Mike Figliuolo – Page 91 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

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Entries by Mike Figliuolo

Do You Sound Like a Hypereducated Idiot Who Swallowed a Thesaurus?

September 13, 2010 /19 Comments/in Communications /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s unreal how buzzwords and bullcrap have completely permeated our language and our businesses. It’s almost unconscionable how we simply tolerate it rather than pushing hard to get back to simplicity. I was reading an industry magazine this morning and came across a quote in one of those little quote boxes. I decided to read it (after all, they set it aside in a quote box *and* put the guy’s head shot in the box too therefore he must be superbrilliant to rank a head shot and a quote). First I had to see whose brilliance I was about to have the pleasure of reading. The guy is an EVP of Global Strategy for a very reputable firm. I got all tingly. This was gonna be some life-changing stuff. I was sure of it. Then I read this: “To successfully address senior management’s concerns, human resources leadership needs to embrace its strategic role as an executive partner, and define and execute a holistic human capital management strategy that builds a superior corporate culture based on performance and accountability.” My head exploded. It was like the guy had been force-fed Roget’s and the last twelve years of Harvard Business Review. I was completely dumbfounded – not because of the brilliance of his insight but because of the complete load of crap that had been spewed onto that page killing hundreds of trees (Oh! The humanity!). I wish Kanye had been at that interview: “Imma let you finish but… Mike can say that in about 50% fewer words.” So here’s my take on what the guy was really trying to say:

Valet Park, Self Park or South Park – What’s Your Brand?

September 9, 2010 /1 Comment/in Communications, Customer Service, Guest Blogger, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m again happy to bring you AmyK Hutchens as today’s guest blogger (last time she was here she talked about reducing stress). No, that’s not her to the left. That’s Kenny from South Park. Here she is: Stephen J. Cloobeck, Chairman and CEO of Diamond Resorts International, a company with 150+ branded and affiliated resorts in 26 countries, shared that if you want “to bring value to a busted brand, you start with the details.” For Cloobeck, this means a direct access email address available to every customer and a winning smile with the word “yes” at the tip of his tongue. With these details, and a few others, Cloobeck has built one of the largest vacation ownership companies in the world in an era when the words “time share” can leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Brand Overhaul How did Cloobeck sustain success despite turbulent times? He started with a brand overhaul, beginning with the classic time share sales pitch. “It was too aggressive,” stated Cloobeck. “We needed to soften the customer experience. We had to bring the value back to a busted brand.” So they shifted the pitch to a connect, and Cloobeck went straight to the consumer’s children to start. When he heard they had a menu kids refused, they added mac n cheese and other child-friendly foods. When he heard the kids were bored, he changed “baby-sitting” hours to outdoor adventure sessions and opportunities for physical and mental activities, and… he added an adult beverage to the “meet & greet” for parents, so they too could have a little more fun. Diamond’s new mantra? We’re listening! You too can stimulate and reinvent your brand. How do you know if your brand is successful? It creates and retains customers. Successful branding is actually that simple. Ask […]

Email Stupidity: Reply All Cuts Both Ways

September 6, 2010 /6 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications /by Mike Figliuolo

Reply All is the dumbest button ever. I can’t tell you how much junk ends up in my inbox that should be a private conversation or frankly that I just don’t care about. I’ll bet if Microsoft removed the Reply All function from Outlook, U.S. productivity would climb by 15%, GDP would pop by a trillion dollars, and there would be 84% fewer aneurysms at work. I believe there should be a qualification test you have to pass before Reply All functionality even works on your machine. It’s bad enough when people misuse the button because they’re clueless. It’s even worse when they misuse it to be passive aggressive or to play political games. Yes, this is a bit of a rant post (like you expect less?) but it’s also a cautionary tale of how technology can be your friend and your enemy. You might think your laptop is cute and cuddly like WALL-E only to find out it rises up to destroy you like the terminator. Heed this advice now or pay the price later… This one time, at band camp… oh. Sorry. Wrong blog. Lemme try again. This one time, there was a team I was on. They did incredible work. They had found the balance between analytical rigor and rapid decision making. When they got busy, stuff happened.

4 Ways Leaders Can Overcome the Fear of Conflict

August 30, 2010 /43 Comments/in Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s nauseating to hear – someone soft-shoe dancing around an issue because they’re afraid of hurting someone’s feelings. They do so because they might receive negative feedback in a 360 review that they were abrupt or too direct in delivering feedback on that issue. So rather than going the direct route, they water down their message until it’s a mealy mouthed blathering stream of meaningless crap (yes, I’m fired up as I’m writing this). Let me ask you this – do you want to follow a “leader” who doesn’t speak his or her mind? Someone who is more concerned with how their actions will be perceived rather than saying what they really think? Do you want to follow a leader who is more interested in doing nothing wrong (and hence not doing much of anything) or would you rather follow someone who takes a stand for what they believe in and suffers the consequences as appropriate? Me? I’ll choose option B. Conflict avoidance has invaded Leaderville and it’s an ugly blight. IMPORTANT: realize, I’m not advocating or approving of hateful, cruel, rude, or offensive behavior and words (although some idiot won’t bother to read this sentence and they’ll leave an anonymous comment to the effect that I’m a hate-monger or some stupidity of similar ilk). Those words and behaviors have no place in any workplace (or our lives for that matter). What I’m attacking is a belief that we as leaders can’t speak our minds because we might hurt someone’s feelings. It’s that mindset that erodes the core of leadership over time and turns it into gentle corrective actions that end up having no impact whatsoever. Sure, no one felt corrected or had their feelings hurt but they now effectively have no freakin’ idea what they’re supposed to do or […]

Dead End Job? It’s Never Too Late for a Second Career

August 23, 2010 /5 Comments/in Career, Entrepreneur /by Mike Figliuolo

Put your hand in the air if you feel trapped in your job. Wow. That’s a lot of hands. And you’ve been doing that job how long? Really? You don’t say. Well I have some good news for you. There’s life after that job. Heck, there are entire careers out there just waiting for you. Careers where you can once again be excited and fulfilled. The biggest obstacle is you taking the plunge and putting in the effort. You folks know I don’t mince words. I’ve told you plenty of times to quit your job (like I did in this post where I also told you to stop complaining). If you look at your career and see a big “Dead End” sign and/or you hate driving to the office every day, perhaps it’s time you give a second career a second thought. I know. It’s daunting. And I’m speaking from experience. I’ve changed roles/careers many times (left the Army, McKinsey, Capital One, and Scotts Miracle-Gro). All departures are hard. They’re scary and confusing. But there is life on the other side. The most important questions to answer are: – Should I stay or should I go? – If yes, where and how? Let’s figure these out, shall we?

6 Executive Presence Failures You’re Exhibiting

August 16, 2010 /13 Comments/in Career, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Many of us aspire to be a senior executive (and many of you already are). Sometimes you might wonder why you’re not getting picked for the role. You’re a solid performer, your work is great, and you’ve exceeded every goal yet still you don’t make it to the big leagues. Can’t figure out why? You might be exhibiting silly little behaviors that are easy to fix but no one has ever pointed out. In short, you sometimes come across as a clown. Now, I know I’ve previously said it’s okay to occasionally be a clown in the social networking arena but this post covers the flip side of that coin. When you exhibit these little quirks, other senior executives (and your team members) question how polished you truly are. In a day when people are risk averse, they’re not going to take a bet on you if they believe you might embarrass yourself or the organization in front of the board, customers, partners, or large groups of associates. The good news is I’m more than happy to point out some of these little failings that are extremely easy to fix. Yes, some take time to implement while others require but the click of a few buttons. If you’re serious about playing at the next level (or if you want to ensure your performance at that level isn’t lacking credibility), read on, take a hard look at what you’re doing, and modify behaviors accordingly. It’s the little things that can make a difference. And here they are:

3 Simple Steps for Achieving Global Domination

August 9, 2010 /3 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

So you want to take over the world, huh? Not quite sure how to get started, you say? Then I have a treat for you Building on our last post about how to think about capturing the huge global opportunities that are out there to improve your business, today I’ll offer some practical advice on how to get started. Going global is intimidating. For some, anything beyond buying toys with a “Made in China” stamp on them can freak them out. But with a focused and measured approach, you too can start down the path of making your organization global. In the last post, we covered some notions around evaluating opportunities on the revenue side and the cost side of the ledger. To capture them, you have to think about market entry, product/service delivery, and communications. Without those three, your efforts are dead on arrival. Are there other considerations? Sure. These are simply the first three I recommend considering as part of your global conquest plan.

How Your Business Can Achieve Global Domination

August 2, 2010 /2 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m going to take over the world! It’s really fun to say that. It’s even more fun to take action toward that goal. Our world has gotten smaller. Way smaller. Globalization is an unstoppable trend. But as they say, the trend is your friend so why not take advantage of it? I don’t care how big or small your business is – there are huge opportunities out there for you beyond the shores of your country (assuming yours has shores). The real trick is understanding what globalization can do for your business then figuring out how to exploit those opportunities. Today I’ll cover some simple notions around what the global opportunities are and in the next post I’ll more importantly discuss a few key ways to capture them. Going global is intimidating. It sounds huge. You need a passport and visas (and we know what a joy those processes can be). You need to understand new languages and cultures. And heaven forbid you have to take a coach class 14 hour flight across the ocean (trust me, it’s painful). Okay. So get over it and dive in. To illustrate today’s points, I’ll use examples from two businesses I’m running: thoughtLEADERS (leadership training) and TiXiT (discounted event tickets). Sure, they’re simple businesses but they’re microcosms that will help get the following points across. Think about it simply – opportunities exist in terms of revenues and costs. It’s not that hard. As far as how to capture the opportunities, it boils down to market entry, product/service delivery, and communication. So let’s go global! Here we go:

Leadership 104: Leading a Balanced Life

July 26, 2010 /4 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

If you’re burned out, you’re worthless. We all run around waving our arms proclaiming we want (and we want our people to have) a balanced life. The problem is we never define what that means, let alone actually behaving in a manner that keeps us balanced. We’re our own worst enemies. The good news is this leadership maxims approach to leadership includes keeping you sane. This concept is the fourth major section of my upcoming book One Piece of Paper – go get a copy by CLICKING HERE In this post I’m going to ask you to define a set of rules or reminders to help keep your overobsessive hypercompetitive too-long-at-a-keyboard-every-day psycho self in check. If you’re still having trouble creating your maxims, I again encourage you to check out the course we teach on the method by clicking here. The first point on living a balanced life comes from realizing both your life *and* your work need to be in balance. So many times we perceive this concept as only pertaining to not working late or on weekends. Sure, that’s one aspect of balance. Balance is all about making yourself more resilient (and yes, we teach a course on Building Resilience – you can read about it here).

Leadership 103: Leading Your People

July 21, 2010 /1 Comment/in Career, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Here we go with another step in the leadership maxims process. We’ve already covered how to lead yourself and lead the thinking (be sure to go read those posts). Now it’s time to articulate how you plan on leading your people. This concept is the third major section of my upcoming book One Piece of Paper – go get a copy by CLICKING HERE. This step is NOT about feedback forms, progress reviews, goal setting sheets or any other template. This is about setting the expectation for yourself and your team on how you plan on working with them. Expect this part of your toolkit to grow almost every day. I encourage you to reflect upon the success or failure of your leadership efforts and constantly look for new ways to improve. It’s hard. It’s a lot of work. It’s incredibly rewarding and can differentiate your team and your business from your competitors. Creating your maxims in this third aspect of leadership is comprised of four areas of concentration- Knowing and living your style – Understanding your team members’ wants and needs – Living your team members’ lives – Challenging, inspiring and developing your people Let’s explore, shall we?

Leadership 102: Leading the Thinking

July 19, 2010 /0 Comments/in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Continuing on our theme of articulating your leadership philosophy on one piece of paper (your leadership maxims), we now need to move on to leading the thinking. This concept is the second major section of my upcoming book One Piece of Paper – go get a copy by CLICKING HERE Once you’ve taken care of defining how you’ll lead yourself (learn how to do so in this post), you need to create some maxims that get you leaning forward and taking your organization to new places. The status quo is never good enough. I can’t think of a single leader I’ve ever met whose strategy was “Don’t change a thing! Everything is perfect!” In fact, the best leaders I’ve worked with continuously challenged the thinking, blew up business models, and constantly questioned how they could get their organization to a better place. This is what leading the thinking is all about. This approach is all about thought leadership (and lucky for you we not only cover the topic on this blog but we also teach a course on thoughtLEADERSHIP as well – click here to learn more about bringing the program into your organization). Obviously the benefits of leading the thinking are that you’ll see new trends and opportunities (or risks) before your competitors. You’ll shape the market rather than the market shaping you. You’ll uncover those huge new breakthrough opportunities that get your team excited and energized about their work. To do all these great things, you need to establish some maxims that force you to think about new opportunities and set a vision for where you’re headed. On top of that, I highly suggest you set aside some “think time” every month (at least 1/2 day) to take a step back and evaluate how you’re thinking about the […]

Leadership 101: Leading Yourself

July 14, 2010 /6 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Career, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

The first step in articulating your leadership philosophy (as teed up in our last post: READ IT HERE) is determining how you’ll lead yourself. Nobody is going to follow you if you don’t know where you’re going (except out of morbid curiosity). This aspect of leadership is the first area I’ll ask you to examine as you define your own personal set of leadership maxims. Again, for some video footage on the subject, you can watch me cover the subject here. This concept is the first major section of my book One Piece of Paper – go get a copy by CLICKING HERE This aspect of leadership is tricky. It requires introspection and a frank, honest conversation with yourself to understand where you’re headed and how you want to get there. To start that discussion, there are four areas I encourage you to explore: – Finding your internal motivation – Charting your path – Stating how you’ll move down your path – Inspiring yourself Examining these areas each in turn can really help you crystallize what motivates you and what your personal rules of the road are. As you go through the leadership maxims exercises, I encourage you to create a living document where you can capture pointed, clear statements that reflect your principles on the given point. To help you understand what I believe these principles might look like, I’ve offered up a few of my own personal examples. Remember, you can derive maxims from family sayings, books, songs, movies, leadership experiences you’ve had, etc. Heck, you can even steal some of mine if you like them and find them helpful. All that said, let’s get down to the business of leading yourself. Without an understanding of what you care about and what your personal ethics are, you’re lost. […]