Master Leadership

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Leaders have learned the secret! Mastery, like anything, requires on-going practice. Your attitude towards learning how to achieve success requires developing a muscle. Adapting a “high-level” attitude usually signifies that you may have the title and compensation, but limited followers. Roll up your sleeves. Get involved. Earn respect.

Here are five critical components of being a leader others choose to follow.

Initiate and Make Things Happen. Create a direction for you and your employees that supports the Mission and Values of your business. Be seen as the leader. Walk the talk. This  is crucial for your employees, customers, vendors and communities to see you as a leader. Execute plans by focusing on how to get to where you want to go, step by step. Don’t buy into the usual array of excuses. Focused action plans are critical if you are to achieve your goals.  

Core Values. Tell the truth, but be tactful. Blurting out you don’t like the color of someone’s tie or dress will only hurt their feelings. Being afraid to ask good business questions, or being unable to answer them yourself, hinders your ability to build solid company practices and results! Relentlessly ensure your business is in compliance with the law and contracts. A handshake still means something in many companies. Always honor your verbal agreements.

Hire the Best. To grow the best business, consistently hire only the best. Reliance upon traditional hiring practices thwarts this critical element of leadership. Use scientifically validated assessment tools to help you better understand your employees and enable them to craft the career of their dreams! Build on talent. Engagement and inspiration occurs when you become a laser-like coach. Employees feel understood. They value your leadership. 

Get real! Putting frosting on mud does not make it a cake. It’s simply frosting hiding the mud! If you rely upon excuses to support your inability to achieve results, it’s time you learn how to operate outside your comfort zone. Stop making decisions based on tiny fragments of information; normally these bits and pieces have no truth to them! Don’t rush – get both sides of an issue – both factual and human perspectives. Make the right decisions and implement them in the right manner.

Build on your strengths. We all have inherent business strengths and weaknesses. Hire a business advisor to help you with the strategy. Hire an executive coach to ensure you’re doing all the things you should do but don’t really want to do, so you can achieve your goals. In the process you’ll learn a lot about yourself. You’ll become the strong leader others want to follow.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Do you constrain ingenuity?

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As bosses, too often we lament that our employees lack common sense or are unable to think. The reality? We rely upon our own thoughts and ideas to address issues or concerns, invalidating any ideas others may want to contribute. We disregard what could have been valuable input from employees and customers. So what happens? We cause them to leave and ultimately our competition gets the benefit of their ideas! While money may be perceived as the holy grail of business, there are many successful companies that started on only a shoe-string, with plenty of ingenuity and determination. Train your employees to be fiscally responsible yet simultaneously think outside the box.

The million dollar questions are: What are you doing to constrain their ingenuity? What can you do to unleash their resourcefulness? How can you use others’ input to stimulate innovation?

Fiscal Responsibility. Remember, the sky is not the limit to fulfill upon a client’s need or resolve an internal systems issue. Train employees to create and follow a budget based upon a plan and become fiscally responsible. Do not reduce their approved budget unilaterally. Review milestones with them when they are working on a project to ensure they are on-time and within budget. Remember, keep the goal sacrosanct. Take them out of their comfort zone (aka perceived limitations due to money) and help them realize that with some guidance, they can indeed achieve the intended results!

Stimulate brain activity. Human brains react to stimuli, so while a blank sheet can terrify some, others will feel inspired. Providing a clearly defined problem (since it provides parameters) along with a sense of urgency can help most people come up with ideas. Don’t stop there! Have them put together a do-able goal and plan for its implementation. Set Due Dates; procrastination can be the worst enemy of innovation and forward movement. Also, reward right behavior to see it recreated time after time. Celebrate successes, no matter how small!

Teach resourcefulness. Some employees are naturally cost-conscious and resourceful, but have them be responsible so quality is not unduly modified. Take time to test employees, as a group or individually, to create alternatives to issues and not rely upon the misperception there is only one way to resolve a challenge or act upon an opportunity. Have them conduct their own benefit/cost analysis. Stimulating employees to learn from you and others will build trust, establish sustainable systems that can be built upon, and create new opportunities beyond the team’s immediate thinking.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Responding to Mistakes

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Everyone reacts differently to mistakes. Some have no fear and admit them. Some learn from them and move on. Others regurgitate the facts to place blame on others. Ignoring your mistakes can have a detrimental effect on client and/or co-worker relationships. It’s a sure-fire way to derail your career now and can prevent future opportunities. The next time you make a mistake, or your team fails to fulfill a project’s intended goals on-time or within budget, resist the temptation to find excuses and blame others or situations.

What worked? What didn’t work? Take time to objectively review the elements of the project. Start with objective (factual) items that did work. There will always be some. Then, focus on objective items that did not work. (Objective facts can usually be quantified.) Come up with resolutions with your team. Then, present these results to your boss for  approval to resolve and move forward.

Talk it out with boss or coach. Sometimes we make things mean more than they do. Other times we may be obtuse and not accept the seriousness of our words or actions. Feeling bad does not erase the impact of the mistake. But failing to resolve it and hoping it will go away can be detrimental to your future with the company.  It’s better to talk it out with someone who has more experience and will provide learning opportunities. Resist starting a gossip mill in an attempt to place the blame elsewhere. Not only will doing this limit your ability to positively impact the concerns, you will loose your credibility as a leader.  

Stop mind-reading. Ask! Do not assume you know what others think. Gather their feedback. Allow them to vent, appropriately, if warranted. Actively listen so they will share their experience of the impact on them, or their company. Apologize first, then explain your own actions and intentions. Offer an equitable resolution. Give them time to think about it and set a time to come back to the discussion. The key? Keep communication lines open. Don’t stop talking until the issue has been resolved to their satisfaction, whenever possible. Failure to resolve the mistake sadly means this type of issue will occur again and again, until the lesson has been learned.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Do you silently yell to be heard?

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Many executives, managers, bosses and employees have been known to loudly yell from time to time. However, when yelling or shouting is the norm it can damage customer (internal and external) relationships irrevocably. This usually happens when the person has found yelling to work in the past and has no other objective model of how to effectively communicate. Most workers have experienced loud yelling. However, silent yelling can be more damaging.

Vanity is not a virtue. Frequent excuses about your inability to hear will inevitably curtail people from sharing critical news with you. If you have trouble physically hearing others, stop blaming them and set your ego aside. Get a hearing aid. Headsets can help too.

The silent impact. Cyber-space communication is becoming the norm. Unfortunately, email and other forms of electronic chatter can be easily misunderstood. They do not have the benefit of facial expression or voice inflection. Falsely believing it saves time, people have developed a bad habit of sending emails or text messages instead of talking it out with their employees, bosses or co-workers. Wait 24 hours to respond to any upsetting internet communiqué, thus allowing any misperceptions to de-escalate. Better yet! Talk it out face-to-face. Remember, most people only have a sixth grade reading (and writing) level.

Take responsibility. Some busy professionals can easily become upset, while others have too long a patience cycle. Both can be very detrimental when patience is lost! If this is the norm, talk with a therapist for emotional support. Seek objective support from your coach, or business advisor. Limit any venting to a selective couple of people. Please, be sure to ask permission to be candid; limit the time you spend venting. Disregard your ego’s need to exert undue pressure on others to support your view of the facts. Steamrolling only causes explosions, now and in the future. Formulate a win-win plan. When talking it out face-to-face, focus on shared goals and truly hearing their perceptions. If it’s a heated debate, include your boss in the discussions. All together, develop a new plan of action. Keep talking until it is resolved. Only rely upon conference calls as a second best alternative.

Don’t kill the messenger. When you react negatively to upsetting news, it can create defensiveness. You stop receiving critical business or office information from others. Making emotionally charged decisions in retaliation can backfire, making the situation worse (Think, “You’re fired!”). Employees will simply look the other way, or acquiesce, even when they know your mandated resolution won’t work. Or, hire an employment attorney. If you need to vent, ask permission first. It’s a great time to call your coach or business advisor. Learn to take time to collect your thoughts. Ask questions calmly. Listen to others’ replies objectively. Incorporate their ideas whenever possible.

Disagreements. In situations where there appears to be no agreement, it’s far more effective to say:  “It seems like we disagree about that.” Why? It’s a fact. Trying to out-talk them OR browbeat them into your point of view isn’t going to work. Raising your voice will be even less effective. The silent treatment can be deadly to ongoing relationships because they know you have refused to listen to their points of view. Often this behavior speaks loudly, and can be interpreted to mean you are less than professional in how your handle yourself and your business. Listen, learn and look for areas of agreement. Build upon these for a win-win solution.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Employer Beware!

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The economy is slowing improving. Companies are hiring again. The current challenge is finding qualified workers to hire. If we recruit those we perceive to be top performers from our vendors, suppliers or competitors, we must beware of believing they will be natural fits for our organization. Too often, it does not work out that way! 

The biggest reason? A top performer in one company does not naturally become a top performer elsewhere. When we focus on attracting them to work for us, often we will fail to follow our own strategic hiring system. And when we recruit them to resolve an issue within our company today, we are disregarding the future impact on continued relationships with our suppliers/vendors (e.g., trust between the two businesses, willingness to provide preferred price concessions, etc.). Making these exceptions to our hiring practices, just because we know/respect them or their previous employer only adds error on top of error.

Hiring from your vendors and suppliers. You may not contractually be able to hire these subcontractors or employees, depending upon the Non-Compete laws in your state. Or, if they have handled the transition with their current employer poorly, there may be cause for litigation. Having a conversation with your vendor/supplier is advisable to reduce disruption to your business and theirs. Conduct due diligence, just as you would with any other potential hire (e.g. reference checks, employment verifications, background checks, etc.). Remember, if you fail to follow your own hiring policy, or worse, do not use one, you may be hiring someone else’s problem.

Change in Working Dynamics. Just because the person worked well as a consultant, temp, or account executive doesn’t mean s/he will complete the job with the same commitment now that s/he is your employee. Unfortunately, the dynamic of the relationship has changed. Before you were the client; now you are the boss. As a boss, you may treat outside people differently than you treat your own employees. Also, the newly hired person may have a negative attitude towards authority that was controlled since you were not his/her boss. A similar dynamic may become evident with co-workers. The newly hired person may have disliked or not respected those who have now become his/her new co-workers. These concerns can no longer be ignored for the sake of completing a project since this person is now part of your workforce.

Hiring from your competitors. They may look good on paper. However, do they possess the thinking style, core behaviors and occupational interests that fit into your culture? The grass is greener syndrome can negatively impact those employees jumping ship simply looking for more money, different job duties, etc. Again! Follow a strategic and sustainable hiring system regardless of who the job candidate is or how well you may know her/him. Job fit is essential! You will always do better with more objective data than without it (e.g., use of core value assessments, job fit technology and skills testing).

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

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Fight the Good Fight with Leverage

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Leverage is required in many situations to win a good business fight. In some cases, you may automatically have leverage due to your position, title or power to make the ultimate decision. However, you need to be responsible about how and when you use this leverage; future repercussions are inevitable. As an employee, customer or vendor, you need others to help you leverage a win-win outcome. There are cost vs. benefit ratios that need to be considered for the company, others and your own career. Playing the ostrich and hoping the issue will go away rarely works well for everyone involved.

You may win this fight. But lose the war. Even though we don’t have crystal balls to look into the future, talk with a trusted colleague to weigh the pro and con of possible outcomes, now and for the future. If this is a policy or legal issue, talk with human resources director or vice president. If it relates to a customer or vendor, set up a meeting with your boss and the person in charge of these relationships. Be clear as to the purpose and desired outcome. Be more committed to resolving the issue than forcing your own ideas as the only solutions.

It’s not about you. It’s often hard to set aside your own ego in these situations. Particularly, if the issue is you vs. your boss. This will require you to think beyond the current upset or violation of your trust. When the issue involves your client, employee or vendor, ask them what they believe is the needed resolution to keep a positive business relationship. Steamrolling everyone to agree with your decisions or opinions will only create a backlash for you in the near future, particularly, if you are wrong or lied about the facts.

Share the challenge selectively. Share your challenge confidentially only with someone who can help you and is in a position to do so. Follow their advice, even if it doesn’t seem like it will work and stay in communication during and after the resolution. The lone-ranger approach and reliance upon your own mental monologue will limit your future in the company. The worst practice for a business professional to engage in is to talk with everyone else! That creates liability for you professionally and financially. Create a learning opportunity from the situation and look with your coach (or business mentor) to see what you need to do in the future to prevent these types of issues from occurring.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Does your company honor its core values?

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Core values are a company’s internal compass of integrity, work ethic and reliability. They guide them in their pursuit of clients, financial rewards and attracting the right employees. These values are reflected in their interactions with customers (internal and external), process of arriving at decisions, following financial standards and honoring sales and marketing promises.

Have you ever had an employee or boss make a situation worse by lying about it? Then, perpetuate the lie to keep themselves out of trouble? This is an example of not honoring the policies, code of ethics and spirit of many companies. When we tell ourselves and bosses that lies don’t matter, it diminishes the reputation of our company. The truth comes out, eventually! 

In a survey recently conducted with people about telling lies in the workplace, we found that most did not have a problem telling their boss about lies if they felt it was the right thing to do or the untruth was negatively impacting their team’s effectiveness. However, when it came to retelling a lie, most felt it was expected to keep their job, client and continue moving up the career ladder, or they were afraid of the repercussions of telling the truth and exposing the lie.

How do you handle and prevent core value violations?

Keep talking. Lies can include the little ones people excuse as unimportant, or omission of the exact facts from your perspective. Unfortunately, being silent causes little lies to build up into big ones, which ultimately hurt the reputation of the company and individuals involved. It can also negatively impact financial solvency. The truth will swing back around to bite the people involved. Stop the perpetuation of a lie. Tell the truth about a situation or issue factually. To create a resolution, talk directly to the person(s) involved with a win-win mindset. Hear their version of the facts. If a mutual agreement cannot be reached, get upper management involved. While they may not recognize the core value being thwarted, be a parrot (aka keep talking). Eventually they will hear you; the same or similar issues are bound to come up again!

Respond with Urgency. A simple lie or unethical act can turn a situation from a molehill into a mountain of upset, grief and even legal action! When someone has done the wrong thing or done the right thing in the wrong manner, it needs to be handled quickly and diplomatically. Most importantly, create a win-win outcome. Remember, there are no absolutes methods for doing the right thing the right way. However, the key to whether your decisions work and make sense will depend upon the perceptions of your customers (internal and external), communities and your particular industry.

Apologize. Simply apologize for your role in the matter. It doesn’t mean you were wrong, or right. Simply acknowledge your role in the issue. Then, start the process of cleaning up the mistake or situation. It is critical that you are open to understanding the issue from their point of view. Be sure to ask the question, “What can we do that will resolve this for you?”  Remember, this is the starting question; truly listen to their response. (Hint, if you’re overly worried about litigation, do not be obtuse and defensive about the situation. That kind of attitude will do more to create the need for a lawsuit than the issue itself!)

Use mistakes as a come-down-to-reality opportunity. Many companies ignore their employees’ and bosses’ negative attitudes toward following the company’s systems, policies and practices until an issue arises that causes a key client to leave. Objectively review what worked and didn’t work in the situation. Stay away from blaming others for a lack of perceived integrity due to not following the systems; it’s a no-win hot button. Instead, describe the impact of the situation on customer, co-workers, management and the bottom line. If your employees are unable to understand the significance of their behaviors and make appropriate changes, it will require ongoing training or reassignment of job responsibilities.

Create a prevention mindset. We all live in a reactive workplace. Being proactive is not rewarded until the preventative measure averts a disaster or something serious. Thinking ahead is what will give your company (and people’s careers) the needed boost to achieve a competitive edge. Questions to get you started in this inquiry: What issue do we contend with often? How do we prevent these issues without reducing our customer effectiveness (internal and external)? What training is required to get everyone on the same page? How do we attract and hire the right people with core values that support our company? How do we hire the right top performers using job fit technology? [Find out more about core value assessments and job fit technology by contacting Jeannette @ JLSeibly@SeibCo.com OR visit http://SmartHiringMadeEasy.com]

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Unemployed Spouse (or friend) Driving You Nuts?

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Many business owners and executives have spouses and friends who are presently unemployed. They attempt to be the good friend or spouse and help them. Yet, it turns out to be the worst thing they can do!

Have a straight conversation. Have a frank discussion about the changes in finances due to not working.. With a spouse, make changes together as equal partners.  As a friend, be a supportive  and have them over to dinner once a week. Have an agreement about how much time they will expend in finding their next job, or what they will do to find other part-time or temporary work. Be supportive of their endeavors. It is difficult being unemployed, or having to retire too early in their career.

If you hire them. If you choose to hire them on a part-time or temporary basis, be clear and up front. They must do the job as it is currently designed. Many may attempt to show off their job skills, which will only upset your current employees and co-workers. Have them follow the systems. Make no changes. If there are no systems, have them write up the job as you or your employees direct them to do so. Remember, no special favors should be given that are not given to your other employees!

Gift of coaching. Preserve your relationship. Hire them their own coach. A coach can have them do what they don’t want to do – and enable them to find a great job! If you attempt to do the same, they will resent you! Many, who have not had to work to find a job in the past, rely upon blasting out poorly designed resumes to find their next position. Or, they conduct poor networking campaigns. Your attempt to coach them will end up with them being resentful since they don’t believe you understand the challenges they are facing. In many cases, it is true – you don’t know! Remember, they will expect you to be there as a friend or spouse, not as their coach.

Need Career Direction or Advice?  http://bizsavvycoach.com   Under Links, Click on Rewire Your Career

(c)Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Do you provide unwanted advice?

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First, realize this: people don’t really want advice. There is a false perception that if you don’t already know the answer, it’s not important! 

Many people – bosses and leaders, men and women -love to give advice. They love to fix things. Too often they do this without investigating the core issue. If the advice offered is based upon a misperception, the resolution or good feeling doesn’t last very long! When your employees disguise their requests as asking for advice, it’s simply a device to get themselves or their team off the hook. If you do not recognize these requests as ploys, it will hurt the same people in the near future when yet another similar – but bigger – issue arises. 

What Worked/Didn’t? Train yourself – and your employees – to look objectively at any issue. Describe what worked or benefitted the customer or project. It’s a great place to start. Follow up with objectivity looking at the specifics of what didn’t work. From this vantage point it’s easier to ascertain learning opportunities and/or changes required to move forward and resolve issues. 

Ain’t It Awful Trap. It’s a vicious cycle we fall into too many times. No one wants advice when operating in this modality. Most human beings love others’ drama since it takes their minds off their own job concerns. While it may the PC thing to do (e.g., blame game and finger-pointing), it rarely fosters opportunities to grow the project, resolve the client issue effectively, or help someone learn for future challenges. Remember, as their boss or coach, you are either part of the solution or part of the problem.

Listen Empathetically. Often it’s hard to listen to people’s upsets when logically they don’t make any sense. Remember, they are reliving past upsets that have not yet been resolved. When an employee, co-worker or customer needs to talk, listen without providing advice. Most times they simply need to vent. Without the venting process any offered resolution will be unheard. Limit the venting process. Ask permission to provide advice. Limit the ideas you provide to two.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Got Leadership Credibility?

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What happens when busy leaders fail to create credibility for themselves and their company? This failure impacts them personally and professionally. It influences the loyalty of internal and external customers. If the marketplace’s perception is that the business, their products or services are untrustworthy, this perception drives purchasing decisions whether the perception is accurate or not.

As a leader, your employees emulate you.  If you make poor business decisions or fail to develop good managerial skills, your employees will not have any incentive to act differently.

The key is to honor:

  • Your word. Follow through. “I’m too busy” is one of the biggest excuses busy professionals use to justify their behavior. Have you considered, if you’re too busy to follow-through, you’re probably too busy to provide the quality of products and services promised? Get yourself well-organized to keep track of your commitments. Find the money to hire necessary support. Develop a dependable system and follow it.
  • Your company’s vision and mission. Consistently make decisions that follow and support your company’s values. Implement them in a manner that promotes positivity.  Too often we follow our ego (aka as our own self-interests) and this quickly limits sustainable company growth. Others will shy away from doing business with you if they perceive association with you could limit their own success.
  • Your intentions. We judge others by their behavior and ourselves by our intentions. What are your intentions? Are you conscious of them when making decisions that impact others? Most people make decisions based upon the tiniest fragments of information. As a leader, this can be excruciating painful if you need to defend yourself against the facts! Apologize and admit when you are wrong. Encourage others to provide you with their opinions and fact-based solutions in the future. Make good decisions; your credibility hinges upon them.

(c)Jeannette Seibly, 2011