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Understanding Opportunity Cost

August 24, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

 

time and money

Understanding the concept of opportunity cost will help you prioritize your team’s most important tasks. Learn to say no to low-value work.

Do you know what your team’s time is worth? Lack of focus consumes time. That’s the one resource you can never get back. When you look at activities in terms of their time cost, it becomes easier to say no to distractions.

Don’t just ask, “What task am I going to do next?” Instead, ask, “What task am I not going to do so I can work on the new request?” When requests come in to your team, assess what other work isn’t going to get done by the team if you take on the new request. If you can explain the tradeoff to the person who’s asking you to do the work, they’re probably going to be more open to you saying no and deprioritizing that new task if it’s not as important as other work you should be working on.

I work with one attorney at a large corporation who has a team of lawyers. People come to his team all the time and ask for legal work to be done even if his team shouldn’t be doing that work. He always says yes even though it’s not necessarily something an attorney has to look at. He was complaining one day about how much work was on his team’s plate. I asked him, “Hey, would you pay an outside attorney 400 dollars an hour to work on that new project that just came in?” His eyes got big and he said, “Absolutely not.” That’s when the lightbulb went off for him. He realized by taking on that project, it meant his team wasn’t working on higher priority work. He was sending that high-priority work to outside counsel and paying 400 dollars an hour. The thing is, taking on the low-value work was essentially costing him that 400 dollars. That’s when he started saying no to those distractions so his team could focus on the most important work.

When you understand these tradeoffs in terms of time cost, it’s easier to say no to low-priority or low-value work. This is going to make the work your team does the highest priority work that’s on their plate.

Want to learn more about strategic focus for managers? How about taking an entire course on it? Check out the video below to learn more about the course and get started. Or you can go directly to the course and start learning how to assess and improve your critical thinking. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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When you delegate work, who are you most likely to give the task to?

August 18, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: When you delegate work, who are you most likely to give the task to?

  • A high-performer — I know they’ll get it done 54.30%
  • A low-performer — it’s a good chance for them to step up 3.79%
  • Someone with a development need around that task 36.76%
  • I don’t delegate 5.15%

Rethinking where you delegate. Let’s challenge how you think about delegation. For those of you who go straight to your high-performers, ask yourself if you’re overburdening them or taking advantage of their nature. You may risk burning them out by piling on too much work. They may also find that work uninteresting which could decrease their job satisfaction. For those not delegating, ask yourself why not? What are you afraid of? Ask if the work you’re not delegating is the best use of your time. Would you pay someone else what you’re being paid to perform that task? If your immediate reaction is “I would never pay that much to have that task completed” then it’s a pretty clear indicator you should delegate it. For those who aren’t delegating to low-performers, what opportunities are you missing and what messages are you sending? You’re telling them you don’t trust them to get the work done (remember: everything communicates – even unspoken actions). And they might be a low-performer because they don’t feel trusted or valued. They might not feel challenged by or interested in the work they’re doing. Start small. Be sure to tell them  you trust them to get it done. Involve them in the process of selecting which work to delegate to them. If they have a voice in the decision, you might see dramatically different behavior. Use delegation as a tool for efficiency, engagement, and development whenever you can.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Challenge How Your Business Operates

August 17, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

two women at whiteboard

Transform your business by completely rethinking how it works. Analyzing your business model, revenue, and costs can lead you to innovative solutions.

When you go to generate new ideas to run things better, you need to think critically about the way your business runs. I like to look at three things: a business model blowup, a revenue blowup, and a cost blowup.

On the business model blowup, fundamentally rethink how you go to market. And rethink what your market actually is. You’re going to challenge the entire business model for the way you deliver products and services. On the revenue blowup side, how do you dramatically expand the products, your pricing, the geography, and the reach of your business? And on the cost blowup, how do you fundamentally eliminate drag from the business to become more efficient?

Business Model Blowup: Skybus Airlines

Read more

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How to Harness the 4 Aspects of Focus

August 15, 2022/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

man using laptop

Multitasking doesn’t work. It’s only through true focus that you can make meaningful progress on your work. By using the four aspects of focus, you can excel at any task you put your mind to.

Today’s post is by Achim Nowak, author of THE MOMENT: A Practical Guide to Creating a Mindful Life in a Distracted World (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Let’s face it. Pretty much every facet of our work lives conspires against us staying focused. We rush from one meeting to the next. We have too many emails to answer in any given moment. There are days when it seems we do nothing but respond to last-minute requests and fly by the seat of our pants.

And yet, the leader who stays focused is the one who creates exponentially more success.

Focus, at its very best, is our exquisite commitment to a goal, and our full engagement with the process of attaining this goal. Before we explore some common-sense focus practices, let go, once and for all, of the notion that multi-tasking works. Yes, you know how to do it. You are likely quite good at it. Research, however, consistently shows that multi-tasking dilutes the effectiveness of the tasks we perform. We tend to confuse motion with achievement. Instead of our relentless focus on achievement, why not focus on the art of focus?

One activity at a time is a fine place to begin. Successful focus, however, is defined by the levels of awareness you and I bring to the performance of this single activity. The following four aspects of focus help us shift from the purely transactional performance of a task to a deeply conscious engagement with this task:

Read more

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How receptive are you to “constructive” feedback that you disagree with?

August 11, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: How receptive are you to “constructive” feedback that you disagree with?

  • Very: It helps me learn about my blind spots 38.37%
  • Somewhat: I don’t like it and resist but do pay attention to it 54.22%
  • Not very: I push back on it and only listen when it’s a strong message 5.62%
  • Not at all: everyone has an opinion. Doesn’t mean I have to listen to it 1.79%

Feedback can be tough, but you listen. 92% of you report being open to feedback and acting on it. That’s tremendous. As uncomfortable as it might be to receive it, it can be even harder to deliver it. You owe it to the other person to at least listen and consider their position and, fortunately, the vast majority of you do. To make receiving feedback easier, ask the feedback provider to explain the behaviors they see that they want changed. Ask for observable instances of those behaviors. By doing so, you’re taking some of the emotion out of the conversation and making it about your behavior versus about you as a person. Those approaches should make it a bit easier to listen to and act on the feedback you’re being provided. If you’re in the 8% who aren’t receptive to feedback, here’s some feedback – consider your position and what insights you’re walking away from. Those might be great opportunities to improve your performance and your relationships with others.

– 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!

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Critical Thinking: Understanding the Real Question

August 10, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

question mark

When a stakeholder asks you to solve a problem, make sure you understand what’s driving their request. Asking follow-up questions can help you come up with better solutions.

So many times when we’re asked to look into an issue, we just rush off and start solving it without really thinking through what’s causing the person to ask the question in the first place. Probe to understand why you’re being asked to look at something. Once you have a good understanding of why, you’re more toward a cause, but don’t stop there. Once you have that understanding, ask why again. Really get that deep understanding of what’s causing concern on your stakeholder’s part. 

By understanding the real question they have, you can avoid solving symptoms and instead, come up with a recommendation that is going to resonate for them and be something that they’re excited about. The real question opens up new answers, new ideas, and new opportunities. 

Let me offer an example. An executive that I worked with, named Sue, was asked by her senior stakeholder, Kim, to look at employee turnover data. Sue knew this data inside and out. It was very easy for her to go into the information, pull out the data, and generate a report about turnover. And she could have done that, but she didn’t. She stopped and asked Kim why she wanted to understand this issue, and it was really an issue of evaluating unit performance. 

Well, once Sue understood this, other metrics made more sense than just the base turnover data. She stopped though and asked Kim again why was she looking at unit performance in particular. Turns out what Kim really wanted to understand was whether they were having issues with leadership or with processes. They were having a lot of churn and turnover of their associates. It was now clear to Sue that she had to look at metrics and processes. By doing so, she was able to generate ideas on how to fix some of the issues with leadership, as well as some of the processes that should change. She generated a better solution. 

What I’d encourage you to do is take a look at a problem you’ve been asked to solve. Go back to that stakeholder and understand what’s really driving that request. Why do they care about this? When you get a better understanding of that, you’ll find the solutions you come up with are going to be bigger, better, and more exciting.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Want to learn more about critical thinking? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning about critical thinking. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

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Critical Thinking Tools: The Problem Statement

August 9, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

 

whiteboard writing

Writing a problem statement helps you define your goals, boundaries, constraints, and assumptions when faced with a challenging project. 

One of my favorite critical thinking and problem solving tools is a good problem statement. You should never just take a problem and rush off in a general direction, thinking you’re going to come up with a solution that will satisfy the needs of your requester. If you don’t know the destination, you’re going to get lost. It’ll take you a long time to get there. The corollary here is with your problem solving and critical thinking. You need to know what that destination is. What is success for your problem solving?

Your problem statement defines that endpoint. Without a problem statement, you’re going to spend a lot of wasted hours, wasted work, and have excessive revisions because your recommendation won’t make sense. Nobody will know what you’re trying to solve for. When you put together a good problem statement, it becomes your charter for your critical thinking efforts. It’s going to spell out your goals. It will lay out boundaries on the problem solving space. It will define success criteria. Your problem statement should spell out the constraints you’re going to face. It should articulate your assumptions, who the stakeholders are, and any timelines that you’re going to face.

I have one client organization that didn’t spend the time laying out their problem statement. They ended up with major issues for their charter for a huge technology project. Because the team was trying to solve all different problems, they didn’t have clarity on what the ultimate goal was, what the metrics were, who the stakeholders needed to be, and what the boundaries were for the space they were trying to solve in. This led the team to write a lot of code, have multiple revisions, and multiple attempted roll-outs. They couldn’t solve the problem because they hadn’t defined what the problem was in the first place.

Take a look at a problem you’re trying to solve. Is it clear what the problem statement is? Do you know what the goals are? Do you know what the boundaries, constraints, and assumptions are? Do you know who the stakeholders are? The time you spend with this type of critical thought is going to help you be more effective in solving the problems that you face.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Want to learn more about critical thinking? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning about critical thinking. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

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What best describes the predominant management style in your organization?

August 4, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: What best describes the predominant management style in your organization?

  • Empowering: Leaders set direction and get out of their people’s way 15.23%
  • Balanced: Leaders dig into the details in some situations but are hands-off in others 46.51%
  • Micromanaging: Leaders are way too into the details and get in people’s way 23.04%
  • Absent: They don’t set direction nor do they know what’s really going on 15.22%

Not much empowerment. Only 15% of you report that your leaders empower their people to take action once a direction has been set. While another 47% balance between empowerment and close management, a disappointing 38% report either micromanagement or complete absence of the leader. For those dealing with micromanagers, that’s a function of trust and control. They manage that way because they don’t trust the outcome or they want things done how they prefer even if there are other ways to do it. To build trust, try communicating more. Update them more frequently on progress. Collaborate on creating solutions together so they feel some ownership but also get comfortable empowering you. For absent leaders, they might be spread too thin or think they’re empowering. Again, help them engage productively. Strategically select interaction points and invite them to be involved. Tell them where they can be most useful and where you need guidance. Help them be better leaders to you. Micromanagers and absent leaders won’t get better through some miracle of telepathy. Tell them what you need from them and ask them what they need from you. Things can be a lot more productive that way.

– 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!

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Using The 80/20 Rule to Think Critically

August 3, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

coffee cup 8020

Learn how an Italian gardener’s simple principle can make problem solving much easier.

Critical thinking doesn’t only apply to coming up with recommendations. You need to think critically about the way you’re going to spend your time and energy. Those things are limited. You have too many problems to solve and not enough time. I encourage people to follow the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle.

The Pareto Principle

The Pareto principle was coined by Vilfredo Pareto when he noticed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. He was also a gardener, and he noticed 80% of the peas coming out of his garden came from 20% of the pods. He said, “That’s interesting. Two totally different realms demonstrating the same principle.” 20% led to 80% of the impact, and that’s the 80/20 rule. 20% of the drivers will drive 80% of the results. You need to think about your work the same way. You can’t focus on that 80% that only drives 20% of the results. Focus your efforts on the meaningful. Let me offer an example. Read more

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The Importance of Critical Thinking

August 1, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

Stopping and considering decisions before you make them is only the start to critical thinking and building on those skills makes all the difference.

The importance of critical thinking

Let’s look at the importance of critical thinking. So many times when people ask us, “Can you go solve this problem,” we rush off and start solving it without stopping to think before we do.

We’re facing new demands that require extensive amounts of information before we can make a decision. There are multiple departments involved in all of your problem-solving efforts, and each department is contributing its own input. As part of your problem-solving process, there are going to be multiple stakeholders involved. This increases the complexity of trying to get to an answer.

When you do ultimately come up with a recommendation, those big decisions will involve numerous trade-offs. Not everyone is going to be happy with what you recommend. There are going to be long lag times in acquiring the required data to make your decision, and when you finally do make the call, there’s going to be high scrutiny over whether you were right or wrong. And a bad call can have both business as well as personal and professional implications. Add to this unforeseen bottlenecks in getting the process done of getting to that answer, multiply it by the number of problems you’re trying to solve every single day, and then divide by the limited amount of time you have to get to an answer.

The importance of stopping and thinking critically before you rush off and undertake all these very comprehensive efforts is very high. That critical thinking process is what’s going to differentiate you and the solutions you develop versus rushing off without any thought at all.

Distinguish causes vs. consequences

As you begin your critical thinking efforts, I’d like you to think about causes and consequences. One of the biggest challenges we’re going to face with any problem solving is that desire to rush off and get to an answer quickly because we feel like we’re being responsive to our stakeholders when we do.  But think about it.

Have you ever solved a symptom only to find out there are other symptoms that arise after you solve it? Have you ever put in place a recommendation only to find out you created new problems down the road? When you’re going through this critical thinking process, first, consider causes.

Look at the symptom that is problematic. Then figure out the real reason it’s happening. And come at that possible symptom from multiple perspectives. Once you generate a recommendation, stop and think critically. What new problems can you create if you implement this recommendation? What are the new symptoms that will be caused? Think that through before you implement your recommendation.

Let me offer an example. I know a client situation where the organization was going to roll out a brand-new website that would be facing their customers. The problem was they continued to miss deadlines for rolling the website out and going live. Now let’s look at causes and consequences. What was the cause of the website not rolling out?  Well, the code wasn’t ready. Yeah, but that’s a symptom. That’s a symptom of a problem. Why wasn’t the code ready? Well, the specifications weren’t done. Okay. Well, that’s also a symptom.  Why weren’t the specs done? Well, because they didn’t agree on the features and functionality of the new website. But let’s not stop there. Why was that symptom happening? Well, they weren’t given clarity by leadership around one aspect that was a major strategic decision in terms of how they would roll the website out. That was the cause of all these issues and why the rollout wasn’t happening.

Now let’s think this through. Once that strategic decision is made, what are the consequences of it? So leadership finally decided to make the website a closed network. Therefore, new customers would have to call in to register instead of registering on a website. Let’s look at the consequences of that decision and the new problems that can emerge. New customers are now going to have to call a call center associate. That’s then going to flood the call center with incremental calls. The consequence of that is the staff in the call center is going to be over-worked. And then the consequence of that is current customers are going to experience service issues. They won’t get their calls answered as quickly. And then the consequence of that is we might lose current customers.

By stopping and thinking about causes first and then consequences, once you do make a recommendation, you’re going to identify the true problem that you need to solve and, hopefully, you’ll be able to avoid causing future problems. When you go out to solve a problem, think backwards about the causes and think forward about the consequences.

As you go to apply these notions to your critical thinking processes, I’d like you to think about a problem you’re working on. Look at the causes. Spend some time thinking about what’s really causing this issue. Continue to work backward until it’s clear you’re solving a problem and not a symptom. Then, once you’ve generated a recommendation, think through the consequences. What are the new problems that could emerge if you implement your recommendation? Think about a problem that you made a recommendation on where it didn’t go so well. Which of these two did you miss?  Did you miss the real root cause? Did you miss possible consequences of your recommendation?

By spending this extra time thinking about these aspects and putting in the critical thought, there’s a much higher likelihood that whatever recommendation you come up with is going to solve the true problem and you’re going to account for some of the possible consequences down the road.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Want to learn more about critical thinking? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning about critical thinking. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

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Does your leader give you enough of their time and attention?

July 28, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: Does your leader give you enough of their time and attention?

  • Absolutely! I get everything I need from them 26.06%
  • Mostly. Sometimes I wish I got more 32.19%
  • Not really. I feel like a bit of an afterthought 31.03%
  • Not at all. It’s like I don’t even exist 10.72%

Allocating appropriate time. Only 26% of respondents said they’re getting all the time and attention they need from their leaders. An alarming 42% feel like an afterthought or like they don’t even exist. That spells trouble in terms of engagement, productivity, and retention. Ask yourself how your team members would respond to this poll if it was about you. Are you giving them enough attention or are you too busy doing email? In a highly remote environment, giving your people quality time is even more critical. Most will say “but I don’t have time” and if you think that, ask yourself if you have the time to recruit for replacements and do all the work of the people who quit while you try to hire someone new. Make time for your people. Ask them what they need from you in terms of guidance and coaching. If you want them to stick around, you have to show them you care.

– 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!

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Saying No

July 27, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

nope

Strategic focus often involves saying no to intriguing project requests. 

One of the shortest words you can say is also the most important. Saying no is about choice. Shifting your mindset from “I have to” to “I choose to” requires saying no to tasks and activities that are off track.

There are many reasons why saying no is hard. You might not want to miss an opportunity. You might feel like you’re not being a team player. It may feel like you’re not getting to work on something fun and interesting. To achieve focus though, saying no is required. It can be hard to say no to someone’s idea or a group’s request of your team. When you say no, it feels like you’re not helping somebody out.

Try saying, “yes if,” instead. Essentially, what you’re doing is putting conditions around that yes. Those conditions can include things like, “You have to give me budget, you have to give me time, or you have to give me people to get this idea done.”

I had a boss who was full of ideas. He was always coming to me with new project requests. A lot of them were off strategy. They were distractions. I used to say no to all of them because to me it was clear that they weren’t strategic. After a few months, I started getting some negative feedback from him. He said, “All you do is say no, Mike. Nothing is ever positive with you.”

At that point, I shifted to the behavior of saying, “Yes if.” Whenever he came to me with a new project, I said, “That’s a really great idea. I’m happy to do it if you give me this much budget or this much time or if you give me that team member from that team to come work on the project.” A lot of times he would say, “Well no, I’m not giving you that budget or time or people.” And I said, “Well, then I can’t pursue the idea.”

Essentially, I was making him say no to the idea because it was clear that the idea wasn’t big enough or on-strategy enough to prioritize it properly. By getting the requester to focus, I was being positive and contributing to the team but also maintaining focus.

Saying no keeps your team members focused on their core responsibilities. When you do say no, you might have to back them up and say no for them. The point is, that short little word is the key to keeping your team focused on its strategic priorities.

Want to learn more about strategic focus for managers? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning about strategic focus. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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