Business Toolkit – Page 77 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

4 Traps That Destroy Entrepreneurs (Part 1)

March 15, 2010/6 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

From a glance at early responses to our poll on entrepreneurship (see bottom of this page and VOTE if you haven’t already) it seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. It’s sexy. Startups. IPOs. Be your own boss. Right?

Well sometimes it downright sucks. And if you don’t know what you’re taking on, you’re likely tackling much more work and risk than you believe. In fact, in my conversations with other entrepreneurs (man, that’s a big word and it sounds funny) I’ve come across four things that will absolutely destroy your business. We’ve already covered the concept of how entrepreneurs need to bootstrap to win. The traps I’ll cover now go beyond that. They’re so important that I don’t want to give them short shrift so I’ll cover two of them in this post and two in the next.

First, let’s look at why being an entrepreneur seems so sexy and glamorous:

– you get to be your own boss and no one can tell you what to do

– you set your own hours

– you get to make all the decisions

– you can make gobs of cash and you keep all of it

– you get to write a blog with Bozo the Clown pictures without having to run it by corporate communications

Sounds awesome, right? It is. I’ve been running entrepreneurial ventures my whole life dating back to selling hand-painted pencils and comic books in 6th grade (they were two separate business units of course). I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur for over two years now (translation – 100% of my income has come from my ventures at thoughtLEADERS, weBuild, and TiXiT). Yes, it’s awesome. I love it. But I’ve seen 4 things that can wipe you out in the blink of an eye and send you scurrying back to the cubicle farm.

Trust a Total Stranger With Your Life – Literally

March 1, 2010/8 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit /by Mike Figliuolo

This post is a set of random musings from about 30,000 feet. I’m on my way to Budapest to do some amazing work with a fantastic client (Holy crap! My company is now an *international* leadership development firm!).

Since there’s nothing better to do than sleep, eat, or watch movies, I figured I’d simply write this when I’m in a state of mind that enables some deep thoughts. I’m going to discuss trust, taking care of yourself, and other topics as they pop to mind. If you’re a new reader to the blog, just accept that this randomness happens every once in a while. Let it go and enjoy the ride.

Trust

Would you trust a perfect stranger with your life? And I’m not asking this as an off the wall question. Would you? Someone you’ve never met before. Would you put your very life in their hands? Would you leave the question of whether you live or die completely up to someone you’ve never even seen?

No, right? Wrong.

Looking Out for #1 So You Don’t End Up in #2

February 16, 2010/9 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Career /by Mike Figliuolo

Ahhh, the ’50’s. June Cleaver. Chevys. The paternalistic corporation that would employ you for the rest of your life and carry you via pension to the afterlife.

Wake up. It’s 2010. Paternalism is dead (just like Marxism, Communism, but unfortunately not Cronyism). There are implications for living in this brave new world. And if you don’t start taking care of #1, you could end up in a nice big pile of #2.

Be selfish. That’s right. I said it. But as usual, I’m saying to do so in a measured and appropriate way (although invariably at least one person who reads this will be too pea-brained to read further and just bash the post as unenlightened tripe and give it 1 star in the ratings). You need to continuously build your network and seek future opportunities while helping your current employer succeed.

While you work at your company, regardless of how big or small it is, you don’t owe it anything more than an excellent day’s work, an ability to trust you to care for its interests, and your best efforts and loyalty to help it succeed. Beyond that, you’re putting yourself at risk for being disappointed at best and hosed at worst.

The only way to avoid that outcome is to think selfishly. What do I mean? Allow me to explain.

Entrepreneurs Need to Bootstrap to WIN

February 9, 2010/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Brian Link who is a partner of mine in weBuild, thoughtLEADERS, and TiXiT among the many other things he does (yes, both of us have many entrepreneurial interests). This perspective on bootstrapping a new venture is so spot-on it almost hurts. This article is prompted by today’s launch of TiXiT where Brian is the CTO and I’m CEO. Enough context. Here’s Brian:

I’ve seen my share of Internet startups and each entrepreneur, if you asked them, would tell you that getting started is the hardest part. Many people think they have a great idea. Some have even have written it down and dreamed of turning it into something big. But taking those first few steps of talking to other people, committing your own money, finding a team to help build it and figuring out how to tell the world about it is where you need great strategy (and some luck).

One strategy, if you’re lucky enough, is to borrow a million bucks from your rich uncle. You might also find an angel investor or venture capitalist and beat the one in a million odds and get funded before you have a product or revenue. The much more likely scenario and the smartest strategy is much more difficult, if you can pull it off. It’s called bootstrapping.

The term comes from a saying that started in the 1800s: “to pull yourself up by your bootstraps” which implies an impossible task. As a metaphor, it means to better oneself by one’s own unaided efforts. And today it often refers to starting a business that is self-sustaining and created with little or no external help. While bootstrapping is incredibly hard, there are huge rewards.

Bootstrapping is hard. You need to stick your neck out; quit your job; have some money to spend; have a great network to lean on; and have a lot of confidence and guts. It’s certainly not for everyone. But for the brave who have a great idea, the reward can be huge. The best practices for bootstrapping can fill volumes of books, but here’s a quick summary of some ideas and strategies:

Making Your But More Powerful

February 3, 2010/3 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Guest Blogger, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest blogger is Brian Ahearn who has written here before. Once again, we’re talking about buts. Sorry – I couldn’t resist acting like a third grader there. Take it away Brian before this goes further downhill…

A few weeks ago I read Mike’s article Managerial Miscues: The But(t) Sandwich (Reprise) and told him I really liked it but…

The article addressed how people often blow it when it comes to bringing about behavioral changes because all too often they want to appear nice so they say something nice then finish with “but…” and take the other person to the proverbial woodshed. Not effective management.

I teach classes on ethical influence and persuasion and one of the things I talk about with people is the power of transitional words like “but” and “however.” We focus on how to strategically use those words to make the most effective presentation because small changes can make a big impact!

Here’s the basic teaching point for you to remember when it comes to transitional words – people forget what comes before “but” and focus on what comes after. For example, has anyone ever said this to you, “Honey, I love you but…”? Odds are, all you remembered was the hammer falling after hearing the word “but.”

So how can you use your but better?

Surprise! You’re Getting Fired!

February 1, 2010/3 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Customer Service /by Mike Figliuolo

Have you ever met someone who was fired from their job? Betcha fifty bucks they said “Yeah, I never saw it coming.” For some reason getting canned always comes as a shock to people. They’re clueless as to how bad they’re doing and how close to the door they are.

Makes you wonder… are YOU close to the door and you don’t even realize it? Put your hand in the air if that question made you uncomfortable.

There are many reasons people get fired. The company is failing and has mass layoffs. Your boss does a lousy job setting expectations and providing feedback. You’re caught stealing money from petty cash. Those are clear reasons for a canning and there’s not much you can do about them (except get your fingers out of the petty cash envelope).

Instead, let’s focus on the “clueless” firing. The one where you think all is well then an anvil falls on your head. Let’s explore how we get ourselves in those situations in the first place then discuss how you can recover from them before you get pink slipped.

I Sucked at What I Did

First a story to illustrate. At one point early in my career, I sucked at what I did. I had been doing very well on performance reviews for a long time. Then I ended up on “the project” – you know the one… the one that’s not challenging, the work is tedious, and the project manager is less than motivating…. THAT project.

Without realizing it, I allowed apathy to creep into my performance. I got lazy and did the minimum amount I had to to get by. My deliverables were less than insightful and not very inspiring. Work became a 7 to 11 (which is AM and PM – the consulting equivalent to a 9 to 5). I was mailing it in.

The weird thing was, I had no clue how bad I sucked. To the client, the work was getting done and my output seemed to be meeting their needs. My manager was clear on a few occasions that I needed to do more insightful work rather than being satisfied with the minimum. His words simply didn’t register for me.

Managerial Miscues: “The But(t) Sandwich” (Reprise)

January 27, 2010/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Every once in a while history repeats itself. Those who fail to learn from it are doomed to repeat it. This post is in the spirit of that truism. Today I heard about someone receiving the infamous “but” sandwich form of feedback. Given that, I can’t help but post some thoughts I shared way back in January 08. I’m also posting it for the benefit of the thousands of new folks who read this blog nowadays versus the 11 or so who read it back then (and I know you guys are too busy/lazy to go find this in the archives…). So here’s a good wayback post that is just as true today as it was back then.

A really cool thing happened today – I had a referral come to this blog from a prestigious newspaper’s website forum on career and management styles. At first I was like “Wow! I’ve been noticed by a leading periodical.” Then I read the content of one of the posts on the site and lost my mind. No – the post wasn’t something bad about me or my blog. It was offering advice that made me cringe as a professional manager.

The advice was about how to give critical feedback to your team members. It suggested:

“Use the ‘sandwich technique.’ When delivering a critique, it’s important to censure the behavior, not the individual. One of the easiest ways to encourage receptivity is to preface your criticism with a positive statement about the person’s job performance or character. Once you’ve fortified his ego, deliver the bad news. Ensure that he received the message, and knows how to correct the situation. Then close the conversation with an affirmation.”

Pardon me. I just had an embolism.

Safely Navigating the Pay for Performance Minefield

January 11, 2010/14 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Pay. It’s the topic we love to avoid. We don’t discuss it with friends or family. It’s a verboten topic at cocktail parties. Heck, we discuss cancer, religion, and abortion at dinner parties more easily than we talk about our paychecks. We don’t even like to discuss compensation with the person whose pay we’re messing with.

Well you know me – I LOVE to talk about the topics everyone avoids. Why? It opens a conversation we, as leaders, desperately need to have.

So in an era of wacky pay debacles (paging Dr. Lewis, Dr. Ken Lewis to the boardroom please) how do you as a leader and executive navigate paying your people (or not paying them which might be just as well deserved)? How do you personally handle getting paid what you’re worth without having angry mobs chase you with pitchforks and torches on their way to key your car? Tough stuff but let’s tackle it.

First let’s cover why we get into trouble on pay then discuss how you pay your folks and finally how you ensure you get paid what you deserve.

Bread, Lawn Mowers, and Cheap Customers: A New Year’s Resolution to Improve Your Business

January 4, 2010/5 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

To get your New Year started right, I’d like to share with you what I’ve been taught by homemade bread, lawn mowers, and cheap customers. They’ve all taught me my time is valuable and I have to protect it.

Bread

In this economy, money saving tips and articles are hot. You can read such advice all over the web. I recently read one of the dumbest articles I’ve ever seen on this exact topic. The basic premise was you can save a lot of money by doing things yourself. The example they used was one of making homemade bread.

The basic math they used was you buy 4 loaves of bread per month at $2 which comes to about $100/year. Their brilliant idea was buy a bread machine for $60 and ingredients for about $10-15 a year and you’d be saving bread in no time (pun intended).

Hey morons… how about the cost of the gas to go to the store? But that’s not the fatal flaw in this article. What they really forgot to factor in is the cost of your TIME. If you’re making $80,000 per year, your time is worth $40/hour. Suddenly that bread got extremely expensive.

This is only one case of stupidity. Of course I can’t help myself and I have to offer more…

Don’t Waste Your Time Hiring High Performers

November 30, 2009/30 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s all about the people, right? If you hire right, you’ll do well (so states the conventional wisdom). The problem is hiring high performers isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Doing so can create tremendous problems for your organization and you’re the root cause of those problems.

Yes. You.

Hiring high performers can work out great if you do it for the right reasons and if you create the right conditions to bring them in. More often than not, however, we hire for all the wrong reasons and never think beyond our immediate needs for hiring that superstar. When we do so, all we’ve done is arm the timer on an employment bomb that will go off in our faces.

Why do we want to hire high performers in the first place? There’s the belief that their amazing skill set can either save us from the dire situation we’re in or can create that massive new growth idea we’ve been desperately seeking. We believe their stellar track record will rub off on our teams and make us all better at what we do. Sure those things might happen.

Usually what happens though is we bring that high performer in, they burn brightly at first, and then they either sputter or get frustrated and quit. Those are the problems you cause. How? It’s pretty simple…

To successfully hire high performers, you have to first understand the near-term rationale for hiring them and also think through the longer term implications of their personal growth rate relative to opportunities the organization can provide.

Want A Great Year-End Review? Write It Yourself

November 16, 2009/5 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career /by Mike Figliuolo

My favorite time of year is rolling around (and no, it’s not the holidays with their nauseatingly excessive tinsel-before-turkey consumerism). I’m talking about time for end of year progress reviews. They’re those agonizing, mandatory, and often confusing reams of paper we’re forced to suffer through.

Many times you’ll find yourself nervously wringing your hands wondering what’s going to be on the form that determines whether you get a 1.63% raise or a 1.67% one. Once you get your review, I’m sure you’ve wondered more than once if you received someone else’s because nothing on the form looks remotely familiar.

Ah yes… the joys of working in Corporate America.

But you don’t have to subject yourself to this pain. You actually have a tremendous say in what ends up on that form but you’ve likely been too lazy or timid to take advantage of the opportunity. There’s one very easy way to ensure you get a fair review that shows you in the best light possible…

Write it yourself.

Crazy? Maybe, but let’s analyze this situation:

3 Keys to Getting Projects Approved by Slow Decision Makers

November 9, 2009/5 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

You have a brilliant idea. It’s going to transform your business. It will help you get a huge leg up on your competitors and drive tons of money to the bottom line. Heck, if you can get this thing implemented you’ll probably get a big fat bonus and it’ll be a great holiday season at your house.

Here’s the catch – this idea is a little risky. It’s not fully proven in the market. There’s a chance of failure and with it, the loss of any investment the business makes. On balance, the risk-adjusted return from the project is astronomical but you have to get past the most difficult gate of all: the senior decision maker who has to approve the idea.

That’s no mean feat. Realize that many of these decision makers are busy and they might not have the same risk appetite you do. They might have a strong financial interest to NOT take on large risks (e.g., they have a large bonus coming if they hit their numbers this year and the risk of losing the investment you’re seeking would torpedo that bonus).

So how can you move the business forward in a climate where senior management is slow or hesitant to make a decision? Here are three things I’ve found to be extremely helpful in those situations.