Books – Page 56 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

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. Shout if you’re feeling a little lost and unclear about where your career is headed. Stand up if you feel like your life is out of balance and you’re running out of steam. Now look around you and take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone.

The world has become hypercompetitive and change moves at a dizzying rate. More and more is demanded of us each day. In our “high performance cultures” it sometimes feels like a contest of who can burn themselves out the fastest.

And as we scurry along through a mind-numbing array of meetings, progress reviews, and workshops we lose something along the way—we lose sight of what’s important. We miss seeing the damage we’re doing to ourselves and our people. That’s not leadership. That’s failure.
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Authentic Leadership Means Eliminating Buzzwords and BS

April 30, 2012/22 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /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 focuses on the importance of eliminating buzzwords and instead simply speaking from your heart.

If you have been in the professional world for more than a year, you have probably heard something like this a million times:

“My leadership philosophy is to optimally leverage the passions of my people such that at the end of the day we maximize employee engagement to get them to think outside the box and synergistically drive value-added activities in a profit-maximizing way that is a win-win for our people, our shareholders, and our customers.”

It sounds great. It is polysyllabic. It uses words with long definitions. I have only one question: what the hell does it mean?

I want you to wipe away all those unproductive phrases and words that get in the way of you being an authentic leader. Consider this a bit of a slap upside the head. You may not realize how deeply ingrained some bad behaviors have become in your daily routine. You have likely looked through the same lens on the world for a while and that lens colors the way you view leadership. The color of that lens is determined largely by your organization’s culture. Somewhere along the way that culture has shaped you more than you are shaping it. We are going to reverse that dynamic.

How You Can Live Your Leadership Philosophy

April 9, 2012/2 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

I was recently interviewed by Andrew Clancy of Soundview Executive Book Summaries. We discussed my book, One Piece of Paper, and how leaders can implement and live their leadership philosophies on a daily basis. Here’s the conversation I had with Andrew.

Andrew: Leadership is a skill that is honed over a lifetime. As you travel on your leadership journey, you will inevitably be influenced by a variety of resources: books, seminars, other leaders, personal experiences. Taken as a whole, your sources of inspiration could probably fill a 300-page book. Now consider the challenge issued to you by author, U.S. Army veteran and management consultant Mike Figliuolo. He believes you should distill your guiding leadership principles down until they fit on a single sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ paper. In this interview, the author of One Piece of Paper discusses the importance of maxims, how they grow and change, and how you can communicate your maxims to others.

Andrew: What is it that makes maxims so powerful?

Mike Figliuolo: A maxim is nothing more than a trigger. It’s something to remind you of strong emotions. It’s something that will resonate for you. It should remind you of a story or an example from your personal past or experience. The method is designed such that when you read your own maxim, it triggers all those feelings inside of you and those feelings are what are going to get you to behave differently. It’s very easy for me to ignore a platitude like “Be the best that I can be,” but when I tap into something much more emotional, much more personal, it’s a lot harder to ignore and it will change my behavior.

Andrew: There may be readers who approach the process with the impression that the maxims should be carved on stone tablets and never changed. Are leadership maxims fluid? Can they be adapted as a leader grows and changes?

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How to Avoid Stupid Consequences by Thinking One Step Ahead

April 2, 2012/7 Comments/in Books, Business Toolkit, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our government is full of morons. I know – and the sun is hot.

But seriously – we can learn a lot from their stupidity and lack of foresight. All too often our “leaders” identify problems they want to rectify. They then create a perfect solution targeted at resolving exactly the issue they identified.

And then stupidity happens. Why? Because the world isn’t static. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction folks (can I get a holla for Sir Isaac and 10th grade physics?).

Guess what? You do stupid stuff too (and so do I). Why? Because we don’t think far enough ahead about what the reactions in our environment might be. Today I’m going to share some of my favorite moronic decisions and their corresponding reactions and I’m also going to give you a great tool for staying out of the lack-of-foresight-stupidity-trap yourself.

To illustrate these points, allow me to share five of the stupidest government decisions I’ve ever seen and their unintended consequences. After doing so, I’ll share the simple question that will prevent you from being equally moronic. So here are the five stupid decisions…

How Creating a Value Roadmap can Lead to Sustainable Success

March 14, 2012/3 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Innovation, 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:

Do you remember the popular book, Dress for Success? It sold millions of copies based on a simple concept: If you want to get ahead you need to look the part. And that starts with what you wear. Wardrobes were updated everywhere.

Dress for Success was itself a resounding success because it nailed the fundamentals. Its basic premise made sense — appearances matter. And, it was easy to execute.

So, the individual had a playbook, albeit one book in the broader scheme of things, on how to increase their odds of success. Cool.

What about the organization? Is there an equivalent playbook for driving success for the organization as a whole? Is there something fundamental that can be executed across the organization that would also accelerate momentum, value and sustainable success? I would argue, yes, but it’s not what graces most reading lists.

Certainly, there is good thinking about the effectiveness of culture, the importance of community, and the benefits of branding. There are also new ideas about more efficient organizational structures and models. All are worth investigating and deploying.

But, none of this work gets to the root cause of why organizations are not as successful as they can be. Organizations are not achieving their full potential because organizations do not align for success. For all the talk of one corporate culture, one community, and one brand, we continue to see departments operating within their own agendas, goals and motivations.

While some success is being achieved as a result of innovative products, smart selling, and brilliant marketing, an organization will not be as successful as it can be without integrating all three of those fundamental behaviors.

So, how can organizations align for success?

How You can Stay in Touch with Your Team’s Reality

March 12, 2012/2 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

The following is an excerpt from One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (you can get your copy here). This post focuses on the importance of staying in touch with the daily reality your team faces.

When I was in the army we used to follow a leadership principle that stated “employ your unit in accordance with its capabilities.” That principle was important because you did not want to make the mistake of sending five soldiers carrying rifles out on the battlefield to defeat twenty tanks.

Translating this principle to the civilian world, you do not want to ask your people to perform work of which they are incapable. Doing so can frustrate them and leave them demoralized when they fail at the assigned task.

The only way you can truly appreciate what your team is or is not capable of is to see it first-hand or, better yet, do it yourself. When you understand what your people do on a daily basis you know how much you can reasonably ask of them. That knowledge of their work also enhances your credibility and their respect for you.

Have you ever had the experience where your boss or someone else senior to you asked you to do something that you knew, given the realities of your business and your organization was impossible? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? “If he only had a clue” is likely one of the first thoughts that crosses your mind in those situations.

Next you probably elaborate on the stupidity of the request with thoughts like “I can’t believe he asked for that. We will never be able to get that done in the time he has given us. Doesn’t he know anything about what we go through?”

I will bet you a dime to a dollar your team has said the same thing about you on more than one occasion. I know my teams have said that about me at times. If the behavior of asking for the impossible is dysfunctional, why does it frequently happen?

How Leaders Communicate to Influence, Inspire and Achieve Results

March 7, 2012/2 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Kevin Murray, author of The Language of Leaders and Chairman of Bell Pottinger – one of the UK’s leading PR agencies. Here’s Kevin:

In three decades of working with Chairmen and CEOs, I honestly cannot recall one who I would have deemed to be stupid. They were all clever people. Yet, when faced with the challenge of change, or a crisis, many succeeded and some failed. Those who failed usually lost their jobs.

I have been a communications adviser to leaders since 1980, working both inside global corporates, and as a consultant. Increasingly, I became intrigued by that X-factor that enabled the winners to succeed. I had my suspicions, but I wanted to validate them, so I went out to 60 chairmen and CEOs to ask them what they had learned about leadership communications during their long and challenging careers.

What they said surprised me. I had expected to hear about how important it was to develop your speaking skills and to be a great orator. Far from it, these leaders spoke about something different – they spoke about the need to be an inspiring communicator.

To be inspiring, however, was not the same as being a great orator. To be inspiring, you had to learn how to be a better listener, you had fundamentally to understand what was in the hearts and minds of the people in your audience, and you had to speak with passion and authenticity.

You could stumble and stutter over your words, but if people saw you speaking to the things you truly believed, and felt that you truly understood them and respected their views, you were far more likely to make the vital connection that would attract them to your vision.

Further research showed me that global HR leaders have recognized that leadership has changed. Read more

The Real Difference Between Management and Leadership

February 20, 2012/16 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

The following is an excerpt from One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (you can get your copy here). This post focuses on the difference between management and leadership. I would love to hear your thoughts on how the two are different so please share your ideas in the comments at the end of the post.

You are a leader. Management and leadership are not the same thing. The difference is simple: you manage things; you lead people. Admiral Grace Murray Hopper coined this elegant, clear distinction. Yet there is still a lot of confusion on this point.

Management is task-focused. It is short term. It is a series of checklists and to do’s that ensure the work gets done. It is taking actions to hit a budget number or deliver a project on time. Management is how we execute tasks to achieve a specific desired outcome. Said simply, it is the movement of personnel, materiel, and tasks with an exact set of measurable results in mind.

Managing things consumes a large portion of our time. It requires forms, reports, meetings, analyses, and documentation. If left unchecked, such tasks will consume every available moment in the day. Sometimes it seems all we do is work on tasks related to managing the organization. When that happens we can easily mistake management for leadership. The logic underpinning that confusion goes like this:

Great Leaders Live Balanced Lives

January 30, 2012/6 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

The following is an excerpt from One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (you can get your copy here). This post focuses on having a balanced life and the importance of keeping things in perspective. If you’re burned out, you’re worthless. Here’s an example of how I keep myself in balance and the obvious question to you is “how do you keep yourself in balance?”

It is easy to get wrapped up in your work. If you have chosen your profession well, you are darn good at what you do and take a great deal of satisfaction away from doing it well. Unfortunately it is easy to forget that there are other people out there who want some of your time. Your family and friends need your attention. There are also other passions worth pursuing outside the office. Taking part in activities you enjoy will keep you centered and add meaning and fulfillment to your life.

Unless you have a mechanism to tear yourself away from the office you might find yourself trapped in the mindset of “I’ll do (insert enjoyable thing here) this weekend when I’m off work” or “I’ll do that when I retire” or “I’ll get to that someday.” Someone who reads my blog shared a great maxim on this point: “Someday is not a day of the week.” We would all do well to keep this in mind and act accordingly.

My great-grandfather adopted a quote as his maxim to remind him to live life. He always said “Enjoy life now because you’ll be a long time dead.” He did not coin the phrase but he used it frequently. The saying has made its way through a few generations of my family as something we say on a semi-regular basis. Regardless of how it is phrased, the key point is we must have balance in our lives which entails living our lives while there is still breath in our lungs.

Without a frequent reminder to do what you truly enjoy and have passion for, you might not notice your life slipping by.

A Better Way to Communicate

January 19, 2012/6 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by bestselling author Seth Kahan. It’s an excerpt from his book Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out. You can learn more about him and his book at the end of the post.

In 1996 I was working on my first large-scale change initiative at the World Bank. I was part of the small team that won international recognition for the World Bank’s Knowledge Management (KM) effort. Working on this program was like driving on a racetrack that was changing its course while you steer: the course and the environment were always changing, but we made incredible progress.

In two years we went from an unfunded idea in a back room to $60 million in annual allocations, from no resources or incentives to every staff member receiving two weeks to dedicate to KM as well as having a component of their annual evaluation dedicated to it, from no recognition to international awards.

To make this happen we had to answer questions like these:
– How do you penetrate the conflicting demands and mental clutter that are part of everyday business life in the twenty-first century?
– How do you penetrate the assorted messages the media constantly bombard everyone with?
– After you have gotten through this confusion, how do you get people’s attention?
– Once you have their attention, what do you do with it to get people engaged, involved, and contributing?
– How do you coordinate this activity when you have no formal authority?

We were able to answer these questions, and we were highly successful as a result. But, it took a major reframe of the way we communicate. To illustrate, let’s first look at the prevailing misunderstanding of how communication works, and then I will show you a much better way to think about it.

12 Most Consequential Books for a New Leader

January 11, 2012/38 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by David Dye – COO of Colorado UpLift. You can learn more about him at the end of the post. And check out #11…

You may have heard that leaders take responsibility for their own growth, but with thousands of leadership and management books to choose from, where do you begin? You want resources that help you today, that you can immediately apply, and that build a strong foundation for your future leadership development.

To help you get started, I’ve put together a list of the 12 most consequential books for a new leader:

1. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
The book in the #1 slot doesn’t even have leadership in the title? No, but it does feature a skill so rare and yet so vitally critical to effective leadership that it fully deserves to be at the top of the list. Effective leaders are able to build relationships while discussing the most difficult subjects and Crucial Conversations by Patterson, et al helps you do exactly that.

2. The Leadership Challenge
Kouzes and Posner make the case that leadership is influence and that effective leadership relies on your credibility. What sets The Leadership Challenge apart is its focus on five leadership practices through which you grow your influence and credibility. These five practices are easily understood and can be learned by anyone willing to do the work.

The Power of Declarations: Winston Churchill and Leaders Today

January 4, 2012/5 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Lyn Boyer (no, that’s not her to the left – that’s Winston Churchill). You can read more about Lyn and her new book at the end of the post. Here’s Lyn:

In the darkest days of World War II, families in England huddled around their radios to listen to the inspiring words of Winston Churchill. Britain stood virtually alone against the powerful Luftwaffe that dropped thousands of bombs during the night raids of the Blitz. On June 4, 1940 after the Dunkirk Evacuation, which removed over 338,000 British, French and Belgian soldiers from the threat of the German army, Churchill delivered perhaps his most famous and stirring speech.

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

These are perhaps the most famous words of his most famous speech. They represent a powerful declaration that provided hope and encouragement during a time of overwhelming fear and hardship.