Mike Figliuolo

Founder and managing director

Mike Figliuolo is the author of The Elegant Pitch (Weiser, 2016) and One Piece of Paper (Jossey-Bass, 2011), and co-author of Lead Inside the Box (Weiser, 2015). He’s also the managing director of thoughtLEADERS LLC, a leadership development training firm. He regularly writes about leadership in the thoughtLEADERS Brief on LinkedIn.

Fri, 12/06/2024 - 11:07
Leading Your Team Through Failure and Success It’s all about finding balance
Thu, 03/24/2016 - 13:01
Finding the right balance between how you handle success and failure makes a tremendous difference in the motivation level of your team members. There are some simple techniques for celebrating success and dealing with failure. Apply them and you’…
Spend Less Time and Be a More Effective Leader Begin with an assessment of your ‘leadership capital’
Tue, 10/13/2015 - 14:54
Time is your most precious resource. If you’re not mindful about how you invest it in your team members, you won’t be happy with the “returns” you get. Being more effective requires you to look at your time in a new light. Do leaders work, or do…
Twelve Services Leaders Must Provide for Their Teams Directing, doing, delivering, and developing
Mon, 08/17/2015 - 16:32
Great leaders get the best out of their teams by providing 12 core leadership “services.” The best leaders provide these services in an efficient and effective way. Every leader wants to give their team all the help they need—help that can come in…
SWOT Your Strategic Problems Away How to prioritize the initiatives of a strategic plan
Tue, 05/12/2015 - 16:37
Strategic planning requires you to understand the competitive landscape in which you’re operating. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to get your arms around the complex market dynamics you face. A great tool you can use to assess the environment is…
How to Lead a Rising Star Let them shine
Tue, 04/28/2015 - 12:18
Erin joined your team about a year ago. She came in with many other candidates for a job opening, and she impressed you during the interview. She was far and away the best candidate. She has lived up to the high expectations she set in her…
Do You Enable Your Team’s Poor Performance? Delegate, set expectations, and hold people accountable
Thu, 03/12/2015 - 16:19
If you’re frustrated with your team members not delivering high-quality work, you might be the root cause of the problem. It’s time to stop being an enabler of their bad behaviors. Alan leads a team of highly intelligent scientists. Although most…
Achieving a Work/Work Balance Don’t let work you dislike encroach on work you love
Wed, 01/21/2015 - 10:52
Leading a balanced life is a critical aspect of performing well as a leader. There are two types of balance. We always think about work/life balance in terms of “how much time do I spend away from the office?” You probably spend more hours at the…
How ‘Why?’ and ‘So What?’ Can Fuel Innovation It’s much better to lead the change than to be led by it
Wed, 11/05/2014 - 12:27
One of the biggest barriers to creating new ideas is the raw inertia of organizations. Personally, I’m not satisfied with the “way we’ve always done it.” Whenever I’m given an explanation of how the organization does something, I ask, “Why?” five…
Asking Questions Is Important Move out of the ‘answer guy’ realm
Tue, 09/23/2014 - 10:28
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…
The Strategic Value of Saying No Say ‘yes’ to the initiatives you’ve already chosen
Wed, 08/20/2014 - 07:50
Repeat after me: “No.” Try it again. This time with conviction: “NO.” Strategy is inherently about saying no. It’s about the choices we make, and the ones we don’t make. I’ve seen plenty of strategies completely derailed due to an inability to say…