Respect: It's Time to Get Dirty

This is one of my all-time favorite stories. It even has full feature coverage in my upcoming book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (that's the cover there on the left). You can even pre-order a copy of the book now and get a ridiculously large discount on Amazon (CLICK HERE TO BUY) or Barnes & Noble (CLICK HERE TO BUY). Not sure how long those discounts will last so... you know... Anyway, on to the important stuff.

My platoon was out in the field on training exercises. We had been out there for about two weeks so we all smelled kind of "ripe" at that point. One of the more senior officers in my battalion came to my unit's area to see how things were going. This "gentleman" personified the term - he was an "officer's officer" (versus being a "soldier's officer" which we'll explore in a moment).

He sauntered up to my 18 year old driver (a brand new buck private - the lowest ranking man in the Army) and said "Where's Lieutenant Figliuolo?"

My driver pointed toward our tank. A pair of boots was sticking out from underneath the vehicle. The officer in question became irked. Then things got really interesting...

"No. Maybe you didn't understand my question private. Where is LIEUTENANT Figliuolo?"

"He's under the tank, sir."

"Excuse me?"

"I said he's under the tank, sir."

The senior officer barked "Lieutenant Figliuolo!" I almost smacked my head on the underside of the tank because I was startled by his call. I quickly scrambled from below my tank and stood at attention before my superior.

"What were you doing under that tank?"

"Fixin' track sir."

"Why are you fixing track?"

"Because it needed fixed and I'm already done with all my other responsibilities."

This senior officer shook his head somewhat befuddled at what an officer would be doing turning a wrench. He left me with a brusque "Carry on." Needless to say the story had circulated among all the enlisted men in the company by lunch and across the battalion by dinner.

Suddenly Lieutenant Figliuolo had street cred. I was "one of them" - a regular working guy who just happened to have an officer's bar on my shoulders. The simple act of crawling in the mud to turn a wrench earned me respect for who I was rather than respect for what I wore on my uniform. It made me a "soldier's officer" - an officer who truly cared about and cared for his soldiers first and foremost.

It's a simple principle, really. Accept the fact you're no better than anyone else. No one. And no one is any better than you.

We're all people - we just have different skills and responsibilities. You're not above any work you have the skills to perform. Acting like you are will earn you nothing but disdain. Showing that you're not will endear you to all the folks who make you successful and make you look good - your team. So when the occasion calls for it, get down in the mud and turn the wrench.

If you enjoyed this post, there are many more stories like it in my upcoming book One Piece of Paper. Go pre-order your copy now at a big discount (BUY AT AMAZON or BUY AT BARNES & NOBLE).

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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Gurus, Ninjas, and Morons: Losing Credibility One Business Card at a Time

Titles matter. A lot. So do email addresses and signature blocks. As unfortunate and as shallow as it is, people make a first impression snap decision about you and your business in an instant. If that instant includes your title it can make or break your business opportunity.

Yes, CxO, Vice President, Director, Manager, Analyst, and other vanilla titles are boring. They're not edgy. They don't have panache. That said, they quickly convey a certain level of skill and experience that the majority of the business population can interpret. Your contact isn't left scratching their head wondering what the heck you do.

Then there's the other end of the title spectrum: Guru, Ninja, Overlord, Grand Poobah, Super Hero. They sound wicked awesome. They get people's attention. But you have to realize not all attention is good.

On top of that, these titles are usually paired with a cool signature block quote or catch phrase and they have sweet email addresses too. Unfortunately all of these things can undermine your credibility and cost you business. Here are a few of the biggest mistakes I see people make when it comes to the arena of titles and personal branding:

Your Title is Ridiculous

A few definitions before we start:
- Ridiculous: open to or the subject of ridicule and mocking.
- Ninja: a covert mercenary specializing in the unorthodox methods of war.
- Guru: spiritual master (origin of the term is from eastern religions)
- Super Hero: a fictional character who has abnormal physical or mental powers conferred upon them either through mutation or unfortunate run-in with spiders or toxic waste

Look folks - these names are fun and whimsical. We all know what people mean when they give themselves these titles. The thing is, titles like these follow the nickname rule: you can't give it to yourself. It's fine if you're such an expert that people in the media or other business circles refer to you as a "guru" however going to OvernightPrints.com and putting it on your business card actually devalues your stature with potential customers.

You folks know I abhor titles like guru (and I've bashed on it before in this post - CLICK HERE to read it). But I bash on it because it's hurting your business.

Think about it. Most folks with these titles sell to business customers. Business customers tend to be more conservative and have many choices of suppliers of services. When you come of as amateurish with a title like this, the business goes elsewhere (and yes, I have personally seen business leaders shy away from doing business with people who have titles like these).

The recommendation: find a happy middle ground. Make your title professional. Use the terms like "ninja" or "guru" in marketing materials but not as your official title. It's probably costing you business. Besides, these titles are so worn out that they don't mean anything anymore. Don't believe me? Go do a twitter search for "guru." If you do, you'll crash the entire Internet.

Your Signature Block Induces Seizures

Signature blocks convey critical information about you. They tell folks how to contact you and learn more about you. I see tons of people make some of these mistakes:

- Your signature block conveys your entire CV all the way back to being the head of your Boy Scout or Brownies troop
- Your signature block contains cheesy, worn out, cliched quotes
- Your signature block contains sayings from scripture (the only ones who can do this are priests, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders)
- Your signature block looks like someone hit "engage random font and color generator"

The recommendation: be critical in thinking about what to include. Name, title, phone, email address, and a couple of key URLs is fine. Perhaps even stretch the outer limits and promote ONE thing you really want people to look at. Some color or font fanciness is fine as long as it's consistent with your brand and not overwhelming or distracting. Simplify. Be purposeful on what you include and how you include it. Remember - all your signature block is designed to do is get people to call/email you back to engage your services. It is not a product brochure.

Your Email Address Lacks Credibility

Having an email address of "bob@CoolHipCompany.com" can seem edgy and start-uppy. What it tells business clients is "there are 3-4 people running this thing because there's no overlap of first names therefore I don't want to work with such a tiny supplier/partner." Yes. Their thoughts go there.

The other email variant is "TheKingOfRock@company.com." As much as you want to put a cool title as your email address, it's self-defeating. People meet a lot of people these days. People remember names and faces - NOT titles. While your email address is memorable in this case, it's for all the wrong reasons. "Who was that guy with the weird email address again? I can't remember his name..."

The recommendation: look at your email address through your customer's eyes. What impression does it give? Try making sure it identifies you as an individual and that it lets people know you're serious and professional about your work.

Boring is the New Cool

Yes, all the advice I'm giving seems like I'm telling you to be more boring. You can take it that way if you like. All I know is if being boring helps grow your business... well... that's pretty exciting, isn't it?

What do you folks think? Share the worst/most ridiculous titles, email addresses, or signature block stories you have in the comments below!

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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Are You Ready for the Next Apocalypse?

In case you missed it, the apocalypse happened this past Saturday. The end of days. The reckoning. It was a time to take a step back and reflect on all you've accomplished or failed to accomplish in your life. Even though the world was not torn asunder by explosions, the reflection on what life means can be meaningful.

I for one was excited that the rapture was coming because I figured i wouldn't have to figure out how to find the time to write this post. Yeah. That didn't really work out.

For as funny as the apocalyptic predictions were, there are some sobering thoughts that should come of that moment of reflection when you're looking to the sky to see if the meteor really *is* headed your way.

Think of this as one of my balanced lifestyle posts. It's sort of a checklist for the next apocalypse. I'd like to ask you to reflect on a few important things:

What are your personal goals?

When we're kids, we all have something we want to grow up to be. We're grown ups now. Most of us aren't firemen, astronauts, or doctors. That said, the notion of goals shouldn't be lost on us just because we're older.

Have you ever sat down and put those goals on paper? Yes, I'm talking about the proverbial bucket list. Have you done it? Why not? Get started. Because if you don't know what those things are that you're dying to do, you might miss an opportunity as it presents itself in front of you.

Me? I've always wanted to write a book. If I didn't have that on a list, I might not have learned about the publishing industry or paid attention when someone said they were a literary agent. Instead, it was on my list and when that opportunity presented itself, POW! I moved with catlike reflexes to make it happen.

Are you making progress toward those goals?

Do you take your list out from time to time and see what you've done to move toward achieving your goals? Are you clear on the activities you should be participating in to hit specific milestones? Is your goal achievable or is it a pipe dream?

You can't put off all the things you want to do and try to cram them in when you're 80. You'll break a hip.

Try to break those goals down into bite-sized pieces. Achieve a few things per year. Make progress. If the dream is a vacation to Rio, maybe take some steps like setting up a savings account, chipping in a few bucks from time to time, or researching travel sites to learn more. Big goals are an aggregation of little tasks. Start now. Track progress and success.

Are you enjoying the journey to get there?

As you move through life it can be easy to be overly-consumed by your goals. You can miss out on cool opportunities to enjoy yourself in ways you hadn't considered as part of your path.

For example, I ended up at a crew regatta this weekend. It wasn't the most planned event in terms of my schedule. That said, it was important to my daughter (the coxswain I referenced in this post that you should go read now). It was fun. The other parents were fun to hang out with. We had a lot of laughs. I got a wicked sunburn. It was worth it.

Are you taking the time to take those little detours in life to just experience things? Are you enjoying them when you experience them?

Get ready for the next apocalypse

Go write down your goals. Track your activities once in a while to ensure you're making progress. Get a sunburn. It's about the journey. To take the journey, you need a destination. Sure, we're all worm food in the end but I plan on being content and satisfied worm food when that big meteor crashes into the planet.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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Ditch the Rules and Grab the Guidelines

Today's post is an excerpt from the cutting room floor. It was in an early draft of my upcoming book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (pre-order your copy by CLICKING HERE). It covers how to lead through guidelines rather than leading through rules.

We need guidance during challenging times. We need something to keep us within healthy and productive boundaries. We are human and make mistakes. Having personal guidelines that we live our lives by will remind us how we want to behave and keeps us safe and on track.

This does not have to be a detailed list of do’s and don’ts. A laundry list of rules and regulations is not practical. Instead, a judgment-based approach that can be broadly applied to any situation is much more flexible, manageable, and applicable. Every situation is different and each decision we face will have a variety of new and unpredictable factors involved.

But if we have judgment-based guidelines to govern our conduct, we can apply them to any situation we face instead of having to frantically search a list of do’s and don’ts only to find that particular situation is not covered. The simpler the guidelines, the more powerful they can be.

I learned how powerful simple guidelines can be while I was a cadet at West Point. In our regulations book we had over 180 different infractions that we could be written up and disciplined for. They were overly specific. They ranged from “Having lights on after lights out” to “Underage drinking” to “Laundry folded improperly.” If there was something we could possibly do wrong, there was a disciplinary code for it.

Administering this code of regulations was difficult to say the least. If you wanted to write somebody up for an infraction, you first had to know all the regulations then you had to find the correct disciplinary code to write your report.

If you were unfortunate enough to have a situation where someone you were writing up had committed an offense that did not have a specific disciplinary code assigned to it, you had to write a lengthy explanation of the offense and include the document codes for infractions that were “in close proximity” to the offense. What a nightmare!

Then one day someone had a brilliant idea. They realized that this method of enforcing discipline was overly proscriptive in defining acceptable and unacceptable behavior had created an unwieldy system. They simplified those 180 infractions down to two. They were “Error in judgment with minor effect” and “Error in judgment with major effect.” The leaders in the organization were empowered to make decisions and mete out justice according to a descriptive code of conduct versus a proscriptive one.

The disciplinary system became more efficient and “outlier” offenses that previously had no associated code could be quickly and effectively dealt with without a huge burden of defining precedent and related offenses. Those two regulations became the guidelines by which we governed our behaviors as cadets.

What does this mean for you?

How do you articulate performance standards in your organization? Is it a long list of rules, standards, metrics, and infractions or goals? Or is it a set of behavioral guidelines you want your team to adhere to?

I'd submit that the former is particularly difficult to manage and you might want to ask your team members how they feel about working in such an environment.

The latter is harder to manage because you *will* have people who deviate from the guideline (because it's not overly specific and it's subject to interpretation). In the long run, though, you'll create a culture where those standards become the norm. People feel empowered to act within those guidelines and their sense that you trust them goes up dramatically.

Take some time to evaluate how your team functions and how you set standards. If you can loosen the collar a little for your folks, they'll operate more freely and the environment of "gotcha!" can eventually disappear.

You hire people because they're smart. Try giving them a little latitude to demonstrate their smarts and judgment. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

NOTE: Pretty soon we'll be migrating the entire blog and the main thoughtLEADERS site to a new location. Keep an eye out for those announcements.

Also, the official website for One Piece of Paper is under construction. In the meantime, come become a fan on Facebook by CLICKING HERE. You'll get the most up-to-date information on the book and a bunch of cool stuff associated with it as soon as it's available. And again, go PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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Great Leaders Get Regular Reality Checks

Today's guest post is by Donald Van de Mark, author of The Good Among the Great: 19 Traits of the Most Admirable, Creative, and Joyous People. You should go buy a copy of his book by CLICKING HERE. It's good reading. Here's Donald:

After over 20 years of interviewing some of the top business leaders in the world, I have learned that nimble business leadership requires acute reality recognition - the ability to accurately perceive the business climate in which your organization operates.

No less a business icon than Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, says that the one quality that he and Warren Buffett look for when hiring CEOs is "reality recognition." Perceiving reality may seem like a pedestrian task but it's not - for any of us. And when you're at the top of an organization with hundreds of messages coming at you daily, practicing it takes daily discipline.

In my experience, the most realistic business leaders share key qualities. Andy Grove, cofounder of Intel, is one such case study. I interviewed Grove when he was CEO of the microprocessor giant. In the 1980s and early 1990s he bet his company on the rise of a device hardly anyone believed would become commonplace - the personal computer.

How did Grove come by this seemingly magical, predictive understanding of where the market was going, and how did he fortify himself to take the necessary risks to lead his company one step ahead of the future? Here are five tips I've learned from my interview with him:

Listen to People Who "Need" to Speak to You

Though you can't take meetings with everyone in your company who has an opinion, some people will want to communicate with you more than others. Grove recommends you "make yourself available to be influenced by people who want to influence you, who need to influence you."

When you're CEO or president, almost everyone in your organization will want to influence you. The people who need to influence you are different. They may not be in your everyday path, but they are in a position to see what you cannot see. They feel a need to communicate with you because what they know is important or otherwise unknown. They sense that their knowledge is telling, disturbing or simply doesn't fit with the beliefs you or your organization have. These individuals may be new to you, far down the organizational ladder or naturally reticent, but they are agitated because they have information that is salient.

Put yourself in their path. One way is to have an open-door policy, or even better - no door. Grove worked out of a cubicle amongst other engineers and he ate in the cafeteria, always alert to those who felt a need to influence him.

Absorb Data Like a Pollster

To recognize reality before others, Grove stresses open-minded observing, listening and the "absorption" of data. Gather and assess data the way a pollster does. Listen to answers and opinions only when they're repeated a certain number of times or with a certain level of intensity. Allow information to reach a critical mass - a tipping point - before you decide to act upon it.

Conduct Product and Market Experiments

How do you refine your business in response to new data if there's a mass of information to evaluate in a limited amount of time?

Grove says, "When your business environment changes and your business structure changes and your business model changes, there won't be facts for a while. You have to build up those facts by doing business experiments, starting new businesses - new introductions, new products, new markets - and moving down along the hypothetical paths to gather data. And then refine your strategy. Refine your approach based on the data that you acquire."

If you take these tactics into consideration, you'll find that refining your business in a time crunch is possible.

Act More Decisive Than You Feel

When time has run out to make a strategic decision (and it always seems to), but you at least sense - and "sense" is the operative word - that you have the beginnings of pattern recognition, just enough data to point you in the right direction, then how do you move forward?

Grove says that you must project confidence "because you have to lead people into uncertainty. And the only thing that you have to lead them with is your own convictions and your own credibility. To have people led, you sometimes have to act more confident than you really are... when you are kind of lost, the leader has to take certain personal risks."

When I asked Grove if projecting more confidence than you felt was the same as "faking it," he shook his head.

"Faking it is too strong. You really have to believe in the direction; otherwise, you won't be able to lead people in that way. But you may have to act more decisive than you really feel."

Leadership means going first. Standing still, settling for the status quo or even pushing others in front of you is not an option.

Remember That the Risk of Inaction Is Often Higher Than Action

Taking risks can be difficult, but as Grove points out, "for every action that has a risk associated with it, there's a countervailing risk associated with not taking the action."

Grove learned this lesson in life as much as in business. As a university student, he escaped Hungary, then part of the Soviet bloc, just ahead of an advancing Red Army. If he'd been caught, he would have languished in the gulag. But had he played it "safe" and stayed, he'd have languished under communism.

Twelve years before that, the Nazis deported his father to a slave labor camp. The young Grove and his mother were left to fend for themselves. His mother carefully weighed the risks of staying put or running. All they knew and trusted was nearby - in their home, their neighborhood. But she also understood that the risk of inaction - staying put at a time when Jews were being rounded up - was greater than leaving everything behind, including their identities. So they fled.

You may never face Nazis or the Red Army. But you can certainly benefit from the techniques that the best leaders employ: listening to those who want and need to influence you, absorbing and analyzing data, conducting tests in the marketplace, acting more decisive than you feel and recognizing that inaction is often riskier than action.

Then when you are ready, or more likely, when you're unable to postpone action any longer, move forward with confidence, maybe more than you may feel, and you will lead. You may not be right, but you're more likely to be.

Donald Van de Mark, former CNBC and CNN correspondent, is a speaker and the author of The Good Among the Great: 19 Traits of the Most Admirable, Creative, and Joyous People.  You can buy a copy of the book by CLICKING HERE.

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How to Lead Like a Coxswain

Anyone who has ever seen a crew team rowing down the river has likely wondered why one person is a passenger and everyone else in the boat is rowing like mad. It would seem the coxswain has the easiest job in the boat.

It's actually incredibly difficult and my 16 year-old daughter (who is a coxswain) has taught me a few great leadership lessons as I've watched her cox over the past few seasons.

As you run your organizations there are a few lessons you can take from her and apply to be better leaders of your teams as well. They're counter-intuitive approaches to leadership but if you apply them well I think you'll be very pleased with the results.

Those lessons are:
- Know your team's needs at any given moment
- Small tweaks can have a big impact
- Being small doesn't mean being weak
- Demand a lot from your team - they're up to it

Here's how those lessons can be applied:

Know your team's needs at any given moment

Crew teams tend to have long days on the water and races can take them from elation to despair depending on how well they race. Great coxswains know where their team members' heads are at. They know when the team is down and needs picked up. They understand if the team is stressed and they calm them down. They know if the team is excited and they channel that energy. A great coxswain pays attention to the team's mood and adjusts their coaching accordingly.

Where is your team's head at today? What kind of mood are they in? Do your coaching and leadership techniques take that mental state into account? Are you flexible enough to change styles quickly to match the mood of the team?

Small tweaks can have a big impact

When I first saw my daughter cox, I was completely unaware of the little steering movements she was responsible for by way of a hidden steering system. The adjustments she makes make the difference between winning and colliding with another boat. The steering corrections she makes by guiding the rowers to change stroke determine if they pull ahead in the race or run aground. Those changes in direction are miniscule but they have a big impact. If she overcorrects, it's a disaster.

When you change direction for your team, are they small and subtle movements or massive changes? Do you gently guide the team in a new direction or do you make huge shifts all at once? Many smaller yet frequent changes are sometimes better and less disruptive than large shifts.

Being small doesn't mean being weak

Coxswains are physically tiny. Like *really* tiny. That said, they're usually the strongest member of the team in terms of leadership and direction. They have to get four or eight other highly-accomplished athletes rowing in perfect synchronicity. They also have to lead all team movements from the boat trailer to rigging to launch to recovery. A coxswain is always performing some leadership task to get the team to its destination safely and in a winning way.

No matter your physical presence or your tenure with the organization, do you take full control of the team at all times? Do your words and action carry weight for your team and get them moving in the right direction? Regardless of stature (physical or organizational) remember your team looks to you for leadership. Get over any hang-ups or insecurities then step up and lead.

Demand a lot from your team - they're up to it

A great coxswain knows what the team is capable of. They push that team to row as hard as they can when the occasion calls for it. They balance between an even, steady pace and what is called a "power 10" or even a "power 20" which is 10 or 20 strokes as hard as the team is able. They push the teams as hard as possible when it makes sense to do so. And I've yet to see a time when she pushed a team and they didn't step up regardless of how exhausted they were.

Do you know your team's limits? Are you demanding of great performance? Do you push them hard when the occasion requires it? Are you unafraid to ask the impossible and guide them and cheer them along the way to achieving it?

Go be a coxswain for your team

Know your team and push them hard. Make small tweaks and changes in direction rather than taking a sudden herky jerky approach. Forget about size and tenure and let your leadership speak for itself.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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How to Handle When Someone Else Takes Credit for Your Work

We've all had that experience where we work really hard on something and instead of getting recognized for our contribution, we have to sit there and choke back bile when someone else takes credit for the work. It's infuriating to think about how hard you worked and how much effort you put into a project only to see some other glory-hound or charlatan pass all that effort off as their own.

Heck, I got a taste of that this week. I saw a bunch of traffic coming to my blog from Dr. Shailesh Thaker's blog (UPDATE: security software now indicates his blog is a virus attack site - DO NOT GO THERE). At first I was psyched. Here was a self-proclaimed "Management Thinker, HR Guru, and Corporate Coach" telling his fans my content was good.

Then I saw it. It was my blog post on shutting your cake hole. The ONLY thing that was different was the author. Apparently that article was now written by Dr. Thaker himself. Hmmm. I wonder if Thaker rhymes with faker.

That's right folks. Blatant plagiarism. Here's my original post and here's his post (UPDATE: he finally removed all posts however his site is now showing up as an "attack site" in my antivirus so I've disabled links to him). Unfortunately he wasn't bright enough to disable the hyperlink back to my blog and that's how I found the content. It turns out he ripped off several of my articles, a few from SmartBrief on Leadership, some from Kevin Eikenberry and others.

So what can you do when you're in this situation? What do you do when someone else passes your work off as their own? How do you handle it when someone else takes credit for work you did? Here are a few thoughts:

Seek Clarification

It could be an accident. You might be wrong in thinking someone is taking credit for your work. They might have sung your praises before you walked in the room to find them presenting your deck. They may have written a nice email giving you full credit but all you heard was "I received this presentation from (NOT YOU) and it's great." Clarify first. Just ask. If you are wrong and the person gave you credit, thank them politely for promoting your work.

Request (Nicely) a Correction

If it's clear they did pass of your work as theirs or they took credit for your idea, ask them (in private) if they could clarify to others that it was actually your work. You might say "I'm glad you liked my work but after your presentation some people are under a mistaken impression that you did the work. I would appreciate it if you could clarify to them that the work was mine." More often than not they'll heed that request.

If it's your content that has been stolen/plagiarized, send an email or make a call asking the person to remove it and to never do it again. Give them a clear timeline for action and show them a reference back to your original work. They might be unaware that the work was stolen (maybe someone on their team did it - see the point above on clarification).

Demand a Correction

If the person decides not to satisfy your request for a correction, demand one. You could petition the person's supervisor to rectify things (the boss might be unaware that someone is taking credit for your work). Let the person know you're upset that they took credit and that they've violated some pretty clear societal standards on giving credit and taking credit. In some cases (like plagiarism) you might even have your attorney send a demand notice requesting redress.

Go Nuclear or Get Over It

If all the above strategies fail, you have two choices. You can go for the nuclear option and file a formal complaint at work (with your boss, HR, etc.) or sue (e.g., for plagiarism) or carry out a public campaign to call out the fraud. Or you can vent about it, make your case, then shut up and move on with life. Events like this can be total energy-sucks. You can choose instead to focus your efforts on being productive and moving forward knowing that the universe will take care of the Thakers... I mean fakers of the world.

And by the way, if you're dumb enough to steal content from a blogger, disable the hyperlinks so you can't be tracked as easily. And if I can ask a favor folks - if you like this blog and this post, please retweet it, share it, send it around. Maybe if he sees his name up in lights enough on Google searches as a plagiarist, he'll remove my article (he hasn't yet responded to my "ask nicely" or my demand of removal...

What will be really ironic is if this post gets picked up and republished on some "Management Thinker's" or "HR Guru's" blog...

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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4 Failure Lessons You Should Learn from Google

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.

Just how did Google get to the top of the heap? By embracing the mantra that has been heard so often lately around the business world: "Fail fast."

By now, quite a few business experts have weighed in on the idea of failing fast. Most agree that the key to making fast failure a successful business strategy is to nurture a corporate culture that values failure and, hence, rewards risk-taking. In fact, the "fail fast" mantra could be replaced with a more accurate one that would read something like "Don't look too long before you leap!"

Several companies have become poster children for the idea of embracing failure in order to learn from it. Domino's Pizza started a new advertising campaign based on the idea. India's Tata Group offers a prize to its employees for the best failed idea. And software giant Intuit and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly both host regular "failure parties."

But Google really puts its money where its mouth is, launching new products at light speed and then monitoring to see if those products sink or swim in the marketplace. Frankly, far more of Google's products sink than swim. Remember Google Wave? Google Notebook? Google Catalogs? You can go, right now, to Google's Lab page and try to predict which of the new beta experiments is going to sink and which is going to swim. Google Scribe? Google Body? Art Project powered by Google? Fast Flip (super fast overviews of headline news)? Google Goggles (searches powered by images from camera phones)? Google Listen (an application that sets up a personal news audio magazine for the listener)? Google Labs has, literally, at the time of this writing, eight pages of new projects that have been cast upon the waters to sink or swim.

And to me, that is what makes Google the model for anyone trying to apply this approach to business success. Google's approach captures the basic rules of the "fail fast" philosophy - the aspects of "failing fast" that need to be present in order for it to work:

Fail Small

Put the new product or service out on the market for a small group. You can even minimize the aura of possible failure, as Google and many tech companies do, by calling this phase "beta testing." The truth is, "beta testing" is just PR spin for taking a risk, throwing something out, and being prepared to fail fast.

Fail Cheap

Don't put a lot of money into a new product or service. Make the minimum possible investment in it until you see whether it is going to fail fast or take off.

Fail Productively

Fail as part of the process of finding your way toward the new product or service that will eventually succeed. The term "beta testing" is not just p.r. It has an element of truth to it - the point of tossing something out to see how it does is to learn from it and build upon whatever can be learned from the experience.

Don't Fail for the Sake of Failure

Fail accidentally, as part of a corporate that values failure not for its own sake, but for the sake of encouraging employees to value risk. Because appreciating failure is not truly about appreciating failure. It's about recognizing that playing it safe won't earn you skyrocketing returns over the long run - playing it safe WILL keep you safe in the short run, but in the long run, the only way a business can survive and expand is to take risks and evolve, perhaps even making radical changes to adapt to a changing marketplace.

What's the true lesson we should learn from the Google story? It's not so much "fail fast." It's "risk little, but risk often."

- Tim Eyre works in the self storage industry, regularly traveling to see locations like Trenton self storage. In locations like Chicago self storage Tim helps midwesterners store seasonal equipment when it’s not being used for outdoor activities or construction projects.

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How to Innovate Like Captain Jack Sparrow

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:

Forget the rules

For Captain Jack, there are no rules. Everything is in play. Heck, even the sacred Pirate Code is "more of a set of guidelines." Captain Jack operates outside the rules. In doing so he creates new degrees of freedom that enable him to act in ways that someone encumbered by rules cannot. In that space outside the rules are some pretty interesting solutions.

Sure, you risk getting in trouble for breaking the rules and some rules should never be broken. However, don't be afraid to at least intellectually explore the space outside your current "rules" and see if any creative ideas are lurking out there. When you find them you have a compelling case you can make for breaking the rules.

And if you simply decide to act like Captain Jack and break a rule because in that moment you saw an opportunity, you'll find people are much more forgiving of a rule transgression when you demonstrate the value you captured by ignoring the rule in the first place.

Don't Overlook the Simple Solutions

With all the data and information we have at our disposal we like making ideas all complexified because we think the more difficult they are to understand the better they might be.

Wrong.

Look at some of the great solutions Captain Jack and his crew come up with in their journeys. Most of the great ideas are born from simple items directly at hand. The key is in seeing that simple solution in the first place.

Don't overlook the obvious. Simple solutions can succeed more frequently than complex ones because the team can actually understand and execute the simple solution.

Experiment

When Captain Jack fights Barbossa over Cortez's gold, he gives being cursed a try. He steals a piece of gold to see if it too will make him an immortal skeleton pirate zombie (which is awesome). Had he been wrong and the curse didn't work, he would have been dead when Barbossa ran him through with his cutlass.

Instead, he became immortal and was able to compete with a competitor who was initially much better positioned to win.

It was a risk. He experimented. Something cool happened. When was the last time you experimented? Try something new just to see what will happen. Many times our hypotheses and the conventional wisdom are wrong.

Be Bold

No one in their right mind would accuse Captain Jack of not being bold. When he decides to take a risk he does so with gusto. He throws his entire being into it and absolutely commits all his energy to making whatever crazy idea he's pursuing work.

Chasing an idea half-heartedly will doom you to failure. If you don't commit and you aren't bold, it will show through to your team. Your trepidation will manifest itself in counterproductive ways that undermine your chances of success. If you're truly committed to innovation, pursue it boldly. The force of will is a force to be reckoned with.

You too can innovate like Captain Jack Sparrow. Forget the rules. Pursue simple ideas. Experiment. Be bold. I refer to him as "Captain" throughout this post because he always corrects people who leave it off as he sees that as a sign of disrespect. I respect the man's audacity and innovation. You should too.

An administrative heads-up

Pretty soon we'll be moving this blog to a new address. This site is (finally) being combined with our main thoughtLEADERS site as well as the site for my upcoming book One Piece of Paper. Just keep an eye out for our moving announcement. I think you'll love the new look and layout. More soon...

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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Getting Your Risk-Averse Boss to Take a Chance On Your Ideas

Today's guest post is by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D, author of Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals. You can read all about her at the end of the post. Here's Heidi:

A good friend of mine, “Tom,” recently brought a product to his boss’s attention that would allow his company to take its social media efforts to a whole new level, and might significantly improve their image. It would be an industry first, and not entirely without risk, but with huge potential payoff.

After hearing his pitch, his boss asked, “Are any of our competitors using this?”

“No,” Tom replied, feeling that this was a strong selling point – a competitive edge.

“Well,” his boss responded, “then I don’t think we want to stick our necks out and be the first, do we?”

Huh?

Tom was disappointed, but not at all surprised. For every manager out there trying to encourage innovation, there seem to be ten standing squarely in the way of it. I spend a lot of time talking to people about motivation and growth, and everywhere I go, I hear complaints like:

I just can’t get my boss to take the risk.
There’s a huge opportunity here, and we’re missing it.
We just follow trends, we don’t ever create them.

It’s incredibly frustrating to know you have a real winner of an idea on your hands, something that could really shake things up, and not be able to get it past your Nervous Nelly of a boss. Not that the cautious, conservative approach doesn’t have its place - but ultimately an organization cannot grow without embracing some risk.

The recent recession has only made matters worse. People don’t want to rock the boat at a time when jobs are hard to find. Unfortunately, they forget that without organizational innovation and growth, no job is safe for long.

The problem, in a nutshell, is this: when they make decisions, many managers focus much more on what they have to lose than what they might gain.

When we see our goals in terms of what we have to lose, we have what psychologists call a prevention focus. Prevention focus is about security, avoiding mistakes, fulfilling responsibilities, and doing you feel you ought to do. It’s about trying to hang on to what you’ve got, and it isn’t at all conducive to taking chances.

On the other hand, when we see our goals in terms of what we could gain, we have what’s called a promotion focus. Promotion focus is about achievement and accomplishment, maximizing your potential, and doing what you’d ideally like to do. It’s about never missing an opportunity if you can help it.

In my book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals, I describe research showing that while promotion and prevention-focused people can be equally successful, they work very differently to reach their goals. They use different strategies, have different strengths, and are prone to different kinds of mistakes. One group is motivated by applause, the other by criticism and self-sacrifice. One group readily embraces creativity and risk, while the other prefers careful deliberation and the status quo.

So, how can you get your overly cautious boss to go out on a limb and embrace a great, albeit risky, idea? The key is to stop fighting his or her prevention-focused mindset, and work with it instead.
In the end, it’s all about language. You may be thinking of your great idea as an opportunity for gain, but you can always reframe it as an opportunity for avoiding loss. To persuade a prevention-minded person, you want to emphasize how a course of action can keep your company safe and secure - how it will help you to avoid making a terrible mistake.

For instance, you may be thinking of a new social media venture as a chance to get in front of the pack, but your boss might be more persuaded if you phrased it as a way to not fall behind. (“Everyone is moving in this direction. It’s inevitable. We could lose market share if aren’t prepared for the future.”)

In general, it’s important to frame your pitch in a way that is persuasive to the kind of person you’re talking to. Figure out if the decision-maker is promotion or prevention minded, and pitch accordingly. Remember that even the most timid, prevention-minded person will gladly take a risk, once you help him understand why it would be a greater risk not to.

- Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D., is a motivational psychologist, consultant, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals. She is also a Fellow of the Motivation Science Center at the Columbia Business School, a regular blogger for Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, SmartBlog on Leadership/SmartBrief, Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and a contributor to the BBC World Service’s Business Daily. Heidi lives in NYC and Easton, PA. You can follow her on twitter at @hghalvorson.

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3 Reasons You Should Shut Your Cake Hole

Sometimes the best thing you can do is simply shut up. Simply put a big pair of socks in your mouth and plug up your cake hole.

There are plenty of situations where shutting up is the right strategy. There are also plenty of benefits to doing so. It's no secret - sometimes I open my mouth when I should be doing exactly the opposite and before those of you who agree start spewing "I can't stand when he talks" just realize at least I'm self aware - are you? Hmmm. Hello Pot, this is Kettle...

Anyway, there are three reasons you need to simply hush. Shutting up can build relationships (or prevent destroying them), improve negotiations, and make you smarter. This is a difficult skill to master especially in a world that encourages us to share MORE of our thoughts than ever (hello Twitter, Facebook, blogs - oops). I've talked about other benefits of shutting up before in this post - CLICK HERE to read it.  All that said, here's the argument for keeping quiet:

Building Relationships

We've all had that moment where a colleague, business partner, customer, or someone else important to us says something or sends an email that makes our head explode. Our instant instinctive reaction is to fire back and obliterate that individual into a smoldering pile of ashes that are forensically unidentifiable.

Don't.

Count to 10. Write your scathing email reply and say everything you wanted to say (be sure NOT to address it to the person because you might instinctively hit "Send" and then you're toast - just write the body of the email without a "To:" name listed). Reread the email 10 times. Get really mad. Get ready to send it.

Now delete it.

You've gotten it out of your system. Now let it go. This approach holds true for conversations too. Say all those horrible things in your head then let the thoughts evaporate. It's hard but if I can do it, so can you. Keeping quiet can prevent you from damaging an important relationship and keep you from looking hotheaded or unreasonable.

Negotiating

"He/she who talks price first, loses." Wrong. Actually, talking price first wins (the research shows it - it's called anchoring - look it up). But sometimes not talking at all can be a powerful negotiating tactic as well.

Silence is uncomfortable. When someone puts something on the table in a negotiation they expect you to respond and push back. If you instead remain silent after they put something out there, you're implying you are not satisfied with the offer. The silence gets uncomfortable (less so for you because you are in control of it).

Eventually the other party is likely to fill that silence. When they do they'll either rationalize their last point which will give you insight into their objectives or weak points or they'll actually begin negotiating against themselves and put something better in front of you just to fill the silence.

Try it sometime. Don't do it in a high-risk negotiation but see how the other person reacts to the silence. You might be surprised.

Getting Smarter

I love saying "you have two ears and one mouth for a reason." You can't learn while you're talking. Period. I've never met anyone who can transmit and receive at the same time. When you are in receive mode, you can learn new things.

There's another benefit to listening rather than talking. If you want others around you to think you're brilliant, shut up and listen. When others get to share their opinions and ideas, they feel important. You should actively solicit those thoughts from them and listen in an engaged manner. By listening, you can come across as exponentially more brilliant than you already are as I cover in this post.

Shhh

Shutting your cake hole from time to time is a powerful communications tool. Try it. I'll shut up now.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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Leadership: Snake Plissken-Style

Sometimes hardened criminals can teach us a lesson or two about leadership.

In the 1981 classic Escape from New York, Kurt Russell plays the hard-edged Snake Plissken. The movie's premise is Air Force One carrying the president of the United States has crashed into New York City (which has been turned into a maximum security prison for all criminals in the U.S.). Plissken, who is about to be incarcerated in New York is offered a deal: if he gets the president out of New York, he'll get his freedom.

Snake has a problem though - the police have implanted a small time bomb in his neck and he only has 22 hours to get the president out and have the bomb neutralized (it could happen! It's the future!). Naturally Snake is a man on a mission - not only to save the president but also to save himself.

As he rushes through the prison colony that is Manhattan island, Snake teaches all of us a few things about leadership (as well as providing some awesome tips on how to kill hardened post-apocalyptic criminals with bad hair). Here's what we can all learn from Snake:

Leaders are willing to bet on themselves

Think about the odds Snake faced. He was going into a penal colony full of the deadliest criminals around. He had a choice of simply going to prison and living there (which he could have easily done because he's a badass) or fighting the criminals to rescue the president.

Tough odds. Snake took the bet. He knew what he was capable of and he understood the value of the prize (his freedom). Sure it was a "stretch goal" to rescue the president but Snake was willing to take that bet because he was confident in his abilities.

Are you willing to bet on yourself when you face huge odds against you? Know what you're capable of and take an occasional risk. You might surprise yourself with what you're able to do.

Leaders maintain laser-focus on their objective

Snake had 22 hours. He had one objective - get the president out alive. He made some friends along his journey - Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), Brain, and Maggie. He also made a few enemies, most notably The Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes).

There were times Snake could have stayed and fought with his friends when they decided to stay behind and fight. He could have stayed for revenge to kick The Duke's butt. But he didn't. He directed all his energy toward one single goal - getting the president out. All the other things he could have done would have been righteous but they were distractions from his primary objective.

Do you know what your primary objective is? Do you avoid distractions and side-projects? What do you do to maintain your focus on your objectives?

Leaders take bold risks

Snake could have accepted his prison sentence and not risked his life. Instead, he landed a glider on the roof of the World Trade Center, fought off bad guys, and ran a gauntlet across a heavily-mined 69th street bridge to get the president out. He could have tried to hold his position on the top of World Trade to be extracted by helicopter but he didn't like the odds so off to the crazy bridge crossing he went.

He had no idea if his risks would work out. But he knew if he didn't take action, the outcome was certain failure. Snake took the chance and made some bold moves. Of course they worked out (otherwise it would have been a crappy movie).

When is the last time you took a bold risk? Have you considered any bold moves recently? What's holding you back from taking those chances?

Leaders care about people

After Snake finally gets the president out and has the bomb deactivated, he asks the president what he thought about all the people who died to help him escape from New York. Cabbie, Brain, and Maggie all gave their lives in the escape effort.

The president offers half-hearted condolences for their loss. Snake doesn't buy it and he sabotages the president's major peace initiative. Snake knows good people sacrificed a great deal and his last act of defiance demonstrates he truly cared about and appreciated what they gave for the greater good.

So are you the next Snake Plissken?

Do you bet on yourself? How do you stay focused on your goals? Do you make bold moves? Do you really care about the people who are taking those risks alongside you? Take some quiet time today and reflect on these questions. Ask yourself if you're as good a leader as Snake Plissken was.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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How to Fix a Hiring Mistake

Have you ever made a hiring mistake? The candidate looked brilliant on paper. They blew everyone away in the interviews. They were local so there as no relo cost involved. They even took your first salary offer without negotiating (danger Will Robinson!).

And then they showed up for work... And all went well for the first month. Everyone loved him. He was gregarious and got to know everyone in the organization. And one day you woke up and realized he hadn't done anything yet. Not one iota of impact. And you started to wonder...

Time went on. Less and less got done. Others in the organization began to notice and even grumble that the rock star you hired was not a real rock star but was actually a used up member of Poison from the '80s (appropriate because this guy seems to be looking for "Nothin' but a good time!"). It became abundantly clear to everyone you had made a hiring mistake. It's okay. It happens to all of us.

The most important thing about making a hiring mistake is fixing it. Fast.

There's nothing wrong with making hiring mistakes. It's forgivable. What's unforgivable is not doing something about it (remember You see it, you own it?). The best leaders I've seen quickly try to address performance (or lack thereof) with the individual. They set near term, measurable improvement goals. And if, unfortunately, the individual fails to meet them, they are moved on to another opportunity (either inside the company or outside of it).

But doing this takes a degree of intestinal fortitude that is difficult for many of us to summon. Such actions require us to first admit we made a mistake (admission is the first step to remission...).

After we come to terms with the fact we were duped during the interview process (albeit unintentionally duped) we have to do the really hard part - tell someone they're not cutting it. Ultimately we might have to have that very difficult conversation about parting ways (which will likely be involuntary). It's the "it's not me, it's you" conversation and that one is never pleasant to have.

So what's a leader to do? How can you get past these barriers to taking action?

First, realize we all make mistakes and the interview process creates a situation where they can occur frequently. Why? There's no real work to do during the interview and everyone is on their best behavior. Accept that someone got through the process without some of these issues surfacing.

Second, understand the person is a good person with a certain set of skills - they are simply not the right skills for this role. The error is one of not appropriately assessing fit for the role (it's not a judgment of the person himself). Once you accept these two points, taking action becomes easier.

During the "corrective action" phase, understand you are giving the person a fair chance to succeed (presuming you give candid feedback, set measurable goals with a reasonable chance of success, and give the person the support and coaching they need during this phase). After you do that, you've met your obligation. The accountability for performance and success lies with the individual at this point.

So it doesn't work out. Now what? Act and act fast.

There's almost nothing worse than passing a problem on to another manager and not cleaning up your own mess. You have an obligation to the rest of your team and the rest of the organization to do so. Not acting will erode morale because your team and coworkers will see the inequity and wonder why they are held to a high standard of performance while this individual is not. Such an environment is toxic. It destroys the organization over time.

As I said earlier, we all make this mistake at one time or another. I've personally made it on a few occasions (probably because I have a bias toward taking risks on people - see "Team Building: Buying Damaged Goods"). In one particular case, he looked great on paper and even better in person. Brilliant. Analytical. Everything we were looking for. I loved him and pushed hard to hire him.

We got him in the role and at first everything was fine. Unfortunately, when the problems were difficult to solve and the environment was ambiguous, he floundered. Badly. His manager and I brought the issue to his attention and laid out an improvement plan. He didn't improve.

He was becoming increasingly frustrated and unhappy with the role because he learned it wasn't exactly what he wanted to do long term. In the end, we suggested we part ways and he move on to an organization better suited to his skills and aspirations. It was actually a huge relief for him to move on (for all of us, him included). He found a role much more in line with his abilities and last I heard he's doing quite well.

At first blush, pushing someone out of an organization for lack of performance seems cold and harsh. Looking at it another way makes it a wonderful thing to do. You're not happy with the individual's performance. The team isn't happy with the individual not pulling their weight. The individual likely isn't happy because they want to succeed in whatever it is they're doing.

Your obligation as a leader is to help the person move on. Quickly. Help them move on to somewhere they can be successful. Everyone involved will thank you for it (maybe not on the day you give the person their papers but someday down the road once they've found their perfect job, they'll reflect back on their departure as a turning point in their career).

You made the hiring mistake. Admit it. Fix it. For everyone's sake.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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4 Tips for Handling Overwork and Overwhelm

Today's guest blogger is Marlene Chism, author of Stop Workplace Drama: Train Your Team to have No Complaints, No Excuses, and No Regrets(go buy a copy by clicking the link - there's some great advice in there!). You can read more about her at the end of the post. Here's Marlene...

Are you overwhelmed with a heavy workload only to get another unrealistic request from your boss? Is it really the workload, or could it be a communication problem?

Often the real challenge is developing the courage to tell ourselves and others the truth about what we can do. What we do to avoid a conflict, or dealing with someone’s disappointment is to offer something for which we are unprepared to deliver due to time constraints, abilities, or knowledge. Instead of making a promise you can’t keep, or keeping the promise but dropping another ball, what if you could just tell the truth, and still get the job done?

In my book, Stop Workplace Dramathe third principle is “tell yourself the truth.” Instead, much of the time we make agreements we can’t possibly keep, or we refuse to ask for what we want because, “I already know what he will say.” Or we simply play the victim and complain about how unfair life is, or we regretfully drop the ball because our stamina gives out before our will, then we give an excuse about why we dropped the ball.

This leads to ineffective communication between boss and employee and spreads negativity and drama. These four tips will help you to manage a heavy workload while improving workplace relationships:

1. Tell yourself the truth
2. Identify your choices
2. Tell your boss the truth
4. Communicate responsibly

Tell yourself the truth
First you must step out of denial by pretending that you can get everything done. To deny the facts means you are either going to disappoint someone or make yourself physically ill. If you really cannot do all that is asked, you must first face the facts of the situation. Facts include project deadlines, current priorities, estimated length of time to get a project or task completed, resources available.

Identify your choices
Now that you have been honest with yourself, you can list your choices. Can you delegate some of the tasks? What if you could think outside the box and find an assistant who would charge a small amount to do some data entry? What about hiring a personal assistant to free up some of your other obligations? There may be options you have not yet considered, but beware that any choice you make sets the stage for the same level of expectation and that is why you must be honest with your boss.

Tell your boss the truth
The boss really has no idea that you are swamped. She just wants to take things off of her plate. You have to let your boss know the facts. Don’t whine or complain and don’t promise that you can deliver something you can’t. The way to approach your boss is to state the facts, and the priorities, then ask your boss to lengthen a deadline on another project, or ask a team member for assistance. The fact is, you can’t add more than 10 percent more of a workload on anyone without offering additional resources. If you are being asked to double up, something has to go, and you must be responsible for helping the boss to understand the facts, the priorities and the consequences.

Communicate Responsibly
Learn how to engage other team members or co-workers through effective communication. Again, no complaints or excuses, simply go straight to the solution. Ask for what you want. Instead of saying, “This is not fair….” And “Look what I’m expected to do…” Instead say, “I’ve been given another task that is going to take three hours. Would you be willing to…” then make your request. Offer to help out in return, then give the person credit for helping you. You will help yourself, you will show you are problem solver to your boss, and you will also improve teamwork and morale.

- Marlene Chism is a speaker, author and founder of The Stop Your Drama Methodology, an eight-part empowerment process to increase clarity and improve productivity and personal effectiveness. She is a dynamic business and motivational speaker who has the unique ability to speak across the boundaries of many types of audiences: from the fortune 500 executives, to HR professionals to front line employees. Marlene has a master’s degree in HR Development from Webster University and is the author of Stop Workplace Drama: Train Your Team to have No Complaints, No Excuses, and No Regrets.Learn more at www.stopworkplacedrama.com

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Why You Should Treat Your People Like it's 1879

Sometimes great leaders have to look back in history to find lessons to apply today. Today I'm going to take you back to some wisdom imparted in 1879 on how to treat your people.

The majority of you know I graduated from West Point. Part of my education there required we learn and remember (and be able to recite verbatim from memory) what was known as "knowledge" from West Point's history. Any upperclassman could ask any plebe (freshman) at any time to recite a piece of knowledge. Failure to do so correctly resulted in some "development time" (which was pretty unpleasant).

The hardest one to remember was Schofield's Definition of Discipline. When I would hear an upperclassman shout "FIGLIUOLO! START SCHOFIELD'S!" terror would strike my heart and I would begin reciting Schofield's Definition of Discipline which went like this:

"The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and to give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice to inspire in the soldier no feeling but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or the other of dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them regard for himself, while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his inferiors, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself."

Major General John M. Schofield
Address to the Corps of Cadets
August 11, 1879

Wow. Talk about a mouthful. But MG Schofield has some great thoughts for today's leaders:

Harsh and Tyrannical Treatment

How many leaders do you know who lead through fear and intimidation? They may scream and yell. They may be demeaning. They may overtly (or implicitly) threaten people to get them to comply with directions.

It works for a little while but over time it's cancerous. If your boss does it, provide the feedback. Heck, forward them this article. Some bosses might not realize they're doing it. Others might just be bullies (and I've written about how to handle bullies before in this post. Click here to read it).

Tone of Voice

Your people take their cues not only from WHAT you say but HOW you say it. The vast majority of human communication has very little to do with words and much more to do with tone and body language.

Are you conscious of how your voice, posture, and gestures affect other people? At one point in my career I was informed that I can be VERY intimidating. Apparently my voice can boom and my eyes can get pretty intense. To me I simply thought I was paying attention and offering strong opinions. To others, some felt I was going to come over the table at them.

Since then, I have consciously worked at and tried to remember the feedback. Sometimes I have to deliberately soften my gaze and lean back in my chair to take some of the perceived aggression out of my demeanor.

Are you aware of how you come across? No? Go ask.

Respect

It's such a simple concept. The golden rule and all that. Aretha Franklin. You know.

Unfortunately we manifest disrespect in many ways and often without realizing it. Asking someone to stay late and miss a family event. Being ignorant about cultural norms. Simply not thinking about asking people to do simple tasks that are clearly below them. All of these can demonstrate disrespect for who a person is and what is important to them.

It's a simple fix - put yourself in their shoes. If you don't know what their shoes feel like, ask them. Ask about their culture and its norms. Ask if you've ever crossed a respect line. Some of these notions (and more "do nots") are covered in my post on 10 Reasons Your Team Hates You. Go read it by clicking here. It's a fun yet pointed read on things that upset your people.

The Bottom Line

MG Schofield had it right. The way we treat people means a lot. In a market where loyalty to the organization is low and high performers have many other options other than working for you, not being mindful of Schofield's advice can cost you a great team member.

You need to actively think about leading your people. It's so important that I've written on that topic both here on the blog (CLICK HERE to read it) and it has an entire section in my upcoming book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (come read about it and become a Facebook fan by CLICKING HERE).

Try treating your folks like it's 1879. Things might go a lot better for you. And if nothing else, you can grow an AWESOME beard.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

Postscript: This post is dedicated to my friend and classmate Adam Young who has been harping on me to write it for well over a year. Thanks Adam for continuing to push me to cover a great topic. I hope you enjoy it.

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Preventing a Leadership Crash from Overcorrecting

Today's guest post is by Michelle Braden, CEO of MSBCoach. Join me in welcoming her to the blog.

Often when I read a book I find myself thinking, “Some of that was strong food for thought and some of it was a little too much for me.” When that happens, I try focusing on what is relevant so there is still a meaningful take-away rather than disregarding the entire book. Authors write to their personal extreme passion, and it’s good to remember that you do not have to agree with everything that is being said to learn something.

Leaders are very similar. We lead out of our own personal passions and values. Whether or not we are always conscious of them, they are present in our leadership. These passions and values are very close cousins to our “hot buttons.”

When our hot buttons are pushed, we can have a tendency to overreact or overcorrect the situation just as an author may over-write to make their point. I find that overreacting or overcorrecting frequently generates results opposite of what is really expected or desired.

Allow me to illustrate...

A few weeks ago, I was driving home from a meeting. I am embarrassed to admit I leaned over to pick something up (not paying attention as I should) and, when I did, I slightly went off the road. Normally this would not be a big deal… I would simply correct and get back on; however, when you combine the fact that I was in deep thought, my cruise was on about 72 mph and the startle of hitting the rumble strip, a recipe for disaster was about to unfold.

When I hit the rumble strip, instead of a gentle warning the noise of the strips is intended to give, it shook me from my deep thought and seriously startled me. I overreacted! I swerved (or should I say jerked) the steering wheel to the right. In just a split second my car swerved to the other lane, and I over corrected again to the left. It was in just a second I realized, “I think I might flip this baby.” Fortunately for me (and thanks to my guardian angels) I was able to get the car back under control. Before you know it, everything was back to normal. I settled down, regained confidence and was back to cruising at 72 mph (I will say paying much closer attention though).

Later that evening I was telling my husband and a friend about what happened over dinner. As I explained it, I realized the parallel between what happened to me and what happens when a leader “overcorrects.”

As leaders we can get lost in the moment, in our personal passions, thus losing focus on the big picture and responding without thinking or over-responding to drive our point home. I realize as leader, being able to respond in crisis is a highly desired trait, but I also realize that there are times we cause the crisis ourselves (such as I did) from overcorrecting. Either way, whether the crisis is self-induced or caused by someone else, overcorrecting is rarely the answer and usually results in disaster - or near disaster, just as it did when I was driving.

Have you ever overcorrected (over responded or overreacted) as a leader? A perfect example would be, the team is working under the pressure of a deadline (now 8 days past due), a tight budget, everyone is exhausted, you just got an email that the engineering team has not been able to correct the “bug” yet, stakeholders are calling and your lead engineer just called in sick. How do you respond?

Some of you just reading this can feel your chest tightening. I am sure your story is a little different but the stress is the same. Below are some steps to help you process through overcorrecting in difficult situations. I encourage you to take just a minute go through the questions below – they will help you to be more proactive next time and hopefully reduce the crisis response of overcorrecting:

- Identify at least one situation where you overreacted/corrected
- What was happening?
- What hot-buttons were pushed (identify how those are related to your own personal passions and values)
- What was the outcome?
- How would you like the outcomes to have been different?
- How could you have responded differently to have created a different outcome?
- What will you do to create different outcomes in the future?

I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

- Michelle Braden is CEO of MSBCoach. For over 17 years, she has coached and trained business owners, executives, non-profit leaders, teams, managers and individuals in transition.

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Great Leaders Make Decisions

Today's post is an excerpt from my upcoming book One Piece of Paper (CLICK HERE to learn more about it).

As a leader you need to drive action. Ideas are great but someone has to put them in motion for them to be worthwhile, and deciding to do that is no easy task.

Acting on a decision can be terrifying, especially in the case of large-scale change. Your decision may affect a significant number of people, and what if it is the wrong decision? What if things do not go as expected and the resulting outcome negatively impacts you or your organization? You could lose your job. Worse, hundreds of other people could lose theirs.

It is hard enough to act on decisions when just facing your own insecurities. Throw the complexities of your organization into the mix and the angst increases exponentially. Politics, lack of resources, uncertainty, doubt, and fear all mess with our minds right when we are on the verge of taking action. It is no wonder so many leaders have gray hair!

However, I am challenging you to be thought leaders. Being a thought leader requires you to be bold. Your decisions must be clear and forceful. The “thought” part of the equation only gets you halfway to your destination. As my colleague Alan Veeck says “It’s good to have thoughts, but that’s not enough.” Being a true thought leader means you not only agitate for but also lead change. Such leadership requires decisive action on your part.

You probably see it all the time - people and teams suffering from analysis paralysis. They are unable to make a decision and instead their organization languishes in the purgatory of endless Excel models.

People fear making decisions. They sometimes believe, erroneously for the most part, they are better off making no decision than making an incorrect one. By not making a decision, they think they cannot be fired or disciplined for being wrong.

An old maxim of mine that addressed this issue was a RUSH lyric in their song Freewill: “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.” Inaction is still an action. It is choosing not to choose. When decisions are not made, organizations stagnate and eventually go down the tubes. That is when the really hard decisions have to be made. Layoffs, restructuring, divestitures and other painful choices await organizations that cannot make a decision and act on it.

I worked for a great boss at one point who helped me realize the negative impact of analysis paralysis. He drove home the point that it is important to act because waiting is not free. I took him a business case and told him it was worth $1,000,000 in income over the next twelve months.

He asked if I was implementing the idea immediately. I told him I was going to wait a week and do some additional analysis then go live with the change I was proposing. He said “When you come back next week with your additional analysis, the business case had better be worth another $20,000 because that’s what seven days costs at a run rate of $1,000,000. Is your analysis worth $20,000?” My answer was no. We went live that day. Inaction has a quantifiable cost.

Leaders have to make choices. Many times those choices are painful. The decisions a leader makes can affect dozens to thousands of people. Their actions determine if someone has a job, gets a raise, or moves to a new city. They create businesses and close others. And in the most extreme cases their actions change the course of industry and therefore the way we live our lives.

Sometimes the results of a leader’s actions are spectacular. Other times the results are spectacular disasters. Nonetheless, leaders must make decisions and act.

Some of the best advice I’ve ever heard about the need to make a decision is a simple five word quote:

“In case of doubt, attack!” – General George S. Patton III

How do you spur yourself onward to action? What is your approach to decision making? Are you aggressive? Do you make “gut” decisions or do you prefer to gather as much information as possible before making a call? Do you procrastinate? Are there certain types of decisions you find easier to make than others? Are there any types of decisions you hate making?

You need to evaluate how you currently make decisions before articulating a maxim designed to focus your decision making efforts.

Think about an important decision you have made in the recent past. Choose one that had an outcome you are happy with. What has contributed to your sense of satisfaction with that decision? Is it the result? Are you happy with how people were involved in making the decision? Did your decision get positive attention from someone important in your life?

Try to break apart the components and figure out why you are happy with the decision because those reasons are important drivers of your behavior.

That's the end of the excerpt but you can start using the method today. Create a reminder for yourself that you must take action and be decisive. Use that reminder to break through analysis paralysis. You'll be glad you did. To stay plugged in on the book's progress, come become a fan on Facebook by CLICKING HERE.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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