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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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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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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How Mr. Spock Helps You Make Better Decisions

As leaders, we like being decisive and making quick decisions. We know our businesses well and are willing to act. Doing so without true contrarian input can be dangerous though.

You can make better decisions though simply by identifying and relying on your own personal Mr. Spock. Yes, I've been watching movies again and as usual, I can't help but draw a leadership perspective from them.

In Star Trek (the new version - which was awesome) Captain Kirk is decisive yet impetuous. He takes on huge risks and acts on emotion. Many times he's right. He has a good gut feeling and intuition. He knows his team and his organization's capabilities. He's a great tactician. But it's easy to see how his snap decisions could lead to disaster.

Mr. Spock on the other hand is brutally logical and dispassionate. He is stylistically diametrically opposed to Captain Kirk. Needless to say the two of them go at each others' throats (both figuratively and literally when Spock snaps and chokes out Kirk).

As a team, however, the two of them make better decisions. As conflict-laden and dysfunctionally painful as their relationship is at times, it works.

All of us would do well as leaders to find our own Mr. Spock. Here's what I mean...

At one point in my career I had my own Mr. Spock. I was young, impetuous, and action-oriented. My bias was to make decisions, act on them, and see what happened. Sometimes those weren't the best decisions and things kind of blew up on me (I know... hard to believe, right? ;). During those blow-ups I had my team in crisis damage control mode. We would clean things up, learn from them and move on with life.

One day, my Mr. Spock showed up - uninvited might I add. He was even-keeled. He asked difficult questions. He wanted me to articulate the logic and reason behind the decisions I wanted to make. He was a complete pain in my behind.

I avoided Spock at all costs. I made decisions without involving him. I didn't invite him to meetings where we discussed upcoming decisions. I was an immature idiot in how I related to him.

Spock, being a driven little Vulcan, often found out about upcoming decisions and in his unemotional way invited himself to participate in the decision making process. He asked great questions. He pointed out logical flaws. He made my life difficult, slower, yet oddly more insightful.

Spock's involvement in the decision making process helped the team avoid some errors and in one case prevented a pretty good sized crisis. He made us sharper and smarter. Over time I came to respect and seek out his input when I understood the value he added to the process. No, I didn't thoroughly enjoy it but involving him was like Brussels sprouts - distasteful but good for you.

So who is your Mr. Spock? Who is that person that makes you consider other alternatives? Who is the person you avoid because they ask difficult questions and force you to think through your decisions more thoroughly? Sure, they slow you down but sometimes they're the only obstacle between you and the Romulan warship you're flying into range of.

Identify the person who can be your Spock. Have an up-front conversation with them about your style and their style. Let Spock know how you would like to involve him/her in your decision making process. Be sure to agree to disagree at times and try to clarify who makes what decisions and who has the authority to make which calls.

As painful as you might find it, you might learn a thing or two. You will likely make better decisions. Sure things might be slower but wouldn't you rather take a little more time to increase your chances of success than rapidly flying into a Klingon ambush?

Find your Mr. Spock. He'll help you be a better leader because good leaders listen. Good leaders make informed decisions. Good leaders utilize all available resources on their teams. Good leaders are open to input and productive dissent. You owe it to your team and your organization to endure the pain of dealing with Mr. Spock because in the end, it's better for everyone involved - including you.

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

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3 Steps to Successfully Move into a New Role

"Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in." - Michael Corleone, The Godfather: Part III

If you've ever moved to a new role in your company, you've probably felt like Michael Corleone at some point. The folks from your old role keep sucking you back in, asking for help, asking you to continue doing your old job, and basically keeping you from moving into your new role.

Combine that pull with being a new role, new organization, and needing to demonstrate impact pretty quickly and you have a recipe for a very uncomfortable and difficult work experience.

In a recent SmartBrief on Leadership poll I asked what the most difficult part of moving to a new role was. The answers are not surprising:

So how can you quickly and effectively move out of your old role and into the new one?

Step 1: Cut the Cord

Be explicit about when your assistance ends. Put in place a good transition plan. Dedicate your time to helping your replacement get up to speed. If you ditch them and leave them in a lurch, they'll keep pestering you. Put all documents and resources in easy-to-find folders.

And let them know when your support ends. It's easy to be Michael Corleone and get pulled back in because you naturally want to help your old organization succeed. Unfortunately that comes at the price of your new organization not getting your full attention. Let your replacement know "after this date, I expect you to be running the show and i cannot dedicate any more time to coming back and doing your job for you." Sure, it's a little harsh but if you don't cut the cord, they won't.

Step 2: Cram

Learning the content of your new area is a challenge. Treat it like college exams and cram. Ask for any and all relevant documents that pertain to your area and hole up for a few days studying all of them. Immerse yourself in the new content. When you cram and read all of it around the same time, you're more likely to make connections between concepts in the new area than you are if you read things one-off over time.

The cramming will also give you a sense not just of the content but of the capabilities, biases, and skills of people in the organization. The way documents are written and stored says a lot about the person writing them. Start understanding the organizational lay of the land as you're doing your content cramming.

Step 3: Find a Mentor

Find someone in that new organization who has been around for a while and can help you understand the politics and relationship dynamics of your new organization. Have them make key introductions for you. Have them explain the agendas of all the players involved.

But be careful - you need to understand your mentor's biases and agenda too. Seek a second mentor who can help you objectively assess your mentor as well. If you don't you could be assuming the blind spots and politics of your mentor which could hurt you in the long run.

The Results

If you take these three steps, you'll be able to dedicate your focus to your new role. You'll have a good sense for the content from your cramming and you'll know how to get things done if your mentor does a good job of giving you the lay of the land.

The more actively you manage the transition process, the easier it is. Set clear transition expectations and don't let yourself get pulled into old work - cut the cord at some point. Find those two or three people in your new organization who can act as mentors, help you build relationships, and understand the new areas of knowledge. You'll get up to speed faster than doing that on your own. If you do these first few steps well, you'll have more impact faster because all your time will be focused on the new role which you'll understand better and more quickly than you otherwise would.

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

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My Top 5 Tips for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs have it hard enough as it is. Why make it even harder on yourself with self-defeating behaviors? I know you are saying you would hate to do that but I see these kinds of behaviors all the time. You should know if you are demonstrating them.

If you're an entrepreneur you pour your heart and soul into your business. You need every edge you can get. The first edge available to you is not doing stupid stuff. In the past month I have spent a lot of time with other entrepreneurs and I have seen a bunch of good things and a bunch of bad things. Today I'll share some of those observations with the hope you find it helpful and use these perspectives to strengthen your business.

In the past I have covered some other challenges entrepreneurs face and I hereby declare them required reading. So here they are:
- Two traps that destroy entrepreneurs - CLICK HERE TO READ
- Two more traps that destroy entrepreneurs - CLICK HERE TO READ
- Entrepreneurs need to bootstrap to WIN - CLICK HERE TO READ

After you're done reading them, continue with this post. And I'll know if you didn't read them because I can see your clickstream. Not really. But maybe...

The following tips are in no particular order nor are there broad categories they belong to. It's simply a list of things I have seen go wrong recently and some thoughts on how to avoid those behaviors. Here goes:

1. Don't name your company after yourself. I know you're enamored with your own name and it's easy to just name your company Schlockenstine and Company. It worked for Ford, Trump, and some other great entrepreneurs. That said, it can put you at a disadvantage when you are small. Typically you sell to big companies. They want suppliers who can support their bigger needs. If they have to choose between a company that clearly sounds like a one or two man band or a company that sounds bigger, they'll be biased toward the latter. Change the name folks.

2. When people offer advice, listen... especially when you ask for it. I saw a guy go to a meeting where he got to pitch his company to investors. He kind of listened to the feedback (but not really). That's not the bad part. When the second company pitched and was receiving its feedback, founder #1 was too busy pecking away on email to hear the feedback the other company was getting. Bigtime miss. It left a bad impression and sent the message he wasn't interested in the investors' perspectives. Fail.

3. Don't underprice yourself. I've talked a lot about pricing before. Here's a great post on the subject of pricing - CLICK HERE to read it. For many of you just starting businesses, you'll struggle with pricing. It's the most difficult and most important decision you can make. Many entrepreneurs are nervous about charging what they feel are high rates for their products or services. By being cheap, it's easier to sell. The problem with that is you devalue the perceived quality of your product/service. You also make cash flow very difficult and increase the amount of selling effort you have to put in to make money. Price according to market rates. Get comfortable with that conversation on pricing.

For those of you selling professional services, take your last "real job's" total cash compensation (base + bonus). Multiply by 3. Divide by 2000. That's your hourly rate. When you first see the number you will choke on it but you have to realize, as an entrepreneur you don't get paid vacation, healthcare subsidies, benefits, and other corporate perks. You also won't be 100% utilized (translation - you'll have unpaid time on your hands). To make "even money" with what you were making, use this formula. Trust me. It works.

4. FOLLOW UP! You would be shocked at the number of times I have told both entrepreneurs and job seekers to connect to me on LinkedIn and spin through my contacts. I tell them to spin through and I'm happy to make introductions they are interested in. And then they don't do it. They are "too busy" to look through my contacts. I don't know what they're too busy doing. I am offering a personal contact, endorsement, and highly qualified sales or partnership lead. Walking away from that opportunity is pure stupidity. When things like that are served up to you on a platter, take advantage of them. I guarantee my contacts and endorsement are 1000x more fruitful than all your cold-call business development or mass marketing efforts.

5. Strike while the iron is hot. Your business is the most important thing in the world. To you. Your customers have 100000 other things going on and you are but one tiny part of their work. When they finally get around to reaching out to you, drop everything and seal the deal. You have their attention. Exploit that opportunity. If you tell them you're too busy and you'll catch up with them in a few weeks (or even worse you're slow to return their calls or emails) you deserve to wait another 3 months until they get back to you. When that client phone call comes in, you need to focus on moving things forward as quickly as you can.

Those are a few top-of-mind perspectives that should help you make your business more successful. Do you agree/disagree with them? What tips do you have for entrepreneurs? Please share via comment.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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It's Time to Brush Up Your Resume

As 2010 winds down, many folks look forward to time off, vacations, and some well-deserved relaxation. During this downtime though, you have work to do. It's time to brush up your resume.

No, you're not getting fired (at least I hope not - talk about Grinch-like bosses who would can someone over the holidays). And no, the job market hasn't suddenly rebounded. There's a more important reason to brush up your resume. Now the resume isn't the be-all end-all for job search and there are a lot of myths surrounding it. Check out the most common myths in this post by CLICKING HERE. That said, it is an important document that needs to be up to date at any given time.

According to close to 70% of you it has been well over 6 months since you dusted off this document. Don't believe me? Check out the poll at the bottom of the page (and vote if you haven't voted yet). 6 months is a long time. I don't know about you but I start forgetting things after 6 hours. And that's why it's a perfect time to brush up your paper. And I'm not just talking about your .doc resume either - brush up your LinkedIn and other social networking profiles too.

Your resume should always be current and accurate. I'm sure many of you have had that frantic experience when a headhunter or company calls and asks to see your resume. You scramble around trying to piece together however many years of accomplishments since you last updated it. More often than not, it will be a long, painful process and you will miss things. There is a better way...

Why now?

The end of the year is the perfect time to do this work. Things are quiet and you can hopefully think. You can get some dedicated focus time without tons of meetings hammering away at your calendar. Writing a document as important as your resume requires good dedicated effort.

It's also a good time to write it because you've likely received your year-end review. That document is a great source of the facts and figures you need to craft a clear, compelling resume.

Why do it at all?

I don't know about you but the notion of going into my archives to piece together multiple years of performance to write an updated resume is not my idea of holiday fun. I would much rather have a document I know is accurate and up to date. To achieve that, regularly updating that resume is a good idea.

The rationale behind having it updated is pretty straightforward. When you get a call from someone looking to fill a critical role you need to have that document at the ready. Especially in hypercompetitive times like these where there are so many candidates competing for few jobs even a few days' delay can cost you a chance at a new role.

And during times of layoffs, downsizing, and economic uncertainty you're much better off having that document at the ready in case you end up a casualty of downsizing. Many times when people get laid off, their access to all company documents (including copies of your old progress reviews that you failed to download off the server and onto your home PC) is cut off. How can you expect to write a good resume without access to that base data?

Make it a habit

Every year the resume update has become a ritual. Even though I run my own business and I don't plan on firing myself anytime soon or pursuing new opportunities, it's good to catalog accomplishments, reflect on where I am at from a career standpoint, and assess my performance for the last twelve months. The downtime surrounding the holidays has become my scheduled time period for doing that.

I suggest you do the same. Put the little recurring annual calendar appointment in Outlook and remind yourself every year to go through this exercise. The result will be a good sense of where you are, the accomplishments you've achieved, and readiness for the next opportunity that comes your way. The difference between landing that next dream job or waiting in the unemployment line could be as slight as a week's delay in updating your resume. Wouldn't you rather be prepared?

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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How You Can Stage a Workplace Bully Beatdown

We all hate bullies. I know I do. Ever since Ricky F. smashed my lunch every day of 5th grade I've hated them.

Then we get older and go to work. We think we've finally grown up and don't have to deal with bullies anymore. Then it happens - we find we're working with Ricky F. the bully (or even worse, the bully is our boss).

It's a painful and not-too-uncommon situation. So what can you do other than sit there and take it?

You can fight back. You can beat that bully up (figuratively - I am not advocating workplace violence as much as some people might even deserve a smack upside the head or a punch in the beak).

Beating up bullies has become acceptable behavior. Heck, there's even a great show on MTV2 called Bully Beatdown. My son and I love watching it (we even ran into the host, Mayhem, at LAX a coupla months ago and he is amazingly cool). The whole premise of the show is people submit bullies to the show, Mayhem invites the bully to come on and fight a mixed martial arts fighter, and invariably the bully is humbled. Awesome show.

So how can you stage your own bully beatdown at the office?

First you have to identify what kind of bully you're dealing with. Once you've done that, there are four techniques you can use to break the cycle of bullying. They are direct feedback, inclusion, professional smack-down, and frontal assault.

Bully Identification
Before beating up a bully, you have to know what you're dealing with. Bullying has its roots in insecurity. The bully feels in some way inadequate. To compensate for that, the bully chooses to push others down rather than facing and overcoming that insecurity.

Insecurities can range from physical ones (short, weird, bald) to intellectual ones (not too bright, promoted past the point of competence) to emotional ones (not loved, abused, ignored at home, excluded as a child). All these insecurities are sources of pain for the bully. The bully's desire to make the pain go away manifests itself as lashing out at others, causing pain in them, or asserting a position of dominance to compensate for feelings of weakness or helplessness. Yes, today's post is a bit of a psychology lesson.

Bullies can occupy several positions in our lives: coworker, customer, boss, supplier, etc. Depending on which role the bully occupies and the source of their insecurity, you'll need to utilize different techniques for dealing with them (assuming you want the bully to stop picking on you).

Take a moment to think of the bully. What's their role? How do they behave? What do you perceive that weakness to be that they're compensating for? Got it? Good. Let's solve your bully problem.

Technique 1: Direct Feedback

This approach can be used with all categories of bullies and for all reasons they act like bullies. It's the best place to start. Let the bully know you'd like to get some time on their calendar to talk about how things are going between the two of you and to address some concerns you have. Don't ambush them in a hallway with feedback - they'll get defensive then go on the attack. By setting aside time, you're enabling them to enter the conversation with an open mind.

In that meeting, use the classic feedback model. Describe the behavior you've observed from them, confirm they know the incident you're talking about, tell them how it made you feel, and offer how you'd like similar situations handled in the future.

Example: "Remember in last week's staff meeting when you told me 'Shut your cakehole!'? Yes? You remember. Okay. That made me feel like you didn't value my opinion and it made me not want to offer other thoughts because I was embarrassed in front of the team. When you did that and I didn't want to get yelled at again. In the future, I'd prefer you either let me offer my thoughts or if it's the wrong time for that, ask me to hold my suggestions until later."

Hopefully the bully is mature and professional enough to handle the feedback well and change behaviors.

Technique 2: Inclusion

Inclusion also works on all types of bullies. It can be very effective on bullies who act that way because they've been ridiculed or excluded in their past. They're likely bullying and attacking because they feel left out of the group.

Include them. When the team goes to lunch, invite the boss. If it's a coworker and the whole team is meeting about a project, invite them to join. Solicit their opinion on things. It's teamwork 101 people. The more you exclude the person because of their bad behavior, the more they'll behave badly. They're clearly not capable of reversing the negative dynamic. You as a leader need to take the first difficult steps in changing things. It's not hard. Invite them to join you.

When the bully feels included, they're less likely to lash out and punish you for hurting their feelings when you don't include them. Hopefully the more included they feel, the less they'll have a need to bully.

Technique 3: Professional Smack-down

This is a bit of tough love and requires you to assert yourself in a professional way. I don't recommend it for bosses or customers but it can be very helpful with coworkers, team members, or suppliers. Resort to this only after you've tried direct feedback.

When the bully acts up (either in private or in public), you'll need to be direct and forceful. "Ricky, I know you've told me to shut my cakehole. I'd prefer we elevate the conversation to a more professional level. Can we discuss the facts of the issue we're struggling with as a team rather than resorting to name calling?"

You've maintained your composure. You've defined what is and isn't acceptable behavior. You've focused everyone back on the real work to be done. Everyone in the room is probably silently cheering you on and supporting you. You've definitely earned some professionalism points with that one.

Technique 4: Frontal Assault

This is a last resort. Hopefully you've tried the other three techniques first. Unfortunately they clearly haven't worked. The bully continues to bully. Again, I don't recommend this one with bosses or customers unless you're cool with making a career-limiting move.

It'll go something like this:

Ricky: "Shut your cakehole Mike!"

Mike: "Hey Ricky, I'm sick of your bullying. It's completely ridiculous and unprofessional. I've asked you to stop acting like this before but apparently I speak at a frequency you can't hear. Your behavior is utterly unproductive. How about you shut *your* cakehole for a change so the rest of us can actually get some work done?"

Yep. Ugly. It'll be epic water cooler conversation. It will definitely end things one way or the other. Again, I don't recommend this one. It's clearly the nuclear option. That said, life is too short to be miserable at work and let bullies continue smashing your lunch.

How have you dealt with bullies in your work environment? We'd love to hear your suggestions and techniques.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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The Big Jump: Go From Having Answers to Asking Questions

Do you know the difference between a "worker bee" and a senior executive? Have you ever wondered what it takes to move up in the world to those loftier roles? It's pretty simple. You need to move from a world where you provide all the answers to a world where you ask all the questions.

I know there's a cheeky clueless executive joke in there somewhere but I'm actually not joking around (today is my 40th birthday and I've decided I'm going to be completely serious and professional this decade and if you believe that last part, you're obviously a new reader to the blog).

As we enter organizations and rise through the ranks, we're expected (and trained) to have the answers. We, after all, are the front line. We do the work. When someone more senior asks us for information, our job description is to provide it. And provide it we do. We become experts in our field. We know all the answers. We become that "go to" person Scott Eblin describes in this recent post.

And every day we kick butt. We know everything that's asked of us. Heck, we get to a point where we've created everything around us. But one day we wake up wondering why we're not getting promoted. We can't figure out why we, the expert of all experts, isn't rising to the executive ranks. After all, those guys are clueless. All they ever do is ask questions that we have to provide the answers to.

And that my friends is the key to the paradox of advancing to senior management. Questions.

Why Questions are Important

Along with an opposable thumb, we share one other trait with our hairy primate cousins - curiosity. We have an innate desire to understand "what happens if..." that begins in childhood. As we grow into adults, that natural curiosity dissipates and we're expected to have those answers (school, anyone?).

Unfortunately, answers are all about what has already happened. By definition, arriving at an answer means we've understood some aspect of an inquiry. And yes, we now have new knowledge to share, act on, and impart to others.

But rooted in that new knowledge is that original question that led us to insight. Sure, sometimes it's a dumb question that led to interesting answers but more often than not, the person asking the question has taken a step back from the day to day answers. They've tried to make connections, see trends, or predict the future and that's what their question is about. They've looked in crannies others have ignored and they've shone the light of knowledge upon dark and overlooked recesses. That's how they're finding those new insights.

Now think about the smartest senior executives you work with. Ask yourself the balance between the number of questions they ask versus the answers they have. I'll bet you'll find the smarter ones ask really good questions. The weaker executives tend toward offering all the answers. The latter dynamic in its extreme can make them seem like autocratic dictatorial micromanaging know-it-alls who don't let their team have any space to grow (a dynamic I've berated before in this post - I suggest you read it so you don't become a detail-oriented control freak yourself).

What's so cool about working with inquisitive execs like this is they open our eyes to new connections and possibilities. Even better is they're not pompous asses - they're not afraid to admit they don't know the answers. In that admission is an incredible statement of confidence in their abilities. They view not knowing something (but knowing what they don't know) as an asset versus the massive insecurity other execs demonstrate by thinking they have to know everything.

Hmmm... seems like the better execs and leaders out there tend to ask more insightful questions, have more comfort in not knowing things, and are willing to step back and let their teams kick butt in the pursuit of the answer. I'll bet you're thinking "Gee... maybe I want to be like them..."

How to Ask the Right Questions

Now look at your ratio of question to answers. If you spend 100% of your time providing answers, clearly you're not stepping back and asking questions. But not every question is a good one. I hate the phrase "there are no stupid questions" because, actually, there are a LOT of stupid questions - we just don't want to make the stupid people feel stupid for asking them.

You have to ask GOOD questions. So how do you do that? Step away from the need to answer it yourself. Step back from the knowledge you have and look across domains to find connections. Ask what things will look like in a year. 5 years. 10 years. Ask what happens if something new or unthinkable happens. What will the result be? And if that's the result, what will happen next? Look deliberately for connections, trends, or predictions. Shameless plug for my business: if you're interested in building your question-asking toolkit and you too want to be more insightful, I encourage you to learn about our course called thoughtLEADERSHIP: Thinking Beyond Business as Usual. It's fun and awesome.  Even better, it will help you become a much better question-asker.

Try floating these questions in a safe environment (a team meeting, with a peer, etc. - not with the Board of Directors, the CEO, etc.). Preface the question with "I don't know the answer to this but I think this is something important we should look into." By doing so, you're signaling you're not the answer person on this one. You're inviting others to provide input. The more often you do this, the more folks will expect this behavior from you.

Now to pull this off successfully, you can't then run off and come up with the answer yourself. Have others help you (or better yet, have them come back to you with answers). By moving out of the answer guy realm and into the question guy realm, you're freeing up even more time to generate insightful questions, look at macro trends, and make future predictions. Before you know it, you'll be the person asking all the great questions that your team will be eager to run off and answer.

Your task: go ask one really good question today. Resist the urge to answer it yourself. See what happens.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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5 Changes Go-To People Must Make to Keep Going

Today's guest blogger is Scott Eblin. You can read all about him at the end of the post and also learn about his great new book that just hit shelves. I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of it. Here's Scott...

If you’re a high potential leader, there’s about a 98% chance that you’re thought of or view yourself as a “go-to person.” I know that number ‘s in the ballpark because I regularly ask audiences of high potential leaders, “How many of you have been referred to or think of yourself as a ‘go-to person?’” Usually, just about every hand in the room goes up. For example, in a webinar I conducted for Government Executive magazine, 98% of the 400 plus senior managers online answered yes to the “go-to” question in a flash poll.

And what do I mean by “go-to person”? As one leader explained it to me, “I’m the closer.” You either know the type or you are the type. Go to people are the ones who make sure the job gets done. If that means taking over, so be it. If that means staying up into the wee hours, so be it. Organizations reward go-to people because they can rely on them. They’re the kinds of folks who are designated as high potentials and are promoted into bigger and bigger jobs. Great stuff, right? Well, it is until it isn’t...

We’ve all seen the cases of high performing, super achieving go-to people who are promoted to executive level roles and then hit the wall. The air is rare up there and the failure rate is high. A well known study by the Center for Creative Leadership shows that up to 40% of newly promoted managers and executives are no longer in their roles within 18 months of their promotion. What goes wrong? Ironically, it stems from that go-to person approach. With each move up, the scope of work expands. Instead of results expectations in one or two areas, results are expected on multiple fronts.

Through my work with both seasoned and rising leaders, I’ve concluded that executive success depends on a process of picking up and letting go. There are sets of behaviors that executives need to pick up and let go of when they take on bigger jobs and the new expectations that go with them. Over the years, I’ve developed and tested a model of leadership that breaks these pick up and let go behaviors into three types of leadership presence – personal, team and organizational. The model looks like this:

For the go-to person leader, picking up is the easier part of the process. The go-to folks are bright people. They learn quickly. Picking up new skills is usually a cognitive challenge. What’s more challenging is the letting go. That’s an emotional hurdle because now you’re facing letting go of some of the very behaviors that made you successful on your way up.

Over the past several years, my company has conducted a 360 degree assessment based on the Next Level model for over 500 rising executives. The aggregate results tell an interesting story about the strengths these go-to people bring to the table as well as the behaviors they need to adjust to succeed in their executive level roles.

At the high end of the scale are behaviors like having a strong desire for the team to succeed, demonstrating stamina and energy and showing mental acuity. When you consider that our database consists of assessments for high potential leaders, the high end results aren’t surprising. They’re really the baseline behaviors and characteristics of go-to people. Where things get interesting is the behaviors that are the five items that the colleagues of these high potentials rate the lowest. They are:

- Paces him/herself by building in regular breaks from work.
- Leaves time in his/her schedule for unexpected problems or issues.
- Spends less time using his/her functional skills and more time encouraging team members to use theirs.
- Regularly takes time to step back and define or redefine what needs to be done.
- Spends less time on day to day issues and more time on strategic opportunities.

When you connect the dots, you see a picture of go-to people who are running flat out until they crash because it’s hard to let go of self reliance. Many of my clients take on this challenge in a focused development process that we call an Executive Success Plan or ESP. Based on follow-up colleague feedback, the ones that are most successful are the ones that focus in on one or two key behaviors and then get their colleagues engaged with providing simple ideas for how to be better. If you’re clear about what you’re working on, tell people what you’re working on, ask them for ideas on how to improve and follow through on their good ideas, you can become a better leader.

It all lines up with what Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Successful executives learn to pick up new habits and let go of old ones that enable them to make the shift from go-to person to leader of go-to people.

Scott Eblin is the author of The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success. Scott is also an executive coach, speaker, and blogger. He is a former Fortune 500 HR executive, president of The Eblin Group and graduate of Davidson College, Harvard University, and Georgetown University’s leadership coaching certificate program, where he is also on the faculty.

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Email Stupidity: Reply All Cuts Both Ways

Reply All is the dumbest button ever.

I can't tell you how much junk ends up in my inbox that should be a private conversation or frankly that I just don't care about. I'll bet if Microsoft removed the Reply All function from Outlook, U.S. productivity would climb by 15%, GDP would pop by a trillion dollars, and there would be 84% fewer aneurysms at work.

I believe there should be a qualification test you have to pass before Reply All functionality even works on your machine. It's bad enough when people misuse the button because they're clueless. It's even worse when they misuse it to be passive aggressive or to play political games.

Yes, this is a bit of a rant post (like you expect less?) but it's also a cautionary tale of how technology can be your friend and your enemy. You might think your laptop is cute and cuddly like WALL-E only to find out it rises up to destroy you like the terminator. Heed this advice now or pay the price later...

This one time, at band camp... oh. Sorry. Wrong blog. Lemme try again.

This one time, there was a team I was on. They did incredible work. They had found the balance between analytical rigor and rapid decision making. When they got busy, stuff happened.

At one point our team was making a meaty recommendation. The implications of the decision were pretty large so we made sure we involved the relevant stakeholders in the decision making process. Unfortunately many of those decision makers were either at remote locations or their schedules precluded us from getting in front of them face to face. Email became the channel we had to use to involve them.

The team sent out the presentation to those stakeholders. One guy in particular loved playing the "I'm smarter than you are" game and he usually did so by pointing out errors others had made. He'd do so in front of as large an audience as possible. When he received the presentation (which was also sent to about 20 other senior level execs on the same email) he decided it was time to play "gotcha!"

He thought he found an error in the team's work. He deliberately hit reply all. We knew it was deliberate because his greeting on the email was "Hello everyone. I'm including all of you on this message because I think we need to all understand a problem I've found." He decried the team's "lack of rigor" and said he kind of expected it because he had "seen them do sloppy analysis before" (yes, he was a jackass). He demanded the decision not be made until the team "got it right." Everything came to a grinding halt. The team was shocked.

We looked into this "error." We were pleasantly surprised to find he had misread one of the pages and transposed some of the numbers. His conclusions were dead wrong. I informed him of this via a direct email addressed only to him. I explained where he had misread the numbers and clarified the conclusion was still valid.

He replied directly to me. "I'm sorry. You're right. I misread the numbers. I'm cool with the decision." It struck me as odd he had suddenly forgotten how fantastic the Reply All button was. I saw it as my civic duty to remind him.

I wrote: "Thanks for supporting the decision. I need you to send that same message you sent to me about how you were wrong and the team was right to all those folks on your first Reply All message. All those stakeholders are holding off on the decision and they still think the team does sloppy work. I need you to correct both of those points."

His reply: "Well you can just update them and tell them I'm okay with the analysis." He was backing out of doing the right thing.

I replied: "Either you can send the Reply All retraction and correction or I can write my own along with my own color commentary on the entire situation. I believe you'd definitely prefer the former to the latter in this case."

His reply all retraction went out in about 2 minutes flat. In all the time the team worked with him after that, we never saw another reply all. If he had concerns with something, he came to the team directly to have them addressed. Behavior change is a wonderful thing.

A few parting points of guidance on using Reply All:

1. Make sure you know the difference between the Reply and Reply All buttons and what they do. I know it sounds silly but you'd be surprised how many folks don't appreciate the difference.

2. Be deliberate when using Reply All. Look at it through the lens of "Care All" (as in does EVERYONE on that list REALLY care about your reply?). If not everyone will care, remove those who won't and target your message.

3. Don't play reindeer political passive aggressive games with the reply all button. I guarantee that strategy will backfire on you at some point. Be a grown up and go express your concerns directly. Everyone involved will appreciate it if you do.

4. Never escalate a Reply All passive aggressive war. See point 3 above.

5. One exception to this guidance is you should OCCASIONALLY use Reply All when you want to praise someone on the team for doing great work such that all recipients know about said great work. Praise in public. It makes the workplace a brighter place.

So who has a funny reply all story to share? Let's hear it in the comments below.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Critical Tips Every Traveler Must Know

Most days I work from home but lately I have a lot of travel coming up. A *lot* of travel. And outside of airline delays (and terrorists), there's nothing worse than dealing with a clueless traveler.

These are the people who cause massive delays in lines. They're the ones who make the flight miserable. They're the ones you want to introduce to your alter-ego Mr. Stabby McStabStab. And most horrifyingly, they're sometimes YOU (but no one has ever told you).

So in the spirit of making the skies a little friendlier, I'm going to offer some simple, tactical tips on how to be a better traveler and reduce your risk of someone tipping TSA off that you need a cavity search because you were muttering something about "bomb in my pants."

Feel free to pass this along to all the traveling rookies in your company. They were college kids a few weeks ago and they don't know any better yet. Let's see if together we can't lick this travel stupidity epidemic.

Here's everything you ever needed to know about traveling like a pro:

Packing: If you have to sit on the bag, you have too much crap in it. Leave something home. You're coming back and wherever you're going I'll bet they have stores there. When you overpack your "carry-on" you decrease the chance it will actually fit in the overhead (see below points on use of the overhead).

Arrival at the airport: Get there EARLY. I've begun saying "no" to the people who ask to cut in front of me in the security line because their flight is leaving soon. Wake up earlier. I did. You can too. Now, if you're late because of a car accident or because your connection arrived late, that's cool. If you're late because you can't plan, I have no sympathy. News flash: airports are more crowded and security is slower. Arrive earlier. Have a drink at the gate or something. Unless you can prove to me that a stampede of mastodons attacked your car en route to the airport, you're not cutting me in line.

Security (part 1): When you get in line GET YOUR ID AND BOARDING PASS OUT. It's not a shock that TSA will ask for it. When you get up to the TSA agent after standing in line for 20 minutes then you take 2 minutes rooting through your bags/wallet for your ID, it makes my head explode (and more importantly slows up the line). Doing this is the equivalent of standing in line at McDonald's for 20 minutes then when it's your turn you begin reading the menu to figure out what you want. Be prepared with your papers please.

Security (part 2): THEY'RE METAL DETECTORS PEOPLE! Please don't be the guy who goes through, sets it off, then remembers he has 863 keys and a steel ingot in his pocket. Empty your pockets. This shouldn't be a surprise. This guidance also applies to all your gallons of toiletries. The guidelines are simple. Follow them. Otherwise we get to sit there patiently thinking of various ways to disembowel you while you go through the metal detector 6 or 7 times.

Security (part 3): Once you've successfully navigated the x-ray and metal detector, it is not time to repack all your things perfectly nor should you be primping your clothes to look just so WHILE YOU'RE STILL IN LINE AT THE X-RAY CONVEYOR BELT. Grab your junk, move along, and commence repacking operations in the always-empty Jamba Juice lounge on the other side of security. While you're repacking, stuff is piling up on the x-ray belt and we're all waiting for you to get out of the way.

Boarding (part 1): Zone 4 means Zone 4, not "Zone 1 because no one can see the Zone 4 on your boarding pass." Board when called. Simple concept. Even Southwest figured out they had to give us cattle numbers to maintain some semblance of order upon boarding. It's like grade school folks - no cuts. No backsies, no erasies, stamped it to infinity plus one.

Boarding (part 2): If the overhead is closed IT'S FULL. DON'T open it to see if you can fit your oversized bag in it. You're slowing things down. If it doesn't fit you must check it (said in my best Johnnie Cochran voice). Also, put it in the overhead over YOUR seat. None of this "chuck it in the first overhead I see then saunter back to my seat in row 735" stuff. If you're in the back, bring your bag with you. They have overheads back there too. When you put it in the overheads in the front row, you cause a chaotic mash of bag shuffling, gate checking, and general orneriness.

Boarding (part 3): SIT DOWN. If you're having trouble handling your grande iced no foam double whip half cream half milk double pretentiousness triple snotty latte, your 6 magazines, your iPad, and your iPod maybe you need to rethink your whole carry-on strategy. Sit down. Please. Let everyone else board so we can get where we need to go. Related: 1 carry-on and 1 personal item mean just that. It doesn't mean 1 oversized bag + 1 purse + 1 fanny pack + 1 souvenir too big to ship + 1 laptop case. I've stopped blaming the airlines for our late departures and now lay the blame where it belongs - on the people who can't get seated so we can take off.

In flight:  If you strike up a conversation, bully for you. If you are instead greeted with monosyllabic replies and furtive attempts by your conversation partner to extricate their attention back into their book, take the hint. They don't want to talk to you. And if you do find a chat partner, please keep it below 974 decibels. Some of us are trying to sleep on this 6 hour flight. Also, if you insist on bringing your own food aboard, please rethink the tuna sandwich with garlic, onions, and a side of prune juice. Please.

Baggage claim: Grab it and get out of the way. No prolonged inspections. No repacking in the baggage claim area. Grab it and leave. 'nuff said.

Car rental: Betcha $50 they're gonna ask to see your license. If you're the person who was in front of me this morning who had to get out of the car, open the trunk, rummage through luggage to find his wallet in order to present his license, you really need to reevaluate your cognitive skills. Please be ready with license in hand.

Look, I know it's about the journey and not the destination but I'm sure the author of that quote wasn't referring to air travel. I'd actually like to enjoy the journey as I'm sure you would too. If we all simply think a little more about what's coming next in the airport, the world will be a better place and the journeys that much more enjoyable.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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All I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned at a Lemonade Stand

It's frickin' hot, huh? Wow. But the dawning summer heat is a great reminder of good, solid marketing principles.

Many of us make "marketing" some arcane science. Focus groups, market research, surveys, brand consultants. Meh.

I learned everything I need to know about marketing at a lemonade stand.

As I was tooling around in my car this weekend, I was reminded of what it takes to be a great marketer. Really, it's not as hard as the Marketing Group makes you think it is. The reminder of these principles came in the form of the perennial lemonade stand.

I drove past four such stands this weekend. Each one demonstrated a core principle you must adhere to if you want to be a successful marketer.

Marketing is about understanding a need and meeting it

It was hot this weekend. Unfortunately for Lil' Jimmy's Big Ade Stand, it wasn't hot at 815AM when I drove by. I give the kid bonus points for getting to work early on a Sunday but he clearly missed the mark. He was out there selling his little heart out. The problem was the market did not have a need.

Lil' Jimmy was targeting a market that didn't exist. No need equals no sales. He had his dreams crushed by about 10AM and had packed it in thinking no one wanted lemonade that day. Jimmy's problem was the market of overweight underexercised middle-aged homeowners doing yard work was just ramping up at 10. Jimmy missed the market. Right product. Wrong time.

Look at your business. What is THE MARKET asking for? Are you delivering what they want when they want it or are you pushing your product into a market you hope exists?

Marketing is about communicating value

The next group of kids I drove by were freaks. They were running around screaming unintelligibly like 16 year old girls at a Justin Bieber show. They looked like they were jacked up on Mountain Dew and Pixie Stix.

As they screamed at my car as I drove by, I know they wanted me to buy something but I wasn't sure what they were selling. No signage. No table with a pitcher and cups set out on it (they did have a ramshackle pile o' crap sitting about 15' away from the mob on the sidewalk).

I drove by mostly out of fear of being mauled.

They weren't communicating value. It was hot. Their selling message should have been as simple as a BIG sign that said "Thirsty? Lemonade here!"

Too many times we overcomplicate our marketing message. What's the need? What value or solution do you provide? Ditch the consultospeak and brandbabble. Plain and simple - what value/solution are you selling? Note I didn't say what product are you selling. Sell solutions. If they had sold me a solution to my thirst I might have stopped.

Marketing is about passion

The next lemonade stand I drove by had great signage. Clear and simple. "Lemonade 25 cents." It was hot by now. Very hot. The stand had a nice table, neatly arranged cups, and a pitcher at the ready.

Problem - Frankie and Susie weren't at their post. The kids were sitting under umbrellas under a tree 20' away from their stand. They were listless and disinterested. They were waiting for the business to roll in.

I kept driving. If they didn't care enough about their business to attend to it, I didn't care enough about it to become a patron.

You have to show passion for what you do people. Without passion, customers won't have faith in your products or services. Anyone who has ever sat through one of my classes knows I'm passionate about what I do. It's core to the service delivery model. Without that passion, my business is dead on arrival.

How are you demonstrating your passion to your customers or prospects? Do they know how committed you are to delivering something that will delight them? If not, you'd better get hopping.

Marketing is about your customer

The last stand I drove by was operated by a delightful young lady named Julia. She had a neatly arranged table and simple, clear signage that read "Delicious, cold lemonade!" She stood by her stand waving politely at cars despite the sweltering heat.

I slowed down and rolled down the window. As the cool air from my car washed over her, she sighed and smiled. "Are you thirsty mister? It sure is hot out."

"Why yes, actually I am. What do you recommend?"

"If I were you, I'd get a large glass of my ice cold lemonade. A small glass is 50 cents but a large is only 25 cents more. You look like you could use a large."

How could I say no to that? A 10 year old kid was looking at the world through her customer's eyes. Not to mention she had a killer upsell. I took a large, gave her a buck (how do you not tip in a situation like that?) and drove off with a smile.

See? Marketing doesn't have to be complex. Find a need. Sell a solution. Be passionate. Think about your customer.

What techniques have you found helpful in your marketing efforts?

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Great Leaders Should Move to a Cubicle

Congratulations! You've arrived. You've earned that nice cushy office where you can shut the door and no one can hear you listening to the greatest American Idol video ever on YouTube (or looking for a video card to send your mom on Mother's Day - use this one next year).

Yep. The office is fantastic. But if you want to demonstrate some real leadership, toss your junk into a box and move into Downtown Cubeville.

Before I explain why I encourage you to head out into the ant farm, let's acknowledge why cubicles are one of the most horrific inventions ever:
- You have NO privacy
- You can hear *everything* everyone around you says
- You can smell every roadkill opossum Lean Cuisine entree your neighbor heats up in the microwave
- You can be subjected to the scorching hellfire of your cube-mate's space heater or the gale force winds of their oscillating fan
- The lovely industrial gray or taupe of the cube walls makes you want to scream

All that said, sometimes getting back to the cube is a good thing if you're the boss. There are two major benefits from doing so. You'll just have to trust me on these and give them a try sometime.

You Tell Your Team They're Your Equal

I had a great boss named Terry. When I was negotiating my job offer, I asked him if I'd be sitting in an office or a cube. This was a top-of-mind question as I'm easily distracted and have a hard time focusing while in a cube.

He said "You'll definitely be in an office."

My first day arrived. His assistant met me in the lobby and she showed me to my brand spankin' new office. It was awesome. Plenty of space to sprawl my crap out everywhere.

After unpacking for about an hour, I asked where Terry was. I needed to ask him some questions. His assistant guided me down Cubicle Lane. She stopped halfway down, pointed, and said "He sits here." I was confused. My boss sat in a cube?

Terry arrived a minute later and I asked "Why do you sit in a cube? I thought you'd be in an office."

"I was. It's your office now. I promised you'd have one and another open one won't be ready for a few months until we reorganize the floor plan. I promised you'd have an office. Is that okay?"

"Um, yeah." My head spun. How awesome was my new boss that he moved his stuff out of HIS office so I could have it like he promised before I accepted the job? His actions spoke volumes (and I finally really understood how my soldiers felt that time I was turning a wrench under the tank).

Terry demonstrated that it's an equal playing field. With a simple, temporary move, he showed his people came first. He could have made me wait the 6 months until the floor was reorganized or he could take on the inconvenience himself. Doing the latter instantly cemented my loyalty for him.

You Learn A LOT by Being in a Cube

Remember the part above about no privacy and hearing everything? Guess what? Sometimes that's a good thing.

If you're in a cube (even temporarily) your people are more likely to pop in, ask questions, chit chat, and generally keep you in the loop. When you're in an office, the chances of them strolling in and chatting go down exponentially.

It's not about you - it's the dynamic of the open spaces of a cube. When they walk by and ask questions, you have more opportunities to influence decisions, understand them as people, and generally be better informed.

When you hear the frustration mounting in adjacent cubes when projects are going off track, you're able to intervene and help sooner. If you're in an office, you're just as likely to be surprised by the project going off track because you didn't have the benefit of that early warning complaining you'll hear in a cube.

Sure, cubicles are awful but they're here to stay. Maybe as a leader you can go for a spin in one (even if it's just for a couple of months to create a "project team cube" where everyone works). It can endear you to your team and get you back in the core flow of information.

And for those of you who think it's easy for me because I work from the home office, you've never heard a boxer, a Jack Russell, and a poodle/shnauzer fight all day while you're on a conference call...

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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12 Things My Son Would Say In Your *Stupid* Meeting

Admit it - you can't stand meetings. Me either. I'd rather shove a rusty plastic spork in my eye (think about it...).

Why do we loathe meetings so much? Most likely because they're venues where we can witness atrocious and moronic behaviors while wasting minutes of our lives that we'll never get back.

Guess what? The meetings you hold are terrible too. Seriously. Fess up. By the way, my meetings are awful as well.

So I had writer's block and asked my twitter followers to pick a blog topic. Here it is: 12 things my son would say in a meeting. This post will be sort of like my April Foolish Office Behaviors to Kill post (go read it - you'll love it).

For those of you who haven't read about my son before, he's hysterical. Acerbic wit. Moronic ideas. Biting sarcasm. Silly concepts. I guess he has a career in blogging ahead of him.

A little about my son: He's 13. He never stops eating. His nickname is "Galactus" so named after a Fantastic Four villain who is commonly known as "The Devourer of Worlds." Trust me - you don't envy my food bill.

Anyway... in this post I'll tee up 12 common meeting situations and offer you his take on that behavior. Hopefully you'll see the wisdom inherent in his perspectives. I'll simply give an example of the typical meeting behavior. Galactus will supply the commentary.

You should be smart enough to walk away with the implied lesson and the "to do" of changing the behaviors on this list.

12. You've invited *everyone* in the department to your meeting "so everyone can be in the loop."
Galactus: "Can I get some oxygen in here? And someone please turn on a fan. And call HR. I'm pretty sure there's some inappropriate touching going on what with everyone being packed in so closely."

11. You're late for the start of your own meeting.
Galactus: "Buy a watch, clown."

10. Someone is eating during the meeting (and it's not a lunch session).
Galactus: "Hey Chewy McLipsmacker, can you crinkle the foil wrapper on your granola bar a little louder please?"

9. As you explain something, the listener says "I got it" but you feel compelled to keep explaining.
Galactus: "Shut your cake hole. I said I got it."

8. 30 minute meeting. 65 page PowerPoint presentation.
Galactus: "Do the math, chief. Ain't happening."

7. Your phone shows off your new Lady Gaga ringtone.
Galactus: "It's called 'vibrate' Mr. Gagaboy. Give it a try."

6. It's billed as an "input" meeting but the facilitator does nothing but "output."
Galactus: "If I knew I was coming here for you to tell me my opinion, I would have called in dead today."

5. Someone is demonstrating their personal grooming habits (picking teeth, picking nails, picking nose, etc.).
Galactus: "The spa is down the street 3 blocks."

4. There's excessive use of buzzwords.
Galactus: "Allow me to synthesize in a value-added way that leverages our platform for synergistic conversations. At the end of the day, you're a pretentious jackass."

3. You conclude the meeting with "so next week we'll have a follow-up meeting to drive this stuff to resolution."
Galactus: "Meeting FAIL."

2. You say "Okay everyone! Grab some of the toys at your table and start playing because they foster an environment of innovation!"
Galactus: "Wow. Corporate nursery school. HEY! THAT'S MY MR. POTATO HEAD!"

1. You say "Hey, that's a great idea. How about we set up a meeting and get together to discuss that?"
Galactus: "Can we actually talk about it right now or am I missing something like your insipid need to have every piece of work you do be recorded for time immemorial in the annals of Microsoft Outlook?"

I told you he's a sharp kid. And if you haven't picked up your "to do's" from this post yet, just go do the opposite of the above 12 items and you'll be fine.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Hate Presenting? That's Okay - They Hate Listening to You

This might sound mean but we don't want to hear you present. The thought of you inviting us to your 2 hour presentation on "Budget Variances and Optimized Value-Added Opportunities for Synergies" makes us want to barf. Why? Because we're terrified of watching you present.

I'm going to be a little snotty in this post (okay... maybe a lot snotty). First, you kind of expect that from me. Second, if I'm nice and polite, you won't listen. I'm like your best friend who tells you you've been drinking too much and wearing lampshades too frequently. It's not pleasant news but it's definitely constructive and helpful.

Let's break it down. There are three reasons we don't want to hear you speak. Your presentation is awful. You're boring and stiff. You talk down to us. Because of that, we hate you.

I know presentations are the lifeblood of every corporation. Without PowerPoint you guys would shrivel up and blow away. The thing is, you don't have to be so terrible at it (although part of me is very thankful it's such a rampant problem otherwise our Structured Thought and Communications Course wouldn't be in such high demand).

I won't go into why it's critical for you to get better at building compelling presentations and having powerful meetings. If you haven't figured that out yet, you need to stop reading this blog and head down to McDonald's and pick up an application. I will go into why we think you're awful, boring, and condescending. And don't worry, I'll offer some suggestions on how to fix the problems. Here goes...

Your Presentation is Awful

If I had a dollar for every time someone put up a slide in 8 pt and said "I know you can't read this from there but let me explain..." I would have enough money to pay Dr. Evil's ransom. Even worse is when you CAN read the part at the bottom that says "Slide 18 of 84."

I'm not going to be nice here: your "presentation" is an amalgamation of 84 pages of crap you threw together just so you can show everyone how hard you've been working. The deck lacks a compelling story. There's no "so what?" embedded in it.

Solution: craft a short, compelling story that focuses on THE NEEDS OF YOUR AUDIENCE. What do they care about? What's their hot button? How can you push it and get a reaction from them? If you do a great job of targeting their needs and telling them how you're doing so via a crisp story, you'll end up with a much shorter and clearer presentation. Read this post for more guidance on getting to the "so what?" in a compelling way.

One mor awfeul thing about your presntartion: you misspel stuff and use the wrong words. Those red squiggly things under the words? Their they're to show you incorekt spelings. Take the extra 5 minutes to profreed your presentation. It's worth it. I've harped on this before a long time ago in another post. Check this out for some additional no no's on how to right.

You're Boring and Stiff

Okay Mr. Roboto. We know you're a corporate guy and need to look "professional" in front of the team. But professional doesn't have to mean you speak in a monotone, lack passion, or present like C3PO. I'm not advocating you become a Chris Farleyesque motivational speaker but you have to inject some of your personality into the presentation.

It's okay to make people laugh (unless you're presenting on factory fatalities and your company's poor safety record). You can let them see you're passionate about your work. You have a personality. I assume people will like it. Let it shine through. When you go all "corporate" on me I want to shove a pen in my ear. A really long pen capable of puncturing my brain stem.

Solution: Presenting is about connecting. It's not about PowerPoint. Sometimes it's okay to go naked and present without a presentation. Absent doing that, try getting your audience excited. How do you do that? Talk about topics THEY find exciting. Speak their language. Present on topics THEY care deeply about. If you do, you'll find they engage in your subject much more rapidly.

You Talk Down to Us

The next time someone busts out the polysyllabic consultospeak on me I'm going to throw a binder clip at them. And not one of those tiny binder clips. I'm talking about the mondo Texas-sized ones. When you try to impress us with your big words, you come across as pretentious and confusing. When you do that, we don't listen to you (but that's fixable).

Even worse from a "talking down" standpoint is reading to us. When you read to us, you insult us. You're turning your back to us and reading verbatim from your slides. It tells us you don't trust our ability to read and it conjures up memories of Pappy telling us bedtime stories. Unless your presentation is about Where the Wild Things Are or a Dr. Seuss classic, this is bad mojo.

The only good thing about you reading to us is you have your back to us and you're preoccupied with the reading. This means you won't notice us about to stab you in the neck with a letter opener while you're focused on your slides.

Solution: use simple words. Speak in simple sentences. It's easier to understand. I know a CEO who says "if it has a staple in it, I won't read it." Translation: he craves simplicity. Get the jargon out of your presentation. It will make it easier to understand. It also makes you seem like less of a pretentious ass.

As far as how to stop yourself from reading to us, tell us where to focus, then shut up. Highlight one or two important points on the page. Focus us. While we're busy reading, watch our reactions. Our facial expressions will tell you if we're tracking or if we're confused. If we're tracking, move along. If we're confused, have a discussion about the source of confusion.

Presenting doesn't have to be hard. Notice I didn't cover a ton of "platform skills" in the above. I've focused more on crafting the story, understanding the audience, and choosing your language deliberately. If you do those three things then go have a conversation with someone (vs. presenting to someone) I guarantee we won't murder you.

If your organization needs help with these challenges, drop me a line. We can fix the problem.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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