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Communicate Clearly – In Their Language

January 14, 2008/2 Comments/in Communications /by Mike Figliuolo

Language AdvisoryI forget the comedian but I remember the skit. He asks why it is that when we speak to a foreigner who doesn’t speak English, we do stupid stuff like speak more slowly and LOUDER.

“Excuse me. Where’s the nearest gas station.”

“Yo no hablo ingles senor.”

“I SAAIID WHEERRRE IS THE NEARREST GAAAS STAAATION?”

You know what the response will be. It’s funny. Thing is, we do it all day long. We speak to people in languages that are foreign to them. We talk to them about what we care about – not what they care about. We use terms and speak of goals that are incomprehensible at worst and uninspiring at best. There’s only one solution – learn to speak their language.

As a consultant, I was fortunate enough to serve a non-profit hospital system. They were affiliated with the church. Their hospitals were having significant financial troubles. Of course, we came along and found all this money just lying on the floor waiting for someone to pick it up (at least that’s most of the world’s view of consultants – we actually busted our butts crawling through their general ledger looking for places to remove costs without hurting quality of care. Immediately after that, we took the CEO’s watch, took it apart, reassembled it, gave it back to him and told him what time it was).

We found money. A lot. We went into the board meeting and pitched a plan for closing one of the underutilized facilities and saving a bunch of fixed costs. Millions of dollars. It was a no brainer.

We got tossed. Excused. Asked to leave the room immediately.

Read more

https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png 0 0 Mike Figliuolo https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png Mike Figliuolo2008-01-14 21:44:002018-06-20 15:41:55Communicate Clearly – In Their Language

Two Big Resume Writing Boo Boos

January 8, 2008/3 Comments/in Career, Communications /by Mike Figliuolo

ResumeAs a hiring manager, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing more resumes than I’d ever care to count. I’ve also hired my fair share of people over the years. One thing I’ve noticed during that time is there is no lack of bad resumes out there.

“Okay… so why should I listen to you Mike versus any of the billions of online resume resources out there?”

One simple answer – ask yourself how many people like you have those people writing the articles interviewed and hired? Sure, they’re dispensing incredibly deep and meaningful resume advice (like “make sure they’re ar know mispelings in yor resuma.” Thanks Captain Insightful!) but how many analysts, managers and junior executives have they actually interviewed or hired over the years? That’s what I thought. I’ve interviewed many. I’ve hired fewer. Your call on who you want to listen to.

A resume is nothing more than a knock at the door. You will never be hired on your resume alone. All it does is gets a recruiter’s interest and influences them to invite you for a phone call or a cup of coffee (at best).

Boo Boo #1 – Being too loquacious
Given the need to generate interest, write your resume as a summary that covers your accomplishments but only enough to generate interest. It’s a teaser. To be blunt – if it’s more than two pages, I stop reading. Seriously. I don’t care what’s on page three and beyond. Why? If you have trouble communicating succinctly on such a critical paper, I can only imagine what your memos or presentations will be like – loooooong and booooooring. Two pages. No mas. I’m not the only one who believes this approach on brevity. Read more

https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png 0 0 Mike Figliuolo https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png Mike Figliuolo2008-01-08 05:50:002018-06-21 13:33:52Two Big Resume Writing Boo Boos

Delivering Customer Service vs. Customer Disservice

January 3, 2008/1 Comment/in Communications, Customer Service, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Rotary Telephone“Thank you for calling XXXXXXX customer service. How may I provide you with excellent customer service today?”

I cringe when I hear those words. Especially before I’ve had my second cup of coffee (that’s the rule – no one is allowed to talk to me until I’ve finished that second cup. It’s ugly if that rule gets broken).

So here’s the situation: I opened a new credit card account because the card had some wonderful product features. As soon as I received the card, I went online to the card issuer’s website and set up for automatic payments so I wouldn’t ever be late and trigger penalties and repricing of the account to an exorbitant rate. Their website confirmed I was set up for autopay with due dates of the 30th of each month.

So I look at my account today to find a $39.00 late fee. Ouch. I figure it’s not possible given I signed up for autopay, right? I promptly made a payment online (minimum payment plus the late fee) then I called customer service and was greeted with the above (the issuer’s name has been hidden to protect the less-than-innocent). I explained the situation. The customer disservice rep said “I’m sorry sir. When you set up online payments, it takes two billing cycles for that to take effect. Your account has been repriced to 24.97% (double ouch).”

“Ummmm yeah. Your site says nothing about a delay of two billing cycles before payment posts. I’d like the fee waived and the original interest rate reinstated.” I said this in my nicest, semi-frustrated customer voice.

“I can’t do that sir until you make your payment.” Read more

https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png 0 0 Mike Figliuolo https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png Mike Figliuolo2008-01-03 06:19:002018-06-21 13:43:23Delivering Customer Service vs. Customer Disservice

Authentic Leadership: The Thank You Note

December 28, 2007/1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Thank You

(This is Part 11 of Leadership Principles)

It’s a stupid cocktail napkin when you look at it. It means a lot to me. A whole lot. I have it tacked to the cork board above my desk.

“Q4 losses 7% better than forecast. Nice work. Well done.” It’s scrawled in blue pen and in a couple of spots, it tears through the thin napkin material. Evan wrote it and slipped it to me during a boring lunch meeting.

Evan had only been with the company for a couple of months at that point. He was my boss’ boss. He and I had collectively spent 3 hours together over those few months (enough for him to know who I was and generally that my team and I focused on reducing credit card losses).

The napkin means a lot to me because a guy who I saw as exponentially busier and more concerned with “big” issues took a moment to share confidential information with me (the 7%) as soon as he got it (it came over his Blackberry). Sort of like what I preach in They know what I know. Other managers wouldn’t have shared this – they would have waited until results were officially published. I felt like I was “in the fold.” More importantly, his note acknowledged that I had some role in creating that result and he appreciated the work I had done to achieve it. I was valued by the organization.

A thank you note. That’s all it takes.  Read more

https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png 0 0 Mike Figliuolo https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png Mike Figliuolo2007-12-28 09:27:002020-05-19 19:30:07Authentic Leadership: The Thank You Note

Leading Change: They Know What I Know

December 22, 2007/0 Comments/in Communications, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

(This is Part 9 of Leadership Principles)

Have you ever felt like the proverbial mushroom at work? Kept in the dark and fed a lot of, well… manure? Uncertainty generates fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety generate gossip. Gossip generates rumors and distractions. Rumors and distractions destroy productivity and generate distrust. Do you see where I’m going?

We often behave like everything is a state secret that requires a security clearance before someone can be brought into the fold. It’s maddening walking by a conference room with a bunch of muck-a-mucks in it and wondering what they’re plotting (is it a reorg? a layoff? cancellation of the holiday party so we can make our end of year numbers?). It’s amazing how secretive we can be when theoretically we’re all on the same team.

Imagine a football team where the huddle consisted of the quarterback, the wide receiver and the center. All the other players have to stand over in the corner and wait until the three in the huddle break and line up for the play. The center snaps the ball. The wide receiver runs his route. The quarterback drops back to pass. And everyone else stands around muttering about how they have no idea what is going on. The odds of that play being successful don’t seem very high. An extreme example? I don’t think so. Reflect on behavior in your organization over the past six months and I’m sure you’ll find plenty of similar examples.

So what’s the fix? Read more

https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png 0 0 Mike Figliuolo https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png Mike Figliuolo2007-12-22 16:20:002011-09-14 06:39:46Leading Change: They Know What I Know

Communication: Defining the “so what?”

December 6, 2007/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications /by Mike Figliuolo

So what?

We’ve all been there – sitting through that dreadfully long presentation full of facts, figures, and complex analyses only to leave an hour later wondering “so what?” So what do we do now? What was the point of that? What was the conclusion?

We’ve all heard about “tricks and tips” to engage the audience: use props, tell stories, and use flashy PowerPoint. The list goes on. The problem is, if the audience doesn’t “get” your recommendation or personally care about it, no number of tricks can help.

Unfortunately as presenters, we often fail to define that key “so what” before we create our presentation. This ultimately leaves our audience wondering what our point was.

Fortunately, this problem is easy to avoid. Doing so requires you to identify your “core idea” well in advance of doing any analysis or creating charts. This core idea is the one thought you want your audience to remember. It is the “what should we do and why should we do it?” recommendation that captures their attention and gives them a compelling reason to act. Read more

https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png 0 0 Mike Figliuolo https://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.png Mike Figliuolo2007-12-06 15:33:002018-06-20 09:29:37Communication: Defining the “so what?”
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The Elegant Pitch
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  • The Elegant Pitch
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  • The Voice of the Underdog
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  • Grow Your Spine & Manage Abrasive Leadership Behavior
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