Mike Figliuolo – Page 85 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

Laying Siege to a New Job Using Bridges and Catapults

August 8, 2011 /1 Comment/in Career, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Moving to a new job can be scary and intimidating. There are also many risks inherent in making that transition. But if you think of the transition like laying siege to a fortress, you will be just fine. There are a few major risks you must account for as you plan how to attack your next job. Those risks include how to leave your current job on good terms, how to get up to speed on the new role quickly, and how to assimilate into your new team smoothly. If you make a mistake in any of these transition points, you can ruin relationships, suffer poor performance, and make everyone hate you as “that new guy.” As you leave your current role, it might be tempting to tell everyone *exactly* what you think of them as you ride off into the sunset. Sure it’ll feel great for a day or so but that glow doesn’t last and it has no upside. It actually carries with it a great deal of downside because those people will have an impact on your ability to get future jobs when it comes time for a recommendation. The things they say about you will become part of your reputation. Burning those bridges can be a very dangerous thing. The risks you face in the new role are usually getting overwhelmed with the new job, lacking focus, failing to get to know your team, and not building trust quickly enough with your coworkers. It’s a lot to attack in a short period of time. Fortunately you can make your transition successful by building bridges and using catapults.

How You Can Lead Like a Superhero

August 1, 2011 /1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

You folks know I’m obsessed with comic books, movies, pop culture, and superheroes. I’m even wearing my Green Lantern t-shirt as I write this. The reason we love superheroes is we all secretly aspire to be like them. Now none of us are rushing out to get bitten by radioactive spiders or to jump in pools of irradiated toxic waste but I’m sure you’re willing to do a little light and fun reading to be more like a superhero leader. Lucky for you I’ve compiled some of my favorite hero/superhero posts that I’ve written on this blog over the years and included them in this post. I’ve also saved you some time and wrote a quick abstract on what the post covers. I hope you find the posts helpful, insightful, and entertaining. They cover everything from leadership to innovation to goal setting. The characters include Snake Plissken, Master Oogway, Mr. Spock, Han Solo, Jack Sparrow, and other colorful folks from the big screen, the small screen, and the comic books. So here goes our first official superhero roundup! Click the headline next to each photo and you’ll be taken to the full article.

How you can avoid becoming the next Rupert Murdoch

July 27, 2011 /1 Comment/in Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Robert Jones of the PenPoint Group. You can read more about him at the end of the post. Here’s Robert: Sometimes on the tennis or volleyball court, I’ll get a shooting pain in my left knee that forces me to stop and bandage up. When my opponents ask what’s wrong, I always give the same reply: “Old soccer injury.” That answer is 100% accurate – even if it’s not 100% complete. I did tear my ligaments playing soccer and spent weeks hobbling around on crutches. What I don’t normally tell people is exactly how it happened. I was in the 6th grade, playing fullback, while my friend Todd was in the goal. My team was dominating, so there was very little action at our end of the field, and Todd and I had plenty of time to discuss our favorite episode of “Batman.” Suddenly one of my teammates yelled “Shot! Shot!” From the corner of my eye, I saw the incoming ball, so I sprinted full-speed in the same direction – and ran smack into the corner of the aluminum goalpost. Clearly, the full story is much less sexy than the condensed version. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about full disclosure as I watch the unfolding scandal over phone hacking in the U.K. The news media are supposed to be the champions of truth, yet some reporters and editors were clearly telling the “sexy” stories that sold newspapers while withholding one very important fact – that they had obtained their information illegally. What’s the result of all this?

How to be More Purposeful in Your Leadership

July 20, 2011 /9 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Michelle Braden, CEO of MSBCoach. Join me in welcoming her to the blog. Are leaders made or are leaders born? This is an ongoing question that often triggers interesting conversations and debate. One thing is for sure, leadership is a journey and something that is continuous process. I personally believe leaders are “made” through learning, experiences, successes, failures and choices. You are not just “born” a leader, although personalities, temperaments, upbringing, and cultural norms all play a part in what makes you who you are. Leaders come in all styles and approaches, and thank goodness we do not have a “cookie-cutter” leadership format that is exactly what “works” in leadership. We can and should find patterns and leadership styles to learn from and look up to yet, in the end, we have to own and develop our own leadership style. Your leadership style is formulated through your leadership journey and everyone’s is different. Your style emerges out of a combination of your past and current experiences (both personal and professional), how your values and judgments emerge from these events and your personality. We also know from Gallup’s research on strengths that your brain is “wired” for certain potential strengths/talents that are there from birth. The difference between becoming a poor, good or great leader is based more on how you respond and learn from your experiences, as opposed to the experiences making or breaking you as a leader. Even though nature and your experiences have both shaped and influenced your personal leadership style, one thing I feel sure of is that you will not be successful in your leadership unless you create a purposeful plan. For anything to be consistently successful requires intent. For example, in order to take care of your body, your home, […]

How Saying “NO” Strengthens Your Strategy

July 18, 2011 /5 Comments/in Books, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

We’ve already talked about what a strategic plan is (and isn’t) in our discussion: “strat plan isn’t ‘budget +10%.’” Hopefully now that you’ve got a direction mapped out and a list of initiatives you’re going to pursue, you’re ready for a little tactical strategic advice (yes that phrase is supposed to sound oxymoronic but it’s actually deliberate and accurate). Repeat after me: “No.” Try it again. This time with conviction: “NO.” Strategy is inherently about saying “no.” It’s about the choices we make and the choices we don’t. I’ve seen plenty of strategies completely derailed due to an inability to say “no” to that incremental initiative that’s kind of “on strategy” but not really. Good strategists are great at leading the thinking (and I believe leading the thinking is so critical to leadership that it has its own entire section in my book One Piece of Paper – click here to get your copy). As a leader, your job is to lead the thought processes and strategic efforts of your team. That requires you to invest time in thinking about your strategy. The more effective you are at saying “no” to non-core work and singularly focusing your team on the end vision you’ve laid out, the higher the likelihood of you achieving your strategic goals. Not saying “no,” on the other hand, leads to dilution of your efforts and strategy by incrementalism (which is rarely effective). Let’s walk this logical strategic dog, shall we? Take the following points as true: You know where you want to end up and what your overarching strategy is You have a finite amount of resources at your disposal. You’ve defined the 3-5 most critical initiatives to help you achieve your goal. There are a substantial number of “cool” opportunities you could pursue in addition […]

The Troops Know but Does the Boss?

July 13, 2011 /3 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is from Bob Herbold, the former 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. A recent article on www.ArmyTimes.com cited the fact that the U.S. Army is having a major problem retaining mid-ranking officers. To find out the nature of the problem, the Army Research Institute did extensive surveys and found that for many of those leaving, a key reason was that their immediate supervisor was weak and many claimed that people were being promoted based on seniority; not on merit. In commenting, Army Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey said “We’re promoting 95% of Captains to Major, and 93% of Majors to Lieutenant Colonel.” Basically everyone is being promoted, no matter what their performance happens to be. It is simply based on seniority. As Dempsey pointed out, “95% of Captains don’t deserve to be promoted to Major.” The surveys showed the troops knew this all along! The fatal flaw in promoting based on seniority is your top performers realize they can’t make the progress they desire and deserve. It tells top performers that the organization does not care about excellence. Hence, they decide to leave to find a place where they can make the kind of contributions they want to make.

5 Reasons Your Idea Pitch Sucks

July 11, 2011 /15 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m fortunate enough to see a lot of cool business ideas – both entrepreneurial and “big corporate” in nature. While the people pitching the idea are passionate, smart, and excited, more often than not, the pitch itself sucks. I’m not being bombastic or hyperbolic here. The pitches really suck. Bad. Terribly. I’m not saying I’m the best pitch man either. I’ve made all of the following mistakes at one point or another. The good news for you is I’ve both learned from those mistakes and I’m willing to share what they are. More important, I have a few suggestions on how you can avoid making the mistake in the first place. It doesn’t matter if you’re pitching your idea to a bunch of angel investors, venture capitalists, business partners, corporate executives, or prospective employees. If you make any of the following five mistakes, you’ll likely not get the funding, the contract, the signature, or the support you’re looking for. Without those things, your idea is going nowhere. So strap yourself in. I’m feeling saucy today and you folks know I get reaaalllly direct and candid when I’m saucy… Think of this post as a bit of me kicking up to all you smart folks out there (to learn what I mean about kicking up, CLICK HERE to read a post on the concept). So here are the five reasons your idea pitch sucks (and how you can fix it):

3 Transitions You Must Make After Being Promoted

July 7, 2011 /1 Comment/in Books, Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Kevin Eikenberry, author of From Bud to Boss (CLICK HERE to go buy your copy). You can read more about Kevin at the end of the post. Here are his thoughts: Congratulations. You’ve just been promoted. You are excited at the prospect. If this will be your first leadership/supervisory role, you may be unclear, uncertain and anxious. Even if this isn’t your first leadership rodeo, you likely have a bit of concern about the transition (if not you are either blissfully ignorant or in denial). And in either case you likely aren’t thinking about the full transition. In fact, in my experience people are at most thinking of two of the three challenges (and too often only one). Which is why I wrote this post – to give all of us a sense of the triple threat of transition challenges, and more importantly, some brief suggestions for how to manage and overcome them once they are recognized. Even if you aren’t personally in this transition, you likely know someone who is, or is struggling in a leadership role. If so, read on to see how you can help them – and consider forwarding it to them as well. The Three Transition Challenges

Great Leaders Kick Up and Kiss Down

July 5, 2011 /6 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

The following is an excerpt from the cutting room floor for my book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (CLICK HERE to buy it on presale). This story didn’t make it into the final version of the book but the lesson is a powerful one and I want to be sure to share it. Great leaders reverse the conventional wisdom of kissing up to the boss and kicking down by beating up their teams. Great leaders kick up and kiss down. Kick up, kiss down was taught to me by two bosses I had at different points in my career. The first boss lived it but never explained it. The second boss both explained it as well as lived it. The basic premise of kick up, kiss down is a leader’s job is to keep “higher ups” mindful of how their decisions affect the leader’s people and give the higher ups a pointed kick when they have a negative impact on the team. The second part about kissing down reminds the leader to praise and encourage the team whenever the opportunity arises. It is obviously the opposite of the “kiss up, kick down” doctrine that can be alarmingly prevalent among managers. A special leader showed me this approach to leadership early in my career. As a young lieutenant I made more than my fair share of mistakes. My commander expected all his junior officers to make these errors in judgment. He was forgiving of an error as long as you learned from that mistake. But just because he was forgiving did not mean word of those errors did not circulate among other officers in the battalion. Most of the time the stories about the errors were quite humorous. They usually involved me getting lost, having […]

Your Leadership Isn’t as Predictable as You Think

June 27, 2011 /0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

You probably think you’re pretty predictable as a leader. Your team clearly knows your standards and expectations. They know how you’ll behave in pretty much any leadership situation. That predictability gives them comfort and makes them confident in your leadership. Wrong. I ask a poll question on SmartBrief on Leadership every week (and if you don’t subscribe to SmartBrief, you’re missing out so go sign up here now… go on… I’ll wait until you get back…). In two recent polls I asked readers how predictable they thought they were as leaders. The question was “How predictable is your leadership style?” in both cases. When asked about their own style, people responded like this: – My team always knows what to expect from me and how I lead. 29.15% – Most of the time I’m predictable but I occasionally surprise people. 68.37% – I’m mostly unpredictable and my team reacts to my shifts in style. 0.58% – I’m completely unpredictable and my style is not clear to most others. 1.90% When asked the same question about their bosses, people responded like this. For ease of doing math, I’ve included the variance between responses in the two polls in parentheses after the values:

How to Lead Like a Little Old Lady

June 20, 2011 /13 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

My Nana – Rose Figliuolo – passed away yesterday at the amazing age of 93. You would do well to learn a thing or two about leadership from this wonderful little old lady. Some of you are saying “Dude, he’s writing a blog post the day after his Nana passed away? How callous.” Wrong. This is exactly what Nana would expect from me. To remember the good things and pass them along and to honor her memory by living brightly. She was a phenomenal woman who overcame a great deal of pain and adversity in life. She built strong children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She taught me a hell of a lot of things over the 40 years I’ve known her. I’d like to share a few of the things she taught me and that I’ll never forget. If you pay attention to some of Nana’s lessons, I know you’ll be a stronger leader, a better person, and a happier soul. Just by way of a little background so you can picture Nana, here are a few things you should know about her before you absorb her lessons on being a stronger leader. She started out about 5’4″ but ended up around 4’10” (I think). She smoked her entire life despite us repeatedly telling her to quit so she would live longer (wrong!). She loved having her beer, chocolate, vodka, and great Italian food. She was also the classiest, kindest, funniest, sweetest person I’ve ever met in my life. So here goes – leadership lessons from Nana: