Books – Page 57 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

What Dying Taught Me About Decision Making

December 21, 2011/2 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

My tank blew up. I died. It was pretty ugly.

Stop freaking out Mom. I’m alive. This isn’t some creepy posthumous blog post or something.

In the process of dying, I learned a great deal about decision making. I learned the value in making decisions quickly and how even bad decisions can be good decisions in the end. While dying wasn’t very much fun, the insights it provided me have been valuable ever since I died.

Now, I’m not asking you to die to learn lessons about decision making. I am, however, asking you to read the story of my death and learn about a new way to look at decisions. I want to share some thoughts with you on how you can learn the value of bad decisions and the potential cost of not making a decision at all.

I recently wrote a post on dying and decision making. The post is an excerpt from One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. The excerpt is posted in its entirety on SmartBlog on Leadership. You can read the full post by CLICKING HERE. I hope you enjoy it.

Also, if you’ve never heard of SmartBrief or SmartBlog, you need to. It’s a wonderful source of content delivered to your inbox every day. The stories are all filtered and they have great abstracts written so you can quickly decide what to read (and what not to). There are briefs for all interests: leadership, small business, career, entrepreneur… you get the picture. Head over to SmartBrief.com and get yours now.

– If you’re serious about improving your leadership skills, grab yourself a copy of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. There are plenty of suggestions in there for how you can lead your people more effectively. CLICK HERE to get your copy.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

3 Keys Leaders Can Use to See the Future

December 14, 2011/0 Comments/in Books, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Daniel Burrus, author of Flash Foresight (CLICK HERE to get your copy now). You can read more about Daniel at the end of the post.

We’re all aware that there are timeless leadership principles that have been true since the dawn of time and that will continue to be valid in tomorrow’s business environment. Things like integrity, honesty, and personal responsibility immediately come to mind. While those are all vital traits, they’re not the leadership traits I’m addressing right now.

In today’s world of technology-driven transformation, leaders need to embrace a new leadership principle if they want their organization to be relevant today and in the future.

In the recent past, leaders have focused on agility—being able to change quickly based on external circumstances because change from the outside-in has been coming at an ever-increasing speed, and it’s only getting faster. Many of these types of changes are driven by technology, but they’re also from our customers, because technology is influencing our customers and changing the way they interact with us.

We also have increasing transparency, meaning your customers and prospects have access to complaints, as well as accolades, through social media and other new forms of communication. All of these changes, which are coming from the outside-in and force agility, cause leaders to react, crisis manage, and put out fires on a daily basis.

Knowing this, it’s evident that simply being agile no longer works. Instead, today’s leaders need to be anticipatory.

Best of thoughtLEADERS 2011: The Awesomest Posts Ever

December 12, 2011/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Project Management, Sales, Social Media, Strategy, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

This year is almost over so it’s time for the year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published in 2011. It’s time for the 2011 edition of The Figgies (here are the 2010 and 2009 editions).

This is an annual event here at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. Here’s how it goes: this list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work as judged by you the readers. There’s also a kicker bonus post on the list just for good measure (it’s a “wayback” – and speaking of wayback, check out the photo on the trophy… yes… that’s me ’80’s style baby!).

Enjoy. Share. We’ve loved writing them. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. I don’t ask a lot of you folks so I have two small requests as your holiday gift to me (you are getting me something, right?):

1. Invite all your coworkers, friends, and family to come check out the blog and become readers. The only way we get better is by raising everyone’s game. I’m not asking a lot here. If you found this blog helpful at all this year, here’s your chance to return the favor for all our hard work. Just email folks and tell ’em to come take a look.

2. Pick up a copy of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership. Yes – I know I talk a lot about the book but it’s not for the money (I would have made more money if I worked in a sweat shop in Asia making sneakers). I talk a lot about it because I’m evangelical about the topic. Buy it. Read it. In the words of Roland Smith (CEO of Wendy’s) “It could change your life.”

Thanks for your incredible support in ’11 and best wishes for ’12! We hope to be a part of your future success!

Enough preamble. Here’s the best stuff we’ve written all year:

Great Lessons You Can Learn from Great Leaders

November 21, 2011/0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

I’ve had the good fortune of meeting some wonderful leaders and thinkers over my years of blogging. Since the launch of my book I’ve met even more. And several of them have been wonderful enough to take the method I preach in One Piece of Paper and apply that method to their own leadership styles.

For your reading enjoyment and enlightenment, I’m sharing those perspectives today. It’s the least I can do to give these folks a shout out for their hard work and for spreading the message of how to make leadership personal again.

For each one, I’ve provided a quick snapshot of the author and a pearl of wisdom pulled from their post about their own perspectives on personal leadership using the leadership maxims method in the book. I encourage you to take the time to read each of their posts. They’re interesting, entertaining, insightful, and helpful. They’ll also help you crystallize your own leadership philosophy.

So here’s the roundup of some of my favorite leadership writers and their perspectives on their own leadership philosophies. Enjoy!

You Should Fix Small Problems Before They’re Big Ones

November 14, 2011/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is an excerpt from my book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. This excerpt is about a time I screwed up. You can get your copy of the book by clicking here. All that said, here’s an excerpt that covers why it’s better to fix small mistakes than big ones.

If you are committing to a team member’s growth you first have to give them the opportunity and then ensure that they do, in fact, grow. The only way they will learn and develop in those roles is with coaching and feedback.

Giving feedback can be challenging. Many times we nail the easy feedback when we say things like “great job on beating your goal by 37%!” That is not a particularly hard message to deliver. Such feedback is not remotely useful either. There is no action being requested of the recipient.

Your job as the leader is to provide an observation on the recipient’s actions and give them ideas on what they might do better or differently going forward. That is easy to do in a goal-beating situation but what about more difficult conversations? Many of us avoid having them because they are uncomfortable, but when you ignore the problem it festers until those conversations turn into the “very difficult conversations,” then “extremely difficult conversations,” and eventually the “here’s your severance check and pink slip” conversations.

I know my gut instinct is to avoid these discussions at first but I also know it is my responsibility to have that feedback conversation as soon as possible. I have adopted a maxim designed to hold me accountable for doing exactly that. My maxim is “It’s easier to correct course 100 yards into the journey than 100 miles into it.”

How to Prepare for Your Next Career Change

October 24, 2011/5 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Career, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Careers have changed and you need to look at how you’ll advance differently than people have in the past.

This ain’t your daddy’s or mommy’s business world anymore. I’m sure you’ve figured that out already. First of all, people use cell phones. This is a fact I’m constantly reminding my father of…

“Dad, turn on your cell phone when you’re not home.”

“Why? Then it will ring. I’m retired and I don’t want to be bothered by everyone.”

“Dad, the only people who have your number are me, Mom, and my sister…” He still doesn’t get it…

The career world he lived in has changed as well. Dad had a first career for 17 years at a large company that rhymes with AT&T (which makes his aversion to phones even more bizarre). After those wonderfully predictable pension-based years, it was a series of smaller “careers” – 6 years, 6 years, 3 years, 5 years, retirement.

For him, it was no big deal. 5-6 years is plenty of time to get settled in a home and community. It’s not a huge issue to demonstrate progression in a “career” at a company in 5-6 years and to move after that. But the world continues to change. For those of us in the workplace, we’re part of a new dynamic.

Let’s spend a little time with Roger Daltrey “talkin’ bout my generation.”

Creating Constructive Conflict

October 20, 2011/2 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Jeff DeGraff – author of Innovation You (CLICK HERE to get your copy). You can learn more about him at the end of the post.

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. “ Arthur Schopenhauer

Dale Carnegie advised never to talk about religion or politics in public because you never know who you might offend. While I will leave religion to the wise, I would like to tackle the politics of the day for it provides a luminous example of how innovation really works… and doesn’t. So while I may not win friends or influence people, I do hope to use recent exasperating events to illustrate its fundamental dynamics.

Case In Point: According to the Congressional Research Service, the debt ceiling has been raised 74 times since March of 1962. However, on the advent of the 75th “adjustment,” it became clear that projections of growth and expenditures by the US Federal Government resulting from myriad of factors, including the Great Recession of 2008, would put the credit rating, and the cost of capital, of the great nation in peril.

While the deadline of August 2nd for a new agreement loomed large in the psyche of the world economy, it seemed to have little effect on the über-quibbling of our friendly neighborhood “representatives” who resolved the conflict at the proverbial eleventh hour through Homeric acts of derring-do. Ta-Dah! What, no applause? Whereas this type of “trigger” event is boondoggle for traditional management, it’s a veritable windfall for instigating the nouveauté.

Why? Because breakthrough innovation typically occurs in either crisis or exceptional situations.

Why Innovative Leadership Can Help You Surmount Challenges

September 29, 2011/1 Comment/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Maureen Metcalf – a thoughtLEADERS instructor and author of The Innovative Leadership Fieldbook. You can learn more about her at the end of this post. Here’s Maureen:

Are your leadership actions impeding innovation? Are your change initiatives successfully implemented and delivering the benefits you expected? How is YOUR behavior impacting their ability to delivery results?

Many traditional leaders spend more time perfecting their golf swings than they do improving their ability to lead in this current environment. The most successful leaders continue to improve their leadership skills including the level of self-knowledge and introspection that provides a feedback loop for ongoing improvement.

Innovative leadership is the type of leadership that allows already successful leaders to raise the bar on their performance and the performance of their organizations.

An innovative leader is defined as someone who consistently delivers results using the following:

Strategic leadership that inspires individual goals and organizations vision and cultures;
Tactical leadership that influences an individual’s actions and the organizations systems and processes.
Holistic Leadership that aligns all key dimensions: Individual, culture, action and systems.

While others differentiate leadership from management this definition includes both because, to fully implement innovative change, the organizational leaders need to both set the strategy and be sufficiently involved in the tactics to ensure innovation and changes happen. This does not mean micro managing – it means an awareness and involvement in all elements of the innovation and change process. This includes continually growing and evolving leadership capacity and actions, leading and implementing culture and system changes within the organization.

Let’s look at an example of a leader who faced a change she had not previously faced in her business.

Real World Leadership from Real World Leaders

September 26, 2011/3 Comments/in Books, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Real leadership is about real stories. This isn’t a study of real “world leaders” but instead a story about some “real world” leaders.

I recently had the opportunity to work with a great leadership team at a rapidly growing company. We spent the day talking about leadership and having them write their own personal leadership philosophies (which is what One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership is all about). The stories they shared during the session were fantastic and I have no doubt you can learn a few things from them so I’d like to share a few.

As you read their stories, try to determine how you can create your own reminders for how you want to lead. If you’re rigorous about creating a compelling and personal leadership philosophy, I guarantee your team will trust you a lot more than if they’re not sure who you really are (and if you want to see how authentic you are as a leader and how much your team trusts you, you can take a quick 3-5 minute assessment by clicking here).

The leaders’ stories are about signatures, shaving heads, The Goose, and dinner with the kids. They do a great job of illustrating how powerful, personal stories can bring a leader’s beliefs to life. So here goes…

Being Authentic Means No More Buzzwords and B.S.

September 19, 2011/5 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is an excerpt from my upcoming book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. You can get your copy by clicking here and it’ll ship to you in a few weeks. If you want to see how authentic you are as a leader and how much your team trusts you, you can take a quick 3-5 minute assessment by clicking here. All that said, here’s an excerpt that covers why being authentic as a leader means you shouldn’t use buzzwords and B.S.

The only way I know to roll back the tide of all the meaningless jargon in our world is to say what you really mean.

Words spoken from the heart and the gut are clear, concise, meaningful, and genuine. They help ground you and your team. They signal that you are willing to take a stand for something you believe in instead of watering down your beliefs with complicated words so you will not offend someone or so your simple thoughts will sound more important. It is imperative that you realize such approaches have exactly the opposite effect.

Using buzzwords makes you sound less intelligent. Filling your leadership philosophy with obscure or difficult to define concepts diminishes peoples’ trust in you. Both behaviors are counterproductive and hinder you from reaching your goal of becoming an authentic leader.

That is why you are here, isn’t it?

Allow me to share a story that demonstrates the trouble jargon-filled leadership philosophies can cause, as well as how an executive avoided such a trap.

The Real Reason Your Team Doesn’t Trust You

September 12, 2011/2 Comments/in Books, Career, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Your team doesn’t trust you.

Honestly. They don’t.

Trust is key to effective working relationships; yet, as you climb the corporate ladder, trust seems harder to earn and easier to lose.

What causes a team to not trust their leader? You. Yes, you. You’re unpredictable and your team doesn’t know what to expect from you. But, these are fixable problems.

Trust is about an ability to rely upon or expect a predictable outcome. When you act in ways your team doesn’t expect, it erodes trust and makes them wonder what you’re going to do next. The root of all your trust issues lies in not clearly setting expectations of your behavior in the first place (and if you don’t think you have a trust issue with your team, take this quick 5 minute assessment to see how you stack up).

If you can clearly lay out how your people can expect you to behave in a variety of situations, they’ll have a basic expectation upon which to build a foundation of trust. These expectations, however, cannot simply be broad, buzzword-filled platitudes.

When you set expectations, they have to be personal and meaningful enough to you that they guide your behavior in a variety of situations. I refer to these guiding principles as “leadership maxims” which are rules of behavior or conduct. The collection of all your leadership maxims becomes your personal leadership philosophy.

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, your car, and your relationships, you must give intentional attention to the success. If you don’t, things can fall apart. Your leadership is not any different.