Leadership development

Change Management: The Biggest, Costliest Mistake Many Leaders Make

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Due Diligence for Systems vs. People

Organizations routinely invest time and resources into vetting changes to systems, operations, technology, and financials. Yet when it comes to hiring, promoting, or transitioning employees, decisions are often made based on gut instinct, biased assumptions, or incomplete data—leading to costly missteps.

“Hiring the right person for the wrong job equals poor job fit. And no amount of training and development will make them a superstar.” — Jeannette Seibly

The Cost of a Misguided Promotion

A bank promoted a young man deemed a “future leader” by upper management. What did they fail to uncover? He lacked respect from both clients and colleagues. Within six weeks, he was fired. The fallout included lost trust, team disruption, and reputational damage.

This could have been avoided by using a strategic job fit selection system and a validated assessment to objectively measure leadership potential, decision-making style, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Hire with Eyes Wide Open

Promotion and transition errors are a hidden, costly drain on performance, trust, and compliance. The uncomfortable truth? Leaders often stumble for preventable reasons:

  • Gut over data. Nearly 62% of hiring decisions are influenced by managerial bias rather than objective performance indicators (Harvard Business Review, 2023).
  • Resumes are increasingly unreliable. With 45% of job seekers using AI tools (ResumeBuilder, 2024), the résumé is often a polished illusion.
  • Performance appraisals are broken. 66% of employees say reviews are unfair, and 95% of managers are dissatisfied with the process (Gallup, 2022). People are promoted due to politics, not performance.
  • Boomerang hires rely on memory, not metrics. Approximately 35% of new hires are returning employees, yet few organizations analyze the reasons for employee exits or their readiness for current roles (Workforce Institute, 2023).
  • Assessments must meet federal standards. The EEOC and DOL require pre-employment tests to be validated, job-related, and non-discriminatory. Many are not.

Fact: 82% of companies promote the wrong person into management, leading to productivity loss, morale damage, and client attrition—costs that ripple far beyond salary figures (Dove Development).

Promotion: Beyond Performance

Promoting someone based solely on past performance—like a top salesperson to a manager role—often backfires. Leadership demands empathy, communication, and delegation, not just technical skill.

Without proper evaluation and coaching, these transitions frequently lead to disengagement, increased turnover, and missed revenue targets. Objective tools give leaders clarity about who’s truly ready to step up.

Job Transitioning: A Strategic Imperative

When employees relocate, shift roles, or take on new responsibilities, success hinges on job fit. Often overlooked:

  • Career pathing offers a structured roadmap aligned with organizational needs and personal aspirations
  • Personalized development (mentoring, coaching, tailored skills-building) helps talent thrive
  • Onboarding plans bridge early gaps and reinforce role clarity and cultural alignment

Together, these elements form the backbone of a strategic job fit selection system that improves role transitions and strengthens succession planning.

Fact: Poor promotions and misaligned job transitions can cost organizations up to 10x the employee’s annual salary, especially in leadership roles—making clarity and fit essential to long-term success (Lucent Global, HRMorning).

Call to Action: Elevate Your Leadership with Strategic People Decisions

The alternative isn’t guesswork—it’s strategy. Smart leaders don’t gamble—they build infrastructure that earns trust and delivers results. They implement a strategic job fit selection system that ensures every promotion and talent transition is intentional, data-informed, and compliant.

That includes:

✅ Validated job fit assessments to predict performance, leadership readiness, and interpersonal strengths

✅ Structured, compliant hiring and promotion processes—standardized interviews and role-specific decision criteria

✅ Manager training to reduce bias and support confident decision-making

✅ Intentional promotion and job transition planning to build trust, reduce turnover, and align talent with long-term success

Your systems are only as strong as the people running them. Let’s make sure you’ve got the right ones in the right roles.

© Jeannette Seibly 2025 All Rights Reserved

🔗 Ready to initiate your next chapter—or refine your role as a powerful contributor? Jeannette specializes in coaching leaders who are ready to build legacies, embrace reinvention, and lead with clarity.

Jeannette Seibly, an award-winning Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author, has guided thousands of executives and business leaders to achieve remarkable success over the past 32 years. Her specialty is delivering innovative solutions for hiring, coaching, and leadership challenges—with excellence and accountability at the core.

Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation about smart hiring, insightful promotions, and intentional transitions.

How to Get Past Failure and Move Forward with Confidence

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We’ve all faced setbacks—some were frustrating, others downright humiliating. But instead of retreating and hoping no one notices (they will), the key is to get into action. Failure isn’t a dead end; it’s a detour that redirects you toward better results.

6 Steps to Regain Focus and Drive Success

  1. Reflect with Purpose. Complete the What Worked? / What Didn’t Work? exercise individually, then bring your team together to share insights. This ensures learning, not blame. (See Chapter 20, Get Your Brag On!)
  2. Extract Lessons & Adjust. Ask: What did we learn? What can we do differently? Example: If you went over budget, assign clear financial oversight next time. Remember, the key is to tell the truth.
  3. Acknowledge Contributions. Go around the virtual table and recognize each person’s successes. Failure doesn’t erase progress—celebrate what worked and what was learned!
  4. Engage in Honest Conversations. If the failure impacted customers or employees, address it directly. No excuses—just listen, learn, and align on next steps.
  5. Prioritize Alignment Over Consensus. Waiting for full agreement as to what to do next is a fool’s game. Get alignment, make decisions, and move forward. Momentum matters.
  6. Take Action—Now Stop searching for an escape route. Action builds resilience and dissolves resistance. The sooner you move, the faster you recover.

Failure isn’t the end—it’s a pivot point. The faster you embrace it, the stronger your leadership becomes.

©Jeannette Seibly 2025 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly, an award-winning Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author, specializes in delivering innovative solutions for hiring, coaching, and leadership challenges. Over the past 32 years, she has empowered business owners, executives, and managers to achieve remarkable success. With a steadfast commitment to excellence, Jeannette champions those eager to elevate, expand, and excel in their results.

Key Factors to Hire for Job Fit and Avoid Costly Loss of People

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Did you know: “Employee engagement in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in a decade in 2024, with only 31% of employees engaged?” (Gallup)

I would assert that many employers are unclear about what job fit is and what it is not. Employees who excel in jobs that fit their thinking style, core behaviors, and occupational interests stay longer and are more engaged.

If you are frustrated and annoyed with hiring great people into the wrong job, this article is for you.

Today, many qualified people are looking for work because they are retiring, being fired, being laid off, or looking for something better. Although there are a lot of great job candidates available – buyer beware – it doesn’t mean they will fit well into the job responsibilities of your company. Outdated hiring practices that rely on intuitive hiring, biases, and inappropriate pre-employment assessments will cause you to lose key customers and top talent while hurting profitability.

“Too often, we hire based on subjective reasons but fire for poor job fit.” Jeannette Seibly

What Are a Few Signs of Poor Job Fit?

• Work assignments are late, with a lot of excuses
• Promises are made without achieving the intended results
• Frequent mistakes occur, and the employee misreads what needs to be done
• Conflicts with team members, customers, and bosses
• Failure to listen, incorporate others’ ideas, and develop win-win-win outcomes
• Lack of business growth (sales) or overrun of expenses
• Constant change in direction – they are easily distracted by “shiny objects” or “crystal ball” syndromes

Why Does Poor Job Fit Happen?

• No real objective data collected (e.g., resumes are more than 80 percent inaccurate).
• Rely on intuitive hiring practices that reflect biases (e.g., the job interviews account for 90 percent of the hiring decision).
• Unwilling to improve the selection process, citing costs for improvement and ignoring costs for hiring mistakes.
• Failure to conduct thorough due diligence (e.g., relying on false data, such as name of employer, education).
• Use inappropriate assessments to determine job fit (e.g., overlook validity, reliability, predictive validity, and distortion factors)
• Believe any known limitations can be overcome with training and development. (Forgetting that no one works that hard to be someone they are not. This is a trap that almost every hiring boss/leader falls into!)

What Is Job Fit?

Job fit refers to the alignment between an individual’s skills, experience, values, and personality with the requirements, culture, and expectations of a specific job and organization. It encompasses several key aspects:

1. Skills and Experience Fit: How well an individual’s abilities and past work experience match the tasks and responsibilities of the role. While these required skills and experience may sound good on paper, the job candidate may not be able to use the skills effectively. It’s why valid job-fit assessments are required. When using highly validated and reliable assessments, you gain insight into the real person and their core behavior, occupational interests, and thinking styles.

2. Cultural Fit: The degree to which an individual’s values, behaviors, and working style align with the company’s culture and work environment. A startup or new business venture is very different from working in a well-established company. In a company that requires thinking outside the box, some job candidates may believe they can … but are unable to design and develop sustainable systems or results.

3. Motivation and Interest: The extent to which an individual’s career goals and personal interests are aligned with the job’s duties and opportunities for growth. With changes in people’s work ethic, their career or life aspirations may misalign with the company’s needs and goals. It’s critical to have very clear expectations: PTO, work-life balance, accountability for following up and following through, etc.

4. Team Fit: How well an individual works with existing team members and contributes to team dynamics and cohesion. Are they someone who can work well with others, be coachable, and keep their ego out of the way?

When job fit is strong, employees are satisfied, business excels, and customers keep coming back.

Strategies to Improve Job Fit

• Create a sustainable strategic job fit selection process.
• Get real about what you need and the type of person who can fulfill the desired results.
• Work with a talent advisor/hiring consultant to train managers on interviewing, due diligence, and using the proper job fit assessment. (Each should account for 1/3 of the selection decision.)
• Remember, many savvy job candidates will tell you what you want to hear, and hiring bosses have a low probability of discerning the truth. It’s why objective data is required.

To recap: Using a qualified job fit assessment that meets the validity and reliability requirements outlined by the Department of Labor, conducting proper due diligence, and structuring interview processes to affirm your intuition/gut will provide clarity and are crucial to improving employee engagement, customer retention, and improving the bottom line.

©Jeannette Seibly 2025 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly, an award-winning Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author, boasts over 32 years of hands-on experience. Working with small and family businesses, her expertise guides leaders and bosses to refine their hiring, coaching, and management practices and achieve their intended results. Along the journey, she has guided the creation of three millionaires and numerous six-figure earners, all while championing those ready to elevate their game to new heights.

Grab her book, “Hire Amazing Employees” — it provides overlooked issues when designing and using a strategic job fit selection system.

Selling Ideas is Required of Leaders

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As a leader, selling your ideas takes two things: 1) lots of practice and 2) the ability to have the right conversations. Emotional intelligence is also required to be able to read others’ reactions, incorporate their ideas, and be flexible without losing the intention of the idea.

What gets in your way?

• It’s all about you! AKA ego! While it may initially be your idea, the refusal to expand and contract the idea will hurt implementation and execution.

• Immovable. You’re emotionally attached to how it MUST look. The reality? Others will influence the idea’s success.

• Ignoring the Full Impact. You’ve not considered the impact it has on others, the situation, perception (e.g., co-workers, community, clients), cost, and time factors.

• It’s Not the Right Time. And … the reality may be (depending on your team, boss, and company) … it may never be the right time (especially if they don’t like your idea).

• You always have new ideas! People hate change and have tuned you out, especially constant change for the sake of change.

How to Sell Your Ideas and Be Heard

• Share ideas during meetings. Then, research the pros and cons IF there is interest.

• Create ideas during conversations. Be responsible for listening to their feedback and input.

• Share ideas after you’ve researched them. This includes the benefits and costs: objective facts, other’s insights, and company politics.

• Get real — objective facts are key. Look at actual costs, time, and impact on others. Then, include emotional factors.

• Incorporate others’ input. Be responsible for listening, asking open-ended questions, without diminishing the value or the intention of their input or your idea.

• Brag! Use your brags effectively. Selling yourself and your idea at the same time makes a positive difference. For example, when I worked at QRS as a Quality Manager, we talked about a similar idea, and here were the pros and cons. Remember, facts are important!

• Share the credit. Remember, it’s a team effort!

©Jeannette Seibly 2025 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly, an award-winning Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author, boasts over 32 years of hands-on experience. Her expertise helps leaders and bosses refine their hiring, coaching, and management practices and achieve their intended results. Along the journey, she has guided the creation of three millionaires and numerous six-figure earners, while championing those ready to elevate their game to new heights.

Results Aren’t Hard to Achieve When You Set Them as Big Goals

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Achieving results can be straightforward when you set them as achievable goals! Often, the problem is we play it safe and stick to results we know we can win instead of expanding our mindset and skill set. Setting small comfortable goals (aka tasks) often leads to distractions, boredom, and blaming external factors.

Getting outside your comfort zone with bigger goals can make a positive and impactful difference. (Remember, a goal is not a task … it’s intended to make you stretch yourself.)

Tips to Achieve Intended Results

1. Complete the “Get Your Brag On!” and learn how to sell yourself and win in five easy steps. These exercises create the positive mindset to expand or create your “winning game.”

2. Ask yourself, what do you really, really, really want to achieve? Write it down, cross it out, and ask again without any “yeah, buts!” This helps uncover your true (underneath the surface) goals.

3. Repeat the question above. Doing so helps bypass initial beliefs about what you should want to achieve, and goes beneath the surface.

4. Write down your goal and fine-tune it into 10 words or less. This make take some time. Don’t skip this step! Clear, concise goals are more engaging and meaningful. And, more likely to be achieved.

5. Review for intention. Clarity of your intention is crucial to influencing others while selling and achieving your results.

6. Declare a deadline for the goal. While achieving the goal is important, the transformation of your attitude and behavior requires commitment and focused action. Without a deadline, you will let yourself off the hook with too many excuses.

7. Work backward from the deadline to create milestones. Weekly or monthly indicators work best to ensure you’re on the right path.

8. Fill in the details. Include team members, communication, budget, ROI’s, operation, and technology aspects.

9. Hire an executive coach to hold you accountable and responsible for achieving your results. The right coach will guide you, simplify the process, and keep you focused. They will also hold you to a higher standard that you’ve always wanted to achieve but didn’t know how.

Remember, without structure and accountability, you’re more likely to dilute your goal, get distracted, or set it aside when obstacles arise … and they will.

Results can be easy to achieve when you set them as BIG, achievable goals!

©Jeannette Seibly 2025 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly, an award-winning Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author, boasts over 32 years of hands-on experience. Her expertise helps leaders and bosses refine their hiring, coaching, and management practices and achieve their intended results. Along the journey, she has guided the creation of three millionaires and numerous six-figure earners, all while championing those ready to elevate their game to new heights.

Communication Styles that Hurt Leadership Effectiveness

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Between 40% and 60% of conversational utterances are ego-related, focusing on our own feelings, opinions, and personal experiences. This self-centered conversational tendency is even more pronounced on social media, where some 80% of communication focuses on the self. (Wall Street Journal, January 2025)

The Problem: Poor communication is a widespread issue in workplaces today, worsening among leaders and bosses causes preventable conflicts.

Why This Matters: Leaders must listen, engage, and encourage employees. Otherwise, it will impede projects, budgets, timelines, quality, delivery, and other results.

Communication Styles That Cause Conflicts

• Self-Interest Approach: Asking questions just to turn the conversation to oneself (aka BoomerAsking). (Wall Street Journal, January 2025).

• Top-Down Approach: Dictating tasks without explaining “why” undervalues team members, stifles brainstorming, and leads to passive resistance.

• Passive Approach: Avoiding conflict and not asserting opinions leads to unresolved issues and perceived weak leadership.

• Aggressive Approach: Harsh, confrontational communication erodes trust and makes team members fear sharing ideas.

• Manipulative Approach: Deceit and fact-spinning create a toxic culture of mistrust.

• Inconsistent Approach: Frequently changing messages (aka relying on your feelings and indecisiveness) cause confusion and make leadership seem unreliable.

• Lack of Openness Approach: Unwillingness to listen to feedback and new ideas alienates team members and stifles innovation.

• Overly Technical Approach: Using complex language alienates non-experts and hinders understanding.

No one wants to believe that they are using these approaches. But take a moment and really look to see when, where, and why you engage in these bad habits.

How to Transform These Bad Habits

1. Hire an Executive Coach. Even if you need to pay for it yourself, it’s worth every dollar. Poor communication is why many bosses and leaders find themselves unemployed or sidelined. It’s avoidable with an executive coach.

2. Use a Qualified Job Fit Assessment. Understand “why” your thinking style, core behavioral traits, and occupational interests can get in the way of communicating effectively with others. This objective tool is priceless and helps you keep your job! And, when used as designed, can help you get promoted!

3. Develop Strong Meeting Leadership: Leading meetings effectively is crucial — on-site, remote, and hybrid. Work with your coach, take workshops, and watch videos to learn the nuances between mediocre and great meetings. Your communication style will determine the success of your teams’ results.

4. Become an Active Listener and Listen to and Give Constructive Feedback: Attend and participate in workshops, leadership coaching sessions, and other feedback programs. Don’t be afraid to provide quality feedback that makes a positive difference. It all requires good communication skills and an awareness of how you are perceived.

5. Develop Emotional Intelligence. Being mindful is key. Learn when and how to use humor, approach sensitive topics with empathy, and be willing to learn along with your team.

6. Pay Attention to Generational Differences. Older generations may use meetings to tout “this is the way it’s always been done,” making it difficult for newer employees to provide new ideas and solutions. Younger employees may rely too much on social media as “the way to get things done” and fail to understand “fake news” and “sensational podcasts designed to attract ‘Likes.’” It’s up to you to manage these interactions with communication finesse!

7. Train on Etiquette and Expectations: It starts with you! Become familiar with virtual conferencing systems and how to effectively communicate using them! Then, train your team members and others on how to get the most out of these meetings.

8. Be Coachable and Have a Willingness to Admit Mistakes: When you feel insecure about a situation or working relationship, you will tend to dominate the conversation instead of asking for help. Share your experience with brevity and admit when you don’t know something. (It’s a foundational skill required of great leaders.) Hold yourself accountable for implementing the feedback asap.

Good communication skills used during 1:1’s, team meetings, and other conversational moments can be beneficial to everyone … especially you! Remember, a good communication style will avoid conflict and will enhance your team’s cohesion and productivity while achieving great results!

©Jeannette Seibly 2025 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly, an award-winning Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author, boasts over 32 years of hands-on experience. Her expertise helps leaders and bosses refine their hiring, coaching, and management practices and achieve their intended results. Along the journey, she has guided the creation of three millionaires and numerous six-figure earners, all while championing those ready to elevate their game to new heights.

Asking for Help Is Required to Achieve Intended Results

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“Recognizing the value of asking for help in hiring, coaching, and managing challenges shows strength and will contribute to your company’s growth.” -Jeannette Seibly

Too often, people believe asking for help makes them look weak. It creates barriers to achieving intended results and hurts our boss/leadership skills.

When stuck in a working relationship, situation, or strategic issue, we freeze, flee, or change the goal (which diminishes the intended result)—all because we failed to ask for help!

Yet, asking for help is one of the cornerstones of achieving your intended results. With only 10 percent of teams achieving their required results, it’s crucial that you, as the boss/leader, confidently ask for help, use the art of listening, and make the necessary changes!

Why do we hesitate to ask for help?

Lack of …

• Willingness. Ego can be a significant barrier. Leaders should remember that seeking advice is a sign of strength, not weakness.

• Trust. Trust yourself and selectively seek insights from a few reliable people rather than broadcasting your query widely (e.g., social media or more than 2 or 3 people).

• Self-Awareness. Lack of self-awareness can lead to an inability to recognize when help is needed.

Seven Tips to Get the Help Needed to Achieve Results

1. Set Aside Your Ego. Take a moment to breathe and seek advice from the right sources. This is critical. Talk directly with the person(s) who can provide the help! For example, a training expert was asked, “I was told I needed to do XYZ when making a presentation. But at a recent workshop, everyone walked out. What happened, and what do I need to do differently?”

2. Don’t Wait Too Long. Anticipate the need for help early to prevent compounding issues. It’s harder to ask for help once you’ve sabotaged yourself (usually unintentionally), experienced a project failure, or damaged a relationship with a co-worker or customer. Ask for help earlier not later.

3. Listen. The art of listening goes beyond the words and includes asking open-ended questions to uncover deeper insights.

4. Don’t Wait for Clarity. (It seems counter-intuitive.) Seek objective feedback, especially when things seem murky and unclear. And remember, you asked for help. This is not the time to become defensive … you asked for help … this is the time to listen. Share in concise statements: The goal of the project or issue; What has been done to date; and What is slated for the future Then, ask for help: “What do you see is missing?”

5. Be Coachable. Stay open to learning and avoid letting ego and pride interfere with accepting help. Remember, your defensiveness will sabotage your success.

An author told me in a group meeting that bragging was nonsense to her, but then complained of poor book sales. She explained, “I don’t see the value and I’m too busy to learn how to brag.” Yet, marketing and self-promotion determine 90 percent of someone’s success as an author. Even after others chimed in, she refused their help! When you refuse to listen, people will stop helping you and your results will suffer!

6. Make Asking for Help a Habit. Seeking assistance regularly can foster your professional growth and build your leadership credibility. Also, it helps you produce results faster and easier each time while building your influence.

7. Make Your Requests for Help Clear and Concise. Clearly articulate what you need and be open to accepting a “yes” or “no” response. If a person is not available or is unwilling, ask someone else.

Important Question! How do you plan to incorporate these tips into your leadership approach?

©Jeannette Seibly, 2021-2025 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly, an award-winning Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author, boasts over 32 years of hands-on experience. Her expertise helps leaders and bosses refine their hiring, coaching, and management practices and achieve their intended results. Along the journey, she has guided the creation of three millionaires and numerous six-figure earners, all while championing those ready to elevate their game to new heights.

The Secret to Overcoming Team Resistance

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There are many ways to overcome team resistance … but the secret is to strengthen your ability to communicate effectively.

Managing teams that are resistant to change requires patience, empathy, and clear communication. By understanding the root causes of resistance, involving your team in the process, and providing support and resources, you can create the intended results and a process that motivates the team to do more.

Use Effective Communication to Address Resistance Constructively

Use a compassionate no-nonsense approach. This approach blends empathy with clear, direct communication. This style is effective in leadership and interactions as it respects others’ feelings while maintaining focus on results.

• Have empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another – Oxford Dictionary) and be clear by actively listening and engaging with concerns.
• Be direct in your expectations, feedback, and decisions.
• Hold team members accountable by acknowledging feelings.
• Offer support and resources, yet be firm in setting boundaries (e.g., timetable and budget).

When offering new ideas, take responsibility for how you share them. Remember, you’ve been thinking about these changes for a while. It may be the team member’s first-time hearing about them. Hence, resistance. Talk straight in a no-nonsense way. Don’t be cutesy and make jokes to communicate your point … also pay attention to microaggressions you may not be aware of saying. (Talk with your executive coach to distinguish them.) Stick with the issue being addressed and why the change is necessary. Don’t be afraid to hear others’ suggestions, but don’t get bogged down and take the team off-track.

Beware of the “I’m confused” default response. Yes, some employees default to confusion when they resist change or need to step out of their comfort zones. They use this excuse to not be held accountable … why? It works! First, talk with your executive coach to ensure you are clear on how to best present your ideas or suggestions. Use a job fit assessment for objective feedback. If this “confusion” happens frequently, the person may be in a job that isn’t a good fit. For example, if you place a technical person into a customer service role, they may lack the required mindfulness when interacting with people on a frequent basis. (They are actually confused.)

Build trust by being consistent and leading by example. When team members fear playing a bigger game, there will be a lot of resistance! Are you leading by example? Are you willing and able to listen and talk through the concerns without disrespecting the team? Do you allow others’ fears to diminish achieving the goal? (Hint: Goals should be ten words or less and stretch you and your team from where you are now.)

Get back to basics through training … it is critical. Provide ongoing training … one and done does not work when guiding team members to expand their communication, critical thinking, and technical skills (and your communication and leadership skills). Remember, be patient … small steps will always lead to significant gains.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Talent Advisor/Leadership Results Coach with over 32 years of practical experience guiding leaders and bosses to improve their hiring, coaching, and managing practices and produce amazing results! And yes, achieving business success always starts with having the right people in the right jobs! She has been an Authorized PXT Select® Partner for over 33 years. Contact Jeannette to learn more about these state-of-the-art job-fit assessment tools or how to coach and manage your people to achieve incredible results.

A note from Jeannette: Team resistance to new ideas or ways of doing their work can be challenging as a boss/leader. A compassionate no-nonsense approach works best since it includes empathy and talking straight. Contact me to start a confidential conversation and address how to resolve what seems unresolvable.

Want to Be a Great Leader? Stop Focusing on Your Weaknesses

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Many leaders can be their own worst critic and give reasons as to why (e.g., bad boss, wrong employees, unreasonable customers, etc. etc.)!

But focusing on weaknesses only makes the weakness more of a problem!

It doesn’t serve you, your employees, or your customers!

Being a good-to-great boss/leader requires getting real about who you are and getting the coaching necessary to develop you and your team members.

How to Focus on Improving Your Leadership

Know Thyself … Not by how you want to be seen because people can see through a fake. Instead, use a leadership report from a qualified job fit assessment to clarify traits that are strengths and how those same strengths can also be considered weaknesses. For example, a sales manager who loves meeting people may have poor listening skills.

Knowing yourself is critical to developing the real skills required to be a great boss/leader.

Hire an Executive Coach. Ninety-nine percent of good-to-great bosses/leaders have an executive coach. The right coach provides a sounding board and someone to guide you through sticky situations and political factions at work.

Complete a What Worked? / What Didn’t Work? exercise. (See Chapter 20, Get Your Brag On!) Use this exercise when you are experiencing a project or team failure. Or, as a way to complete the day/week/month. Don’t forget to include the human side of your job and projects, too.

Stay focused on your strengths and what matters most in building your company, employees, and customers.

Get Frequent Feedback. Use an objective 360-degree feedback assessment — using formal ones provide needed confidentiality and compare you with the working population. Too often, internally developed feedback assessments nitpick at things that don’t matter and reflect the opinions of a few employees. It doesn’t mean you overlook these types of concerns. However, the results from the formal assessment provide objective insight that is needed before having conversations individually with team members and making any adjustments to your leadership style.

Network to Stay in Touch. Reach out on a consistent basis to a select few leaders to talk through company or industry issues.

Develop People Leadership Skills. This is key to being a great leader! While you may have charisma or technical/financial skills, you may lack good interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills. Take workshops every year to develop your emotional intelligence, communication, diversity awareness, and team development skills.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Talent Advisor/Leadership Results Coach with over 31 years of practical experience guiding leaders and bosses to improve their hiring, coaching, and managing practices and produce amazing results! And yes, achieving business success always starts with having the right people in the right jobs! She has been an Authorized PXT Select® Partner for over 32 years. Contact Jeannette to learn more about these state-of-the-art job-fit assessment tools or how to coach and manage your people to achieve incredible results.

The Secret to Creating Goals that ARE Achievable

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We all have goals, dreams, and wishes for our careers and life. But too often, we fail to achieve them. We blame the economy, our bosses, and our family. We wait (and keep on waiting) until it’s no longer a viable goal.

What’s missing? Taking responsibility for how we create our goals. We allow our thoughts, ideas, and feelings to camouflage what we really really really want to accomplish.

7 Strategies for Achieving Your Real Goals

1. Ensure the Goal is Real. There are many guidelines for writing goals. Google them – Achievable, Measurable, Realistic, and With a By-When Date. Use this information to get you started.

2. Here’s the hard part: Goals should be ten words or less! I know, it seems impossible, but it isn’t. When you use too many words, the true goal will be camouflaged in vocabulary and will sabotage taking real actions. Shorten the goal to 10 words or less to be crystal clear and flat as a pancake.

3. Keep It Simple. When you become too wordy, you make the goal, dream, wish, or intention impossible to accomplish. We were all trained to be wordy (think of school when stating the simple fact wasn’t good enough … we had to write a paragraph or one-pager to get a good grade). Ask yourself, “What do I really really really want to accomplish?” For example, I want to get a job making six figures. However, the job must be remote, cannot require working more than 30 hours a week, and provide three weeks of vacation. This is no longer an actual goal. 

Instead, ask yourself what do you really really really want? The new goal: “Get a job making $125,000 annually by 12-31-2024.” This has become simple and doable.

4. Clarity and Discernment. Ensure your idea will work as designed by reviewing the numbers realistically. Will you break even, operate at a loss, or be profitable? It requires more than “feeling it” and “believing it.” For example, flipping homes involves knowledge about buying the home, the cost of repairs and labor, closing costs, and the length of time it’ll take to sell (aka flip). Goal: Sell a home for a 30 percent profit in 6 months.

5. Listen to Feedback! Before launching your idea, talk with a knowledgeable person. Ask open-ended questions. You are listening for: What is missing in my plan or idea? When ideas are not working, sometimes, it only takes a simple tweak, and they will work.

The biggest challenge? Your emotional attachment to your way of doing something can get in the way. Especially if you’ve been thinking and rethinking and overthinking the idea. Feedback will guide you through it if you listen.

6. Then, Review the Goal. Fine-tune. While you don’t want naysayers to upend your goal, reviewing and considering their input before moving forward is important. Example: I had someone tell me it would take 2 years before I could get the funding required to launch a program. I listened, asked questions, and made slight adjustments to my plan. Then, moved forward. I launched the program in 13 weeks, and it was profitable. Here was my goal: Launch a regional event for career advisors by xxx.

7. Remember, when you’ve hit a wall, or someone is blocking you, it’s time to hire a coach. We all have blind spots that get in the way. By working with an executive coach and taking a qualified job fit assessment, you can obtain real insight into what is getting in your way. (Note: qualified job fit assessments have incredibly high accuracy and reflect who we are – they are not focused on how we want to be seen – which often gets in the way of achieving our goals).

Examples:

Wanting to be a salesperson without the willingness and ability to close a sale on a consistent basis will limit your tenure as a sales rep. Instead, if you want to be in sales and be successful, get honest about your abilities – get the training required – now seek a job in sales that fits you!

OR,

You want to be a boss. But on truthful reflection, the real goal is making more money. Since you are unwilling to do the actual work required to be an effective boss/leader, find a position that accomplishes your financial desires.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Talent Advisor/Leadership Results Coach with over 31 years of practical experience guiding leaders and bosses to improve their hiring, coaching, and managing practices and produce amazing results! And yes, achieving business success always starts with having the right people in the right jobs! She has been an Authorized PXT Select® Partner for over 32 years. Contact Jeannette to learn more about these state-of-the-art job-fit assessment tools or how to coach and manage your people to achieve incredible results.