Executive

Gratitude Makes You a Better Leader and Boss

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Expressing gratitude and appreciation shows you care about your employees, job, clients, and boss. It’s an intelligent way to keep morale up and motivate people through tough challenges.

When bosses and leaders are grateful for their employees, these employees will be 50% more productive. (Wharton School of Business study)

Expressing your gratitude can be done both verbally and in writing. Remember, your words and actions make a big difference in keeping talent and building a positive workplace culture.

How to Express Gratitude

Be Authentic. It’s a must! When expressing gratitude, it must be sincere to develop trust and increase job satisfaction. Set aside your ego. Learn to acknowledge others for each and every effort, even if it’s part of their everyday job.

Brag! Bragging about your employees sets an example for them to brag about each other, themselves, and their wins. Include the small victories as well as the bigger ones!

Be Specific. Vague feedback or compliments are meaningless. Talk straight about an employee or boss’s specific behavior or action when expressing gratitude. It will encourage repeat behaviors, attitudes, and actions! For example, say to an employee, “Thank you for taking the extra time to work with the client. They expressed to me their appreciation for your patience.”

Set an Example. Be humble and acknowledge specific roles people played in helping you and your team achieve their goals. For example, “Thank you for your great ideas during our brainstorming session. Because of your willingness to think outside the box, we nailed the issue and successfully completed our project on time and within budget.”

Be Positive. Being grateful is not a one-time expression. It’s being thankful, even in the face of challenges. For example, when an employee hands in an assignment late, start the conversation positively by expressing appreciation. “Thank you for getting this assignment done. And, in the future, what must we do to have these tasks done on time?”

Say Please & Thank You! These two powerful phrases still express much gratitude when said with authenticity and sincerity. Use frequently for best results!

So here we go … Thank you for reading this post! You are appreciated. (Come on! Admit it! It felt good, didn’t it?)

Remember, develop gratitude by practicing it repeatedly (daily) until it becomes a natural part of who you are as a boss and leader!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019-2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Talent Advisor/Leadership Results Coach with over 31 years of experience guiding leaders and bosses to improve their hiring, coaching, and managing practices and produce amazing results! And yes, it always starts with having the right people in the right jobs! She has been an Authorized PXT Select Partner for over 31 years. Contact Jeannette to learn more about this state-of-the-art job-fit assessment tool or how to coach and manage your people to achieve amazing results.

Healing Our Inner Power Creates Leadership Success

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What is inner power? It’s a: Quiet force within you that knows when to act and when to move and gives you the strength to do so. (Psychology Today)

When do leaders experience a loss of inner power? When you:

  • Make poor decisions or attempt to cover up mistakes
  • Experience loss of a job title, money, family status, zip code, or good health
  • Feel ineffective, or no one cares
  • Become controlling and challenging to work with
  • Experience fears due to another person’s upset
  • Lose your ability to influence and inspire others

Many attempt to hide these types of losses or ignore them due to feelings of guilt, shame, or wanting to look good.

Remember, your inner power helps you stay resilient and resourceful and allows you to bounce back faster. It requires taking the time to recognize, factually, what occurred and your feelings associated with it. Then, do the work to move forward. (An excellent way to objectively discover what happened is to complete the exercise, “What Worked? / What Didn’t Work? (See Chapter 20, Get Your Brag On!)

10 Healing Ideas to Reclaim Your Inner Power 

  1. Make the Commitment. Nothing can genuinely change until you become responsible for where you are now and commit to moving forward. In my many conversations with leaders who have experienced a loss of inner power, they re-presence this declaration. It became the line in the sand of before and after. It’s when they get into focused action to move forward.
  2. Stop Creating Endless Goals. Attempting to pursue more than three goals at a time is usually too much, and why most people fail to achieve any of them. Get real about what you really-really-really want to accomplish. Now, get into focused action.
  3. Hire an Executive Coach (or other appropriate coach (e.g., health, finance)). The best way to move past a business or career loss is to get help. Work with the right coach to guide you in the right direction without the devastating ups and downs of trial and error. Please don’t make the common mistake of trying to do it yourself to avoid feeling shame or guilt. It’ll be more challenging to move on and achieve the needed wins.
  4. Know Yourself. Self-awareness is critical. Many leaders believe they know and trust themselves but are afraid to be seen as they are. It’ll take a toll on your health and well-being if you don’t get honest. Make sure to become aware of your blind spots and inherent talents. Now is an excellent time to discover them and learn new ways to develop your natural strengths. Remember, you cannot build your inner power on weaknesses.
  5. Build Healthy Relationships. Take the time to build positive professional, personal, and family relationships. Spend time with like-minded people by reaching out and taking the time to get to know them. Don’t forget to offer help as appropriate.
  6. Grieve Your Loss, But Don’t Wear It On Your Sleeve. When a loss occurs, take time to grieve. It’ll come out unexpectedly and hurt your progress if you don’t. For example, if your loss of power is due to a job or financial loss, it may be time to review the direction or path you’ve been pursuing.
  7. Hire a Licensed Therapist. It can speed up the healing process and help you make needed changes.
  8. Get Your Brag On! Take the time to conduct a “brag” inventory, and include strengths and successes you’ve experienced. This process helps you focus on “what’s next” instead of living in the past.
  9. Be Mindful. Practice mindful breathing and learn to be present during conversations. It’s where the aha’s occur!
  10. Love Yourself (for who you are and who you are not). Now is a great time for self-reflection. Journaling will help you grow and learn from your experiences.

©Jeannette Seibly 2022-2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a champion for success. As a leader, do you have bosses that are difficult for teams to work with? Jeannette’s depth of experience and wisdom can transform those bosses from hated to respected! Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.

 

Are You Frustrated that You’re Unable to Find and Keep Top Talent?

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There are four often overlooked reasons.

Many companies realize they have a problem finding and keeping top talent. They even know it’s due to their hiring managers’ bad habits and practices!

But realizing the obvious (e.g., interviewers need training) does nothing to create a positive difference with your job fit selection system.

How to Improve (not just read about) Your Company’s Retention, Revenues, and Results!

Use the Right Job-Fit Assessment. Legal and scientific (e.g., validity, reliability, predictive validity, and distortion) factors are often overlooked! And most assessments are not designed to comply with the Department of Labor Guidelines for pre-employment and selection purposes. Using the right one will help you achieve real results (e.g., salespeople who can close sales and CPAs/financial planners who enjoy working with financial data). When selecting a job-fit assessment, ask for the Technical Manual. Beware … run the other way if they provide a letter from their attorney. These letters are designed to protect them, not you! (Read Chapter 9, Use the Right Assessments and Skills Test, “Hire Amazing Employees)

Ask Job-Related Questions. Even though most hiring bosses know better, many ask inadequate or inappropriate interview questions. For example, “What’s your favorite movie/book/color/restaurant?” These questions have nothing to do with the job and are illegal! The focus needs to be on questions that address: Can they do the job? Are they willing to learn the job? Will they actually do the job? Can they be successful in doing the job here? (For help designing interview questions: SEE Chapter 12, Pointers for Successful Interviews, “Hire Amazing Employees”)

Recognize Your Competition’s Top Producer May Fail in Your Company. No two companies have identical cultures and values. It’s why a top results producer in one company may fail in another! A well-designed job-fit selection system will reveal whether or not they will succeed at your company. (SEE: Chapter 2, Create a Strategic Selection System, “Hire Amazing Employees”)

Know Your Biases and Judgments Make Little Difference. Yes, we ALL have them! Even you! How do you minimize the negative impacts of the biases and judgments? Recognize them using a well-designed job-fit selection system to hire, promote, and transfer your people! Do this now before the next rendition of the “Great Resignation” or “Great Attrition” occurs in 2024! It will save time, customers, and sleepless nights. (SEE: Chapter 1, The Selection Triad – What Is It and Why Should You Care? “Hire Amazing Employees”)

©Jeannette Seibly, 2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Talent Advisor/Leadership Results Coach with over 31 years of experience guiding leaders and bosses to improve their hiring, coaching, and managing practices and produce amazing results! And yes, it always starts with having the right people in the right jobs! She has been an Authorized PXT Select Partner with Wiley for over 31 years. To learn more about this state-of-the-art job-fit assessment tool, contact Jeannette.

I Thought We Resolved the Issue

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How often have you thought an issue was resolved only to have it come back and knock on your door again? It’s frustrating! If you let it, it can sabotage your resilience, resourcefulness, and results.

Issues reoccur when you put a band-aid on them. You were in a hurry to make the problems disappear and take the easy way out. The truth is (if you’re honest about it) you allowed your personal feelings to get in the way, didn’t talk it out with others, or listened to sage advice. But ignoring the real issue(s) never resolves the true problem.

It can be difficult to confront challenging issues. You may feel powerless or lack the confidence or insight to resolve the core issue. Too many times, you and others talk about it over and over, taking weeks and months in hopes of resolving the issue. But instead, you and the team gloss over the actual issue. In the meantime, the window of opportunity has closed, and the damage has been done irrevocably.

Decisions will be well-thought-out when a company addresses the fundamental issue head-on and facilitates the process. It gets resolved quickly, and the issue disappears. I’ve been part of situations where the problems disappeared, and to this day, the issue hasn’t resurfaced because it was effectively resolved. It required integrity to do the right thing (not take the easy way out), critical thinking (not circular thinking), making decisions, and taking action immediately.

Build Solutions That Disappear Issues

Align on Core Values. Be clear in your communications and management practices that all solutions must align with the company’s core values. For example, when addressing employee retention, the issue is rarely about money (even though many focus on it). It’s about factionalism, quiet retaliation, or other less talked about (and real) issues. One solution may be enforcing workplace policies and procedures (e.g., no-tolerance policies).

Make Good Decisions. The process of making good decisions doesn’t need to be complicated. Integrity, honesty, and critical thinking will always create better outcomes when having tough conversations and addressing tough issues as soon as possible. When making informed decisions, remember to analyze the risks, costs, and impact on others.

Communicate the Results Appropriately So No One Involved is Left Out. When writing an email or talking, be present with what you say! Or, you may make the situation worse! Also, when coming to an agreement on the goal and focused action steps to take, go around the table or virtual camera to get everyone’s input until nothing new is added. Yes, it’ll take more time. But in the long run will save countless hours and money and stop the issue(s) from resurfacing.

Think Win-Win-Win. While you do not have a crystal ball, doing the right things right will be reflected in your decisions. If you are upset or angry about the issue or have a vendetta against someone, recuse yourself immediately. Otherwise, the core issue will hang around for a long time and hurt your business growth and career.

Follow-Up and Follow-Through. This is the step that is usually skipped! Ask the team: “What are the true results? Are the solutions implemented and working? If not, what do we need to do to move forward?” It’s helpful to come back in a day, week, and month to ask yourself and your team, “Did we address the true issue? Did we resolve the problem? Are you hearing any feedback or gossip that we need to investigate?” Note: The old issue may be resolved, but a new one may have popped up. Remember, you’re never done handling issues as a leader and boss. Don’t wait! Address issues now.

©Jeannette Seibly 2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a champion for success. As a leader, do you have bosses that are difficult for teams to work with? Jeannette’s depth of experience and wisdom can transform those bosses from hated to respected! Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.

Are You Engaging in Quiet Retaliation?

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Someone told on you!

  • You are accused of using microaggressions to make a point.
  • You were not truthful when submitting your expense reports.
  • It appears that you made the wrong decision that cost the company a client.

Your automatic response is retaliating, getting even, and/or blaming others. However, retaliation of any kind only creates further trouble.

Many leaders and bosses often retaliate by taking unfavorable actions against or making negative comments about employees who disagree with them. Or when their management team or boards find out about their wrongdoings. Or fire the whistle-blowers. These are examples of retaliation and are illegal in all states.

But what is quiet retaliation? It’s much more subtle, is incredibly common, and can be contagious in the workplace. It occurs when the avenger makes the employee or team uncomfortable through their words or actions. Often, the “victim(s)” feels targeted.

Here’s what quiet retaliation looks like in the workplace:

You …

  • Refuse to pay overtime but demand additional work be done
  • Ignore their ideas, or make negative comments about their ideas
  • Inform the employee or team that hybrid or remote work is no longer an option
  • Exclude them from important meetings or social get-togethers
  • Deny promotions or desired work assignments
  • Micromanage the employee or team
  • Withhold information and resources needed to get the job done
  • Rely on microaggressions to express your frustrations, hurt, and anger about them not being a “team player.”

When these types of quiet retaliation occur, the workplace culture will suffer. As the leader and boss, it’s up to you to work with your executive coach to ensure you and all employees are not engaging in these insidious and toxic practices. Because doing so will hurt your credibility, business growth, and future career options (even if you’re the business owner!). It also causes great clients and top talent to leave eventually.

Tips to Handle Quiet Retaliation

If you are engaging in quiet retaliation:

  • Talk out options with your boss and HR to rectify your wrongdoing.
  • Work with an executive coach to take responsibility for your misconduct and stop any quiet retaliation against employees.
  • Learn how to talk out and express yourself in healthy and helpful ways.
  • Apologize where and when appropriate.
  • Have all work assignments, promotions, and job change decisions made by objective team member(s).

If you have an employee engaging in quiet retaliation:

  • Remember, this may have been going on for a long time! Do not delay in addressing it!
  • Investigate or hire an objective third party to do so and ensure there is documentation.
  • Take the right actions to rectify the issue, including letting the offender go.

How to avoid quiet retaliation:

  • Enforce a no-tolerance
  • Train leaders, bosses, and team members to avoid any form of retaliation.
  • Provide written policies and procedures and communicate these with all employees.
  • To avoid surprises, have leaders and bosses conduct self-assessments and review them quarterly. Listen for any biases, negative comments about a person or team, and blame levied on the team for poor results. These are potential signs of quiet retaliation.

Note: If you’re experiencing quiet retaliation against you:

  • Inform your boss, HR, and your boss’s boss.
  • Document occurrences by keeping a log on your personal electronic device (not company-issued). Include in writing the time, date, other people that observed it, and factually what happened.
  • If nothing changes for the better, contact an employment attorney.
  • Talk with a coach and a therapist … retaliation of any kind will diminish your confidence and feelings of self-worth, especially if your co-workers side with the retaliator. This usually signifies a toxic workplace culture, and any healthy changes are unlikely to occur. Time to move on.

Quiet retaliation hurts your bottom line and ability to attract and retain top talent. You also risk losing great customers! What are you, as a leader and boss, doing to look for and stop the insidious practice of quiet retaliation?

©Jeannette Seibly 2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a champion for success. As a leader, do you have bosses that are difficult for teams to work with? Jeannette’s depth of experience and wisdom comes from 31 years of transforming bosses from hated to respected! Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.

Do You Feel Like You’re on a Never-Ending Hamster Wheel?

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With worldwide and personal events taking an emotional toll on you as a leader and boss, it’s easy to feel like you’re on a never-ending hamster wheel … the continuous and repetitive cycle that keeps you immobile and uncertain about what to do or going around in circles trying to achieve intended results.

Even though you attempt to hide your true feelings, fears, and concerns, your anxiety, frustration, and anger leak out in unconscious, subtle, and sometimes loud ways. Being conscious of your feelings, which others may also be experiencing, will improve others’ ability to listen to you, brainstorm, and develop workable solutions that positively impact your results.

Tips to Get Off the Hamster Wheel and Create Positive Results

The key is to take focused actions and work with a coach.

First, Get the Facts. The head and heart do not always work well together. It’s essential to work with a coach and/or therapist to decipher what is valid as a fact versus what is true personally for you emotionally. If you don’t, peer pressure, group thinking, and wanting to be liked will take over … and not in a positive way. Continuing on the hamster wheel will hurt your results and future business and career opportunities.

Second, Put Together a Plan. Write out your ideas and talk about a short-term plan with your team to get the immediate issue handled. Keep in mind that decisions made today will impact tomorrow. So, listen and make the best win-win-win decisions. Beware of the trap of making decisions in your own best interests. Bad decisions tend to hang around for a long, long time.

Third, Get into Focused Action. Making a plan can be easy. The hard part is getting into focused action. We have so many excuses! Especially when you must make changes and instead are busy overanalyzing what could go wrong. Taking steps forward will reduce the hum of the hamster wheel in your head. For example, if you have an employee creating mischief on the team, overlooking it and not addressing it will only allow the issue to mushroom! Have the tough conversations!

Fourth, Keep Your Ego Tempered. Many times, to not feel vulnerable and feel in control, you will allow your ego to take over. You’ll issue mandates, micromanage others, or talk in a fear-based manner. Yes, your choice of words matters! Again, talk it out with one or two trusted advisors, your coach, and/or a therapist. Remember, you don’t have the luxury of “shoulding” all over everyone! (Think, it should not be this way; they should know better)

Fifth, Practice Gratitude and Allow for Learning Moments. Removing the hamster wheel will necessitate being open and vulnerable during these challenging times without carrying your emotions and fears around in your actions, on your face, and in your voice. Others will follow your lead! Use the exercise, “What worked? / What didn’t work?” (See Chapter 20, Get Your Brag On!) to see the positives and help you determine specifically what can be done right now to impact results.

Sixth, Celebrate Your Wins! You did it! Time to celebrate and update your brags!

©Jeannette Seibly 2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a champion for success. As a leader, do you have bosses that are difficult for teams to work with? Jeannette’s depth of experience and wisdom comes from 31 years of transforming bosses from hated to respected! Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.

Why Do You Need to Make Crucial Changes Now?

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Because the right people in the right jobs are your most valuable assets!

Many bosses and business leaders in private and family-owned businesses are failing to make crucial changes now. Instead, they wait until there is an “Oh! S^&T moment!” By then, it’s usually too late. It’s gut-wrenching; they are looking for someone or something to blame.

Have you recently:

  • Noticed a leak in your financial profits? (There is no line item for hiring or promoting the wrong employee!)
  • Lost a major client … the one that has kept your doors open?
  • Lost a key employee … the one who knows everything about the company and its systems?
  • Spent more time updating your computer systems than hiring the right person?

The bad news? Ignoring these issues with the ostrich approach never worked well for anyone and never solved any of the “people challenges” you continue to have. Remember, the right people in the right jobs are your most valuable assets! Your reticence to make required changes takes a toll on your current employees and customers.

The good news? When you upgrade and update your hiring, promoting, and job transferring systems to collect objective, valid, and reliable data, your profits soar, and your employees and customers are happier.

It’s Time to Get Real

About the Numbers. Having high turnover is insane! And costs a lot of money. Relying on the excuse that it is less than “industry standards” won’t make a difference to your bottom line, retaining top talent, or keeping great customers. Conduct an analysis of the cost of hiring mistakes. Then, compare the cost of updating and upgrading your hiring and selection practices. Usually, a wrong hire costs much more than a well-designed strategic selection system.

About Your Selection Process. Are your people in the right jobs? Most employees today would give a resounding, “NO!” The Great Resignation and Great Attrition (along with other new terms for old issues) are employees’ battle cries for help! They are bored and stressed! A well-designed strategic job-fit process includes conducting effective job-related interviews, using real qualified job-fit assessment tools validated for pre-employment and promotion use, and following through on collecting true due diligence data.

About the Importance of Onboarding. Without following a well-designed plan to onboard new hires, you will lose them. Why? The boss is often too busy, so that the employees will step in. Employees have a way of doing work that may or may not reflect company policies and procedures. Bad habits, employees not on the same page, and mixed customer reviews will cause new hires to leave.

About Managing and Coaching Practices. Many bosses today are promoted for the wrong reasons and make poor managers and coaches. What missing? They lack coachability. It’s why many former employees blame bad bosses for leaving. These bosses take feedback as criticism of them personally instead of understanding it’s an opportunity to learn how to improve the quality of their work. Also, they fail to provide critical feedback to their employees.

How do you determine coachability? Ask the following interview questions more than once,

  • “What was your most recent mistake?”
  • “What did you do to correct it?”
  • “Who was involved in building the solution?”
  • “What were the results?”

If the job candidate or person you want to promote cannot think of any mistakes, move on to other candidates!

About Providing Leadership and Management Development. Again, many bosses and leaders are promoted for the wrong reasons (e.g., longevity, being liked by their boss (but not the employees), or handling a customer issue well once). Take the time on Day 1 to create a career path, leadership and management development training, and opportunities to use these skills based on the employee’s and company’s goals.

©Jeannette Seibly 2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a champion for success. As a leader, do you have bosses that are difficult for teams to work with? Jeannette’s depth of experience and wisdom comes from 31 years of transforming bosses from hated to respected! Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.

Be a Respected Leader and Achieve Intended Results

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Being a respected leader (or boss) and achieving intended results requires taking responsibility for each situation, discovering the true issue, and making the best decisions to improve results. And? Asking for help!

The biggest challenge I’m seeing today is leaders focused on being well-liked by employees and customers, and disregarding the importance of being respected.

A general manager (GM) for a company was well liked by employees and clients. It was a surprise and shock when he was reamed by a new board member about his poor management of the company’s satellite office. After the board session, the GM resigned. After the employees and other board members convinced him to stay, he rescinded his resignation. But nothing was done to resolve the real issue of poor financial management. Several months later the GM was fired.

In this situation, the GM was liked but not respected. He did not ask for help, and no one addressed the real issue of poor financial management.

5 Keys to Build Respect as a Leader

  1. Select the Best People. Stop intuitive hiring practices! Respect begins by hiring, promoting, and job transferring your management and employee teams into positions that fit them! (It’s called job-fit.) Before selecting people, craft a well-designed selection process to collect objective, valid, and reliable data about the person’s ability to be effective in the job. This requires using qualified job-fit assessments, conducting job-focused interviews, and implementing a six-month onboarding program.
  2. Make Faster Decisions. When done right, you will make better decisions. Taking days, weeks, or months to make decisions is often due to poor leadership, and the fear of not being linked. Instead, have the tough conversations and get to the heart of the issue. Remember, integrity, critical thinking, and paying attention to the impact on others will create better decisions now and in the long-run.
  3. Talk It Out. Communication is everything. Too often, leaders don’t pay attention to their own words, as well as not paying attention. When talking it out, go around the table to get everyone’s input until there is nothing new being added. The process includes eliciting responses from those you normally don’t listen to. The answers reside inside the quality of the conversation! Yes, it can take more time. But in the long run, it builds respect for you as a leader, and provides support when implementing less-than-popular decisions.
  4. Build Good Working Relationships. This facilitates getting things resolved faster, with faster buy-in. This is key to developing respect. When are allowed to make statements and offer opinions about how things should be done or how should be viewed before listening to people, relationships falter (and sometimes destroyed). Remember, listening, learning, and asking questions of those involved will always build stronger relationships.
  5. Plan for Your Replacement. Succession planning and development are crucial for future leaders. When you plan for your replacement, you build respect because you are showing your commitment to the longevity of the company, more than your own personal interests. You never know when your successor will need to step up, either short or long-term, due to illness, death of family members, and other issues. The key? Make sure the person is the right one. (SEE #1 above) Too often, a good #2 person does not make a good #1 leader. Don’t skip #1.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a champion for success. As a leader, do you have bosses that are difficult for teams to work with? Jeannette’s depth of experience and wisdom comes from 31 years of transforming bosses from hated to respected! Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.

What to Do When Given a Career Opportunity Before You Are Ready

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Congrats! You’ve received an offer for a new career opportunity. The problem? You’re not ready! Here’s the dilemma. Taking it can cause potential failure. And not taking it could limit future opportunities. It’s a difficult decision to make.

Samantha accepted a position as a manager of her department. She had the administrative skills required but lacked the experience of leading a team, having always been a team member. Instead of asking for help and guidance, Samantha faced potential failure when she complained about the same things to her boss as when she was a team member! Samantha failed to realize it was now her responsibility to provide the solutions, not complain about them!

Accepting new opportunities before you’re ready can derail your future. Too often, you’re in a big hurry to get a new job title, make more money, or enjoy the prestige of moving up in the company. But suffering through the struggles of being unprepared is not worth sacrificing your peace of mind and derailing future career opportunities.

Tips to Prepare for Future Opportunities

Job Fit. According to Gallup, over 80 percent of people don’t like their jobs. They blame their boss, the company, and their co-workers. The truth? They don’t fit their job responsibilities! To avoid this, use a valid job-fit assessment. The reports provide objective awareness of the strengths required for your new position before you say “yes.” It also provides insights into your challenge areas. For example, as an account manager, you may have been fearless in talking with others (strength). But as a sales manager, this same strength can get in your way of listening to the sales team (weakness).

Get Real. New opportunities require moving forward outside your comfort zone. They also will require new levels of communication, project management, and emotional intelligence, which are hindered by leadership blind spots. Because many of these job requirements are unwritten, shadow the incumbent in the job. Ask questions. Don’t assume you won’t have similar challenges. (You will.) Before you say “yes,” ask them, “What did you do to overcome these issues?”

Hire an External Coach and Seek Out an Internal Mentor. Be coachable! Ask for help and seek guidance immediately before you get mired in sticky situations or political relationships that sabotage your current and future career opportunities.

Do the Real Work. While mantras can keep you focused, they don’t replace doing the actual work. For example, if you ignore team conflict and respond with mantras (e.g., “Patience is a virtue.”), you’ll be sidelined or fired. The resolution requires having tough conversations, making difficult decisions (unpopular), and holding others accountable (your team may not like you). Work with your executive coach now to avoid these types of career derailments.

Emotional Intelligence. Mindful awareness and resilience are required in many positions today, especially as a boss and leader. There will be mistakes made and failures, too. Your ability to handle and learn from them greatly affects your career opportunities.

Leadership Savvy. Microaggressions, playing favorites, and not listening to others are the downfall for many in new positions. Instead, set a positive example. It starts with you and the team being trained. These training workshops should include conflict resolution, brainstorming, diversity, project management, critical thinking, and execution of projects. Now, develop the habit of using these skills.

Project Management. A critical part of project management is the ability to conduct effective meetings, both onsite and remote. However, many overlook the people and logistical sides of getting everyone on the same page. Both are critical to any project or program’s design, process, and execution.

  • People side: Develop your team members, focus on their strengths, and include everyone when brainstorming. Allow everyone to develop their talents.
  • Logistical side: Develop and incorporate budget, technology, operations, sales, and marketing into every project or program.

©Jeannette Seibly 2022-2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a champion for success. As a leader, do you have bosses that are difficult for teams to work with? Jeannette’s depth of experience and wisdom can transform those bosses from hated to respected! Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.

Improve How You Speak to Create Better Results

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  • Have you ever attended a meeting where the F-bomb was used too often?
  • Do you or others use too much jargon or innuendos, leaving people annoyed?
  • Do you stop listening to people who talk for the sake of talking?
  • Have you been uncomfortable when sexist or racial comments are made?
  • Do you need to let everyone know when you are frustrated or upset?

When we’re honest with ourselves, we can all answer “yes” to the above questions.

The truth is that communicating with others can be exhausting when poor speaking habits are used. As a current or future boss, leader, and influencer, improving your way of speaking will create better results for your team, customers, and business.

How to Transform Your Speaking Style to Achieve Positive Results

Start your comments with the end in mind! This will keep your words on point, making you less likely to ramble. When sharing, focus on moving the conversation forward, not rehashing what’s already been said. It keeps your listeners listening!

Stick with common words. Use simple words. For example, use ‘generous’ instead of ‘magnanimous.’ Using common words gets everyone on the same page faster and keeps everyone’s attention. Remember, when writing (emails, memos, manuals, articles, or books), people do not look up the big words and will stop reading if you use more than one.

Stop talking to talk. Many people talk too much and too long. Then, they use inappropriate words, jargon, or innuendos to bring back the team’s attention. Instead, learn to share a personal experience or story. Keep it smart and simple! Really, really, really smart and simple! (Hint: Stay away from the details!)

Define jargon. Use the actual words when using jargon. Example: A/R, A/P, and ROI use Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Return on Investment). It keeps the audience listening to you! Remember, while those listening will say they understand, they are embarrassed to admit they don’t. It also prevents miscommunication when the audience relies on their interpretation.

Refrain from innuendos and gossip. It hurts your credibility since 99 percent of the time, you don’t have the facts. Get the facts and share them with the person who can make a difference (e.g., theft – talk with security or HR; not doing their share – talk directly with the person; poor job of hiring the right people – talk with the hiring boss, HR, and your CFO/Controller).

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Jeannette Seibly is a champion for bosses and teams delivering intended results. Does your company or department have a persistent problem? Jeannette’s depth of experience and wisdom guides clients to achieve intended dynamic results consistently! Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.