Business Toolkit – Page 47 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Go Ahead and Make Mistakes – But Not Really

October 22, 2012/4 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

As leaders, we say we want our people to be empowered and to go out and make decisions. We say we’re okay with them making mistakes and we’ll still support them making decisions on their own.

But not really.

I’m lucky to have a huge leadership lab in the form of the SmartBrief on Leadership weekly pulse poll. Every week I ask a leadership-related question and thousands of people respond to those polls. Sometimes I get a little sneaky and conduct my own experiments over the period of a few weeks. I conducted one of these experiments recently.

First I asked “Would you rather have a team member make decisions and make mistakes or make no decisions and leave that up to you?”

Unsurprisingly, all us empowering leaders were eager to give our team members the latitude to make decisions and make mistakes. 96% of respondents said they’d rather have a team member make a decision even if they make mistakes. A measly 4% of respondents wanted the team to leave all decisions up to them.

I observed we want our team members to take the initiative, take action and move things forward, even if they make mistakes. It is incumbent upon us as leaders to ensure that, when they do make mistakes, we realize we gave them the latitude to take action — handling the mistakes in that context accordingly. While we need to hold them accountable for the mistake, we also need to ensure they learn from it and do so in a way that we don’t make them afraid to make more mistakes in the future. Heck, I believe so strongly in this notion of decision making and empowerment that I dedicated a whole chapter of One Piece of Paper to the topic (grab a copy here and check out Chapter 13).

The following week I conducted the second part of my experiment.

Making No Decision is Still Making a Decision

October 8, 2012/9 Comments/in Books, Business Toolkit, 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 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.

The False Economy of “I’ll do it Myself”

October 1, 2012/3 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Doing more with less turns us into idiots. Our hubris and arrogance puts our idiocy into action. Sorry – got a little ranty right out of the gate. Let me hit rewind.

We’re constantly seeking ways to both improve our business but do so while saving money at the same time. That can lead to the dangerous dynamic of “I’ll do it myself.” We take on tasks and projects ourselves instead of hiring experts or service providers who specialize in the task. The idea looks good on paper but it can be really stupid (sorta like the kid who tries to give themselves a haircut).

Allow me to illustrate. Many of you own homes. More often than not, something goes wrong with something in your house. Either a pipe gets clogged up, roof shingles fly off, or you simply need a fresh coat of paint. Given we’re all trying to be frugal in a difficult economy, the notion of popping on down to Lowe’s or Home Depot comes to mind with visions of being a handy dandy Bob the Builder “We can fix it!” type of home improvement hero.

We get home with our $376.78 in new tools, shingles, and paint. We carve out an hour or so on Saturday to get the job done because, well… how hard can it be to slap on some paint, snake a drain, or hammer in some shingles, right?

Then the stupidity starts.

What Amusement Parks can Teach You about Professional Development

September 10, 2012/4 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

I recently went to King’s Island amusement park with the kids. Beyond experiencing the thrill of $9 sodas and wickedawesome roller coasters, I learned a few things about professional development while I was there.

Some of you love roller coasters and some hate them. I used to hate them but now I love them. We rode Diamondback, The Vortex, Flight Deck, Flight of Fear, Firehawk, Drop Tower, The Monster, Delirium, and The Racer. We rode some of them multiple times. All were awesome in their own special way.

Several of them taught me a few things about overcoming fear, growing as a person, and thoroughly enjoying the thrill of it all. Allow me to share a few growth experiences along with some pointers you can take away from my experiences. I’ll do so via some ride recaps.

Drop Tower

Imagine sitting with your feet dangling as you sit on a gigantic doughnut. That doughnut is then hoisted straight up a tower that gives you a view of the entire park and the surrounding area. Then they drop that doughnut 315 feet straight down at 67 MPH. Pro tip: don’t eat right before this ride.

The first time I rode it, I was terrified the whole way up. My focus was on my seat belt and the sturdiness of the shoulder harness bars. During the seemingly interminable wait at the top of the tower, I repeatedly told myself (and everyone around me) what a bad idea this was. Then the bottom fell out and I experienced a screaming free-fall for the longest three seconds of my life. I didn’t notice anything beyond my butt not being in contact with the seat and my stomach flipping over.

31 Tips for Growing Your Blog

July 9, 2012/17 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Social Media /by Mike Figliuolo

Blogs are awesome but they’re also a ton of work (unless you’re efficient about it). If you blog with purpose, you’ll see some great results. I’ve learned a lot over the few years I’ve been blogging and I’ve had many folks ask how they can get started, get better, and grow.

To that end, I’d like to offer 31 tips to help you get your blog off the ground and drive the results you want. Why 31? See Item 11 for the reason.

Content

1. Blog with a purpose. If you don’t know why you’re doing it, you won’t stick with it. For me, the blog is about getting our message out and getting folks interested in buying our training courses or buying my book (which is also tied to our training courses). Everything I do keeps that end in mind.

2. Stick with content areas you have expertise in. Stay focused on a small set of topics (10 max). Readers want to know that more often than not when they come to your blog, they’ll find topics they’re interested in.

3. Keep it short. And long. Our posts are 600-1200 words. Short enough to digest quickly. Long enough to cover a subject appropriately.

4. Be entertaining. If you’re going to bore me with dry prose, I’ll click away and go check out theoatmeal.com or freakjet.com. I’m there to be entertained. Use your unique “voice” and just be you.

5. Be actionable. Give your readers something they can immediately apply. If they use your info and find it helpful, they’ll be back and they’ll tell others.

6. Standards. NEVER let crappy content show up on your blog. If you use guest bloggers, you have every right to ask them for revisions if their content isn’t up to your standards. Aim high.

What I Learned from a Day Without the Interwebz

July 3, 2012/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit /by Mike Figliuolo

We had a wicked storm blast through town the other night. Trees were snapped in half like the Jolly Green Giant with a bad case of ‘roid rage walked down the street. Then it happened – the beautiful iridescent “DATA” light on my cable modem went out. NOOOOOO!

My fears were confirmed when I went to turn on the cable and watch some Storage Wars – the Interwebz was down! I panicked and ran around the house in my pajamas screaming at the top of my lungs. After I accepted my (hopefully temporary) Internet-less reality, I assessed the situation and began my plan of action to keep my business running.

I learned four critical lessons any business leader should know during a time where your business is not fully operational. Hopefully you can learn from my experience so you’re properly prepared to handle a shutdown crisis like the harrowing one I’ve endured. I’ve generalized these lessons to apply to any kind of business that loses a key capability during a crisis (e.g., machine downtime, loss of personnel due to a strike, inclement weather catastrophes, etc.).

1. Plan ahead. If there are tasks you can automate or contingency plans that you can put in place, build them now. This blog post is late. Normally they post on Monday mornings at 7AM. Usually I have a few posts slotted to run weeks in advance of the post date. Those go up automatically whether my Internet connection is live or not. This time around I hadn’t planned ahead and when the net went down, I couldn’t deliver my product on time.

For your business, you can prevent some of these issues pretty easily. Read more

8 Great Tools for Building Your Blog

June 18, 2012/62 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Social Media /by Mike Figliuolo

I get the irony of blogging about blogging but given I already talk about talking, I’m okay with that. This isn’t a topic I typically hit on but as the thoughtLEADERS Blog continues to grow and thrive and I get people asking me about what works and what doesn’t, I figure it’s worthwhile to dedicate some airtime to the topic of building your blog following and turning it into real value.

No, I’m not Chris Brogan and this isn’t going to be some massive SEO/SEM treatise. This is nothing more than a list of the best tools, techniques, and widgets I’ve learned and used over the years. I use and believe in these tools and I hope you’ll get as much value out of them as I have.

First, allow me to spell out some social media principles and beliefs so you understand how and why I use the tools I do.

Outposts: I believe in outposts (e.g., twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) serving as a first point of contact for someone to run into me and my business. From those outposts, the primary goal is to get folks to come here to the blog or our main website. I always want to build the conversation and relationship on “my turf” so to speak. Those outposts also allow us to interact with folks in their “natural element” so we’re in front of them when they’re looking for content. If you want to see examples of our outposts, check us out on Twitter at @Figliuolo, @thoughtLEADERS, and @1PieceofPaper. On Facebook we’re at thoughtLEADERS and One Piece of Paper.

Make it Fun: Entertain first. Engage second. Sell third. No one is coming to a boring-assed business blog. If you want their attention, entertain your audience. Do things like talk about your topic of interest in terms of wookiees, superheroes, rappers, and heavy metal bands. If they enjoy coming to your site, you’ll have more opportunities to engage them and they’ll eventually (hopefully) either buy your services or refer you to those who will.

Cash: I’m a capitalist. Yes, I LOVE writing but I have to fund my completely irresponsible lifestyle and that takes cash. That means I sell my book, our training courses, and advertising space. I’m not ashamed of it. This is a for-profit enterprise. All that said, ensure the selling doesn’t get in the way of the content.

Guest Bloggers: Make it bigger than you. I could write a little leadership blog with nothing but my own work. Sure, that’s fun but it gets old. I regularly seek out and invite other people to come write posts here. Noob bloggers freak out at the notion of someone else having the stage in their arena out of fear the readers will defect to the guest blogger. I see it differently. When I bring in a guest, I’m creating value for my readers by finding and screening new content and perspectives. I’m also getting new readers because invariably that guest blogger tells their audience to come read their work on our blog where they also get exposed to our work. It also allows me to be lazy – it’s easier to copy/paste a post by someone else than it is to write it myself, eh? By the way, if you want to write a guest post here sometime, just contact me for guest post parameters.

All that said, here are some of my favorite web tools for blogging easily and successfully:

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…

5 Big Resume Lies You’ve Been Told

March 26, 2012/9 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Communications /by Mike Figliuolo

Judging from the thousands of books and hundreds of thousands of websites on the topic, you’d think the resume is the be-all, end-all of human existence. Thousands of pages written about one or two simple pages of text. There are books, websites, training courses, DVDs and how-to guides on the subject ad nauseum.

I’m happy to see the economy is picking up a little. How do I know that? More folks who are currently in jobs are sending me their resume for review and to make connections. That means they’re looking for new employment (not just some employment). I’m also getting search firms reaching out to me asking me “do you know anyone who…” So companies are hiring.

Given all that, I thought I’d offer some thoughts on resumes based on some of the things I’m seeing now and have seen in the past.

Here’s the dirty little secret – a lot of it is snake oil. Indulge me while I debunkify a la Mythbusters. Strap yourself in – I’m about to challenge “reality” which just might cause a quantum shift in the wasted-time-polishing-a-resume/job availability continuum…

1. Your resume alone can land you a job.

Wrong. Too many people spend so much time and effort on their paper because they believe it is the magical key to the six figure job offer. It doesn’t get you the job. It gets you a phone call and serves as a conversation piece during interviews.

If you submit your resume and get a phone call, you’ve succeeded. You’ve cut through the clutter and grabbed their attention. They’re interested in spending time getting to know you. I’ve never heard of someone landing a job with nothing but a resume (and if you have, I’d submit said hiring company is terrible at candidate diligence).

Take off the Kid Gloves to Resolve Disputes

March 5, 2012/7 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

You’re too nice. That’s why you’re getting your butt kicked.

Competitors. Bosses. Peers. High performers on your team. Customers. They all know you have a glass jaw and all they have to do is throw a sucker punch to lay you out on the canvas.

More often than not, you likely dust yourself off, say “good punch!” and move on with life having suffered a small defeat. After a while, that approach is taxing and you build a personal brand of being a pushover. Once that happens, you become the favorite target of everyone who wants to gain an advantage.

If you want to change that dynamic, you have to change your approach. Every once in a while you need to throw a hay-maker of a punch right in the face of your opponent. I’m not talking about a defensive counter-punch here. I’m talking about a rear-back, throw everything you’ve got and try to drive their nose out the back of their head kind of punch. The kind of punch they never, ever forget. The kind of punch people talk about as the stuff of legend.

To clarify – I’m speaking metaphorically. No workplace violence, please.

I’m talking about going ballistic in a meeting. Or instead of simply threatening to talk to an attorney, serve a legal demand notice or file suit. You might choose to fire someone or tell a customer you’re no longer serving them. Perhaps it’s tendering your resignation. *That’s* the kind of punch I’m talking about here.

If You Want to be More Productive Just Do Less Work

January 9, 2012/4 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership, Project Management /by Mike Figliuolo

You work too hard. You do too much.

Want to be more productive? Just do less work.

I know you’re probably scratching your head right now wondering how to not get fired by taking this recommendation. The truth is you’ll probably be on your way to a promotion if you pull this off correctly.

Here’s how it works: we work on a lot of stupid crap that no one is ever going to look at let alone use. Being more productive all boils down to not doing said stupid crap.

What kind of stupid crap am I talking about? How about those bajillion Excel reports you and your team generate every month? Those “latest best estimates” that are time stamped by the hour to let folks know which version you’re working from. Those weekly or monthly status updates that are 68 pages of the equivalent of PowerPoint water boarding. How about the 9,000 cc emails you send or receive every month? That stupid crap.

“Oh no! We can’t stop cranking those things out! They’re ever so valuable! And 80% of my job responsibilities center around turning out such value added deliverables that create synergies across the enterprise!”

Barf.

Let’s really evaluate this “work” you do and create a plan to stop doing it.

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:

Hanging light bulbs with glowing one isolated on dark blue background

Executive Communications

Structured Problem Solving

Creating Leadership Maxims

Leading inside the Box

Deliberate Decision Making

Simple Strategic Planning

Storytelling for Leaders

Storytelling for Sales

Executive Presence

Principles of Chart Design

Time Management Mastery

Breakthrough Innovation

Leadership Resilience

Conflict Resolution

Leading through Change

Project Management Reality

Coaching for Impact

High Performing Teams

Everything is Negotiable

Leading with Influence

Building Personal Resilience

thoughtLEADERSHIP

Engagement Management

eLearning Courses on TITAN

Structured Thought: Problem Solving

Structured Thought: Problem Solving

Clearly define a problem, scope all issues related to the problem, generate potential solutions, then analyze and select the best solution by using time-tested critical thinking methods and tools.

Our Course Offerings

Leadership Skills

Communication Skills

Individual Skills