Business

Do you believe you’ve mastered the art of skimming resumes?

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Many HR professionals and recruiters falsely believe they’ve mastered the art of skimming resumes. The sad truth is they miss out on many great candidates. Although job candidates do have a responsibility to learn how to sell themselves (http://TimeToBrag.com), reliance on reviewing hundreds of resumes with our inherent biases and limited analysis skills will not attract the right people to our enterprises. Learn how to infuse objectivity early in your hiring process and you’ll increase your qualified candidate pool while achieving better hiring results. (See: Easily Infuse Objectivity Early In Your Hiring System: http://wp.me/p2POui-nj)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Being righteous is a career saboteur.

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Leaders may win the battle but lose the war with their need to be right. Relying on a management style of browbeating employees or being condescending to clients is a lonely fight. Disheartened employees will find a way to invalidate your directives, and your clients will find another resource.  As a leader, it’s your job to learn how to listen to others’ ideas, even if they don’t appear to have merit, and build upon them for solutions. Being righteous is a career saboteur! Creating win-win outcomes is one of your most important jobs.

Where have you won the battle but lost the war in your career?

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Handling Devious Company Foxes

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“Foxes are devious—have you given one of them the keys to your office?”

Last Friday I had someone tweet me in response to the above posted caption. The person had given trust to another, and it turned out to be bad news. I’m sure many of you can personally and professionally relate to this experience. I know I can.

Unfortunately, foxes are devious and manipulative creatures. It’s simply their nature. But for people, being devious is often unconscious and based on fear of failure. The key is to become aware of devious people as quickly as possible by listening to your inner leader, or voice. Don’t second-guess yourself based upon your most recent interaction with the person, or your fear of not being strong enough to handle the situation.

Don’t immediately fire someone without conducting proper due diligence, stick your head in the sand hoping it will go away on its own, or jump into a new project, career, or job. These types of knee-jerk reactions will follow you.

First, look within to see what the life lesson is. Second, discuss the situation with your business advisor or executive coach for any additional insights. Now, make your decision and follow through on making the appropriate changes from a place of inner strength and leadership.

How have you successfully handled a fox in your company? How did it impact your career?

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Avoid strategic plan nightmares.

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Executing ideas that sounded great in creative sessions can turn into nightmares. Often, execution fails because of the “bright, shiny object” illusion or a failure to address the reality of current work practices.

Poorly designed goals and action plans that don’t incorporate the current systems and people or are mismatched with the company’s vision and values will fail. Jokingly threatening to fire everyone and hire the “right ones” to get the idea to work is a fool’s mission for any company. Threats like these should be seen as warning signs about the workability of any blueprint.

Create workable goals and don’t change the goal to accommodate the action plan! Learn how to work backwards to produce a focused action from the desired result—it will illuminate often-overlooked problems. These discoveries, when realistically addressed, will help you avoid strategic plan nightmares.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

The importance of careless words

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Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. This attitude often hurts careers and ruins companies’ reputations. It’s important as a leader that you pay attention to what you are saying and when and with whom you are sharing your thoughts and ideas. Racial, ethnic, or gender slurs can and will get you in trouble with others, as will gossip about employees, clients, and competitors. Remember, many careers are derailed and companies reputations tarnished by the wrong person overhearing your words from the next table, or the next room.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

GPAs are not good success predictors

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Many companies today rely on applicants’ GPAs from high school or college as an objective indicator to predict their success on the job. Unfortunately, knowledge does not mean you know how to use information effectively in a business setting. There are street-smart individuals with lower GPAs who will trump those with book smarts in achieving the intended results. Why? Many street-smart people know how to work with and through others to solicit the 90 percent of information not found in books or on the Internet. Using qualified assessments can objectively help you determine if a person’s thinking style will fit the job you need to have done. (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Do you hold your hiring managers accountable?

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Very few companies manage their hiring processes by holding their hiring managers accountable. Instead, they experience high levels of turnover and increased difficulty finding qualified candidates because managers reliance on gut reactions or play the blame game.  Neither will resolve systems or bias issues when new employees fail. What would happen if instead your hiring manager’s compensation was tied to employee turnover and performance? A bad manager would either step aside or improve in order to create an environment for employee success. (http://ow.ly/mL7n0 (Bad Managers eGuide)) They would improve their use of qualified hiring tools to ensure the best objective information is being utilized and reviewed to ensure laser-like coaching for employee success. (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Don’t be afraid to “push into” a conversation.

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Many times we fail to ask the right questions. Even worse, we fail to listen for the true answers. Don’t be afraid to ask good questions before making decisions and probe to ensure you are on the same page with your employees, clients and bosses. Push into the conversation by asking the questions people are afraid to ask for fear that someone will get upset or be non-responsive. A good way to handle potential conflict is to let people know before asking a question that they may not like what you’re about to ask! That approach will usually deflect negativity and open up the conversation.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Are you really ready?

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You, like many employees today, may believe you are ready to move forward in your company to take on more responsibility. The bigger questions to first ask yourself: Do my customers, co-workers, partners, and management agree? It’s not enough for you to believe you can do it. Others need to have faith that you can and will deliver the intended results. A qualified 360-degree assessment can help you clarify what you need to do to advance. Hiring an executive coach can help you close the gap from where you are now to where you need to be in the near future. (http://SeibCo.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly

Inspire your momentum!

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Alert to future leaders! True leadership is taking the bull by the horns and making your career happen. Stop waiting for your boss and company to do it for you! Although it’s shortsighted of your employer to not offer help to improve your leadership potential, by taking the initiative on your own you’ll be well recognized when it comes time for awarding coveted projects, promotions, and pay increases. Contact an executive coach today. The right coach will help you navigate away from being sidelined and toward earning favorable kudos from co-workers and management. (http://SeibCo.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013