Strategy – Page 28 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

The Best of thoughtLEADERS 09: Why Your Team Hates You and Other Gems

December 29, 2009/1 Comment/in Career, Communications, Customer Service, Leadership, Social Media, Strategy, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m an idiot (no comments). I almost forgot to give you this year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published this year. 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. Thanks for your incredible support in ’09 and best wishes for ’10! We hope to be a part of your future success!

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

Most Viewed and Forwarded Post: 10 Reasons Your Team Hates You (They Just Won’t Say It To Your Face). This post was viewed over 20,000 times. In 2 days. Wow. I’m pretty sure I pushed every button I could when I wrote this (insecurity, paranoia, a 10 point list, etc.). Learn the 10 most destructive behaviors you can exhibit as a leader (and learn how to fix them).

Walking Away from the Cash is Good Business

December 21, 2009/6 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Sometimes there’s nothing tougher than a heaping helping of your own medicine. In this case it involves me, a nice pile of cash, peer pressure, and a tough decision.

You folks know how often I rant about the fact that strategy is about saying “no.” It’s easy for me to pontificate on this point. I tell you about companies I’ve seen do this well and others I’ve seen screw it up.

On Friday, it was my turn to put up or shut up. Today I’d like to recap the thoughts and events that led me to turn my back on an opportunity to earn a decent chunk of change. In sharing this I hope to make this critical strategic lesson accessible and easy to understand so you, in turn, can apply it to your business.

Allow me to bore you for a moment and explain my firm’s strategy so you have some context. I run a leadership training business. Our strategy is to offer training sessions on critical business skills to large companies. We differentiate ourselves with the experience level of our instructors. We value delivering outstanding service to our clients and delivering top notch business results.

We grow by deepening relationships with existing clients (translation: becoming part of corporate universities or recurring leadership programs) and adding new clients. When we’re not teaching, we’re developing new clients, building new classes, or eating Cookie Crisp while watching Spongebob reruns (it’s about a balanced lifestyle folks).

That strategy sounds pretty clear, no? This is where it gets screwed up though…

Lessons from Leonidas the Spartan King: Why Shrinking Your Business is Smart

November 4, 2009/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Social Media, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is written by Brian Ahearn (no, that’s not his picture at left). Brian’s one of the most knowledgeable guys I know on the subject of influencing people (which is why he’s been a guest here before). Enjoy!

I conducted a workshop recently called Principles of Persuasion. During a break, one of the students said she’d had a conversation with her five-year-old son and expressed parental surprise over something he said. She told him she was going to a meeting about leadership at work. He told her they had talked about leadership at school and he knew what a leader was. He said leaders were people who had followers. Simple and to the point, his definition was right on. Out of the mouth of babes!

Let’s look at this leader/follower idea as it applies to the online world. If you’re on Twitter then you follow people and people follow you. In a sense, for those who follow you, you’re a leader. You might be a leader by virtue of your expertise in an area or simply because people find you interesting. But, by definition of our young friend, people have chosen to follow you and therefore you’re a leader.

Courageous Decision Making – Quit Being a Wimp and Lead

October 19, 2009/12 Comments/in Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Waaah. The economy. Waaaaah. Boo hoo. Woe is me.

Stop. Right now. Stop.

Tough times like these demand leadership. I’m sick of hearing how organizations are “hunkering down” until the storm passes. Guess what people? It won’t start to pass until leaders like you make decisions that take us toward a solution.

Of course there’s a balance between being conservative in case the environment worsens and making bold decisions and taking on their associated risks. My argument is simply that we’re doing all of the former and very little of the latter.

The fix to all of this begins with you. The leader. Everyone (your team, your peers, your boss, your business partners, your competitors) is looking at you to see what you’re doing and how you’re acting in this environment. It’s the business equivalent of monkey see, monkey do. If the monkey sees you hiding under the banana tree, they’re going to hide too.

Why is this so important? Because courageous organizations who are aggressive when others are scared are the ones that will kick everyone’s butt when things get better. We’ve told you before that as a leader you have to make decisions (the 4 D’s of decision making) and doing nothing is not an option.

So how do you snap out of the funk? Three steps.

Making HR More Strategic (Part 2)

October 8, 2009/0 Comments/in Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Earlier this week we teed up how failure to incorporate HR in your strategic planning process ultimately leads to the failure of your strategy. It’s a common and easily avoidable problem (unfortunately too many organizations don’t avoid it).

As you know, we believe we have a responsibility to offer solutions for the problems we identify. This is no exception. To find the cure for this common problem, just pop on over to SmartBlog on Workforce and read Mike Sheehan’s perspectives on how you can avoid the trap of destroying your strategy by ignoring the people implications.

The solutions are pretty straight-forward. It’s simply a question of whether you’ve got the determination to make the required changes. Are you up to Mike’s challenge? Take a look and let us know what you think!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Why did your strategy FAIL? It’s the PEOPLE stupid!

October 5, 2009/3 Comments/in Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

We’re experimenting a bit with a few posts on leadership, strategy, and people issues. The topic: strategies don’t die because they’re bad – they die because organizations foolishly ignore the people implications of the plan. In true thoughtLEADERS form, this won’t be a blathering set of ethereal platitudes. We’re going to give you some concrete steps you can take to stop screwing up your strategy.

Why is it so critical to nail this HR planning piece of your strategy? Failure to do so means the plan fails which means you lose in the marketplace which means you don’t get a bonus. Capice? (That’s Italian for “Do you understand?”).

We’re going to bring you perspectives from three of our team members: Mike Sheehan, Dave Willis, and Mike Figliuolo. We’ll cover this topic both here on the thoughtLEADERS blog and also on SmartBlog on Workforce (it’s an awesome resource that’s also tied to their SmartBrief on Workforce and SmartBrief on Leadership offerings – I don’t recommend many things but I’m TELLING you to sign up for these because they’re great and they’re free. They save you the trouble of finding the good stuff because they find it and summarize it for you!).

Enough preamble. Strategies die for many reasons (bad analysis, poor decision making, flawed assumptions) but the most egregious and most common reason for failure is you botched the people planning. It’s unforgivable because it’s completely within your control – you simply don’t focus on it because it’s not “sexy.”

Porter’s Five Forces? Sexy. Org charts? Not sexy. Right?

Trust Isn’t the Key to Business Partnerships

September 8, 2009/6 Comments/in Communications, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Recently a question was posed to me: what’s the most critical element of business partnerships?

It’s not trust. That’s an overly simplistic answer. Is trust important? Sure it is. But it’s not the most critical element of a business partnership.

Look, I trust my local police force but the Dublin PD is not listed on the business partners page of my website. I trust my physician but we’re not jointly marketing our services. “Trust” is the easy answer to give to this question but that’s not particularly insightful.

The most important element of a business partnership is a shared purpose. That purpose is something that aligns all the efforts of each organization. That purpose creates momentum and energy around every undertaking between the parties. Without a shared purpose, your partnership is more like The Odd Couple than it is a joint venture.

So if a shared purpose is the most important element of a business partnership, how do you identify it and harvest it?

A shared purpose is nothing more than both organizations seek to change a specific part of the world in a particular way. The strength of that sharing comes out in the organizations’ complementary skills.

Please Don’t – A Great Tactic For Successful Strategy

August 17, 2009/2 Comments/in Leadership, Strategy, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

High-falootin’ strategery sounds awesome. Unfortunately the best strategic plan in the world can come crashing down if you don’t have tactics in place to support it. And these tactics have to occur on a daily basis.

This is where, as a manager, you’re probably missing the boat. I know your intentions are good but your dysfunctional behaviors are the root of strategic destruction (how’s that for being provocative?).

I’ve mentioned before that strategy is about saying “no” and I’m unwavering on that point. The organization has to know where it’s going and pursue a balanced set of initiatives to get there. It has to be a mix of building your core business so it can spin off the cash required to invest in new ventures. It’s about hitting the sweet spot on balancing between growing the core or expanding beyond it. Let’s assume you’re already doing those things.

The Leader’s Balance Dilemma: Grow the Core or Expand Beyond It

July 27, 2009/1 Comment/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Growth is the lifeblood of your business. A leader’s job is to take that business to bigger and better places. The dilemma lies in how to get there.

You’re often faced with a simple choice: keep growing your core or expand into new arenas. It’s a challenge of balance.

By growing your core, you’re building what you’re already successful at. Customers have validated that product or service. It’s likely very profitable. And as you’ve heard me pontificate on before, strategy is inherently about saying “no.”

On the flip side, your core can only get you so far. The ideas behind it might get stale or run their logical lifespan. Cool new opportunities and ideas spring up all the time. Many of those new opportunities are untested and unproven though therefore they’re riskier.

Your job as a leader is to balance between strengthening and growing what you already do well while simultaneously finding new growth opportunities for your business. It’s challenging because you have resource constraints and can only invest so much time, effort, and money into building the core and expanding beyond it. You have to make this tradeoff effectively. This applies to you whether you’re a small business or a monolithic one.

So how can you strike that balance?

How To Reduce The Risk of Reliance on Your Key Players

July 20, 2009/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Every team has key players . They take us to new highs. Innovate constantly. Bring powerful personalities to the game every day (why do you think they called Gretzky “The Great One” huh?).

At some point, though, they become such a huge asset that they’re a liability. If you’re not careful, you put all your proverbial eggs in their basket. Without some deliberate planning, you’re going to end up with a big scrambled mess.

Why is reliance on these luminaries dangerous? Aren’t they the ones who got you there? Absolutely! However, over time their personality takes over the company or organization. The halo effect of that founder or “hi po” associate becomes a burning flame that, if and when it goes out, the whole organization could go dark.

This dynamic happens in both large and small companies. In large companies, these are the rising stars we come to depend on and build teams around. In smaller ventures, they’re typically the founders.

What happens though when these people quit, retire or move on to another organization? If you haven’t planned for this event, you’re in trouble. The good news is there are a few things you can do to avoid a calamity (That is such a cool word – I’m thrilled I got to use it today. Related: I’m a geek).

How can you reduce these risks? Here goes:

Three Keys to Getting CASH for Your Project or Business

July 13, 2009/3 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Project Management, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Money is tight these days. Whether you’re an entrepreneur seeking capital to grow your business or you work at a major corporation and you’re looking for capital to fund your project, you have a big challenge in front of you: how do you get someone to give you their money?

Yes, it’s their money. For entrepreneurs, you’re trying to pry it away from banks, angel investors, and venture capitalists. For corporate types, you’re asking for it from shareholders, senior executives, and profit-generating business units (for the purposes of this post, I’ll refer to all of these groups as “investors” for the balance of the article).

But gone are the days of easy money based on loosey goosey “business plans.” In this environment it’s much harder to get that check written.

So how can you pry open the pocketbook, get the capital you need, and grow your business or fund your project? You have to be sure to tell the people with the cash three key things before they’ll even consider giving you a dime.

Stop Isolating Your Business: Two Ways You’re Ruining Opportunities

July 6, 2009/3 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

This post is dedicated to all the paranoid businesspeople out there who are terrified of their competitors. You know, the people who run businesses centered around “consulting” who view any other “consulting” firm as a competitor. You can insert whatever industry you like in the quotes and this perspective will apply.

Knock it off – you’re limiting your business and isolating yourself from opportunities to grow. You’re effectively placing yourself on a deserted island in the ocean of business opportunities.

Not only are you limiting opportunities, you’re building a brand of naivete, immaturity and narrow thinking. The following also applies whether you’re a one-person shop or a multimillion dollar firm. Unless you’re Coke & Pepsi or some other similar truly competitive pairing of companies, you need to pay attention.

Those of you who know me know I network. A lot. That networking gets me in front of many other business owners and executives who play in a space similar to my firm.

I run a leadership development training firm. We have a specific business model. We focus on a few key knowledge areas where we have deep expertise. We deliver that knowledge through one-day training sessions with some focused coaching support afterward.

Networking gets “interesting” when I meet others who work in the leadership development coaching and training arena. During those meetings I’ve seen two destructive dynamics play out on occasion.

Hanging light bulbs with glowing one isolated on dark blue background

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