About Mike Figliuolo

Mike is the Founder and Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS, LLC – a professional training firm focused on leadership development.   His new book Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results is designed to help leaders use their time and effort more efficiently and effectively so they get the best performance possible out of their teams.  His previous book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership is designed to help leaders define who they are and what their personal leadership philosophy is.

He teaches a course on the Lead Inside the Box method in which he facilitates your use of the approach covered in the book to create your own plan for improving your team’s performance.  He’s also available as a speaker for your next event.  Simply contact him if you’re interested in bringing him into your organization to speak.

He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1993 where he was an honor graduate and a Distinguished Cadet. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. He spent five years as an Armor officer in a variety of roles including Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, Personnel Officer and ROTC Instructor at Duke University.

After leaving the Army, he joined McKinsey and Company as a management consultant. He served clients in several industries (banking, retail, healthcare, chemicals, and technology) on a variety of issues (strategy, mergers & acquisitions, cost reductions, growth and business building). He also published many of his findings in professional development documents proprietary to McKinsey as well as publishing an article in The McKinsey Quarterly.

Mike next worked at Capital One Financial as Group Manager of Strategy & Analysis and as Director of Specialty Collections. He was responsible for ~$1B in collections, a $125MM budget and the performance of 150 employees. The initiatives his teams put in place delivered over $125MM in value.

Mike’s most recent roles were Vice President, Quality Improvement, Customer Service, Business Development & Service Support for Scotts LawnService where he was responsible for acquisitions, division strategy, technology infrastructure, customer service, and franchise operations. Previously, he was Vice President, Strategic Planning at The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (SMG) where he was responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company by working directly with the executive team (CEO, CFO, Division Presidents) to assess where to take the business long-term and then identifying opportunities to achieve corporate goals.

Mike founded thoughtLEADERS because he believes practitioners make the best instructors and because he has a passion for people development and organizational improvement.  In 2010 he was named the Columbus, Ohio Small Business Leader of the Year by the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

I strongly recommend Lead Inside the Box for leaders at all levels. It provides practical and simple guidance for how to better spend your time and energy to get better results from your team while improving your relationship with them at the same time.”
– Robert J. Herbold, Chief Operating Officer (Retired), Microsoft Corporation

Finally, a leadership book that cuts through all of the noise, theories and models out there to deliver a practical approach to lead, motivate and engage today’s diverse, multi-generational workforce for maximum results. In an ever-changing global marketplace where leaders have to do more with less and do it faster than ever before, this book gives you the tools to effectively manage your people and to elevate them to new levels of performance and success. This book needs to be on every leader’s desk!”
– Andrea Procaccino, Chief Learning Officer, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

My experience leading teams that work across the globe and across the hall tells me that this book would have helped me from the beginning, to be a better leader. With all the pressures leaders face, we must find new ways to lead our teams more effectively. Lead Inside the Box gives leaders a model of not just being effective but efficient; time we all sorely need. This is a great fundamental read for every leader and team member no matter what level you are at.”

– Rob Miller, Divisional Vice President, R&D and Scientific & Medical Affairs, Abbott Nutrition

Leaders are consistently being asked to do more with less. Lead Inside the Box provides leaders a simple yet effective construct for more efficiently spending their time and energy with their people to get significantly better results. Victor Prince and Mike Figliuolo have provided a realistic approach for being a better leader.”

– Sean Huffman, President, OhioHealth Neighborhood Care

I’ve seen many overly-complicated leadership models in my career. Lead Inside the Box breaks that mold and provides leaders something simple yet practical that they can use every day to improve their team’s performance.”

– Mark Naidicz, Vice President, Human Resources & Employee Relations, AbbVie

WOW! Mike Figliuolo does it again. Lead Inside the Box takes a complex topic – prioritizing leadership effort to maximize productivity – and makes it both approachable and manageable. This book provides a strategic matrix and immediate tools to use your ‘leadership capital’ for maximum team success. What are you waiting for? Buy this book, apply the concepts, and lead smarter.”

– Joseph Michelli, Customer Experience Consultant and New York Times #1 Bestselling Author of books like Leading the Starbucks Way, The Zappos Experience, and The New Gold Standard

I have been a fan of Mike Figliuolo’s work for some time because I have found his research solid and insights sparkling. His new title, Lead Inside the Box co-authored with Victor Prince, is an exceptional addition to Figliuolo’s body of work. Lead Inside the Box provides cogent advice about exactly how to lead from the middle (as well as the top) in ways that enable managers to make good things happen and help the organization prosper. The book contains workable models coupled with incisive questions that will help leaders figure things out for themselves and their teams. With research to back up their findings, Figliuolo and Prince’s Lead Inside the Box is a resource everyone in leadership – or who aspires to leadership – will want on their bookshelves.”

– John Baldoni, Leadership expert and author of MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership

So what are you waiting for? Get your copy of the book now and start getting better results out of your team. When you’re done with it, let us know what you think!