Articles

The old mindset of how to identify future leaders has changed. Due to technology advancements, geographical influences, and financial and people demands, leadership requirements have evolved to a new level. As a result, many companies have waited too long. They now are having difficulty finding and developing the right leadership to handle today’s business challenges.

How are you identifying future leaders for your company? How are you developing them now?

First, Identify and Qualify Them

Competence.  What is their current skill set compared to the skills required of future leaders? Are they able to effectively talk and work with anyone, anywhere, at any time? Can they execute plans and achieve intended results? Do they understand P&Ls? Are they up-to-date on successful marketing and sales programs?

Qualified Assessments. Use them. Start now. They help uncover what you don’t know about them as future leaders. This critical information can come back to haunt you if it is left hidden. Because of the high level accuracy, qualified assessments are invaluable in helping guide the development of future leaders in your company.

Be Responsible for Biases. Identify your own biases and those of the executive team. Set them aside when creating a succession plan and identifying future leaders in your company.

A business owner was having a hard time hiring the right person to take over running his company. He had failed several times. His bias was to hire people he liked who had the right title, the right credentials and came with the right connections. Unfortunately, relying on these biases as criteria to choose a leader did not translate into being able to effectively run and build a financially successful company.

Don’t Promote Too Soon. This is a company’s biggest unrealized expense, whether they know it or not. When managers promote someone who is not ready, lacks the resilience to handle challenges or conflicts, or does not have the interest in developing the skills to be a leader (regardless of what they tell you), they leave. Often, they take training skills and materials, clients and key contact lists, proprietary information and key employees with them when they go. Use incremental titles to help keep Millennials interested and happy in their jobs.

Second, Develop Them

Recognize Lone Rangers. Many leaders refuse to take advice. These DIYers will take the company and management team down with them rather than ask for help. Provide them board and management team training designed to teach them how to work with and through others, manage conflicting opinions and execute changes. If they are unwilling to participate, change your succession plan now.

Proper Preparation. Assign identified future leaders team projects and have them participate in trade association events and boards. Include them in high-level discussions and ask their opinions. This will help them understand there is more to leadership than having the title. They will either relish the opportunities or dread them. Do not assume they are ready to take on the next leadership role – some may need more time before they are promotable.

The Right Coaching. The laser-like ability to develop talent is a critical skill many current leaders, executives and business owners do not have. Provide key employees with an internal mentor and an external coach to help groom them as future leaders. Help establish specific attainable goals for each quarterly coaching program and check in to ensure they are on the right track as a future leader.

Delegate Projects. As you develop your future leaders, provide written expected outcomes, a budget and team members for the projects you delegate. Check on progress weekly and ensure situations, people and outcomes are not being overlooked. Remember, success is a process of working through issues — pay attention to their ability and willingness to stretch and meet the new level of accountability required as a future leader.

What If Future Leaders in Your Company Are Not Ready?

As you develop your future leaders, there may come a time when you need to bring in someone from the outside to build your future leaders and keep the company on track. Ask your network for recommendations. Have more than one conversation to ensure they can do the job and will achieve the results with the least amount of disruption. Ensure the new leader is able to develop a successful succession plan, work through family business or existing business plan challenges, and navigate internal company politics. Don’t forget to negotiate a win-win exit plan for them when the future leaders are ready.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

What are you waiting for? This is the last month of Q3! The question is, are you in action to accomplish your 2017 goals or have you already given up? If you are stuck, contact Jeannette Seibly. She will provide you the insight required for you to move forward powerfully!

Jeannette Seibly has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires. She is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. She also has extensive experience coaching leaders and developing future leaders for unprecedented results. Check out her website , or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

Too often, words come out of our mouths that we vowed we would never say. And, to make matters worse, our tone sounds harsh or critical. Believe it or not, as bosses we often sound like our parents did when we were growing up. Imagine sounding like your critical parents when you’re speaking to your employees. Yikes!

Stop sounding like a critical parent when communicating with your adult employees.

Why Is This Important?

Statistically, employees leave their employers because of their boss! But, they will often tell their employer they’re leaving because of lack of pay, benefits, immediate opportunities and other perks. Usually, it is because of their boss’s poor communication skills: lack of respect, tone of voice, words used, promises not kept and promotions that never happened. Right or wrong, they blame the boss!

9 Ways to Communicate as a Great Boss

One. It’s an Inside Job. You are responsible for setting aside your inner judgments and beliefs regarding how people should think, act, talk, dress … ad nauseam. Remember, simply using the right words or jargon will not prevent others from “hearing” what you really believe or think about them (over 80 percent of communication is non-verbal!).

Two. Influence. Learn to influence others instead of telling them what to do, how to do it and when to do it in a commanding tone. Engage them by sharing the bigger picture, and allow them to handle the details without being micromanaged.

Three. Listen! Develop a positive attitude and authentic belief that others have great solutions! (Really, they do!) Listen and learn from others’ ideas, incorporate them and give each person credit.

Four. Treat People Right. Treat people with respect by developing “boss smarts.” Hang around other managers who have a great track record of interacting well with their employees. Take away insights that will work for you and help you respect others. (Hint: Understand you will never be just like them!)

Five. Understand Your People. Use qualified assessment tools to understand why employees either work well together or are not an effective team. These objective products provide incredibly accurate insights and turn you into a perceptive coach your employees will value. When you understand your people, they enjoy coming to work each day!

Six. Understand Your Style. Use qualified assessment and 360-degree feedback tools to help understand your style now that you are a boss. Review the feedback with your coach, mentor and employees to uncover actual strengths and weaknesses, and develop methods to help you become a more effective boss. (Most important: Never hold their comments against them.)

Seven. Tone and Word Choice. The words and tone of voice you use tell a much deeper story than you may realize. Work with an experienced executive coach or licensed therapist to role-play your choice of words in upcoming situations. Learn how to speak with others when describing challenges and opportunities. As you become a more confident communicator, your tone of voice will naturally change.

Eight. Journal for Clarity. This is a great way to see, in black and white, your thoughts about people and/or situations. It gives you a chance to work through complex issues in a more objective and helpful manner. Then, shred. NEVER send a letter spewing your upsets, no matter how justified you believe you are.

Nine. Confidence. Often, your innermost and deepest fear is that you are a fraud and everyone is going to find out. To awaken your internal communication talent, get the book It’s Time to Brag! Business Edition, and do the work in order to communicate with confidence. Remember, there are no shortcuts!

Being a great boss requires improving your communication to elicit the best from your employees, others and yourself.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Are you experiencing challenges that are causing sleepless nights? Is your team avoiding eye contact with you? Are you avoiding anyone on your team? To turn this around quickly … now is the time to talk. Contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation at http://SeibCo.com/contact/.

Jeannette Seibly has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way she’s guided the creation of three millionaires. She is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. Check out her website, http://SeibCo.com, or contact Jeannette for a free, confidential conversation at http://SeibCo.com/contact.

No one is born a leader—leadership skills are built over time as a result of experience, practice, commitment and then mastery. When we attain a leadership position within our company, it’s important that we have already learned how to work with and through others to get the job done on time and within budget. Now it’s time to take those basic skills and hone them. At every level of leadership comes a new level of responsibility and opportunity. Are you ready to build on those skills to successfully support yourself and the people you lead?

7 Keys to Being a Leader Who Leads

Engage Others. Forcing others due to your job title, manipulating outcomes or attempting to out-talk your team will not support your efforts to manage effectively. Once your team and others within the company are upset with you, it becomes harder to get them to perform at their best, listen to your ideas and work with you. Acknowledge their great ideas and efforts, and work with them by rolling up your sleeves to produce intended outcomes in a win-win-win manner.

Integrity Is Key. Good people don’t like to work for someone who cuts corners and overlooks important details. Making decisions based upon how you feel rarely works out well either. Learn how to brainstorm for solutions, work through legal and financial considerations, and set up true strategies. Remember, the best solutions may not follow the easiest and fastest pathways. When a mistake is made, own it, apologize and clean it up! It sets a great example for others.

Listen for New Possibilities in ALL Ideas. Being a leader who actually leads means you have really great listening skills. You’ve put down your electronic gadgets and are hearing the spoken words and unspoken messages that are being conveyed. You are able to ask the right questions to elicit the best from others and build on their ideas—no matter how off-the-wall they may initially seem. You become a leader whom others enjoy working with to create solutions.

Respect Others. Your job isn’t to be a critical parent, particularly when some of the people you may be managing are older than you and have lots of great work experience and ideas. Learn to pick everybody’s brains and rely on them to get the job done without micromanaging. Stay aware of the results your employees produce. Acknowledge any progress made, no matter how small. Respect will build an effective team.

Keep Your Skills Sharp. Take management courses to clean out any cobwebs that impede your ability to work effectively with others—it will keep you sharp. Remember, the higher up in the corporate world you climb, the more your people skills will matter (even more than your technical knowledge). Those same skills make being a leader a lot easier too.

Take Care of Yourself. While it’s critical that you take care of your employees and ensure they have the resources they need to get their jobs done, it’s equally important that you take care of yourself. Schedule time to spend with your family and friends having fun! Get involved in activities outside of work that you enjoy (e.g., golf, reading, travel, volunteering, etc.). A happy leader is more likely to have happy and productive employees.

Great Leaders Have Coaches. Don’t be afraid to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the challenges you will inevitably face. The right one will help you make better and timely decisions. Plus, having a coach will help you understand how to be a leader others want to follow!

Being a leader who actually leads comes with a new level of responsibility to others. Review the seven keys. Now ask yourself … are you ready?

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Are you experiencing challenges that are causing sleepless nights? Is your team avoiding eye contact with you? Are you avoiding anyone on your team? Now is the time to talk while there is time to turn this around quickly. Contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation at http://SeibCo.com/contact/.

Jeannette Seibly has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way she’s guided the creation of three millionaires. She is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. Check out her website, http://SeibCo.com, or contact Jeannette for a free, confidential conversation at http://SeibCo.com/contact.

Ask yourself: The last time you made a mistake, did you try to bury it or openly learn from it?

No one likes to fail, yet managing failure is the key to success. It’s how we learn to blast through our fear of making mistakes. Bosses, leaders and executives today must inspire their employees to want to learn, take risks and be willing to make mistakes. By providing them with opportunities to build determination, curiosity and resilience—the attributes required for success—employees will learn how to work through failure and become strong team members.

When Failure Occurs, Learn from It

The Human Factor in Projects. Too often, we fall into the trap of bashing the concept or idea behind a project when it fails. In reality, people’s attitudes, abilities and willingness to learn will often make or break a project! Coach your team members (or hire a seasoned coach) to work effectively through conflicts, egos and misperceptions. Provide ongoing interpersonal skill development to ensure your employees are present, listening and building alignment in all conversations.

Conduct Effective Meetings. Meetings can be very boring! Because of this, frequently meetings are the source of mistakes and misperceptions. Train yourself and all of your employees to conduct effective meetings and encourage everyone to participate to reduce the probability of overlooking good ideas or buying into false information.

Understand Why. Qualified assessments give you the ability to manage and coach with a high degree of clarity. These superior tools provide insights into how the person (and team) communicates, works with others, sells, manages projects, etc. While nothing is 100 percent accurate, qualified assessments help bosses manage in an effective manner (and look good doing so!). They clarify why employees (and the team) do what they do. Their accuracy can turn good employees into great ones and help employees turn failures into successes.

What Worked? Instead of looking at results in a black-and-white fashion of success versus failure, objectively review what happened. What worked and what didn’t work? There will always be positive learning moments in any project if you take the time to review. Have your employees do this as a team to learn from one another. This builds awareness, clarifies misperceptions and solidifies a group of individuals into a successful team.

Teach Ethics. Integrity builds our brand and reputation … personally, professionally and as a company. It may seem easier to cut corners and develop great excuses when mistakes are made, because we usually don’t believe anyone will ever know the truth! Instead, train by example: it’s better to admit a mistake and rectify it than constantly create lies to cover up failures. Remember, the truth will eventually be told!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Are you a results producer failing to produce intended results? Are you a leader or executive who needs to fine-tune your management style? Contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation. She has helped thousands become successful due to her uncanny ability to pinpoint concerns and provide insights on how to be successful.

Jeannette Seibly is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. She has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires and million-dollar results for employers across the United States and Canada. Also, she is a PXT Select^TM Certified Professional and Authorized Partner. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

“A coach has you do what you don’t want to do so you can be successful!” Jeannette Seibly

Most people want to be successful in their careers, jobs and companies. Those who have risen quickly hired a coach, either on their own or else their company provided one for them. However, having a coach and being coachable are not the same thing. Successful key employees, leaders and executives know the difference: If the coach asks you to jump, you ask, “How high?” Uncoachable people debate and share all the reasons why the coach’s recommendation shouldn’t, wouldn’t or couldn’t work. Learning how to overcome this resistance and become coachable will uncover your blind spots and expand your leadership, communication and project management skills successfully.

A director hated his boss, a VP. When the coach asked the director to have a conversation with the VP, he resisted, using the excuse “Everyone else hates the VP since he is difficult to work with.” Under the guidance of his coach, the director had a conversation to clear the air with the VP and started treating his boss with more respect. Very quickly, he became viewed as one of very few people who could work well with this VP. Others began to come to him for guidance. The president of the company saw this new and profound difference and, as a result of the director being coachable, offered him a lucrative opportunity.

How to Be Coachable

Note: For the best results, hire a coach to tackle a large project or goal that is beyond the norm for you. Also, rely on your boss and internal company mentor for additional insights. Use a qualified assessment to ensure your boss, mentor and coach see who you really are and not only how you wish to be seen. Why is this important? You cannot build a solid foundation of success based on false data and perceptions!

Overcome Fear. In general, we tend to be afraid of other people and what they think of us. One of the top fears is feeling humiliated. These are difficult blind spots to see! As a leader, it’s important to learn how to work through the internal mental chatter of thoughts and feelings that egg on our fears.

Listen to Learn. Many key employees who want to move up in their careers fail to truly listen. Most successful leaders and executives will tell you that listening and being present in conversations, no matter how boring, make the ultimate difference. It is important to listen to your coach’s advice and hear the feedback from your boss, co-workers and employees. This is a great opportunity to use a qualified 360-degree feedback assessment. The objective information it gives you will help clarify and fine-tune the skills required for your success.

Develop Mastery. Many busy professionals today fail to learn the basics. They falsely believe they can build on what they know about a product or resolve a difficult situation with little experience. Mastery requires diligent practice in developing the right habits in how you treat others, handle good and bad situations, and move forward with new opportunities. It takes time! The quality of your practice will determine your success now and in the future.

Take Advantage of Your Coaching Resources

Select an Internal Mentor. Select someone who has a pulse on the inner company politics and has industry experience. He or she will know how to navigate around challenges to help you get the job done, build a positive reputation and develop a solid network.

Hire an External Coach. An external coach can tell you what you need to hear and maintain confidentiality so that any information you share won’t come back to haunt you in the future. Select a coach who has worked in corporate America, successfully moved up career ladder(s) and has achieved great results. Beware of those who are “certified” without qualified experience in the workplace.

Treat Your Boss as a Valuable Resource. Even if you have a bad boss, you can still learn from him or her. Regardless of your point of view about the boss, find ways to interact in a positive manner—it will build your success! If your boss does not enjoy coaching or does not have the skills to do it, recommend using a qualified assessment that provides managerial-employee and coaching reports. This is a win-win for both of you!

Remember, being coachable is critical key to becoming successful! Why wait … get started today!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Are you a results producer failing to produce intended results? Are you a leader or executive who needs to fine-tune your management style? Contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation. She has helped thousands become successful due to her uncanny ability to pinpoint concerns and provide insights on how to be successful.

Jeannette Seibly is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. She has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires and million-dollar results for employers across the United States and Canada. Also, she is a PXT Select^TM Certified Professional and Authorized Partner. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

An administrative assistant hated her new boss—a woman who was her age but made a lot more money than she did. The assistant’s husband suggested she learn from her new boss instead of hating her. With his coaching and her boss’s ability to manage with laser-like effectiveness, the assistant was given a project that she excelled at. The boss (and her husband) congratulated her on a job well done. With this newfound confidence, she enrolled in college courses, was promoted within her company and eventually became the manager of the department. All it took was creating the right career path instead of relying on the normal trial and error used by many bosses to develop good employees into great ones.

Too often, good employees become dissatisfied with their jobs and blame their bosses for their unhappiness. The truth is, employees fall victim to media messages about how to be happy and successful, with catch phrases like “be your own boss,” “work for yourself,” “become a millionaire overnight” and “get the promotion you deserve.” While these sound good, they don’t work when employees’ career paths don’t align with them or when employees are not willing to acquire the required skills.

How to Develop Good Employees into Great Ones

First, clarify the path to inspire great employees

• Use a qualified assessment to assess job and career fitness. Putting a good employee into the wrong job is a very expensive mistake. You cannot coach and train people to be something they are not. Instead, develop career paths where employees have the opportunities for job satisfaction. For example, without having a defined career path, putting a good employee who wants to move from marketing into sales can be a disaster if they do not have the assertiveness required.
• Define job requirements. Take the time to clarify the job responsibilities and the type of person who will excel at them. Set up a 180-day success plan and outline the skill sets that need to be developed. Use qualified assessment products to clarify the competencies needed for the position. This will help your employees know exactly what is expected of them. The assessment tools will provide great insight into coaching, mentoring and inspiring your employees to keep them focused, and they’ll help you guide them through inevitable challenges.
• Create realistic expectations. One major pitfall is that today’s employees have been told they can do anything they want. Make sure to engage in reality-based conversations with those wanting positions that don’t fit them. Instead, provide other opportunities for them to grow. Be open to creating new positions that meet the company’s needs and are a good job fit for the employees!

Second, provide opportunities for growth … NOW

• Understand what inspires them. To understand anyone, you must first talk with them. Have conversations over a period of time that clarify what they want to do and why. For example, if they wish to become a manager, provide them leadership opportunities on department projects or cross-company programs. Encourage them to participate on trade boards and committees. Share the importance of these activities and how it will develop more effective leadership skills.
• Learning is key. Provide training for both technical and “soft” skills. Have employees shadow higher level managers, meet with customers, and/or be part of a temporary task force to solve a problem. Also, make sure they are aware of their successes and boost their confidence by completing the five exercises in the book It’s Time to Brag! Business Edition.
• Mastery requires practice. Today, attention spans are shorter than ever. It’s typical for someone who doesn’t see an immediate payoff from their effort to give up. To help good employees develop great habits and interpersonal skills, acknowledge their efforts and successes, no matter how small. Be patient. Coach them through boredom or arrogance (this usually occurs when they believe they shouldn’t have to do the task). Remember, understanding the technical aspects of a job does not mean they have mastered how to use the information in a variety of situations. Practice allows them to do so.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Need to create a 180-Day Success Plan? Contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

Jeannette Seibly is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. She has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires and million-dollar results for employers across the United States. Also, she is a PXT Select^TM Certified Professional and Authorized Partner. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

My goal is to provide products and services that build sustainable growth for your company.

I love using qualified assessments and have been using and providing them to my clients for over 25 years. I have seen firsthand the value of how using (or not using) the right tools can make a significant difference in resolving people and management issues. Qualified assessments can help create positive outcomes.

An IT manager was having difficulty managing his people; in addition, due to many complaints about his brusque manner, he experienced high turnover. After using a qualified assessment that gauges thinking style, core behaviors and occupational interests, he found he learned quickly despite the fact that he had never completed high school. As a result of this insight, coupled with coaching on how to manage meetings and handle questions, he excelled. He completed his GED, enrolled in business management courses and became a key influencer in his company.

Why Are Assessments Critical?

Using the right assessments the right way helps companies hire, coach, manage and develop great talent while easily resolving issues involving employees, teams, salespeople, boards and executives. The clarity and value of qualified assessments are incredible … assessments provide the million-dollar difference when used appropriately. They help you achieve your intended results, coach with confidence and turn good employees into great ones!

All Assessments Are Not Created Equal

One of the biggest challenges employers face today is discerning a qualified assessment from a non-qualified one, and using assessments appropriately.

First and foremost, a qualified assessment meets the 13 standards in the Department of Labor’s (DOL) guidelines for using assessments to hire and promote employees. (This becomes important to you when the DOL knocks on your door.) To find out if the assessment tool you are using meets these requirements, get a copy of the DOL’s guidelines (request a copy) and a copy of the technical manual for the assessment. Don’t be surprised if your assessment provider cannot provide a technical manual, and do not rely on a letter from a law firm writing about EEO, ADA and other legal compliance. The scientific data, legal compliance and other important information are ALL contained in the technical manual.

Second, understand that most assessments do not meet the DOL’s standards for pre-employment and promotion purposes. There are over 3,000 publishers of assessments in the market today. Most do not meet the DOL’s guidelines—despite what the provider tells you. These guidelines are critical in ensuring accurate, predictive and usable results that produce better hires, and for promoting the right talent into successful roles.

Other Factors to Consider

Three primary reasons non-qualified tools are popular:

• They are quick to use and inexpensive to purchase.
• They can provide fun social interaction in a training event (e.g., characterizing employees using colors, royalty titles, behavioral labels, etc.).
• They offer Face Validity, in other words, the results show how you want to be seen.

The biggest push-back often comes down to cost. Why do qualified tools seem to cost more?

• The truth is, they save you money, time and sleepless nights when you factor in the high cost of hiring mistakes and potential litigation from using non-qualified tools to hire and promote!

Qualified assessments provide bosses and employees with critical information:

• Objective data about the culture and job fit of the person—the key reasons people, performance and profits fall short in an organization
• The strongest validity and reliability studies, along with periodic retests, keep the tools up-to-date
• Predictive validity that allows you to strategically build a solid foundation for a growing business, now and in the future
• The ability to gauge the accuracy of the results
• Selection, coaching, leadership, sales and other important reports for hiring, coaching and training with confidence and clarity

The million-dollar difference is that qualified assessments help build a strong foundation for business growth. These objective tools can replicate results, provide clarity and make a positive impact on the bottom line. Otherwise, the foundation you are building will rock, roll and crumble.

That’s why I love assessments! Why not find out the million-dollar difference they can make for you?

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Need to create a strategic hiring system? Get your copy of Hire Amazing Employees, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

Jeannette Seibly is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. She has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires and million-dollar results for employers across the United States. Also, she is a PXT Select^TM Certified Professional and Authorized Partner. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.