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Looking for a job? 4 Tips on How Not to be Stupid and Lazy
/3 Comments/in Career, Entrepreneur /by Mike FigliuoloIt’s a tough economy. Jobs are scarce and becoming harder to find. The talent pool is extremely deep especially given the abundance of MBAs we’ve minted over the past few years (although everyone knows I don’t care about your degree). To land that new job, it’s increasingly important to stand out from the crowd and have truly distinctive capabilities to offer. But I don’t want to talk about that today (I know – once again I’ve let you down). No. Instead I’m going to talk about the easiest ways to blow your opportunity. The overarching message of this post is don’t be stupid or lazy. Today we’re talking about the job search equivalents of having spinach in your teeth (hence the photo which I also included and forced the tie-in to the post because I think the picture is hilarious). “Gee Mike, again, that seems like an obvious point. Why are you writing about it?” To be honest? It’s because I see plenty of stupid and lazy out there and I want to keep my loyal readers from making some of these mistakes. Now let’s start with stupid and lazy.
Small is the New Big for Interns
/4 Comments/in Career /by Mike FigliuoloHow incredibly glorious is it to intern at Goldman Sachs? Or Google? Microsoft? Apple? I mean, hey, you’ll have a huge brand name on your resume when you eventually seek employment. You’ll work at beautiful corporate headquarters next to movers and shakers. How much better can it get? News flash – as a hiring manager I don’t care where you did your internship (and to be clear – in my “corporate” days I hired plenty of new hires who had prior internship experience). Want to learn more about this perspective? I’ve graciously been asked to elaborate on www.internshipratings.com. You can read the rest of the article here. I also encourage you to check out the rest of their site and their blog. They have wonderful advice both for those seeking internships as well as those offering them. I hope you enjoy the article. If you’re looking for an internship opportunity, we here at thoughtLEADERS have a few available. For more details, read about the positions HERE and HERE (there are two separate postings). – Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
Influencing Your Career – Ask, Don’t Tell
/6 Comments/in Career, Communications /by Mike FigliuoloIf you’re paying attention, life can teach you wonderful little lessons along the way. Hopefully this is one of them and you don’t make the mistake a colleague of mine made. During my army days (about 10 years and 20 pounds ago) there would come a time on a duty assignment where you “came down on orders.” That’s an armyism for “we’re gonna send you someplace else because we know what’s best for you.” It was often done under the auspices of NOTA (Needs of the Army). I was a senior lieutenant stationed at beautiful and majestic Fort Carson, Colorado. I could literally walk out my back door and look at the Rockies and fish for trout on Pike’s Peak. One day my crusty old First Sergeant (who I’m pretty sure served alongside Audie Murphy) came into my office and announced “you’ve come down on orders, sir.” He smirked. That’s when things got interesting.
Happy Bloggiversary! A Leadership Principles Blast from the Past
/1 Comment/in About Us, Business Toolkit, Leadership /by Mike FigliuoloHappy Bloggiversary! A year. Wow. This blog has been around for a year now (and I’m sure some of you will go check the original post dates and say “it started in OCT 07” but I backdated some of the original posts…). It’s been a wonderful learning experience and I’ve met a ton of wonderful people (YOU!) along the way. In honor of the bloggiversary, I’m thrilled to bring you the first series of posts I wrote here on a set of leadership principles you can use in your day to day job. If you’ve already read them (the original set, not the set we covered starting this past October), read them again – they never get old. I’d also like to ask your help. If you’ve enjoyed this blog over the past year, I’m thrilled. In return for the tips, smiles, and perspectives we’ve provided you, I’d like to ask a simple favor. Our biggest challenge is attracting new readers (they tend to retain extremely well once they get here). I’d ask that each of you let a few of your friends or colleagues know about us and invite them to join our ranks of readers (almost 400 subscribers now). I’m not asking a lot – I’m simply asking you to spread the word. I thank you in advance for your help on this. We’ve typed over 100 posts for your enjoyment – we’re asking you to type a few emails to return the favor (I’m good at the guilt thing – I was raised in an Italian Catholic household). Now to the good stuff. Straight from the archives, here are the original leadership principles we published here.
Dale Dauten: Leave ’em wanting more so they’ll want you to present more often
/6 Comments/in Communications, Guest Blogger /by Mike FigliuoloMy new friend Dale Dauten wrote the following column after we met at a conference where he heard me speak. This column was originally published in The Arizona Daily Star. He brings some great perspectives to the table. Here’s Dale: Dale Dauten: Leave ’em wanting more so they’ll want you to present more often “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Dorothy Parker Walt Disney once pointed out that the key to success is to do something so well that people will pay to see you do it again. So, using that as a standard, here’s the question: When was the last time you saw a business presentation that you would pay to see again? OK, that’s too much to ask. How about this: When was the last time you saw a presentation that you’d want to sit through twice? If you’re a corporate employee, wouldn’t it be grand if your management actually looked forward to having you present instead of just pretending to look interested (after announcing just before you begin that they’d love to stay longer, but they have an important conference call in 15 minutes)?
Ask, But Within Reason – The 11th Leadership Principle
/2 Comments/in Leadership /by Mike FigliuoloThis spin through the eleven Leadership Principles has been a fun journey. These principles are a wonderful touchstone for reminding yourself how to lead your team effectively and successfully. This post concludes that series. Let’s imagine you’ve just taken over your business unit. Your staff turnover is running 58% and right now you’re short-staffed by 20%. Three of your eight direct report manager slots are vacant (and have been for 6 months). Scary, isn’t it? Now here’s the kicker – your boss comes to you and asks you to bump your profit commitment for next year up by 10% AND to increase your market share goal by 5%. His rationale is you’re a great leader and he knows you read the thoughtLEADERS blog (couldn’t resist). What do you do? He seems to be asking the impossible, if not the insane. My recommendation: call on the 11th Leadership Principle: employ your unit in accordance with its capabilities. So how exactly does that principle help in this case? Let’s discuss…
Leadership Perspectives: “Steermanship” – Guest Blogger
/3 Comments/in Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Training /by Mike FigliuoloI am again pleased to have Bill Malkemes as a guest blogger this week. You’ll find some background on Bill at the end of this post. Enough rambling – here are Bill’s thoughts: I was reading some of the leadership material on this blog. Since I have seen Mike in action mentoring young leaders at a National Conference on Ethics in America (and was pretty impressed with his results), I thought I would see if I could write a short message at a macro level that may be useful to other readers then talk about a subject or two at the micro level. In my case I can be referred to as an “experienced” leader. As the head of my organization of high achievers it can be quite competitive for assignment of key tasks and appropriate recognition of accomplishments. In younger days it was fun to get into the details and solutions for the tasks, but now I am needed more in the management mode. So what I try to do is keep the organization vibrant with new and exciting work, appoint task leads in a fair manner, and turn them loose. I don’t call what I do leadership, although leadership does take different shapes and forms. From my perspective, I call it “steermanship.” When the work comes to you as a manager or task leader, assess the starting status and the end state that is needed. With education and experience you also get a feel for the complexity of the work and key scheduling and/or decision points that you may have to assess along the way. Although you may have a way you would do the job, I have found it enlightening to give someone the job and desired end state and have them come up with the plan, […]
Do Anything! Just Do It Now! – The 10th Leadership Principle
/6 Comments/in Leadership /by Mike FigliuoloEver seen The Outsiders? After you get over the number of famous actors crammed into it with massive amounts of Crisco in their hair (Cruise, Swayze, Lowe, Dillon, Macchio, Estevez, Diane Lane – alright, she didn’t have Crisco in her hair) you get to see the one defining scene. Ponyboy and Johnny are on the lam from the man. They’re hiding out in an abandoned church. Then it happens. For some reason a school bus full of kids is visiting the boarded up abandoned church for a school field trip (and I thought going to the museum was lame when I was a kid). Somehow the church catches fire and several children are trapped inside (apparently there weren’t as many lawyers in the 50’s because that setup screams negligence lawsuit). Ponyboy and Johnny roll up on the scene as the flames roar. Then Ponyboy does it – he demonstrates the 10th Leadership Principle in the blink of an eye. The principle is “make sound and timely decisions.” Ponyboy quickly assesses the situation and charges the building. Johnny follows without hesitation. They break into the building and save the kids from the fire. Ultimately, however, their heroic efforts cost Johnny his life.