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.

Tue, 12/10/2024 - 12:02
Detail-Oriented vs. Control FreakWhere do you draw the line with bosses?
Mon, 06/26/2023 - 12:03
Twice in the last week I’ve heard about “idiot bosses.” Being the inquisitive guy I am, I probed for the root cause of such comments. Rather than simply asking what the cause is, I decided to address the symptoms first. Q: “Tell me more about this…
A Little Spring Cleaning for Your Work Life Steps to decluttering your brain and your office
Thu, 06/22/2023 - 12:02
It’s a great time of year. Beautiful weather, flowers blooming, and 110 bags of mulch to be spread tell you it’s spring. Now is when we traditionally clean our homes and yards. It’s also a great time to clean up your work and professional life.…
How to Identify and Motivate Slackers on Your TeamFrom torpor to torpedo
Thu, 02/16/2023 - 12:03
You put a lot of time and energy into leading slackers, but you don’t get anything back in terms of results. Your job as a leader is to figure out what will motivate them to perform. Slackers are in the lower left corner of the leadership matrix.…
Going from Being a Peer to Being Their BossAwkward!
Mon, 11/14/2022 - 12:03
One of the most awkward situations you can encounter in business is when someone goes from being a peer to being the boss. If you do a few things well, you can make the transition smoothly. Life is full of awkward moments: the first kiss, an…
How to Prioritize Your Team’s Work and Improve FocusIt’s easy for your team to get sidetracked if your strategy has a lot of moving parts
Mon, 04/12/2021 - 12:02
A consistent and regularly scheduled prioritization process helps eliminate distractions and can focus your efforts on the most meaningful projects. Some processes are formal, while others are simply frequent conversations about priorities. Choose a…
SMART Goals, Part 2How to make your goals achievable, relevant, and time bound
Wed, 03/17/2021 - 12:02
In the first article of this series, we discussed the specific and measurable aspects of SMART goals. Here in part 2, we’re talking about the last three characteristics: achievable, relevant, and time bound. Achievable Another characteristic of a…
SMART Goals, Part 1How to make your goals specific and measurable
Tue, 03/09/2021 - 12:02
When you set goals, I suggest you try to set SMART ones. SMART is an acronym. It stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. These are the key characteristics of a good goal. Now there are multiple versions of SMART out…
How to Avoid Mistakes When Doing Analysis and Making RecommendationsThree pitfalls on the road to success
Wed, 11/11/2020 - 12:03
A hypothesis-driven approach to problem solving and making recommendations can be tremendously efficient. You create a hypothesis (i.e., something taken to be true for the sake of argument), conduct analysis designed to prove or disprove the…
How to See Your Projects to CompletionSix reasons projects go bad and how to avoid them
Thu, 04/23/2020 - 12:03
Projects go off the rails all the time. Some statistics I’ve seen say only one in eight projects can truly be declared a success. Why are we so horrible at executing projects, especially when we have all these “tried and true” project management…
Components of High-Performing CulturesCreate a virtuous circle to empower your team
Mon, 11/11/2019 - 12:03
Driving a strong business starts with the people who work for your business, and those people align with the business through the company culture. How are you shaping yours? A high-performing culture is one where people drive performance because of…