Business Toolkit – Page 55 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

How to Ask Good Discovery Questions While Maintaining Your Authenticity

March 1, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Guest Blogger, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Preserving authenticity is fundamental for generating a sale. Ask these simple discovery questions in your next client meeting.

Today’s post is by Jeff Kirchick, Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Next Caller, and author of Authentic Selling: How to Use the Principles of Sales in Everyday Life (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

In traditional sales programs, you are typically taught to ask certain questions. The problem with being taught to ask certain questions is that you are fundamentally changing your behavior when you ask them. Generally speaking, you are probably changing your behavior out of self-interest – to generate a sale – rather than asking in the interest of the customer. And the thing about sales is that you should always be focusing on the needs of the customer. Why? Because sales is not about you. Sales is about them. So what questions would you normally ask someone when you are trying to figure out what is best for them?

In my new book, Authentic Selling: How to Use the Principles of Sales in Everyday Life, I discuss the importance of authenticity relative to the usual tips and tricks you might learn in a formal sales training program. The rationale for this is two-fold: first, people just register authenticity easily. and authenticity is the key to building trust, which is fundamental for generating any sale; second – and perhaps more importantly – Read more

How much of a perfectionist are you when it comes to deliverables for clients, customers or senior executives?

February 25, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How much of a perfectionist are you when it comes to deliverables for clients, customers or senior executives?

Extreme: Everything has to be absolutely perfect. 28%
Very much so: A small error here or there is OK but no more than that. 55%
Kind of: Perfect is the enemy of done. I’d rather get things done than perfect. 14%
Not much: As long as the work is good enough, I’ll deliver it. 2%
Not at all: I tend not to focus on perfectionism. It’s annoying and slows me down. 1%

Quality matters. A strong majority of you (83%) are perfectionists or close to it when it comes to client, customer, or senior executive deliverables. Deservedly so. While it may only be a presentation, a business case, or a memo in many cases, the quality of that work is often taken as an indicator of the quality of the thinking and the quality of what the final deliverable will be. Invest the time in review. Get multiple eyes on your work. Be open to criticism and feedback (you asked for it!). For those who have a “perfect is the enemy of done” mindset, that approach does have its place. Your challenge is to recognize when it‘s appropriate and when it’s not. Taking that approach with everything you do can have undesirable consequences. Those of you in the extreme 3% minority who don’t sweat the details, I invite you to recognize the approach is quite the outlier. If you’re wondering why your ideas don’t advance and your recommendations aren’t approved, I’d suggest you start looking at the quality of your deliverables as the root cause.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– 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!

SMART Goals: How to Make Your Goals Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound

February 24, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Part 2 of 2: Use the SMART acronym to set better goals. Learn how to make your future goals achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

When you go to set goals, I suggest you try to set smart goals. Smart is an acronym. It stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. These are the key characteristics of a good goal. Now there are multiple versions of smart out there, but they all get to the same thing: creating clear and actionable goals that matter.

This week, we’re talking about the last three SMART characteristics: achievable, relevant, and time-bound. If you missed the first two characteristics—specific and measurable—check out last week’s post here.

Achievable

Another characteristic of a good goal is that the goal is achievable. If a goal is too extreme, people won’t even try. You may have heard of the term “big, hairy, audacious goals.” That sounds great—let’s set a huge goal for the team and they’ll try really hard to achieve it. The thing is, those types of goals can be very demotivating. The team looks at it and they say, “We don’t even have a chance. We’re guaranteed to fail. So you know what, forget it. I’m not even going to try.”

And if a goal is too easy, people won’t care about it or see it as meaningful. “Oh, 1% improvement? No problem, I can do that in my sleep.” And then what happens? Read more

3 Ways to Serve Your Clients With Empathy

February 22, 2021/1 Comment/in Books, Business Toolkit, Communications, Guest Blogger, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Learn how to improve your sales pitch by taking the time to understand your customers.

Today’s post is by Joe Paranteau, author of Billion Dollar Sales Secrets (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Even if you are the best sales person with an airtight pitch, you might fumble your sale if you don’t make space to listen to what your customer has to say to you. Steamrolling ahead without listening to your customer will cause you to miss key cues about what’s important to them, their hesitations, and their goals. Without this information, you’ll never achieve value alignment.

Listening well is your single biggest asset when it comes to selling. People fundamentally want to be understood, but many salespeople get so caught up pitching their latest whiz-bang widget that they don’t stop to investigate whether their customers even want or need it in the first place.

This is why, as a seller, one of the most important skills you need to develop is empathetic listening. I learned early in my career that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. To be an empathic listener is to understand someone intellectually and also emotionally. Read more

How resilient of a leader do you believe you are?

February 18, 2021/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How resilient of a leader do you believe you are?

Extremely resilient: I can handle any challenge and bounce back easily. 10%
Very resilient: I can handle a lot and bounce back reasonably well. 74%
Somewhat resilient: I can handle most challenges but sometimes struggle to bounce back. 12%
Not very resilient: I struggle with challenges and bounce back slowly. 1%
Not at all resilient: I feel like I’m at a breaking point all the time. 3%

Bouncing back quickly. The vast majority of respondents feel pretty good about their ability to bounce back from adversity. Just be careful during extended periods of uncertainty and adversity. Each setback is harder and harder to bounce back from. If you’re not pacing yourself and taking care of yourself day to day, you’ll find your resilience eroding. Wrap your mind around being in something for the long haul. Adopt small daily behaviors to keep your mind, body, and spirit fit. Things like meditation, exercise, mindfulness, and calendar management all become more and more crucial the longer a crisis wears on. For those who struggle with bouncing back, definitely look into these new behaviors and adopt them immediately. You need to start building your strength and ability to bounce back. That requires daily practice and discipline to build those muscles.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– 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!

SMART Goals: How to Make Your Goals Specific and Measurable

February 17, 2021/1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Part 1 of 2: Use the SMART acronym to set better goals. Learn how to make your future goals specific and measurable.

When you go to set goals, I suggest you try to set smart goals. Smart is an acronym. It stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. These are the key characteristics of a good goal. Now there are multiple versions of smart out there, but they all get to the same thing: creating clear and actionable goals that matter.

This week, let’s focus on the first two smart characteristics: specific and measurable.

Specific

The first characteristic of a good goal that you should focus on is that the goal is specific. Make the goal Read more

How much have you grown as a leader in the last 12 months?

February 11, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How much have you grown as a leader in the last 12 months?

Somewhat. I’ve grown in a few specific areas: 50%
A lot! My leadership skills have improved dramatically: 22%
Not much. I’ve grown in very few areas: 15%
Not at all. I’m about the same as I was a year ago: 14%

A decent amount of growth. 72% of you report at least some up to a lot of growth over the past 12 months. For those who feel you didn’t grow, ask yourself why. Was it because you didn’t have a development plan? Weren’t provided growth opportunities? Didn’t take advantage of opportunities presented to you? Simply not interested in growth? If we stagnate, we fall behind because everyone around us continues to grow. For the coming 12 months I encourage you to identify your skill gaps and build a development plan. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy – it can simply be a list of “here are 2-3 ways I want to grow and the activities I’ll pursue to make that happen.” Enlist your manager’s aid in creating those opportunities. Seek out mentors who can guide you to the best ways to get these opportunities. With a deliberate and focused plan, you’ll be amazed at how much you can grow in a short period of time!

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– 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!

The 4 Negotiation Styles: Which Should You Choose?

February 10, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Your negotiation style should change depending on the situation. Learn four negotiation styles and when to use them.

You should be deliberate in choosing a specific style of negotiating. The way I encourage people to look at choosing a style is first, understand the importance of your relationship with the other party. The relationship can have low importance (somebody you’re just meeting for the first time and you won’t have an ongoing relationship with), or high importance (a strategic, long-term relationship).

The second thing you should consider is the importance of the outcome of that specific negotiation, from low importance (there’s not a lot of value on the table), to high importance (there is a lot of money for your organization or it’s a high-risk outcome). And what you end up with is a two-by-two matrix with four different negotiating strategies: Read more

When you put a team member in a stretch role, how much of that role should they know how to do?

February 4, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: When you put a team member in a stretch/developmental role, how much of that role should they know how to do before you give it to them?

90% or more: 2%
70%-90%: 16%
50%-70%: 51%
30%-50%: 25%
0%-30%: 5%

Balancing risk and growth. Developmental roles are purely a balance between risk and growth. If you don’t take any risk on people, they can’t grow. If you take too much risk, they’ll possibly struggle and fail. Finding that sweet spot can be challenging. Most successful growth roles I see put someone in the “they know 70% of the new role” range. About 67% of you fall in that space. If they know too much about the new role, they’ll grow a bit but then that growth curve flattens out. For those of you putting people in roles where they know less than 50% of the new job, be prepared for them to fail if you don’t provide them significant amounts of coaching and support along the way. Most important of all – have a conversation with this person and clearly communicate how much of a stretch it is and ask them how you can best support them in that role.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– 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!

Using The 80/20 Rule to Think Critically

February 3, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

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

When someone misses a deadline they set, how do you handle it?

January 28, 2021/1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: When someone misses a deadline they set, how do you handle it?

I hold them just as accountable as if I had set it. 59%
I let it slide a bit because they’re learning to self-manage. 33%
I blow it off — it was their deadline to set, and it’s theirs to manage. 7%

Deadlines matter. Whether you set the deadline or your team member does, holding them to it is highly important to the majority of you. Other commitments are often made based on that deadline and your team member slipping can have follow-on effects. For those of you who are more lenient, this is a teaching opportunity. Help your team members understand how to better estimate deadlines as well as plan and prioritize their work so they meet them whether those deadlines are self-imposed or not. Show them the consequences and knock-on effects of them missing that deadline. Demonstrate how their miss causes issues for their colleagues and customers. Over time their ability to set accurate deadlines and meet them as committed will improve. It’s one of the most critical skills you can teach your team members.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– 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!

How comfortable are you with reading, understanding and executing contracts?

January 21, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: How comfortable are you with reading, understanding and executing contracts?

Extremely: I understand contracts well and have no issues executing them 18%
Very: I’m familiar with most contracts and am mostly comfortable executing them 36%
Kind of: Contracts sometimes confuse or intimidate me, but other times I’m comfortable 28%
Not very: Unless it’s a simple contract, I prefer to leave contracting to the experts 14%
Not at all: I want nothing to do with contracting in any situation 4%

Practicing Law without a License? Slightly over half of you are very or extremely comfortable with understanding and executing contracts. That’s a great skill to have given how prevalent they are in everyday business. If you’re in the minority who aren’t as familiar or comfortable with contracts, that’s fine too as long as you’re represented by competent counsel. In any case, it’s a good skill to have because the better you understand contracts, the more effectively you can point out any “business” issues to your attorneys (who mostly read contracts for their legal implications and not necessarily the business implications). Even if you’re not the one signing the contract, knowing what’s in there can help you identify and mitigate business risks and prevent your organization from entering a bad deal. Stop being intimidated. Read the contract. Get familiar with their structure and terminology. Your understanding of contracts will be an asset to your organization.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– 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!