Innovation – Page 16 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

How to Not Suck at Pitching Your Idea

October 10, 2011/3 Comments/in Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation /by Mike Figliuolo

I recently had the privilege of presenting an opening speech at Startup Weekend. In my mind, there’s nothing more important for entrepreneurs to learn than how to pitch their idea.

The problem is, most pitches suck.

They’re boring. They’re incoherent. They’re not compelling. Confession: many of my pitches have sucked over the years but fortunately I’ve had some great coaches and teachers who have helped me be less terrible at pitching.

I see it as my civic obligation to the entrepreneurial community to share the lessons I’ve learned the hard way. What follows is a summary of the points I covered in my presentation. If you have a business idea – new or old – that you’re pitching to customers, investors, partners, potential employees, or anyone else who *should* care about your business, I encourage you to take heed of the following five points.

To make this even easier, I’ve uploaded a copy of my presentation on Slideshare. You can view it by CLICKING HERE. I encourage you to open the presentation now and read it side by side with this post. To make it even easier, I’ve even included page numbers as tracking for following along as you read this post.

So here goes – here’s how to not suck at pitching.

What Eminem Can Teach You About Leadership

October 3, 2011/14 Comments/in Career, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Love him or hate him – you have to admit Eminem is a creative and talented guy. What’s interesting is you can learn a lot about leadership just by listening to his lyrics (if you can get past the f-bombs and other assorted provocative lyrics).

Today I’m going to share some lyrics from Eminem and offer some thoughts on how those concepts can be applied to your own personal leadership philosophy and style. For those of you who have been readers for a while, you’ll recall I did something similar a while back in my Leadership: Metallica Style post. Since that one was a hit, I figure doing something similar with Eminem lyrics can be provocative too.

I’d ask you to set aside judgment of the artist and instead open your mind to finding leadership in innovative places. You might be surprised by what you can learn if you suspend bias and look for insight. So here goes… let’s drop some bombs.

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Why Innovative Leadership Can Help You Surmount Challenges

September 29, 2011/1 Comment/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Maureen Metcalf – a thoughtLEADERS instructor and author of The Innovative Leadership Fieldbook. You can learn more about her at the end of this post. Here’s Maureen:

Are your leadership actions impeding innovation? Are your change initiatives successfully implemented and delivering the benefits you expected? How is YOUR behavior impacting their ability to delivery results?

Many traditional leaders spend more time perfecting their golf swings than they do improving their ability to lead in this current environment. The most successful leaders continue to improve their leadership skills including the level of self-knowledge and introspection that provides a feedback loop for ongoing improvement.

Innovative leadership is the type of leadership that allows already successful leaders to raise the bar on their performance and the performance of their organizations.

An innovative leader is defined as someone who consistently delivers results using the following:

Strategic leadership that inspires individual goals and organizations vision and cultures;
Tactical leadership that influences an individual’s actions and the organizations systems and processes.
Holistic Leadership that aligns all key dimensions: Individual, culture, action and systems.

While others differentiate leadership from management this definition includes both because, to fully implement innovative change, the organizational leaders need to both set the strategy and be sufficiently involved in the tactics to ensure innovation and changes happen. This does not mean micro managing – it means an awareness and involvement in all elements of the innovation and change process. This includes continually growing and evolving leadership capacity and actions, leading and implementing culture and system changes within the organization.

Let’s look at an example of a leader who faced a change she had not previously faced in her business.

How You Can Lead Like a Superhero

August 1, 2011/1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

You folks know I’m obsessed with comic books, movies, pop culture, and superheroes. I’m even wearing my Green Lantern t-shirt as I write this. The reason we love superheroes is we all secretly aspire to be like them.

Now none of us are rushing out to get bitten by radioactive spiders or to jump in pools of irradiated toxic waste but I’m sure you’re willing to do a little light and fun reading to be more like a superhero leader.

Lucky for you I’ve compiled some of my favorite hero/superhero posts that I’ve written on this blog over the years and included them in this post. I’ve also saved you some time and wrote a quick abstract on what the post covers. I hope you find the posts helpful, insightful, and entertaining. They cover everything from leadership to innovation to goal setting. The characters include Snake Plissken, Master Oogway, Mr. Spock, Han Solo, Jack Sparrow, and other colorful folks from the big screen, the small screen, and the comic books.

So here goes our first official superhero roundup! Click the headline next to each photo and you’ll be taken to the full article.

4 Tips for Letting Facebook Tell You What to Do

July 25, 2011/0 Comments/in Innovation, Social Media /by Mike Figliuolo

Many times in our lives we’re faced with situations where we have trouble making a decision. We noodle it over in our heads but never seem to achieve a conclusion. Or sometimes we quickly reach an answer but have a nagging doubt as to whether it’s correct or not.

There’s an easy way to resolve these situations: ask Facebook!

No, I’m not saying Mark Zuckerberg knows all (although if you check out the data he collects on you, he kinda does… scary, eh?). What I’m saying is Facebook can be a great platform for market research, gathering opinions on decisions you need to make, and getting new ideas.

But it’s not without its dangers. You can’t simply go into Facebook and blindly accept the opinions of the masses. You have to take any and all input as just that – additional input into the decision YOU ultimately have to make and live with.

If you want to use Facebook successfully to help you make better decisions, there are four things to keep in mind:

5 Reasons Your Idea Pitch Sucks

July 11, 2011/15 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m fortunate enough to see a lot of cool business ideas – both entrepreneurial and “big corporate” in nature. While the people pitching the idea are passionate, smart, and excited, more often than not, the pitch itself sucks.

I’m not being bombastic or hyperbolic here. The pitches really suck. Bad. Terribly.

I’m not saying I’m the best pitch man either. I’ve made all of the following mistakes at one point or another. The good news for you is I’ve both learned from those mistakes and I’m willing to share what they are. More important, I have a few suggestions on how you can avoid making the mistake in the first place.

It doesn’t matter if you’re pitching your idea to a bunch of angel investors, venture capitalists, business partners, corporate executives, or prospective employees. If you make any of the following five mistakes, you’ll likely not get the funding, the contract, the signature, or the support you’re looking for. Without those things, your idea is going nowhere.

So strap yourself in. I’m feeling saucy today and you folks know I get reaaalllly direct and candid when I’m saucy… Think of this post as a bit of me kicking up to all you smart folks out there (to learn what I mean about kicking up, CLICK HERE to read a post on the concept). So here are the five reasons your idea pitch sucks (and how you can fix it):

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4 Failure Lessons You Should Learn from Google

April 27, 2011/3 Comments/in Guest Blogger, Innovation, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest blogger is Tim Eyre. He’s a loyal reader of the blog and when he teed up a topic for me to write about, I turned the tables and asked him to write about the topic himself! You can read more about Tim at the end of the post.

Google must be the world’s failure leader.

But how can that be, when Google is widely known as the world’s most successful search engine? How can that be, when Google has become such a powerful corporation that some people worry about the privacy implications of letting Google handle their email, keep their credit card information in an online shopping profile, monitor and forward their newsfeed subscriptions, and keep tabs on all their searches?

Google’s power has become so notorious that The Onion regularly targets the search giant for its parodies. “We would like to extend our deepest apologies to each and every one of you,” announced CEO Eric Schmidt, teased a recent Onion front page story, “Clearly there have been some privacy concerns as of late, and judging by some of the search terms we’ve seen, along with the tens of thousands of personal e-mail exchanges and Google Chat conversations we’ve carefully examined, it looks as though it might be a while before we regain your trust.” Is that the Google I want to crown as the king of failure?

Yes, yes, and yes. You too can (and should) learn to fail like Google.

How to Innovate Like Captain Jack Sparrow

April 25, 2011/7 Comments/in Innovation /by Mike Figliuolo

Is your organization struggling to be more “innovative” and create new ideas? There’s an “Innovation Agenda” but all that’s on it are status meetings to review the “idea pipeline” which is nothing more than a stale list of ideas that make the business incrementally better?

Yeah. That.

If you really want to innovate and shake things up, you can learn a thing or two from Captain Jack Sparrow. Aside from being some of the coolest movies ever made based on a lame amusement park ride that now kicks butt, the Pirates of the Caribbean’s star anti-hero can teach you a few things.

Sure – it seems everything Captain Jack does works out. All his crazy ideas end up looking brilliant even though at inception they’re a bit hare-brained. It’s a movie folks. Realize not all your ideas will work out well. You will have failures. That said, if you’re truly serious about being innovative, you have to accept some risk if you want the rewards that go with it.

Here’s what I think you can learn from Captain Jack Sparrow:

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Yoda’s Three Steps to Achieving Your Goals

March 14, 2011/2 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Social Media /by Mike Figliuolo

Life goals. Bucket lists. “One day I’ll…”

We all have dreams and goals. The biggest difference between people who achieve them and people who don’t is the act of actually DOING. Do you have goals and things you want to achieve? Professional aspirations? Personal bucket list items?

Let me ask this – what’s stopping you from starting on them?

I don’t tend to get motivational on this blog (every time someone asks me if I’m a motivational speaker I can’t help but think of that Saturday Night Live Chris Farley skit). But today I’m serving up a little motivation, Yoda style.

Luke whined “All right. I’ll give it a try.”

Yoda gave Luke an attitude adjustment “No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”

What would Yoda say to you if you talked to him about your goals and your progress toward them? That’s what I thought.

I’m here to be your Yoda. I’ll share some experiences related to my goal of getting my book One Piece of Paper published (CLICK HERE to get your copy of the book). Hopefully my story can help you on your way toward achieving your goals. Here are some great first steps you can take right now to help you move toward achieving your goals.

New Business Idea? What’s Your Problem?

January 3, 2011/3 Comments/in Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

If you have a new business idea, I’m excited for you. If you ever want to get it off the ground however, be sure you have a problem. A REAL problem. I know that sounds cryptic. Allow me to explain.

I love entrepreneurial ventures. I don’t just run thoughtLEADERS – I’m also a principal at weBuild which is a web and mobile startup accelerator. I’m also the CEO of one of weBuild’s portfolio companies called TiXiT. TiXiT offers discounts for tickets to events like theatre, jazz, concerts, sports, and family shows (and if you’re not a member yet, go join here – it’s free). I’m also a member of the Ohio TechAngel fund where we regularly evaluate new startup investments. Many folks in my network know my passion for launching companies so I regularly get pitched new ideas.

Why all this context setting? Because I want you to understand the lens I look at new ventures through.

When I hear a new pitch, the first question I ask is “what’s the problem?”

You would be surprised how many times the response to that question is a look like a dog looking at a ceiling fan (dazed and confused). If you want to be successful as a new startup, you MUST have a problem. If you cannot articulate what problem you solve for the world, there is a low likelihood you will sell anything. “Pull” selling is exponentially more powerful than “Push” selling. When the world has a problem, they will pull your solution. No problem? You’re pushing your solution on the world.

Allow me to offer some examples then some guidance on how to think about this issue.

Some example problems:

Your Thoughts on 2011 – Signs of Optimism

December 16, 2010/0 Comments/in Career, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Sales, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

As many of you know, I write the weekly analysis of the SmartPulse poll for SmartBrief on Leadership. If you’re not reading SmartBrief, you HAVE TO (www.smartbrief.com). Great articles. Great abstracts. Anyway, we just conducted the end-of-year poll and I want to share the results with you here.

The end of year polls covered three major questions. The theme of all three is what do you think the new year has in store for all of us:

– What strategy will be central to your effort to enhance profits in the new year?

– Which of the following is of most concern as you look forward to the coming year?

– What of the following best describes your top personal goal as a leader for 2011?

The poll results are both interesting and encouraging. From the looks of your replies, 2011 should be trending in the right direction. I know it’s still scary out there but there are signs of hope. Check out the poll results and my analysis on each of them…

The Best of thoughtLEADERS 2010: The Greatest Posts You’ve Ever Seen

December 6, 2010/3 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Career, Communications, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Sales, Social Media, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

2010 is almost over so as usual it’s time for the year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published in 2010.

We’re now making this an annual event therefore the award needs a name. I proudly introduce you to The Figgies! A tip of my hat to all my McKinsey buddies who used to call me that. Winning a Figgie is indeed prestigious. 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 (with a little of our discretion thrown in). We’ve also included a few hidden gems we think deserve another shot in the spotlight. 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 here’s my one request for a holiday gift – 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 would love if you would invite your friends and colleagues to come read our stuff. 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 them and tell ’em to come take a look.

Thanks for your incredible support in ’10 and best wishes for ’11! We hope to be a part of your future success! A little foreshadowing for 2011 – I’ve signed a book deal with Jossey-Bass and my book on leadership will be hitting stores next fall. This is a REAL book (not one of those self-published vanity press jobbies). I hope you’ll sock away a few bucks and save up to buy a copy. More to come on that soon.

Enough sentimentality. Here’s the best stuff we’ve written all year: