Boss

How to Provide Practical Feedback for Success Today

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“Leadership success requires giving practical real-time feedback.”

Many employees, teams and companies fail due to lack of real-time, practical feedback. Bosses wait until annual performance review time, bringing up issues from months ago. Managers fear saying anything negative because it would reduce their likability. Most lack experience on how to turn feedback into a positive process and instead wait until it is unavoidable.

The good news is providing real-time, practical feedback is a skill that can be learned. Good leaders check on progress to provide timely feedback. They are proactive about resolving issues and not waiting until there is a crisis. Plus, they demonstrate by example how to offer and receive feedback in a constructive manner.

5 Feedback Tips for Success

  1. Do It Now. Have a conversation after a quick and thorough investigation into the complaint. Talk with all people directly involved. Listen for the core issue. Then, build an agreement with everyone involved on how to proceed forward.
  2. Build Good Working Relationships. Develop good relationships with all of your employees: full-time, part-time, contract or temporary. This builds trust and makes it easier to provide needed feedback in the future.  It also makes it easier to communicate tough decisions. Employees value well-delivered feedback from someone they know is committed to their success.
  3. Use Sandwich Approach. Here’s the formula: 2 positives to begin + 2 factual and specific concerns + 2 positives to end = positive feedback. This basic outline provides effective feedback in a manner that employees can hear. Don’t forget to listen to their POV. There will always be more than one side to any story or problem.
  4. Provide Training. Provide training on how to use persuasive listening skills to offer good feedback. Using scientifically validated job fit tools will uncover misconceptions employees have about one another … and provide invaluable laser-like coaching. This allows you to turn around tough issue easier, faster and more productively.
  5. Use 360-degree Feedback. Real-time, critical feedback can be difficult to get. Use scientifically validated 360-degree tools quarterly, not annually. Quarter reviews will provide far more powerful feedback than annual performance reviews! These tools keep individual responses confidential and encourage truthfulness. Work with your executive coach to review the results. Then, share key results with others and listen to their feedback on how to improve.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2018

Jeannette Seibly has been recognized as a catalyst and leadership expert for the past 25 years. As an executive coach, speaker and author, she provides straight talk with dynamic results. Feedback after the fact is useless. Feedback provided in real-time is invaluable. What do you need to be able to deliver and listen to feedback now? Contact Jeannette for a preliminary confidential conversation. Do it now.

7 Bad Habits that Get in the Way of Results

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Today’s podcasts and articles focus on motivating your employees to achieve amazing results. But, for many bosses, there are times it seems like a difficult, never-ending challenge.

It can be difficult to motivate others with four generations in today’s workplace. To add to the challenge, many bosses have not been well trained. Sometimes it’s the bad habits bosses learned from their own bosses that get in the way. Other times, they fail to upgrade how they talk and manage their employees.

If you have any of these 7 bad habits, get a coach and transform into a great boss.

  1. Violating Confidentiality. Transparency doesn’t mean sharing private conversations. Instead, share numbers. Share good tactical and strategic methods. Never call people out on their stuff in public. Only do it behind closed doors.
  2. Treating Experienced People Like Rookies. Talking down to people or micromanaging them won’t motivate them to do better. Instead, it can create a backlash of negativity. Talk in a respectful manner and talk straight when there is an issue. Be specific in the feedback. Listen and find value in their experiences.
  3. Threatening Jobs. Putting fear into employees rarely achieves positive results. It will also impact your relationships with clients. Job fit is the #1 reason people excel in their jobs. By using qualified job fit assessments, you will clarify “why” they are and are not successful. These tools will also improve your hiring, coaching, managing and training style.
  4. Being a Friend First. This bad habit impacts your ability to make decisions, give assignments and coach others. If you were a team member and are now the boss, have conversations with each team member to discuss the change. Boss first, and a friend second.
  5. Treating Them as Children. Too often we fail to talk and treat our employees as adults. Micromanaging their activities and insisting everything must have your approval, is demoralizing. Instead … trust them.
  6. Changing Expectations. Every employee needs consistent goals, policies and expectations to succeed. Constant changes negatively impacts employee morale. They give up, become apathetic and develop a why bother attitude. Be consistent and stay the course.
  7. Lacking Awareness. Even the best bosses value scientifically validated 360-degree feedback tools. These tools improve management styles because individual responses are confidential and encourage truthfulness. Hire a coach to review the results with you to increase your awareness as a boss. Then, share key results with employees and listen to their feedback on how you can improve.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2018

Jeannette Seibly has been recognized as a catalyst and leadership expert for the past 25 years. As an executive coach, speaker and author, she provides straight talk with dynamic results. Are your bad habits demotivating your team and negatively impacting your results? Ready to make needed changes? Don’t wait! Contact Jeannette now for a preliminary confidential conversation.

Are Your Millennials Ready to Lead Now?

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Millennials have surpassed Generation X as the largest workforce in the United States, and Baby Boomers are retiring at faster rates. As a result, employers are finding they have waited too long before investing in the next generation of leadership! If Millennials are not mentored before they go into senior-level roles, they often will create havoc for employees, customers and business results because they are ill prepared.

Not everyone has the true interest or capability to be an effective leader in your company, regardless of what they tell you (and regardless of their age group). Often, people seek these coveted opportunities for more money, industry prestige, professional power and other personal desires. So it’s important to identify the qualities and experience the company needs before developing future leaders. Being proactive when investing in high-potential Millennials can guarantee a better quality of leadership for the future.

Proactively Prepare Your Future Leaders

Clarify Leadership Skills. What competencies are required in your company to be a great leader? Some companies expect their leaders to have excellent interpersonal skills, while others require a stronger technical or financial focus. Remember, no one can have strong abilities in everything. Be clear what type of experience, skills and interpersonal traits (e.g., behavioral traits, interests and thinking styles) are required. When you provide a clear path and opportunity to develop the required skills, future leaders can excel. Don’t forget to define a secondary path for brilliant technical experts, highly creative individuals and other gifted non-leader-type employees, with appropriate compensation and perks.

Qualified Assessments. Use qualified assessment tools to objectively benchmark the qualities you need. Then, compare with the employees’ traits, current skills, abilities and willingness. These tools also provide coaching, leadership perspectives and 360-degree feedback information for your managers and top-level executives to help develop and mentor their potential successors with laser-like precision.

Close the Gap. Waiting until the day a position opens up to develop a future leader prevents the company from having someone ready to assume the job responsibilities and be effective. This is why potential leaders fail. Select high-potentials to lead projects for the company now. Encourage them to take on trade association board and committee work. Hire an external coach for them, and select an internal mentor. All of these actions will prepare fast-track Millennials by uncovering their blind spots, developing their effectiveness and teaching them the unwritten characteristics of good leaders.

Coachability. Offering regular and meaningful feedback is critical. Many will not ask for it, and may be unaware of how to handle feedback. Be clear … if the person is not coachable, it’s time to reevaluate whether or not they will make a good leader in your company. Some may do well in their current position but may not have the emotional intelligence or ability to work well with others, execute projects or programs to achieve intended results, etc. Promoting people beyond their capabilities and interests can be one of the most expensive lessons a company experiences. And, it’s preventable.

It’s time for companies to get serious about readying Millennials for future leadership roles now. They will be happier, and so will you!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Need an engaging presenter for a trade association event or a facilitator to address a company issue? Contact Jeannette.

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, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.