Do you know when to trust the data or your instincts?

Successful leaders have to grapple with this dilemma often. They believe their intuition is telling them what the true answer is. Or, they want to trust the numbers. However, intuition can be wrong and 100 percent reliance on data can send you down the wrong path too. Developing a strong business balance between statistics and your sixth sense takes experience, time, and practice. As business owners and executives know, making the wrong decisions can cost the company more than money. It can also cost their reputation, clients, and top talent.

What do you do when you don’t trust the data? Trust the process. For example: When you hire a person based upon your gut reaction, even when the facts disagree, you didn’t trust your selection system. The truth is, failure to pay attention to good objective information will negatively impact your decisions.

Better questions to ask yourself: Do you know how to correctly use qualified hiring tools and follow a strategic selection process? (BizSavvyHire.com)  Do you have an unconscious habit of hiring and firing until you find the right person? (Hint: Honestly look at your turnover numbers.) Asking these types of questions can help you determine the underlying (aka real) reason you may not trust the data. 

Which one do you trust when your data or intuition is contrary to others’ opinions? Trust yourself and be open to being right and wrong. For example, many times when a company is experiencing difficulty achieving results, it’s because a controlling leader or dominating team member made erroneous judgments based heavily on facts or feelings. Learn to ask good business questions and listen to people’s responses. Being open to changing your mind doesn’t mean you have to. However, being adamant that you are right is usually a sign of impending disaster.

Strong leaders trust themselves and know how to develop win-win outcomes by working with and through others. They are prepared for the downside of any decision. They use their results as dashboards to develop trust in themselves and others when making balanced factual and intuitive decisions.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Where Do You Draw the Line?

Some bosses and coworkers are temperamental.  It’s a fact that not everyone can be universally nice, and being respectful is very subjective based on your perspective or tolerance level.  Labeling someone as “bad” or “wrong” and believing they shouldn’t behave the way they do could cost you your job. The question is where do you draw the line?

There are many programs out there on how to work with difficult people. They offer a great opportunity for you to improve your own interpersonal skills. Remember, you are not going to like working with everyone. Learn how to stay focused on your job requirements and achieve the end results instead of focusing on how to “fix” people. If you run into a personal attack or discriminatory behavior, document it, share it with your boss or HR, and be ready to move on to another job.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Fearful Bosses

Many bosses today have become fearful of losing their jobs and being unable to find equivalent or better ones. They spend more time manipulating others’ perceptions of their worth in order to keep their jobs than achieving the required results. Their lack of commitment to the company, its employees, customers, and communities usually turns their fears into the reality of becoming unemployed! As a boss, remember that if employees are not doing their work, it’s a reflection of your management style. If you are not achieving the results, you are not taking the right, focused action steps. If you are blaming others for your challenges, you are probably not in the right job! Get help now! Hire a coach and develop clarity to do the right work.  

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Has Your Project Gone Off Track?

Project managers can become fearful when a project is past due and over budget. At that point, they have usually lost control of the team and feel disempowered and blameful. To make things more difficult, they refuse to get qualified advice on how to get back on course to achieve their goals.  Instead, they spend more time coming up with excuses the boss will agree with than making the right changes to the action plan.

Successful project managers have a stronger commitment to the project and team than to their egos. They stretch their minds by listening and asking good business questions, not questions designed to force others to agree with them. They believe 99 percent of the world’s information is in others’ heads, and their successful results show it!

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Eliminate the Guessing Game

Do you know how to ask for what you want? Or do you expect your employees or vendors to simply know? Do you falsely believe you will know what you want when you see or read it? Eliminate the guessing game and take time to clarify the goal or outcomes you wish to achieve, in writing. By writing goals down, it’s easier to get everyone on the same page. Stay away from spelling out how to achieve outcomes. Share your outline and include others’ ideas before providing the details.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Making the Same Hiring Mistakes?

When you keep making the same hiring mistakes over and over, it’s costly and very time consuming. You lose credibility with your staff and clients. It’s time to stop and get help. You have a misperception of potential employees’ work experience, skills, and/or job fit required. With clarification and by learning new ways to interview, how to use qualified assessments, and how to improve your due diligence processes, you can improve your hiring results. (BizSavvyHire.com)  Hopefully, it won’t be too late to rebuild your credibility.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Helpful Hint:

Job ads with trite sound-bites fail to attract, e.g., great opportunity and work hard. Learn how-to attract the right employees: http://BizSavvyHire.com

 

 

 

 

The Right Inner Talk Expedites Results

Do you want to successfully achieve intended results? Are you willing to do what you don’t want to do and don’t like to do, and stop complaining about it? If yes, understand that results require practice and developing a discipline by following focused action steps. Hire a business advisor, coach, or other professional to help you along the way.

A coach has you do what you don’t want to do so you can achieve what you’ve always wanted.

What is the key ingredient often overlooked?  The right inner talk expedites results. Your self-talk guides you toward achieving your goals. It’s your inner core and determination that keep you moving forward day after day, week after week. Pay attention to the words you use to communicate your concerns or fears. They are usually the insight needed to blast through any inevitable wall. But don’t fall into the trap of falsely believing recitation of the right words is the sole answer. You need to believe in them while you are doing the work!

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Be a Kick-Butt Warrior for Your Career

Developing clarity and focus is the key to becoming a kick-butt warrior for your career. Stop waiting or relying on your boss or company to pay for workshops, seminars, or one-on-one coaching. Take matters into your own hands and pay for them. The return-on-investment will be significant — these activities have consistently helped others land on the career path of their choosing.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Money conversations

Having fear-based beliefs that you can’t afford something important can create a lot of mischief in your enterprise. Although budgets, monetary controls, and other financial considerations must be handled in a fiscally responsible manner, doing so in a Scrooge-like way usually takes its toll on the company–particularly when it’s self-serving.

Teach yourself and others to become resourceful, honor budgets, and learn how to become fiscally responsible. Many employees have not had responsibilities in costing, pricing, or creating profit margins for products and/or services in a competitive manner. Don’t make it difficult to achieve intended results; simply be responsible for the financial outcomes of how and where you spend the company’s money.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Promises are important.

Too often, we don’t pay attention to what we are saying to others, or ourselves. We make promises and don’t keep them. We forget or don’t hear our own words, get too busy or change our minds. When making promises, be conscious to what you are saying and say it in a clear and concise manner. When someone is making a request of you, agree, say no, or counteroffer. Then repeat the agreed-upon promise before fulfilling it. Write it down and take focused action.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013