Business Toolkit – Page 45 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

When to Use a Cross-Functional Team

March 16, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

Learn about the types of situations that call for a cross-functional team.

Cross-functional teams should be built when a project has a defined scope, the scope impacts multiple functional areas, and when the expertise required to successfully complete the project is not available only in the group leading the project. Scope determines which functions are or are not impacted. Without a clearly defined scope statement, it’s going to be hard to gather resources since people can claim they have higher priorities and their area isn’t in scope. With a well-defined scope, it becomes clear whether or not you need a cross-functional team. If the scope calls for skills your team lacks or requires working with other groups, you’re going to have to build a cross-functional team. It’s rare for a team to have all the support functions and perspectives it needs for every project it works on. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.

I was working on a major technology replacement. This required technology changes. It had telephony impacts. This project was going to change our financial reporting. It would have impacts on our call center, on our associates and their workflows. It was going to change the associate desktops. It was going to fundamentally alter our operations. We needed a big cross-functional team in that situation.

I had another project where I ran a strategy and analysis team. We were going to make changes to the commissions we paid to some of our external agency partners. We own this function. We own the call center. We had the agency management function. The reporting was already built, so there would be no changes there. We didn’t have any technology changes we needed to make. We did not need a cross-functional team in that situation since we had all the resources we needed to make those changes.

The easiest way to determine if you need a cross-functional team or not is to ask if your team has all the resources and expertise required to carry out an initiative. If the answer’s no, you likely need to build a cross-functional team.

Want to learn more about managing cross-functional teams? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to manage a cross-functional team. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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How do you handle team members who have little aspiration for advancing their careers?

March 10, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: How do you handle team members who have little aspiration for advancing their careers?

I let them do their thing as long as they’re performing in the role 61.25%
I show them the benefits of growing their careers and hope they latch on 28.68%
I push them into roles of greater responsibility to drive their growth 8.78%
I have no idea how to handle those situations 1.29%

Educate on Growth. Most of you indicate you’re okay with letting your team members plug along doing their thing and not advancing their careers if they don’t have those aspirations. But ask yourself if you truly know that they don’t want to advance or if you’re making that assumption on their behalf because they’ve never asked about it. If it’s the latter, you might be doing them a disservice. Many people don’t know how to effectively ask about career paths and advancement. Some feel it’s risky and might seem disloyal to ask about moving into other roles that aren’t on your team. They might worry about repercussions from a request like that. Some more junior employees may not understand they have a role in advocating for their advancement and figure “well, when I’m ready, the boss will approach me.” If you’re making the assumption that they don’t want to advance, I’d suggest you validate that with a candid conversation. Who knows – you may have the next rising star on your team but they simply don’t know how to get started with advancing their career.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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What is a Cross-Functional Team?

March 9, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

Learn what a cross-functional team is and why they can be so rewarding to manage.

Imagine an orchestra made up of nothing but trumpets. Imagine a baseball team of all catchers. Imagine a medical team that’s nothing but radiologists. Those aren’t good situations.

A cross-functional team is a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. It can include people from finance, marketing, operations and HR, and other key functional areas. Employees from different levels usually participate on a cross-functional team. The team might include frontline operators, managers and directors, and you may have analysts and project managers on the team. There may be other job families involved. These teams can also include people from outside the organization like suppliers, customers, or consultants. Read more

How comfortable is your organization with making decisions in the face of uncertainty?

March 3, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: How comfortable is your organization with making decisions in the face of uncertainty?

Very: Uncertainty doesn’t deter us at all from taking action now 24.22%
Somewhat: We tend to try to resolve big uncertainties before acting 39.91%
Not very: We’re really hesitant to act until we have a clear picture 27.80%
Not at all: We won’t act until the vast majority of the uncertainty has been resolved 8.07%

Uncertainty is always certain. 35% of you respond that your organization is pretty hesitant to act until uncertainty surrounding a decision is resolved and another 40% of you are somewhat hesitant. In theory it makes sense that we should wait to make decisions until uncertainty is resolved. In reality, the trap is that new sources of uncertainty emerge every day. You will never have complete resolution of uncertainty. Given that, it’s incumbent upon the leader to act based on the best information available, and, when new information comes to light, possibly make a different decision. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t try to resolve uncertainty before deciding. Just realize when you’re reaching that point of equilibrium at which every element of uncertainty you resolve, an equal amount of new uncertainty enters the equation. Once you get there, make a decision and move forward.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Breaking Big Problems Into Small Problems

March 2, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

Big business problems are overwhelming. Using a logic map to break a big problem into its smaller components can give you the clarity and understanding you need to solve it.

At one point, I worked with a financial services firm and we had a program where we were making offers to consumers. When that program first launched, we were making about $5 million a year. The problem was, after a few months, we started losing $5 million a year. This was a huge issue and there were a lot of things that could have contributed to it. So we used the problem-solving process to get a better understanding of the issues that were really driving the problem before we rushed off to solve it. We broke the problem down by using what’s called a logic map. We looked at technology, training, systems, hiring, and processes. The good news is, once we broke the problem down, we identified the core issue. We followed the rest of the problem-solving process and turned that program around from losing $5 million a year to actually making $20 million a year a few years after that.

Let me walk you through what a logic map is and how you can use it to break down your own problem solving. Let’s imagine we have a problem where profits are down. In the logic map, what we’re going to do is take profits and break it down into its component parts of revenue and cost. By doing so, what we’ve done is taken a larger problem and broken it down into smaller components. But those are still large issues to try and solve, so let’s use the logic map to break it down even further. We’ll break revenues down into volume and price and further break down our volume into current customers and prospective customers. We’ve taken a really large item that we wouldn’t be able to solve easily and broken it down into smaller parts that are going to be much easier to figure out.

To make your logic map complete, you can’t stop there because we want to identify what all the possible issues are. So we need to look at the cost side of things. In terms of costs, maybe we’re buying more or we’re paying more for the things that we’re buying. And in terms of paying more, that’s potentially an issue where we’re getting fewer discounts or base prices have gone up. By breaking that logic map down and saying we had a profit issue, and really walking it all the way through the smaller and smaller components, the problem gets a lot easier to solve.

There are multiple ways you can break your logic maps down. It’s not always about revenues and costs. Sometimes you’ll break it down and it’s a sales problem. You see you have product A, B and C and that may be the first level of your logic map. Or, you may break things down in terms of short-term, medium-term and long-term challenges. Just break your problem down logically and blow it out to a level where you can start seeing some of the smaller solutions emerge.

Want to learn more about solving business problems? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to solve business problems. 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!

Making No Decision is Still Making a Decision

March 1, 2022/0 Comments/in Books, Business Toolkit, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

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 making decisions.

Enough with all the thinking already! Now you need to drive action. Ideas are great but someone has to put them in motion for them to be worthwhile, and deciding to do that is no easy task. Acting on a decision can be terrifying, especially in the case of large-scale change. Your decision may affect a significant number of people, and what if it is the wrong decision? What if things do not go as expected and the resulting outcome negatively impacts you or your organization? You could lose your job. Worse, hundreds of other people could lose theirs. It is hard enough to act on decisions when just facing your own insecurities. Throw the complexities of your organization into the mix and the angst increases exponentially. Politics, lack of resources, uncertainty, doubt, and fear all mess with our minds right when we are on the verge of taking action.

However, I am challenging you to be thought leaders. Being a thought leader requires you to be bold. Your decisions must be clear and forceful. The “thought” part of the equation only gets you halfway to your destination. As my colleague Alan Veeck says “It’s good to have thoughts, but that’s not enough.” Being a true thought leader means you not only agitate for but also lead change. Such leadership requires decisive action on your part.

You probably see it all the time—people and teams suffering from analysis paralysis. They are unable to make a decision and instead their organization languishes in the purgatory of endless Excel models. People fear making decisions. They sometimes believe, erroneously for the most part, they are better off making no decision than making an incorrect one. By not making a decision, they think they cannot be fired or disciplined for being wrong.

Which function in your organization is the main driver of your business (they lead and everyone else follows)?

February 24, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: Which function in your organization is the main driver of your business (they lead and everyone else follows)?

Marketing 11.00%
Sales 28.02%
Operations 29.44%
Finance 9.93%
Research & Development 3.90%
Product Development/Management 6.73%
IT 2.12%
Some other group/function 8.86%

Who is the “alpha?” While there’s a broad mix of which part of respondent organizations “lead” the company, what you all have in common is there is one major function that leads decision-making considerations. What’s important for you is understanding which group is the “alpha” and what kind of dysfunctional behaviors or risks that can create. For example, if Operations is the alpha and they focus on efficiency and keeping costs low, make sure that doesn’t come at the expense of growth and trying new product ideas. If the alpha is Finance, beware of short-term focus on hitting this quarter’s numbers at the expense of long-term strategic investments. If the alpha is Sales, beware of driving top line revenue through discounting at the expense of having healthy profit margins. While it’s great to have one strong organizational leader, each carries its own risk. Assess that risk and make sure appropriate checks and balances are in place.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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How does your organization approach strategic initiatives?

February 17, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: How does your organization approach strategic initiatives?

We focus on a small set of initiatives and execute them quickly 31.46%
We try to focus but often get distracted which leads to little getting done 27.70%
We bite off too many initiatives and never finish anything 26.76%
We rarely pursue anything strategic — it’s all tactical 14.08%

Focus, focus, focus. 54% of you seem like your eyes are bigger than your stomach and bite off too many initiatives that the organization simply can’t get done. While it seems like you’re getting a lot done by working on multiple projects, you’re likely slowing your efforts down because you’re diluting your energy. It can be hard to say “no” to something so instead, try saying “not yet.” That will help you push off initiatives to work on later and overcome objections of people who feel like they’re being said “no” to. People generally respect and understand prioritization. Focus on a smaller set of projects, execute them quickly, and move on to the next batch. Focused energy drives speed. And for those who only focus on the tactical, focus on carving out time for a strategy session where you assess where you’re headed long-term. If you don’t set aside time for that discussion, you’ll always be working on the small stuff.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Scaling Up From Individual to Team

February 16, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

When scaling your consulting firm up from an individual to a team, you’ll have to decide whether to hire contractors or employees. Learn the pros and cons of each.

When you want to grow your consulting firm, you’re probably going to have to bring on additional people. There’s only so much of you to go around. Make deliberate choices about whether the people you bring on will be contractors or employees. Ensure those individuals’ interests are aligned with yours.

If you’re going to bring on contractors, you don’t run into all the employment and tax issues and they’re going to be a more flexible workforce. The downside is they can leave suddenly and they don’t always share your personal interests.

If the people you bring on are employees, they’re dedicated to the work, but they come along with a lot of administrative issues you’re going to have to deal with. If you need someone who’s fully committed to building your firm but that person’s only interest is part-time work to supplement their income, you’re not going to be happy with that result.

Ensure interests are aligned between you and the people you bring on. A lot of times I get people who say they want to work with me, and we run a training firm. They’ll tell me, “Well Mike, when you can’t do the training session, just throw me that gig.” The problem is, I don’t need people for bandwidth to do the training. I need salespeople. That relationship won’t work out, so I have to hire different people.

I’ve chosen a structure where I have contractors. I don’t want to deal with the overhead. I don’t want to deal with the administrative issues. It’s great that I have contractors because I don’t deal with those issues. The downside is, sometimes I struggle to get my contractors’ attention and have them focus on building my business versus other interests they’re pursuing.

Know the different benefits and drawbacks of contractors and employees. Make sure you choose deliberately to drive the outcome you’re looking for.

Want more weekly consulting tips? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start improving your decision-making strategies. 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!

When handing down responsibility, do you delegate or do you abdicate?

February 10, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: When handing down responsibility, do you delegate or do you abdicate?

I delegate and make sure I stay in touch with the task to ensure it’s done right 90.12%
I abdicate and hand things off then hope for the best 4.35%
I don’t really understand the difference between those approaches 5.53%

Getting the benefits of delegation. A huge portion of you are doing delegation right – pass the task off and give responsibility and authority for completion to the person it lands with but stay in touch to make sure it gets completed correctly. For those who just abdicate, expect to be unpleasantly surprised at some point. When you completely disengage and don’t follow progress, you might get news you don’t want. You’re also doing a disservice to the person you hand it off to. They may need your help but might be afraid to ask for that help. For those who didn’t understand the differences between delegation and abdication, hopefully that’s clear now – it’s about maintaining the connection to the person who is doing the work.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Staying Connected With Clients

February 9, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

As a consultant, your relationships with your clients are invaluable. Learn a few strategies for maintaining your client relationships.

Client relationships are the lifeblood of your business. Be deliberate about maintaining them. Regular contact will keep you top of mind. Beware of excessive contact; they’re going to ignore you or block you if you’re in their inbox too much. Find excuses to reach out to them like, “Hey I read an article and I thought of you,” or “I heard about a cool new technology and I thought you might be interested in it.” Send these notes and leave it at that. Don’t try and sell during these interactions. They know you eventually want to sell them something. Just focus on being helpful and good things are going to come.

I have one client who Read more

How attractive is the employee benefits package offered by your organization?

February 3, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: How attractive is the employee benefits package offered by your organization?

Extremely: It’s best in class 8.61%
Very: Our benefits are better than most companies 38.23%
Somewhat: Our benefits are middle of the pack 32.15%
Not very: Our benefits are lacking in a few key areas 12.91%
Not at all: Our benefits are bare-bones 8.10%

Benefits make a difference. 47% of you say you have a solid benefits package. Congratulations. Make sure your employees understand the value of those benefits when they evaluate other job opportunities. It’s easy to focus on just cash compensation but benefits are a huge difference-maker and might help you retain your team members in a competitive market. For those with weaker benefits packages, is it a function of poor benefits or a lack of knowledge of what you have? Spend some time with your HR team and have them walk you through your entire benefits package. The better you understand it as a leader, the better you can take care of (and retain!) your people. If your benefits truly are weak, bring it to the attention of the HR team and let them know it impairs your ability to source and retain great talent. If enough leaders raise the issue, something might change.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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