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How Radical Relationships Can Transform Your Team
Radical relationships involve conversations that are raw, real, authentic, and transparent. And they can supercharge both your workers and your organization. Today’s post is by Shawn Nason, author of KISS YOUR DRAGONS: Radical Relationships, Bold Heartsets & Changing The World (CLICK HERE to get your copy). A few years back, my phone rang at 6 a.m. It was my dear friend and colleague Robin Glasco, calling to tell me she had decided to quit her job at a big health insurance company. “It’s about &[email protected]%ing time,” I said.
How much has your organization’s strategy shifted in the last 12 months?
Our reader poll today asks: How much has your organization’s strategy shifted in the last 12 months? Significantly: We’re going in a brand new direction. 20.8% Somewhat: We’ve got a few major shifts but are staying on course. 34.4% Not very: We’re generally headed in the same direction with a couple of adjustments. 36.2% Not at all: We’re full speed ahead on our current path. 8.6% Balancing consistency with agility. Unless there are large shifts in the market or in your organization, your strategy should remain consistent (assuming it’s working). Most of you report that you’re staying the course. For those who are undergoing major shifts, be sure you understand what is driving those changes. Change for the sake of change can doom a good strategy. If you’re not changing at all, take a moment to assess the market around you to ensure you’re not missing any big trends or risks that could affect your business down the road. Shifting during times of calm is much easier to do than when you’ve been caught unaware by a big change in the market. 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!
The Medium Was the Message, And It Still Is
What you say, how you say it, and the medium you choose to communicate your message matter as much today as they did last century Today’s post is by Luke Sheppard, Founder and Principle of Sheppard & Company, and author of Driving Great Results (CLICK HERE to get your copy). In 1964, Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message” in his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. He made this comment at a time when text messaging, FaceTime, and Zoom calls were but fragments of imagination in the pages of a Robert Heinlein novel. There were far fewer communication mediums in the 1960s than today, though McLuhan’s phrase still has merit. What you say, how you say it, and the medium you choose to communicate your message matter as much today as they did in the middle of the last century. In this post are the three factors you need to consider when selecting a medium for your message if you want to have the desired impact.
What is your greatest fear when giving team members a task they’ve not done before?
Our reader poll today asks: What is your greatest fear when giving team members a task they’ve not done before? They’ll mess it up and I’ll have to fix it. 20.4% They’ll need too much of my time and guidance. 21.3% They’ll get frustrated and morale will drop. 12.2% They’ll be wildly successful and outshine me. 3.8% I am fearless. This is how they learn. 42.2% Fear versus no fear. You folks are pretty evenly split as to whether you’re afraid of your team members making mistakes and either having to fix them or invest too much time in helping them versus having no fear at all. For the former group, this is how your people learn. Start with giving less risky projects and tasks. Build extra time into timelines to allow for slower work. Focus on the fact that you’re building their skills instead of focusing too much on task perfection. For those of you with no fear, ask if you’re pushing your team members enough. Maybe the reason you’re not afraid is you’re not stretching them enough and actually taking a risk on their development. To find out if that’s the case, ask them what they’re prepared to take on. If their request makes you a little uneasy, then you know you’re operating in growth territory. 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!
This Was My Biggest Step Toward Building a $30 Million Business
Why core values are a necessary ingredient for success in your business or career, and the steps you can take right now discover your personal core values. Today’s post is by Robert Glazer, Founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners and author of Elevate: Push Beyond Your Limits and Unlock Success in Yourself and Others (CLICK HERE to get your copy). One of the greatest frustrations in life is the realization that we have spent, or are currently spending, significant time and energy doing something that doesn’t fulfill us. How we respond to this feeling can become the turning point for our entire career. Maybe you have worked in a job that made you feel bored, or even demoralized. Maybe you’ve been in a professional environment dictated by principles and standards that just felt wrong to you, even if you couldn’t articulate why. You may have even found yourself in a leadership role where you were unable to be yourself and struggled to hold your team accountable as a result. I’ve experienced all of this in my own career. In 2005, I was working at a startup where the company’s leadership left people demotivated. I realized I could never be happy in that type of environment and made the choice to
When you find yourself with extra time on your hands, do you have a list of nonurgent projects you can immediately turn to?
Our reader poll today asks: When you find yourself with extra time on your hands, do you have a list of nonurgent projects you can immediately turn to? Yes. I know exactly what I’ll do with the newfound free time. 64.22% Kind of. I have a general sense of projects in waiting. 32.42% No. I have no idea what I’d do with free time. 3.36% Ready for free time. The vast majority of you have a plan for when you have that “found” free time. Bravo! There’s no time wasted wondering what to start working on when you have a free t0 minutes, hour, day, or week. There’s no need to spend time prioritizing either. You can just get to work. If you’re in the 32% who are a little less rigorous on maintaining such a list, give it a try. Call it your back-burner projects. Break it into groups of things you can do in an hour, a day, or a week. List items in priority order. When the time frees up, jump to your list and dig in! Many folks are realizing right now how valuable such a list can be when they suddenly have a lot more time on their hands. 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!
What Makes a Presentation Unsuccessful?
Do you struggle to get your ideas approved? Follow the structured thought process to create better presentations. When you have a recommendation you’re trying to get approved within your organization, there are going to be a lot of stakeholders you have to get your idea in front of. You’ll have to put it in front of your manager, maybe their boss, a director, and some vice presidents. Some of your ideas may even go all the way up to the C-suite. There’s something I like to call Figliuolo’s Law, which states: “An individual’s annual compensation is inversely proportional to the number of slides they can look at before they have a stroke.” I’ve worked with a CEO who said, “If it has a staple, I won’t read it.” I worked closely with another CEO and we went in to present. The other team went to present first. He picked up their presentation, he felt it for heft, and it was about 25 pages long. He threw it across the room and said,
How to Communicate Vision To Make It Influential
Learn how leaders should effectively communicate and share a vision to make it impactful. Today’s post is by Oleg Konovalov, author of THE VISION CODE: How To Create And Execute A Compelling Vision For Your Business (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Communication makes vision visible and attractive to others. It can inspire the visionary’s passion in others or drive people away. A poorly communicated vision is dead if not successfully shared with others. Communication is the essential property of vision and visionary leadership whose primary role is to make vision a collective property, giving it away so others can participate in it. A vision’s strength is determined by how well it is communicated to others. In practical terms, attracting investors is critical. Attracting as many supporters as possible is even more critical and far more difficult. Only by communicating as broadly and actively as possible does vision gain its full viability and functionality. Three core elements define effective communication of a vision—