Poll – Page 48 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Which promotion system seems fairest to you as a leader?

September 4, 2014/3 Comments/in Career, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: Which system of promotion seems the fairest and most just to you as a leader?

– Seniority-based meritocracy –people should pay their dues for a time, then be promoted based on ability: 51%

– Meritocracy — people should advance as quickly as their abilities allow: 48%

– Seniority — people should pay their dues and demonstrate loyalty if they want to advance: 1%

Clearly, all of you place a heavy emphasis on merit-based promotions, but there’s still that “paying your dues” requirement in there. I’ll bet when you’re the one getting promoted, you want it to be all about meritocracy, but when others seek promotion, that’s when the “you have to pay your dues” component kicks in. Yes, seniority is important, but it is merely a proxy for determining whether someone is committed to the organization and whether they understands the nature of your business. Once people have achieved those two requirements, meritocracy should truly kick in as the deciding factor on a promotion.

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!

Read more

How well-known are your emergency recovery procedures?

August 28, 2014/0 Comments/in Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How well-documented and well-known are your company’s emergency recovery procedures?

– We’re ready for anything, and everyone knows exactly what to do in a crisis: 28%
– We’re generally prepared, but it takes us time to get our act together: 42%
– We’re not very well-prepared, and our procedures aren’t well-known: 18%
– We’re not prepared at all, and our procedures are virtually nonexistent: 13%

It’s called an emergency for a reason. Not being prepared at all can be catastrophic. Even if the emergency isn’t life threatening, it can be business threatening if you’re not prepared to respond. Poor crisis planning and basic procedures will cost you customers and put your business at risk. It doesn’t take much time and effort to lay out the critical points of your business, contingency plan, and occasionally rehearse those procedures. Failure to do so only benefits your competitors.

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!

Read more

How do you think your people would rate you as a leader?

August 21, 2014/2 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How do you think your people would rate you as a leader?

– They think I’m the best leader they’ve ever had: 12%
– They think I’m an above-average leader: 62%
– They think I’m an average leader: 21%
– They think I’m a below-average leader: 3%
– They think I’m a terrible leader: 2 %

A more critical approach: Well over half of respondents say their people think they’re better-than-average leaders. That math doesn’t work. I challenge you to ask your people what they really think. None of us wants to face flaws or criticism, but sometimes it’s the best thing you can do to improve your skills. Sit down with the members of your team and ask them where you really stand. Seek direct and actionable feedback. I guarantee that those of you who do so will end up in the “above average” group of leaders.

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!

Read more

Have you ever personally had to fire someone?

August 14, 2014/0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: Have you ever personally had to fire someone or lay someone off?

– Yes. I’ve done it many times: 49%
– Yes. I’ve done it at least once: 39%
– No. I’ve never been in that position: 10%
– No, but I should have done so once and regret not doing it: 1%

As much as we’d like to believe we won’t be in a position to fire someone, the majority of you have already faced that difficult conversation (and most of you have done so on numerous occasions).

For those who haven’t had to go through that yet, be sure to reach out to those experienced leaders around you before you go into the termination conversation. Their words of wisdom can help that unattractive event be a little less unpleasant for everyone involved. The last thing you want is a disgruntled employee who goes out and trashes your company on the ubiquitous social platforms that new hire candidates review before accepting a job with your company.

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!

Read more

How do you treat employees who have part-time jobs?

August 7, 2014/0 Comments/in Career, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How do you treat employees who have part-time jobs outside the job they do for you?

– Supportive: It’s a tough economy so we try to be flexible: 45%
– Agnostic: We don’t care what they do in their free time: 41%
– Unsupportive: We actively discourage other employment: 10%
– Prohibitive: We have strict rules forbidding additional employment: 4%

Tough times demand flexibility. Most of you support employees scratching out a living either by supporting them holding another job or not minding that they do. For the 15% of you who discourage or prohibit people from having employment outside your company, I encourage you to question the reason. If it’s a safety, competitive or performance issue, it makes sense. If not, question the intent behind the policy or approach. If employees have to quit your job to make ends meet by taking a more lucrative position or even two jobs to replace yours, is your policy having the desired outcome?

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!

Read more

How clear is your decision-making authority?

July 31, 2014/0 Comments/in Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How clear are decision-making authority and decision rights in your organization?

– Crystal clear — everyone knows who gets to make which call: 21%
– Pretty clear — there’s some confusion as to who makes the call: 46%
– Hazy — we’re usually not sure whose call it is: 24%
– Mud — no one has any idea who gets to make which call: 10%

Who’s calling the shots? From the looks of it, many of you need to clarify decision-making rights in your organization. If more than 30% of you aren’t clear on who makes decisions, then invariably decisions don’t get made, or confusion and frustration set in when they do. Even for those in the “pretty clear” group, it’s still not good enough to have confusion over who makes the calls. If you can clarify decision-making authority, your organization will move more quickly, experience less frustration and spend more time executing than figuring out what you should be doing.

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!

Read more

How quickly does your organization react to challenges?

July 24, 2014/1 Comment/in Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How quickly does your organization react to challenges?

– We see challenges as they get close, then we act reasonably quickly: 46%

– We don’t see challenges until they become crises, then we react in emergency mode: 27%

– We see challenges coming way in the future and plan for them long in advance: 19%

– We don’t see challenges until it’s too late, then we go into damage control and recovery mode: 8%

As leaders, you are responsible for pulling up from your day-to-day operations and looking beyond the horizon. Based on the poll results, many of you are more in reactive mode than proactive. The 20% of you who see challenges way into the future are shaping the environment to which your competitors must react. (Congratulations! I’ll bet you’re winning, too!) For the rest of you, build the discipline of looking into the future regularly, and get your teams out of reactive mode.

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!

Read more

How clear is your organization’s mission and vision statement?

July 17, 2014/3 Comments/in Poll, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How clear is your organization’s mission and vision statement?

– It’s crystal clear, simple and compelling: 43%
– It’s generally clear but could be better worded: 25%
– It’s full of meaningless buzzwords or we simply don’t have one: 21%
– It’s not clear and it’s hard to rally behind: 12%

Where are we going? About a third of you aren’t clear on where you’re going or why it’s a good place to go. Get your team in a room and discuss why your organization exists. Cut the buzzwords and speak in simple, compelling terms. Tell folks what you do, why you do it, who you do it for, and why you’re better at it than your competitors. If you can lay all that out in a couple of sentences it will be much easier to galvanize and excite your organization to achieve your vision.

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!

Read more

How do leaders in your organization handle the movement of talent?

July 10, 2014/1 Comment/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How do leaders in your organization handle the movement of talent in the company?

– We’re talent hoarders. We make it hard for people to move to new roles: 31%
– We allow people to move if they really want to change roles: 30%
– We encourage people to move and take on new challenging roles: 25%
– We actively manage movement of talent through a proactive process: 13%

There’s a lot of talent hoarding going on. While those people are valuable members of your team, when you hoard them or make it hard for them to move to new roles, including forcing them to ask for reassignment rather than offering it proactively, you can frustrate and demotivate them. People want to grow. As a leader, one job you have is to be a net exporter of talent. Bring people in without skills, build their skills, then send them off to bigger and better roles. Repeat. If you do this, you’ll make your people and your organization stronger. You’ll also build your personal leadership skills along the way.

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!

Read more

How much of your compensation should be performance-driven?

July 3, 2014/1 Comment/in Career, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How much of your total compensation are you comfortable having tied directly to your performance as variable compensation?

– 80% to 100% — I want almost everything tied directly to my performance: 5%

– 50% to 80% — I want a base salary but prefer that the majority of my compensation be tied to my performance: 17%

– 20% to 50% — I like predictability, but having some performance upside is attractive: 57%

– Zero to 20% — I prefer completely predictable compensation: 21%

Predictability matters. Clearly, people want something they can count on from month to month. Almost 80% of you want the majority of your compensation to be predictable and also desire some performance-based upside. The small minority of respondents who want to take bigger bets on themselves are clearly more comfortable sacrificing predictability for upside. It will be interesting to ask this question again when the economy recovers because there’s probably bias toward predictability these days, when simply having a job is all most of us could wish for.

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!

Read more

How much do you involve others in your decision-making?

June 26, 2014/0 Comments/in Leadership, Poll /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How much do you involve others in your decision-making?

– I always seek outside opinion before making a decision: 30%
– I sometimes seek opinions but make many decisions alone: 63%
– I rarely seek outside opinion and make most decisions alone: 6%
– I never seek outside opinion when I’m making a decision: 1%

Trading off information for speed. In a tremendously complex and fast-moving work environment, it’s clear we never have all of the information we need. To make good decisions, gathering additional information is always a good thing as long as it’s done in a timely manner and doesn’t derail the decision-making process. Your job as a leader is to find that sweet spot between gathering information and building consensus without taking so long to do it that you miss your opportunity. Additionally, taking in too many opinions can erode your credibility as a leader because people might begin thinking you’re not confident in your decisions. Find the balance in all of these objectives, and your decision-making will almost always be sound.

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!

Read more

How rigorous is your prioritization process?

June 19, 2014/1 Comment/in Innovation, Poll, Project Management /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How rigorous is your organization’s prioritization process?

– We do a great job of regularly prioritizing work: 21%
– We do an OK job of prioritizing: 38%
– We don’t prioritize well; we try to focus but aren’t always able to: 28%
– We prioritize poorly and pursue any opportunity presented: 13%

Saying “no” matters. Your resources are limited and two of those critical resources are time and focus. If you’re not being rigorous in prioritizing your projects, your focus is diluted and it impacts the quality of your work. Invest the time once or twice a month to stack rank all your projects, prioritize and draw the line below which you’re not going to work on. As projects above the line are completed or de-prioritized you can work on things below the line. Your execution will improve and your project success rate will increase. For the 21% who are rigorous in prioritization, just be cautious that you don’t become inflexible and that new high-priority projects have an opportunity to enter the work queue.

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!

Read more