Business

Are your next leaders ready?

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Many companies today are starting to feel the squeeze of needing experienced leadership and looking for it in all the wrong places. It starts with vetting and onboarding your future leaders now and providing them the learning opportunities they need to build business acumen. (Read more on this topic is my eGuide “Companies and Executives Need to Vet and Onboard Each Other!” http://ow.ly/qYzMB)

Onboarding your leaders in new jobs require:

    • An inside mentor and outside business advisor (or executive coach)
    • Building upon strengths and providing opportunities to develop and grow
    • Developing initiative, resourcefulness, and an ability to work with and through others to achieve results through collaborative opportunities
    • Very importantly, coachability. Hiring know-it-alls will only limit their ability to grow, be promotable and your company’s ability to attract and retain top talent.

Use a strategic hiring process to ensure the candidate can do the job now and appears to have the objective ability to be promoted in the future. Qualified selection and coaching assessments along with qualified 360-degree feedback can make a significant difference in selecting and developing the right person, one with executive potential, regardless of past work experience. (http://SeibCo.com/assessments)  

When interviewing candidates for employment or promotions, drill down—most candidates are adept at telling you what you want to hear. Ask the right tough questions and listen to their responses and examples. Many times candidates truly believe they can handle job responsibilities and don’t take into consideration other life commitments, a different work culture, or different expectations required in the executive office. Devise a structure to ensure that if candidates fail, they aren’t automatically fired. You’ve invested a lot of time and money in employees’ success—simply restructure their upward movement in a lateral direction. (For additional insights in how to interview, get your copy of Hire Amazing Employees: Second Edition (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

You Are a Champion

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In many companies, employees are expected to “dummy down” and not share their accomplishments. Statistically women, more than men, have a very difficult time sharing their achievements, since most were taught as children that it’s impolite to brag. The result? Because employees don’t give voice to their successes, they don’t receive the promotions, pay increases, and business recognition deserved. Business owners don’t get the contract bids and industry reputation required to succeed because they don’t tout their accomplishments. There is an art to learning how to brag in a business-savvy manner. Get your copy of It’s Time to Brag! and complete the five simple exercises. Share your successes, and experience increased success. (http://TimeToBrag.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Peaks and Valleys

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Every business has it peaks and valleys. Instead of fighting against it, welcome them! The valleys allow you time to get in touch with the innovative ideas that can come as big waves or skim quietly across your mind.  Your mind-set is crucial to ensuring you don’t quickly dismiss an idea without discussing it with others, or grab on to “the next best thing” too quickly without proper review. Stay focused on your company’s primary stream of income and run a parallel system with your new business idea.  Stay focused on quarterly milestones to ensure both sets of plans are on track and that weekly-focused action plans are being implemented.  For additional help, contact http://SeibCo.com/contact

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Culture is the fall guy

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Why do so many executives fail in new jobs? While many blame company culture, I would suggest that culture is the scapegoat. Poor cultural fit simply amplifies or points out what the C-suite or board members on the hiring committee failed to uncover during the vetting or onboarding process!

Instead of blaming culture, management teams should take the time to think through and write out a strategic hiring process that works, and design it to ensure that each party explores and investigates the other. They should use qualified systems and tools, trust the process, and follow it. Remember, more conversations will be required when hiring an executive to ensure consistency of philosophy and provide deeper exploration of issues and potential solutions. If you follow a well-designed system and use it in the spirit in which it was intended, you will know that you’ve done your best to ensure a positive partnership—even though there are never any guarantees. Excerpt from Companies and Executives Need to Vet and Onboard Each Other! http://SeibCo.com/books/eguides   

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Are Your Company’s Values Meaningful?

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Everyone brings their own set of personal values into a company, whether it’s when to pay bills, if and when to respect authority or follow rules, or even what’s an acceptable time to arrive at work or an event. Some employees’ values will naturally fit into your organization’s culture, while other employees won’t align with your written business practices and unwritten business expectations. (Qualified core value assessments can reduce selection errors so you hire the right people with values that match your organization. [http://SeibCo.com/assessments ])

The purpose of having a written set of company values is to get everyone on the same page in order to create a workable structure for open communication, clarity of expectations and ethics, respect, trust, and so on. For values to have a positive influence, all employees and managers within an organization need to feel free to voice their concerns and learn how to interact without fear of retribution. Creating meaningful workplace values contributes to reducing turnover, increasing sustainable profits, and building a positive business reputation, since everyone is working from the same set of company principles.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Emotional hiring can be dangerous!

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Many executives are good decision-makers or they wouldn’t have the title. However, many are so busy that they fail to listen during interviews unless the candidate says the right things. Then their impulsiveness and impatience kicks in and they hire people that “feel like the right ones”! Hiring based on intuitive powers may sound great, but in reality it is an excuse for not using a strategic hiring system.  

Anytime you hire someone who doesn’t fit all the necessary job requirements but has the likeability factor, you’re doomed for failure. Frequent job-seekers—people with backgrounds to hide and manipulative types—have honed their interview skills well! They know what to say and how to sell themselves to get a job. They know how to be likeable.

Infuse objectivity early in the hiring process. (http://wp.me/p2POui-nj ) This will significantly reduce the possibility of interviewing these types of job candidates and falling into the emotional hiring trap. Use a structured interview process, qualified assessments, and due diligence. Call those references! (Learn how to hire the right person. Get your copy of Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition. It could save your own job!  http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Is your ethical compass spinning?

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When ethical issues get overlooked during the design and implementation of a project, everyone blames somebody else. It’s very easy to succumb to the strongest advocate’s point of view that ethical issues won’t matter. But the problems created by lies or by dismissing the truth won’t resolve themselves. As the leader, you need to guide your team on how to proceed. Make it easy for your employees and peers to bring these types of concerns to your attention—discovering ethical issues down the road usually makes them more costly, if not impossible, to fix. Don’t shoot the messenger! Don’t blame the informer for someone else’s theft or violation of company policy. Is your ethical compass still spinning? Now is the time to call a highly experienced business advisor, someone who can confidentially bring clarity on how to resolve ethical issues. Remember, ethical doesn’t always mean easy!  http://SeibCo.com/contact

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

How do you handle the company bully?

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People can be difficult to converse with when they are being bullies constantly in search of special favors. As an executive, you don’t have the luxury of avoiding them. However, you can minimize and structure your interactions to be effective. First, listen to their request. Don’t dismiss it simply based on who’s asking. Second, ask what the return on investment is. Third, have them put it in writing. Fourth, make a decision that works best for the company. For additional insights on how to handle difficult interactions, get your copy of Most Discussions Require More Than 140 Characters! https://seibco.com/books/eguides/

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Innovation frauds

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Many professionals make changes for the sake of making changes. Some hope change will be recognized as a good thing and keep them employed. The bottom line? Change can be disruptive to any business when modifications are made without a specific goal others can agree upon. Remind new hires to learn the current way your company conducts business before offering any recommendations for changes, at least for 30 days. Just because it worked with their former employer or is considered the industry norm does not mean a change will produce the required results in your environment. Teach everyone how to ask the right questions of their teammates and brainstorm possible adjustments before making any agreed-upon changes. For a new system to work profitably, it must include everyone’s input into its design and alignment.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

How does “new normal” impact your leadership?

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The new normal is a paradigm shift. Old thoughts and beliefs are being replaced with new expectations about sustaining and growing our businesses. We may have to take new actions in order to acquire new clients and embrace new technology to meet expanding needs. We may need to refine marketing, sales, and hiring systems or give them a complete overhaul. But we will still need to measure successful operations, financial growth, and strategic planning against the company’s actual results to ensure we’re headed where we want to go. Integrity and ethics will be increasingly scrutinized by prospective customers and prospective top talent in the new normal.  Sometimes these shifts are for the better, and sometimes they are simply a passing fad.

A new executive kept telling the CEO they needed to make changes in their marketing plan and sales activities to attract larger companies. The CEO kept reminding her that “bigger clients are not always better ones, nor do they necessarily provide bigger ROIs.” The company’s strategic plan was deliberately focused on small to medium-sized clients. The new executive was unwilling to adapt and left because of poor job fit after 18 months—and the company grew and prospered because her replacement embraced the company’s strategic vision.

What is your responsibility as a leader? Stay consciously aware of shifting criteria. Some principles will start quietly until they become so loud that they demand your attention. Others are much more subtle and may only hang around until they are replaced by a newer craze or trend. Regardless, don’t follow blindly along. Take charge of defining which changes will work well for your company. Infuse as much objectivity as possible when making any modifications, and don’t forget the human factors, regardless of how small the modification. Your employees’ emotional reactions will create a smooth or difficult transition.

“The grass is greener at other companies” is a myth many job-hoppers believed when taking new positions that promise increased pay and work responsibilities. They may find that their new employer does not offer the same benefits package and other perks as their old one, or that their new bosses are not better people and project managers. Increased work responsibilities could instead simply mean working longer hours with fewer resources!

The key? Don’t become an ostrich with your head in the sand. Investigate and explore the potential impact of any new normal. Consciously choose when, where, why, and how to follow—or not! You don’t want to be left scrambling to refocus on the right things.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013