Leadership

Are you running away from your employer?

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When you leave a job, company, or department, are you running away from coworkers or bosses you don’t like or respect? Or are you moving forward toward a goal? Many times people make job and career transitions for more money, but they are not any happier. Or, they switch jobs to find a better boss, only to find the new bosses have issues too.  Or, they falsely believed bigger is better. Remember, the grass isn’t necessarily greener at another company—it simply looks different from the outside looking in, but there will be similar problems. Take time to clarify your goals and life needs: it will make a difference in selecting the right employer for you. (http://TimeToBrag.com).

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

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

Executive coaching removes elephants in your career.

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Many times executives see coaching as “remedial fixes,” and not enough to remove the elephants in their careers that prevent them from enjoying more money, time, and success. A business advisor can help you design and implement successful results that impact company mission and goals, thus saving your current job and future career—even if you’ve been unknowingly sidelined!

Being the lone ranger and thinking you need to have the answers to everything rarely makes a positive difference for the enterprise. Reading a book or attending a workshop can actually have detrimental results when you attempt to superimpose your limited insights on your organization.

One client had said, “If I had known you would have asked to me to have this conversation with my boss, I would never have hired you.” My response, “A good thing you didn’t know … otherwise you would still hope for a different result without having taken the correct actions. Now you enjoy a lot of notoriety, make more money, and have more fun in your job!” He agreed.

When you embrace coaching and take the appropriate actions, you develop your skills in critical areas such as conflict resolution, project management, and working with and through people to execute ideas effectively. These processes ensure you see alternative solutions while developing your business acumen, taking you from OK to good to great. Many executives rate their coaching experiences as one the best investments of their time and money. Remove your elephant today!  Contact Jeannette Seibly @ JLSeibly@SeibCo.com.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

How has executive coaching helped your career?

New executives are wrongly focused.

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Recently I was talking with an executive who was having a difficult time working with another executive inside his company. When I said, “Sounds like she’s in denial,” he responded, “She’s in denial about a lot of things.” Many times new executives are focused on the wrong things. Either the company did not take time to effectively onboard them, or the new hire wasn’t listening and had his or her own agenda.  Making changes and taking unfocused action steps without buy-in from the executive team and employees can get anyone into immediate trouble. The higher up you are on the organizational ladder, the fewer places there are to hide out—the responsibility and accountability solely rests on you.  If you’re one of these struggling leaders, immediately find yourself a mentor and business advisor. It’s important that you quickly rectify bad decisions with guided expertise and correct the old methodology of your work habits.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Sticky fingers

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Yup. We hire them. They come in all ages, both genders, and every ethnic and professional status. It could be taking pens, stacks of paper or toner, sharing proprietary information, or reselling larger items from the company stockroom. Use a qualified core value assessment tool coupled with a thorough background check to look for people with a history of sticky fingers. Remember, many thieves haven’t been caught—yet. Or, they were caught and the company didn’t file a police report. Safeguard your company and employees and inventory by being thorough during the selection process.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

How do you implement practical, cost-effective due diligence measures? Get your copy of “Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition: Improve Your Profits (and Your Work Life)!”

How do you handle a boss that leads by directive?

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There are bosses who will strut around and issue directives. They have a huge fear of people and rely upon their dictatorial manner instead of learning how to make requests of others. Fearful leaders often make poor decisions because they are not open to others’ input and fail to learn how to talk with and through others to bridge gaps in ideas and create workable, practical solutions. As the employee or part of the executive team, help avoid troubling edicts by meeting the boss more than halfway. Provide ample facts and human solutions to persuade the decisions toward a more appropriate outcome.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

What have you effectively done to work with a dictatorial boss?

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

Have you developed their talent lately?

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Hiring the right person requires more than simply hiring someone who appears to have the right skills. It’s selecting someone who can fit the environment and succeed. Many times they have the right stuff, but we fail to develop their talent and inadvertently sabotage their performance. Design a 180-day success plan to keep your employees focused on the targeted areas required for company success from the very first day on the job. Manage them daily, weekly, and monthly to ensure success, with the frequency determined by their most recent results. When left to their own devices, employees will usually go off-track to pursue their own interests.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013