Business Toolkit – Page 63 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

How well does your organization anticipate and influence regulatory changes?

November 22, 2018/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How well does your organization anticipate and influence regulatory changes?

Very well. We see them coming and help shape them: 27.7%
Well. We see them but could do more to shape them: 37.1%
Not well. We’re sometimes surprised and don’t shape much:27.7%
Not at all. We’re always caught off guard: 7.5%

Staying ahead of the rules. All businesses are impacted by new laws, rules, and regulations. Ignore their development at your own risk. It can be a terrible outcome to be unaware of a rule change until it’s announced. Doing so can cause massive disruptions to your business and lead you to incur significant costs. On top of that, you’ll be at a competitive disadvantage if you’re remediating regulatory issues while your competitors are attacking you since they’ve already remediated their issues before the rule was finalized. Even better than staying apprised of pending regulations, see if you can influence their development. There are many opportunities to provide input into the regulatory process. Don’t miss the opportunity to shape the rules you’ll compete under in the future.

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

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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How effective are you at using found pockets of time to get work done?

October 25, 2018/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How effective are you at using “found” pockets of time — 10 to 30 minutes — to get work done?

Very: I always have a ready list of tasks to do in these small moments. 47.6%
Somewhat: Sometimes I use it productively and others I waste the time. 32.8%
Not very: Most of that found time goes to waste. 14.8%
Not at all: I never get anything done in those pockets of time. 4.7%

Make a list of small tasks. Most of you are somewhat effective — or less than somewhat — at using small time slots of “found time” to get things done. This occurs because when we find 15 or 20 minutes, we spend 10 of it trying to figure out what to work on and then 10 minutes saying we don’t have enough time to finish the task. An effective way to use this time is to maintain a list of small tasks that can be done in 15-, 30- and 60-minute spans. When you are given the gift of some found time because a meeting ends early or is cancelled, you can immediately turn to your list, pick a task and get it done. This small productivity enhancer will help you fill these times effectively and get a lot more work finished in a given day.

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!

Five Essential Leadership Skills for Entrepreneurs

October 22, 2018/0 Comments/in Books, Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Becoming a great start-up leader takes work. Every entrepreneur faces a unique set of hurdles. Regardless of the type of enterprise, the five underlying leadership skills required for success are the same.

Today’s post is by Derek Lidow, author of Building on Bedrock (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Every entrepreneur faces a unique set of hurdles, depending on whether they want to sell sausages, software, services, smartphone apps, or whatever. But regardless of the type of enterprise, the five underlying leadership skills required for success are the same. No one is born with them and each requires work. They include:

Self-Awareness

The students to whom I teach entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurs who seek my advice are almost always surprised to hear that self-awareness is a skill. They assume it’s a trait you’re born with. But the fact is you can learn it—learn how to identify your capabilities and your personal modes of learning and self-improvement.

Mastering self-awareness requires that you understand what you are capable of achieving, given your combination of traits, motivations, and skills, all of which are interdependent. You cannot change your traits, but you can change your skills and some of your motivations.

Once you understand your traits, motivations, and skills you can adopt straightforward strategies for leveraging your strengths and mitigating your weaknesses. For instance, if one of your traits is headlong risk-taking you might hire a second-in-command who is by nature more cautious and analytical. Further, you need to understand your deepest motivations (and that what drives you may not drive the people who work for you). Confidence based on a clear understanding of yourself is empowering; delusional self-confidence is hubris, and it’s likely to be fatal to your business.

Build Relationships

Entrepreneurial leaders virtually never act alone in getting the world to adopt their ideas—they build strong relationships with the people who can help them. Unfortunately, relationship building is rarely taught in school, though you can read about in many places. Some life skills coaches know how to help people practice relationship building. One way to master it is to deliberately practice with people from whom you want cooperation. Set a goal of getting to know somebody, make contact, and then figure out how you can do it better the next time.

Motivate Others

How to Deal with Imposter Syndrome at Work

October 15, 2018/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Career, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Imposter Syndrome is the belief that we don’t believe we deserve the job we’re in or the success we achieve. To overcome it, become aware of what’s letting you down and allowing these intrusive thoughts into your mind. That awareness enables you to shift your perspective and start being kinder to, and more patient with, yourself.

Today’s post is by Ethan Lee of Inspiring Interns.

Imposter Syndrome is a term that was coined in the late 1970’s from research carried out by Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes. Their researched showed that many high-achieving women tended to believe they were not intelligent enough and were being over-evaluated by others. Imposter Syndrome has therefore come to describe the feelings of people who, quite simply, don’t believe they deserve their job. Those exhibiting the syndrome believe that deep down they are frauds, and fear that sooner or later they’ll be exposed.

It’s thought that most of us will feel like an imposter at some point or another in our careers, with studies suggesting around 70% of us will experience the feeling sooner or later. While it’s not necessarily harmful in and of itself, the dangers arise when these feelings make you apprehensive, and hold you back from fulfilling the upper echelons of your potential.

Like all problems in both your personal and professional lives, understanding where they may be stemming from is a great place to start. There are myriad reasons that could be causing your imposter syndrome, but here are just some ideas:

You feel inexperienced

This is a likely scenario for younger workers, graduates, career changers and generally people who are prone to a weakened sense of self-worth or self-appreciation. The notion that you’re not automatically worthy of something can be a good thing in moderation, keeping you grounded, humble, and realistic about your goals and capabilities. When these thoughts are consistent and intrusive, however, they’ll certainly begin to be a distraction, and damage your performance in the long term.

You’re a perfectionist

How structured is your approach to problem-solving?

October 4, 2018/1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Innovation, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How structured is your approach to problem-solving?

Very – we have clearly defined steps and output at each step: 19.5%
Kind of – we generally follow a repeatable problem solving process: 50.5%
Not very – our problem solving is a bit haphazard: 21.5%
Not at all – we never solve problems the same way twice: 8.5%

A weak structure means weak solutions. Problem-solving is a repeatable process with predictable end products for most common problems. A structured approach to problem-solving ensures you fully understand the problem and are comprehensive in your search for solutions. The structured approach is also efficient. If you can be hypothesis-based in your problem solving and focus on the highest opportunity solutions, you can save a lot of time by not chasing small ideas. For the 30% of you not solving problems with a structured approach, give structure a try. You might find you’ll come up with bigger and better solutions faster than ever before.

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 do you deal with manipulative people?

September 27, 2018/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How do you deal with manipulative people?

I cut them out of my life as fast as I can: 32.5%
I ignore their manipulations and do my own thing: 42.5%
I often fail to realize I’m being manipulated: 6.2%
I recognize I’m being manipulated but just let it happen: 2.8%
I confront them directly and ask them to stop: 16.2%

Avoiding the manipulator. The majority of you seek either to ignore or get away from the manipulators in your life. While that can be effective in many situations, in some situations your only option is to confront that person and ask them to change their behavior. Some helpful techniques for dealing with manipulators include changing your perspective to look at their manipulations from a more logical perspective and changing the rules of the game to react differently to their behaviors. In any case, something needs to be done, or you’ll be miserable in the situation. If you’re not aware you’re being manipulated, spend more time being reflective and assess your relationships more objectively. Doing so might help suss out hidden manipulative behaviors.

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!

A Simple Sales Tip for Maintaining Great Relationships

August 15, 2018/1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

How effective are you at maintaining client relationships? Do you stay in touch with them or do you lose the relationship over time? Do your clients and prospects respond to your messages or do your emails end up in a black hole? Here’s a simple tip for maintaining contact with your clients and prospects.

Client relationships are the lifeblood of any business. Be deliberate about maintaining them. Regular contact will keep you top of mind.

Find meaningful “excuses” to reach out to them. Some of my favorites include “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 those interactions. They know you eventually want to sell them something. Beware of excessive contact, they’re going to ignore you or block you if you’re in their inbox too much. Focus on being helpful and good things are going to come.

I have one client who I’ve had a great relationship with over the years. Every once in awhile I’ll see something that I think would be interesting to him and I drop him a note and I said “I read this and I thought of you.” He always writes back and says “Thanks for the information. Interesting. I appreciate it… not that you’re trying to sell me something.” This has become a running joke with us that at the end of every interaction one of us says “not that you’re trying to sell me something.” He understands the nature of the relationship because he is a great salesman too. He and I both know the deal but he doesn’t mind my outreach. He actually welcomes it because he knows I’m trying to be helpful. These interactions help me stay top of mind, so anytime he has a need that my firm can fill, he’s going to call me first.

Some reasons you might wanna reach out to connect with your clients and prospects include things like:

The Critical Importance of Leadership During Boring Times

August 1, 2018/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Leading during a crisis is easy. Adrenaline leads to focus and higher performance. But how do you lead during the doldrums when nothing “important” is going on? Those slow times are the ones that affect performance during the crisis. Failure to lead during slow times leads to failures during crisis.

I recently spoke with Todd De Voe of EM Weekly. We discussed leadership, management, and how to lead people who deal with crisis situations on a regular basis. You can listen to the entire interview by CLICKING HERE. You can also listen to the entire interview below.

We had a great conversation and I’d like to share an excerpt of our discussion where we discuss the importance of leading people during the boring, day-to-day situations that reside in between the crises we invariable face. Here is my perspective on that situation.

The day-to-day stuff is an easy place to get lazy and not do it well. Everybody is going to lead well in a crisis because we respond in those exciting moments. The adrenaline kicks in. We see the stakes are high, we get focused, and we understand the importance of leading well in those situations.

I argue that it’s easier to lead in a crisis situation than it is during periods of calm.

From a military perspective, it’s easier to lead in the field than it is to lead in garrison. I think, back to my platoon leader days and my soldiers were awesome in the field. I loved taking those guys to the field because they were focused. They were on it. They were doing the right things. They understood the mission and how they contributed. Incidentally, the photo is me and my tank crew – SGT Villarreal, PV2 Bundy and PV2 Dick. Yes, my driver’s name was Private Dan Dick. Stop giggling.

When I got them back to garrison… oh my gosh… what a nightmare! They were constantly doing stupid stuff in the motor pool, getting drunk, and other assorted tomfoolery. I always asked “why are you guys so good out in the field and you’re so bad here?”

Proactively Dealing with Regulatory Changes to Keep Your Business Safe

July 11, 2018/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Regulatory and political changes can have a tremendous impact on your business. If you’re not aware of possible regulatory changes, you’ll be caught off guard and have to react to those changes rather than having the opportunity to prepare for them. The more involved you are in the regulatory arena, the more effectively you’ll be able to influence regulations and keep your business running smoothly.

Legislative and regulatory changes can cause massive upheaval for your strategic plan. Elections happen all the time. New rules and regulations are proposed, implemented, or repealed on a daily basis. Court cases can change an entire industry landscape.

To stay on top of all these changes and to prevent being blindsided by new developments, follow electoral races, regulatory initiatives, and landmark court cases that can affect your business. Build contingency plans for possible political, legal, and regulatory outcomes. I’ve seen legislation and regulations impact businesses in huge ways.

Make Your Perspective Known

One client I worked with was dealing with some massive regulatory changes in terms of how regulators were going to interpret the way their industry worked. This client was proactive. They got involved with the regulatory comment period. They put their perspective forward through experts, and got regulators to pay attention. The outcome was they were able to shift some of the regulatory interpretations that were going to affect their business.

Shape the Regulations When Possible

Another company that I worked for had regulators come in and define a new rule. The problem was, the regulators didn’t say how they were going to interpret the rule. We were a little bit confused. We said, “You’re putting in place a rule, but you’re not telling us how you’re going to interpret it?” What that did was give us an opportunity to offer our perspective on how the regulators should interpret it. We were able to shape that perspective. This approach had two benefits. First, we shaped the perspective in a way that would benefit our business. Second, we were also able to shape it in a way that would hurt our competitors. It was kind of a win-win – for us, at least. But the only reason we were able to shift these perspectives was we were on the front end of the interpretation guidance being created.

Make Changes Proactively

Generating Creative Ideas by Challenging Constraints

July 3, 2018/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Creativity is your organization’s growth engine. The problem is we constantly run into constraints to generating creative, new ideas. Many times those constraints are self-imposed. Amazing things can happen when you relax those constraints.

Today’s post is by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS principal and bestselling author of Lead With a Story and Sell With a Story.

Are you trying to make your team more creative? Have you ever searched desperately for new solutions but had trouble coming up with great ideas?

Stepping outside your existing or self-imposed frame of reference can help you identify new solutions. Better yet – sharing examples of situations like that can unleash your team’s creativity.

Here’s a quick video that covers an example of how to think outside self-imposed or existing boundaries. The examples will help you understand the techniques for being more creative and provide you examples of stories you can tell your team to help them apply these methods. Enjoy!

If you’re interested in becoming a better storyteller yourself, check out our Influencing through Storytelling course and our Storytelling for Salespeople course where we can come into your organization and help you build this powerful, critical skill.

The Networking Opportunity You’re Missing

June 18, 2018/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

In a connected world, opportunities are more about who you know than what you know. Whether it’s a job, making a sale, or finding your next great new hire, you’d be a fool to miss some great opportunities to build your network.

With the growth of platforms like LinkedIn, it’s easier than ever to connect with folks. Unfortunately, we’re lazy and pretty much suck at it. It’s become too easy to click a “connect” button and try to build your network absent a real connection. Every week I get a bunch of requests to connect. Unfortunately they have zero context. No note. No explanation as to why someone wants to make the connection. That prompts a really fast “ignore” response from me.

But what about connecting outside of social media? It’s a lost art. Our noses are in our phones all the time and we miss opportunities to make great connections all around us. With a little effort, though, you can forge some great connections and build a network of people you actually know personally.

There’s one place I’ve found that’s better than anywhere else to build my network: the airport.

I spend a lot of time in airports. A lot. I recently spent 21 hours on planes to come home from Singapore. And that was just the return trip home. I could treat that as dead time (and many times I do – I watch movies, read books, and sleep). But if I have the energy, I look at it as a chance to build my network.

For example, when I was going from Chicago to Tokyo on the first leg of my trip, I stopped in the United Club to ask where their international business class lounge was. The guy in line in front of me was asking the woman at the counter the same thing. When she told him where it was, I remembered the location. He seemed confused though. I told him to come with me because I knew where it was.

While we walked, we chatted. It turns out he’s an executive at a global corporation. Hmm… most of my clients are global corporations. I asked what he did and what he was working on. He was headed to Africa to work on some major projects. When he asked what I did and I told him I ran a leadership training firm, his comment was “That’s funny… I was just speaking with my HR and L&D team about some leadership training needs we have. I’d love to learn more about your services.”

We had a nice conversation on our way to the lounge. I gave him a brief overview of our firm but then steered the conversation back to getting to know him as a person. There would be plenty of time in the future to send him information about our services. I was much more interested in getting to know him and the work he does. Once at the lounge and after a short discussion about how good the food was, I left him to his work. He went and took a seat in a quieter area but still where I could see him. I hopped on my laptop to do some email. A few minutes later, I received a LinkedIn connection request from my new friend. We looked up, smiled, nodded, and went back to work.

Now, I have no idea if anything will ever come of our chance meeting. But at least there’s a chance something could come of it. All because I decided to have a conversation with a fellow traveler.

How well are your incentives aligned with your strategy?

May 24, 2018/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership, Poll, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How well are your people’s incentives aligned with your organization’s strategy?

Very well: there’s a clear link between strategy and incentives: 14.0%
Well: incentives are generally linked to strategy: 30.5%
Not well: it’s unclear how strategy is tied to incentives: 37.8%
Not at all: our incentives have nothing to do with our strategy: 17.7%

Incentives drive behavior. Behavior drives strategy. An alarming percentage of you report there’s no link between your strategy and your incentives. That’s a problem. People do what they get paid to do. If you want your strategy executed, you need to align incentives with achieving those strategic goals. The stronger the link between strategy and incentives, the more likely you are to drive behaviors consistent with your strategic direction. When you notice misalignment between incentives and strategy, drive clarity quickly. Involve your compensation and HR teams in the conversation when you set strategy. If you don’t, don’t be surprised when people are working on things that have nothing to do with your strategy.

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!