Mike Figliuolo's Blog, page 10
February 5, 2025
Use the 5 Whys of Critical Thinking
Repeatedly asking yourself “why?” is an effective tool to get to the root cause of your problems and gain insights on how to solve them.
One of the most effective critical thinking tools I’ve ever come across is the five whys. When I was a young analyst as a consultant, I was at a client engagement, and I was responsible for doing a lot of analysis.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
February 3, 2025
Retention is an Asset
Today’s post is by Anil Singhal, author of “The 5% Rule of Leadership: Using Lean Decision-Making to Drive Trust, Ownership, and Team Productivity.”
We live in an age of corporate layoffs. Whenever companies encounter a setback, the inevitable go-to move is to cut overhead. A challenging stock market, a significant customer loss, the retirement of an aging product line? Lay off employees. Wall Street analysts love to see it – staff cutbacks can mean a short-term boost in your stock price.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
January 30, 2025
How satisfied are you with growth and advancement opportunities within your organization?
Our reader poll today asks: How satisfied are you with growth and advancement opportunities within your organization?
Extremely: plenty of growth and advancement available 9.56%Very: there’s a good selection of advancement opportunities 13.38%Somewhat: there are a few opportunities but there could be more 30.57%Not very: advancement is hard to come by 30.57%Not at all: there is no path to growth or advancement here 15.92%Where’s the growth?
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
January 29, 2025
4 Ways to Assess Your Team Members’ Results
There are four major areas you need to assess when judging your team members’ results.
Beyond how you’re spending your leadership capital, you need to assess the results your team members deliver. There are four major areas you need to assess.
Assess the quantity of their results compared to what’s expected. Also look at the quality of their final work, again versus what you expect. Consider how timely the work they deliver is versus expected deadlines.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
January 27, 2025
3 Best Practices to Obtain and Retain Top Talent
The top talent your organization needs is bullish on the future. Here are three best practices we found to obtain and retain your best employees.
Today’s post is by Mark Miller, author of Talent Magnet.
Top talent is bullish on the future. Many would say they’ve already been there in their imagination and are excited about the prospects.
In late 2017, my team and I, with outside assistance, finished a research project where we sought the factors that attract what I like to call top talent.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
January 23, 2025
When evaluating a new supplier, what is your favorite resource available for assessing whether or not to use them?
Our reader poll today asks: When evaluating a new supplier, what is your favorite resource available for assessing whether or not to use them?
Text-based website 14.44%Video explanations of their offerings 6.96%Hardcopy catalogs and marketing materials 6.95%Third-party review sites 40.64%Something else 31.01%Pay attention to reviews.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
January 22, 2025
Are You Spending Your Time and Energy the Right Way as a Leader?
The better you understand who’s consuming your leadership capital and how they’re consuming it, the easier it will be to change their behavior and yours as you work to become a more effective leader.
Assessing who’s consuming your leadership capital helps you understand how and where you’re spending your time and energy. To conduct this assessment, list out the 12 activities under the four major ways you spend leadership capital: directing, doing, delivering, and developing.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
January 20, 2025
How to Lead with Relaxed Intensity
Today’s post is by Greg S. Reid, author of Think and Grow Rich: “Stickability”
Who wants to follow a captain who would panic at the first sight of crisis or even worse – bail on their ship?
Seems no matter who it is that inspires us most; the common trait they all possess is what’s referred to as relaxed intensity.
This is a person who is calm through a storm, and can maintain their composure through most challenging times.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
January 16, 2025
How well do you understand the laws and regulations that govern how your business operates?
Our reader poll today asks: How well do you understand the laws and regulations that govern how your business operates?
Extremely well 20.92%Very well 44.49%Well 26.23%Not well 6.46%Not at all well 1.90%Staying on Top of Regulations. 65% of you report having a very solid handle on the laws and regulations that apply to your business.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
January 15, 2025
3 Ways to Develop Your People
A major responsibility of all leaders is building the next generation of leaders. Your development activities are the means to that end.
One of the four major activities that will consume your leadership capital is developing your people. Developing your team means you’re training them, coaching them and promoting them to help them advance their careers. Here are some keys to doing a great job of developing your people.
Read the rest of this post at thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World.
