengers have added some interesting new thoughts to how you can build and lead that team. The team members are mighty, incredible, and invincible. They can handle themselves solo pretty well. They all have huge personalities (which can destroy your team if you let them get out of control). Nick Fury understands all of these dynamics of his team and he manages them masterfully. And every member of the team eventually figures out how to be an outstanding team member (even Tony Stark – hmmm… maybe he read this post…). How does he do such a wonderful job of getting the Avengers to gel and succeed? He uses a few simple principles.

The Proper Definition of Transformation

June 6, 2012 /1 Comment/in Guest Blogger, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Thomas Butta, Founder and CEO of 21 Weeks. You can read more about him at the end of the post. Here’s Thomas: I recently read an article in The Economist about Jim Collins, the author of Built to Last, Good to Great, and, most recently, Great by Choice. The piece reviewed the merits of Collins’s overarching point of view – that greatness is largely a matter of choice and discipline – relative to other approaches including a transformative one. What surprised me wasn’t the comparison of disciplined and steady versus an aggressive agenda, but rather that transformation was painted with a ‘trash and burn’ brush. It got me thinking: What do we know about transformation. What is your experience with transformation? What do you think of transformation? What exactly is transformation? My research tells me that transformation means different things to different people in different roles. For some of you, perhaps in functional positions, transformation is consultant speak for change that is often uncomfortable. You know this kind of change. It’s strategically unclear, politically charged, and haphazard in execution. Good luck with that. For others in non-management roles, transformation is one of the words ‘management’ hides behind when driving down costs and/or driving up profits. You’ve seen this, too. “As part of our efforts to transform (insert company name) into a more competitive entity, it is necessary to immediately cut non-essential operating costs and reduce redundancy in our work force.” Right. For others in executive management, transformation is seen as the way to break through the status quo with a powerful strategic agenda focused on achieving an organization’s fullest potential. This is the camp I fall into. This is where sustainable value and momentum get created.

How Leaders Can See the Future

June 4, 2012 /4 Comments/in Books, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

The following is an excerpt from my book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (you can get your copy here). This post will help you be more visionary and force yourself to look into the future. Your team looks to you for new ideas, inspiration, and indicators of how you want to approach change. If you personally never challenge the status quo, you cannot expect them to bring you a bevy of new ideas to help you achieve your vision. You must first force yourself to regularly question the way things are, so you can break through the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” barrier to create something new. This kind of questioning will help you identify new opportunities or threats before it is too late to do something about them. Vision is great, but action is what gets you there, and for action to occur, you must first identify the opportunities and ideas on which to act. Many leaders become complacent about looking into the future. They believe they know what lies ahead for their organization. They stop focusing on the future because it seems clear what is in store for them, and they believe that the best use of their energy is to drive current operations. These leaders would do well to heed the sage words of Paul Saffo: “Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.” Great leaders consistently look beyond clarity into the uncomfortable ambiguity ahead. They embrace their responsibility to find new ideas that prepare their organization to win in uncertain future environments. Failure to look beyond those short distances will lead you to miss the opportunities and crises that inevitably await. Do not expect to have all the answers. You will not create all the ideas by […]

How Innovation can Improve Your Leadership

May 30, 2012 /3 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Maureen Metcalf – a thoughtLEADERS instructor and author of The Innovative Leadership Fieldbook (which was the winner of Best Business Reference Book and a finalist in Best Business Book in the 2012 International Book Awards). You can learn more about her at the end of this post. Here’s Maureen: As leaders, we innovate to improve our products and technology. We now have designer dogs and designer foods – we are surrounded by innovation. We can become overwhelmed with the number of innovations to the point that a simple trip to the store to buy “tennis shoes” no longer means going to the shoe aisle – now we go to a sporting goods store and have an entire section the size of a small shopping mall. So, as you lead in the world of dramatic ongoing change an innovation, how do you manage the pace and the complexity? How do you maintain your effectiveness as a leader? Let’s look at Bill, the CIO of a large company. He was at the top of his game when he took a job five years ago. He was recruited and enticed to leave his former company. Fast forward to today, he is now struggling to maintain his job. He is a fallen super hero. No more cape and attitude. Now he needs to rebuild the edge he lost. He was so focused on doing the job and doing it well that he stopped developing. He was highly dedicated to the success of his company but overlooked the fact that doing the job is not enough. He needed to continue to develop his leadership skills. If you are a world class athlete, you would not work out until you won the Olympics then stop working out until the next Olympics trials […]

The Key to Real Relationships with Your Team

May 29, 2012 /2 Comments/in Books, Career, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

This warrants being said again. Your team doesn’t trust you. Honestly. They don’t. Trust is key to effective working relationships; yet, as you climb the corporate ladder, trust seems harder to earn and easier to lose. What causes a team to not trust their leader? You. Yes, you. You’re unpredictable and your team doesn’t know what to expect from you. But, these are fixable problems. Trust is about an ability to rely upon or expect a predictable outcome. When you act in ways your team doesn’t expect, it erodes trust and makes them wonder what you’re going to do next. The root of all your trust issues lies in not clearly setting expectations of your behavior in the first place (and if you don’t think you have a trust issue with your team, take this quick 5 minute assessment to see how you stack up). If you can clearly lay out how your people can expect you to behave in a variety of situations, they’ll have a basic expectation upon which to build a foundation of trust. These expectations, however, cannot simply be broad, buzzword-filled platitudes. When you set expectations, they have to be personal and meaningful enough to you that they guide your behavior in a variety of situations. I refer to these guiding principles as “leadership maxims” which are rules of behavior or conduct. The collection of all your leadership maxims becomes your personal leadership philosophy.

Is the Culture to Blame or are You?

May 23, 2012 /6 Comments/in Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Darcy Eikenberg, author of Bring Your Superpowers to Work (get your copy HERE). You can learn all about her at the end of the post. Here’s Darcy: When members of the United States Secret Service were recently accused of engaging prostitutes while on security detail for the President, investigators began asking questions not only about those directly involved but also about whether the department’s leadership may have endorsed (or ignored) a macho, untouchable culture. After more than 4000 private phone calls were illegally hacked by News of the World reporters, an employee shared that media baron Rupert Murdoch “established this culture in the newsroom, where you do whatever it takes to get the story, take no prisoners, destroy the competition, and the end will justify the means.” Closer to home, one of my clients said, “I don’t have a choice – I HAVE to check email throughout my vacation. In our culture, that’s what we do.” And across the country, a friend confided, “I really need a new job – I’m so sick of this culture.” That darn workplace culture. When it’s good, things seem to click. When it’s bad, though, it generates actions that feel wasteful (at best) and even unethical (at worst). Well, I have a secret to tell you. And you’re not going to like it, especially if you’ve gotten used to using “the culture” as an excuse for the way things are at work – a way to lay blame for the things you don’t like doing, thinking, or believing; but do, think and believe anyway. Here’s the secret.

A Manifesto for Making Leadership Real Again

May 21, 2012 /21 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

I’ve written my manifesto (no, I’m not wearing sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt so call off the FBI and ATF). It’s a leadership manifesto. Why can’t we just make leadership real again? We’re full of crap. I’m tired of it. I know you are too judging by the comments I get on the blog and the emails I receive. I’d like us all to fix this. To that end, I’ve written a ChangeThis manifesto. Below is the beginning of the document. You can read and download the entire thing as a PDF too. The Leadership Model is Broken. What has happened to leadership? With all the crises and challenges we face, and the increasingly risk-averse environment in which we operate, leadership has become generic, ephemeral, and bland. We have devolved from leaders into managers. Admiral Grace Murray Hopper said it best, “you manage things, but you lead people.” The problem is we’re no longer leading. We’re hiding behind committees. We’re using the crutches of data and metrics to make our decisions for us. We blame policies and corporate culture for the problems our teams face rather than delivering the tough messages with a sense of ownership. The result of all of this is our people don’t trust us anymore. Work has become transactional. They do the work and we pay them. It’s a fee-for-service mindset. When they find someone who will pay them more for their services, they’re gone. And when we no longer have need of their services, we simply cast those people aside. It’s a toxic environment. It’s hard for people to trust their leaders when they feel like they’re simply a cog in the machine. We are Broken as Leaders. Raise your hand if you’re burned out. Step forward if you’re worried about your own uncertain future. […]

Beware of an Old People Culture

May 16, 2012 /3 Comments/in Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is from Bob Herbold, the long-time Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft Corporation and author of What’s Holding You Back: 10 Bold Steps that Define Gutsy Leaders (CLICK HERE to buy your copy). You can read more about Bob at the end of this post. The stories we’ve been reading these past few weeks about Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s new CEO, and the challenges of reversing a 10+ year slide are downright sad – but not entirely surprising. For a long time we’ve been watching Sony act as if it were run by a bunch of tired veterans from an out-of-touch generation. At one point in its sixty-five-year history, however, Sony was an electronics rock star. • Trinitron was king of the TV market; now it’s Samsung and LG. • The Playstation used to be every teenager’s dream. Now Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is crushing the competition. • Sony invented portable music with its Walkman. Smartphones now own that business. • Speaking of smartphones, ten years ago it would have been Sony that would have been most likely to invent that category. Today they are nowhere in sight. • Tablets? Sony is again missing in action. In a category of the type they used to dominate, but here’s what PC Magazine had to say of Sony’s recently-released Tablet S: “Underpowered, overpriced, and doesn’t pull Sony’s multimedia services together in a convincing way. Where Apple’s and Amazon’s tablets fuse device and content seamlessly, the Tablet S does not.” So what’s Sony’s new CEO to do?

Why Product Simplicity Always Wins

May 14, 2012 /2 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

We humans love to complicate things. The more crap we hang off of a product, the better we think it is. The more engineering that goes into it, the more we can sell, right? Wrong. Simplicity wins. Every time. (iPod, anyone?) As an entrepreneur, I get to hang out with other entrepreneurs (and we act all clubby and hip and cool like it’s some secret club – but it really is). In those circles I get to see and hear a gajillion awesome ideas and pitches. Oftentimes, many of the idea pitches suck (and if you want to know why they suck, here’s a straightforward post that explains all the contributors to suckitude). For the ones that don’t suck, the difference between a winning or losing product invariably comes down to simplicity and elegance. For example, you’ve probably heard the urban legend that during the late 1960’s, NASA spent tons of money on pens that would write in the zero gravity of outer space. Huge amounts of R&D by private firms went into creating the highly-specified, super cool, usable-in-any-environment writing devices. I mean, who wouldn’t want a space age pen that could write anywhere? Now you’ll remember, the dirty nasty red menace commie bastards of the USSR were also locked in the space race with us (chillax – I’m saying that tongue in cheek for those of you who are new readers and aren’t familiar with my style or lack thereof). They didn’t have as much cash and they were super-lazy too. They just said “Here komrade kosmonaut! Is pencil! Is good, da?” (They actually totally said that too. I’ve heard the recording). A pencil. A freakin’ pencil. Simplicity of design wins. Lower cost. Easier to use. Arguably more effective. Frees up resources to work on higher value stuff or […]

The Road to Value – Part 2

May 9, 2012 /0 Comments/in Guest Blogger, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Thomas Butta, Founder and CEO of 21 Weeks. You can read more about him at the end of the post. Here’s Thomas: In The Road to Value (Part 1) I revealed a powerful way to lead a changing or emerging industry by developing a roadmap that delineates the way to create and capture value in that industry. The post showcased market-based benefits to doing this leading work. It also referenced the internal value that could be gained inside the company architecting the roadmap. Internal value is the focus of this post. Infographic by Dennis Michael Dimos A value roadmap can provide a number of sustainable benefits inside the company that invests in the effort.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Leadership

May 7, 2012 /8 Comments/in Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Yes, I recently wrote about the 7 deadly sins of entrepreneurship. This is the same construct but instead on the topic of leadership. Hey, don’t judge me – if Hollywood can take a good concept and reuse it with a different angle, so can I. Leadership is perilous territory. People’s lives are at stake (sometimes literally). While avoiding the following 7 deadly sins won’t guarantee you’ll be a great leader, succumbing to them will guarantee you’ll have a significant learning moment (translation: you’ll fail miserably but hopefully you’ll learn something from it). We’re human (if you’re not, lemme know because I’ve always wanted to meet either a zombie or an android). We make mistakes. We succumb to temptation, pressure, and insecurity. Many times we don’t intend to behave badly but it happens to all of us. Sometimes we’re left wondering how the heck we ended up in a certain predicament and other times we deliberately choose the wrong choice. The following are common ways you might find yourself in trouble and, more importantly, things you can do to avoid that trouble or extricate yourself from it. Lust Don’t worry – we’re not talking about sex here. But I am talking about appearances. While it’s important to dress the part of a leader and to be charismatic and have sex appeal, more than a hint of it can be your undoing. Sex appeal is like cologne or perfume. It needs to be understated because the moment you even think about being too charismatic, you’ve gone too far and you reek of it. Let your actions and achievements attract others to be members of your team – not your Gucci Armani Coach Louis Vuitton Polo ensemble. Gluttony Resources are scarce. Budgets, people, IT support, etc. are all at a premium. If you’re […]

The Balancing Act – Self versus Collective Leadership

May 2, 2012 /5 Comments/in Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Jan Rutherford – author of The Littlest Green Beret. You can learn more about Jan at the end of the post. The thing about leadership development is that it all starts with everyone’s favorite subject – themselves. Self awareness is the starting point for effective leadership, and it’s always interesting to watch my students obsess about survey results, feedback from peers, aptitude tests, and what it all means to their careers. The focus shouldn’t be on oneself, but on the leader’s effect on others. That is, our primary leadership tool is how we effectively communicate. The variables are simply how well do we listen and how well do we speak to align expectations, and achieve results? Ultimately, we control two things: where we spend our time, and how we respond to our environment. What priorities will best produce the results we’re after, and what attitude will we choose to deal with everyday ups and downs? After all, a leader’s environment is largely made up with a bevy of complex and unending interpersonal relationships. Nick Petrie recently published a brilliant white paper on “Future Trends in Leadership Development” where he discussed the transfer of greater developmental ownership to the individual. As a strong proponent of self-reliant leadership, I believe Petrie expertly articulated the need for developmental ownership to be squarely on the shoulders of the individual. Leadership can be an illusion of control, but changing your perspective on everyday experiences can provide inspirational learning opportunities for personal growth and development. What questions should you routinely ask yourself? On a daily basis, what steps should you take to find personal success in your life’s work? Do you know your life’s work? Some say it’s the place where your passion and others’ needs intersect. I believe a key determinant […]