Leadership Starts Inside

Strong leaders understand their success starts from within and is built on genuine confidence, not false bravado. They do their inner work by hiring a coach to help them recognize and fine-tune their blind spots, while achieving breakthroughs in their leadership style.

These amazing leaders:

  • Take responsibility for themselves first.
  • Trust their inner voice to guide their words and actions.
  • Value others’ ideas, and use them to build solutions.
  • Listen without blame, judgment or criticism to elicit the best in others.
  • Ensure others are comfortable following their lead.
  • Recognize the impact of their strengths and weaknesses when working with others.
  • Set aside their ego and celebrate the successes of others.
  • Create positive learning opportunities out of failures and mistakes.

The strength of their leadership is a reflection of the natural compassion they have developed for themselves and others.
Jeannette Seibly has been an international business and executive coach for over 20 years. She has guided the creation of three millionaires. Are you the next one? http://SeibCo.com/contact

©Jeannette Seibly, 2014

Effective leaders influence performance

So, you want to be a leader, a future executive. (If you’re already a leader, this is a must-read to help develop your organization.)

First, here’s a little history to give you a perspective on the performance challenges many multi-generational organizations face today.

  • Millennials … require a different way of being managed and are even shaping management practices today. They prefer to be consulted, given opportunities to do their work their way and be praised for any progress they make. Learn how to influence rather than command their performance. But, be aware, they tend to have a low tolerance for the inevitable failures we all face. And, if they are unhappy, they seek jobs elsewhere.
  • Baby boomers … were brought up under the command or be fired regiment. They learned from mistakes; but, may have lost promotions because of them. Many bosses during this era earned their positions due to longevity with the company and their ability to do what they were told to do. Being happy at work wasn’t expected and job hopping wasn’t an option.

Second, regardless of the era, effective leaders influence performance by walking their talk, honoring integrity and achieving goals by working with and through others. Their expertise expresses itself quietly due to hands-on experiences, learning from their mistakes, and developing resiliency. They focus on creating a win-win workplace that respects everyone’s efforts, and do not expect preferential treatment for themselves.

Third, if you want to be a leader, take responsibility for causing your future.

  • Work-ability. Growing up, many Gen Y’ers were told they could do and be anything they wanted in business. In an ideal world, that would be true. However, we live in a world where people must do things they are not interested in doing. Be an advocate to change traditions that no longer work. For example, most companies still require their leaders to manage others (although, careers can be unnecessarily ruined when they fail). One solution is to suggest creating multiple career ladders that can leverage individual talents. http://BizSavvyHire.com
  • Communication skills beyond 140 characters. While Baby Boomers learned how to work with bosses that were erratic or unprofessional, their younger peers are not so tolerant. Stop expecting others to make communication changes required to suit you. Instead, develop the ability to effectively talk with anyone, anywhere (not just IM, text or email). It’s a must-have skill due to a diverse global market. Break through your #1 fear when having conversations! http://:ow.ly/zei8S
  • Fun work. While work can be enjoyable, there will always be parts of the job you hate. Do them anyway and learn how to systemize or make them easier. This is a hidden opportunity to show others your initiative.
  • Embrace change. It can be the game changer you’ve been striving for. Be ready to pounce in a business savvy manner when it happens.
  • Coachability. Most leaders today have a business advisor or executive coach, depending upon their entrepreneurial focus or management goals. Find an internal mentor to navigate the politics. Hire an external coach to provide a customized approach for your professional style and goals.  http://SeibCo.com/contact

 

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2014

Are you listening to the criticism?

It always feels good to get compliments, have others think highly of your interactions with clients, or be lauded for the goals you’ve accomplished. In fact, most of us expect to hear that everything is great and wonderful—even when it’s not.  Unfortunately, unadulterated praise rarely provides you with the inside information you need to advance in your career. Every success has its learning opportunities, such as overcoming poor communication habits, correcting ineffective project management skills, adjusting biased attitudes towards others, and becoming more resourceful.

Climbing the corporate ladder requires being open to hearing what you don’t want to hear from co-workers, bosses, and clients. It’s important to learn from your mistakes and learn how to manage perceptions by seeing yourself from others’ point of view. Instead of thinking people are being super critical or are unaware of what you had to do to achieve results.  Failure to welcome the truth can stymie your upward mobility.

The truth is you can’t change what you don’t acknowledge! 

Successful leaders listen instead of defending themselves. They seek out constructive criticism and learn from others’ perspectives about what is working and what needs to be improved. In addition, they rely on the expertise of an executive coach, a trusted advisor who can help them develop their natural strengths and overcome their inherent weaknesses. http://SeibCo.com

When we listen to criticism, we can hear the gold. When we respond appropriately, we improve our leadership.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2014

Is our hiring process reactive?

Today many recruiters and hiring managers simply react when someone quits, retires, or gets fired. We post an ad, interview, and hope we’ve hired the right person.  Usually, hiring mistakes result when we focus too much on the person who left and let our biases lead us astray. We tend to look for someone who is similar or dissimilar to the person we’re replacing, and we fail to base our decisions on objective data.

To make matter worse, as creatures of habit we rely on the same old processes. They’re easy to fall back on when we don’t take the time to strategically assess where we are today and what we need to do to be successful tomorrow.

To become proactive, we need to infuse objectivity into the selection process upfront, before the interview process begins. The better-quality information we obtain from qualified tools, the better our hiring decisions.  Such objectivity requires a new mindset, a mindfulness of what we are doing and why.  For more on this subject, see my article Easily Infuse Objectivity Early in Your Hiring System. (http://wp.me/p2POui-nj)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2014

Want to achieve your 2014 goals? It requires commitment.

Setting goals for the new year can be exciting—it’s a time for creating new opportunities. For many, it’s also the time to put aside failed results from last year’s goals. But in about thirty days, our 2014 goals will lack their initial luster too, and we will struggle to stay in focused action.  Why is it so hard to stay on track? Various internal and external business factors may be the culprit. But it’s more likely that we have simply failed to develop the muscles and mindsets to manage the design, planning, implementation, and fine-tuning required of any project.

Follow-through isn’t just a problem for individuals. Organizations struggle with it too. Although many companies create annual goals, few effectively manage the process required to achieve them. It’s a challenge that many business professionals face every year with their employers, or as business owners themselves.

Here are some suggestions that can help you stay focused and continue to chip away at your goals until they’re met:

Be Realistic. Hire a business advisor who can help you blast through your reticence when you get stuck or want to make things too hard. An advisor can also help you create realistic goals and focused action plans, offer tactics and strategies for reaching them, and help you see your progress.  An advisor will encourage you to talk with your co-workers, clients, and boss to share your goals and plans. Be open to others’ insights and recommendations.  They will help you streamline your efforts and avoid lots of effort with little payoff.

Divide Work into Small Chunks. Set up quarterly goals. The immediacy of short-term goals can make all the difference in getting and staying in focused action.  Many people plan for the entire year, but a year can be a long time, and a lot can happen in 12 months to take us off track. Shorter-term goals will also help alleviate detractors, commonly known as the “shiny objects syndrome.”

Celebrate Progress. Too often we focus on what isn’t working and fail to see what we have achieved. Take time daily to recognize your accomplishments and use those successes as motivation to achieve your larger goal.  Appreciate when you have taken responsibility for honoring your commitments to yourself and your company, no matter how small of a step it appears to be to you. It’s one step closer.   Get your copy of 5 Simply Steps to Improve Your Results: https://seibco.com/books/eguides/5-simple-steps-to-improve-your-results/

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2014

Hiring biases cost you money.

Today, many recruiters are complaining about not finding qualified candidates. Yet candidates with the credentials and required experience never hear back after applying for opportunities. Or, if they are interviewed, they’re told they are overqualified, don’t have a particular skill set, or don’t have the right pedigree (e.g., industry experience, professional titles, salary history, etc.).

Age does matter. Although the EEO and other agencies frown upon age discrimination, we all know it happens all too often. Recruiters are simply following edicts from their bosses to find someone younger and cheaper. They don’t know how to “sell” a qualified candidate to these bosses. Bosses and recruiters don’t believe they have the time to strategically assess what is truly needed and are unwilling to think outside the box to find the gold. Statistically, younger employees are more job-mobile and will leave a position when more qualified ones will not. More-experienced employees have been through the instability every company experiences and have learned to roll up their sleeves and wait it out.

Here’s a newsflash: Amateurs don’t save companies money! A well-qualified professional who fits the job, regardless of age, can normally do it faster, more thoroughly, and with better quality than someone without experience. The failure by hiring managers to objectively assess for job fit by using qualified assessments can hinder your company’s ability to select the right employees. The truth is poor job fit will create short-term employees or employees who simply do enough to get by and keep their paychecks but no more. It’s a costly status quo with a limited return on investment, because it keeps your company focus in a reactive mode, not on proactive growth.

Filter and invest. Infuse objective data into the process upfront, before the interview, because quality information will make for better decisions. Interviews are inherently biased and can filter out well-qualified candidates because of bias factors (e.g., age, weight, tattoos, gray hair, bald, etc.). Example: If you’re looking for a trainer and have candidates who have done training, talk with them. Use a qualified assessment to determine if they have an interest in presenting the subject matter required. What training and skill development will they need over time? Will they be comfortable in small or large groups? Can they write training content or do they rely on off-the-shelf programs? What will be the best return on investment for the company in the long run? What other skills are currently missing in the company that they can provide?

Remember, using qualified assessments can make a huge difference in vetting the right people, regardless of experience. Hiring qualified people, regardless of age and other biases, and investing in them builds a stronger company faster.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Your boss is leaving.

When your boss leaves, whether willingly or not, you need to be ready. If you are qualified for the position, find out how to apply. Have your brag statements available and share them appropriately. (http://TimeToBrag.com) If you’re not qualified, see this as a great opportunity to network with your former boss (or boss’s boss) to determine what you need to do to be ready for the next opportunity—don’t wait until after your boss has left; he or she will be less likely to want to maintain ties at that point. Be prepared to seek other jobs within the company or new opportunities with new employers, since new bosses tend to bring in their own people. Although new bosses should always assess current talent before replacing them, shake-ups happen too often, which makes it imperative for you to be ready to move on. In the meantime, be willing to take on other job responsibilities to broaden your depth and breadth of experience and knowledge. Build a great working relationship with the new boss. It may save your job, or provide valuable references or contacts for the next one!

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Have you had a bad review?

A bad review doesn’t mean your job or career is over. However, it’s a warning something needs to change and change quickly. Your opinions or feelings about the review won’t save your job or change your boss’s decision! Chances are good that you’ll take whatever issue you’re confronting (bad boss, poor company practices, poor performance or attitude, etc.) to your next job due to your attitude about authority, how companies should structure their businesses, or not having found your career niche.

Before actively renewing your resume or increasing your interview readiness, take time to review what you have achieved. (http://TimeToBrag.com) Share your successes with your boss, and put them in writing so he or she can attach them to your performance review. Also, be sure you have your past and current metrics available and include them with your review if they have been favorable. Next, work with your boss to put together two or three “must-dos” to help you improve your performance. Hire an executive or business coach to help you navigate the list and ensure that you are making the right decisions along the way. (http://SeibCo.com/contact) Finally, schedule weekly meetings with your boss to assess progress, tweak the process, and address any new issues that arise.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Successful Leadership Is Evolutionary

Every generation of leaders likes to believe they invented the newest and most effective way to manage people, build profitable companies, and “build a better mousetrap.”  The reality? We didn’t do it ourselves. The achievements of our businesses, inventions, and other ideas were an outcome of working effectively with and through others to achieve the intended results, and at the same time acknowledging our predecessors.

True leaders are humble and take great care of their teams. They set aside their egos, hubris, and other personality impediments to pave forward the pathway and open new doors to achieve their intended results. If they’ve made a lot of money, it is shared appropriately. If they created a lot of press, they generously include others’ contributions in their brag statements. (http://TimeToBrag.com)

Why are these insights important?

1.       When you understand that your success stands on the shoulders of your mentors, business advisors, bosses, and team members, you become humble knowing you didn’t go it alone. It makes it easier for others to want to work with you and share their knowledge and experiences, since it’s not all about you and your credentials or paycheck.

2.       It’s never solely your ideas or creativity that make the system or product work. Sharing the credit works wonders for current and future undertakings. Asking the right questions, listening and building upon ideas, and making available (or creating) the required resources are key traits of leaders. They ensure others stick with you during the design, launch, and refinement processes of your projects.

3.       Documentation of your process, including charts and graphs, helps others visually understand the progress. They can then see potential glitches and possible solutions, and not rely on any overly optimistic feelings of triumph you might have. Documentation also provides a foundation for you, and them, to build on for the next venture.

Remember, leadership and business, as most things in life, are evolutionary—they build on previous successes and learn from past failures to create the next victory.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Stop managing and start coaching.

Effective bosses know that everybody has their own learning style. Instead of telling your employees how to get the job done, you should provide assistance that is focused on a quality process and an intentional end result. As a manager, you should take time to listen, ask the right questions, and use qualified assessments to become a laser-focused coach with the ability to guide your team and provide the necessary adjustments. You should encourage your employees to interact with one another, other teams, and their clients to develop new processes and systems to achieve the required end results:  satisfied customers and a positive return on investment. (http://SeibCo.com/assessments)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013