New World of Work

How to Test Your Hiring Process to Eliminate Costly Problems

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“To hire the best, you must consistently use best hiring practices!” Jeannette Seibly

Many job seekers love to share their stories about their horrible experiences when applying for jobs. Or, thankfully, share about losing out on a job due to the hiring boss’s poor interviewing behavior.

Stories hiring bosses love to share include nixing a person because they didn’t carry a pen to not hiring candidates that failed to answer non-job-related questions with responses they wanted to hear (e.g., most recent books read or movies seen).

As a hiring boss, you may not be aware of your biases. But they exist, many times unconsciously. And cost you time, money, and sleepless nights. (Example: Making your decision in 4 to 15 minutes of meeting people whether or not to hire them.)

Here’s a great way to determine if your company’s hiring and selection process needs help: use secret job seekers. (Similar to retailers using secret shoppers.)

How to do it: Secretly, without letting hiring bosses know, have friends, trusted employees, and business associates apply for open positions. Have them change their names on their resumes; use fictitious company names, job titles, and educational degrees; and provide pay-as-you-talk cell phones.

Most likely flaws you’ll uncover:

  • Difficulties using your ATS (applicant tracking system)
  • Inconsistencies of questions asked during interviews
  • Not using qualified job fit assessments (Note: Not all assessments are created equal and most do not comply with Department of Labor guidelines for pre-employment use).

The surprises (or maybe not … but now you have factual data required to make needed changes): you will discover the costly mischief about your company’s hiring practices and what is causing the company’s bad reputation.

Common issues will include:

  • Promises made during interviews and not kept when making job offers
  • Having too many interviewers or having team interviews with people not on the same page
  • Job descriptions are too long and uninspiring
  • Job postings are boring
  • Links and QR Codes don’t work
  • Inconsistencies when hiring managers conduct interviews (e.g., asking inappropriate questions or not asking the same structured questions of candidates for the same job)
  • Poor due diligence practices due to not thoroughly checking the backgrounds of all candidates

The key to fixing these issues is to design a strategic job fit selection process and use the best tools (e.g., ATS, structured interview formats, qualified job fit and core value assessments, and consistent due diligence practices). Note: Guidance on how to select the best tools can be found in Hire Amazing Employees: How to Increase Retention, Revenues, and Results.

This is critical and often overlooked! Conduct training programs for all hiring bosses, and provide intra-company access to all required tools and procedures to ensure consistent hiring practices. Also, have a key executive hold all hiring bosses accountable for following all the policies and procedures in the spirit of hiring the right person for the right job the first time!

Training will reduce costly hiring problems and ensure the best hiring practices.

The results? When you implement this secret job seeker program, you will attract and hire better candidates that stop ghosting you! As a result, your company will thrive by increasing retention, revenues, and results. And you may become the best employer in 2023.

©Jeannette Seibly 2023 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has over 30 years of award-winning international experience as an executive consultant, speaker, and business author. Her clients surpass the norm by working through sticky situations and challenging relationships to become positive influencers. Contact Jeannette for a confidential discussion.

A note from Jeannette about testing your hiring practices to eliminate costly (and avoidable) issues: It makes good business sense to ensure your company uses consistent, reliable, and valid hiring practices. Contact me to talk through hiring challenges and how to overcome them. It’ll save you time, money, and your customers!

This week’s PODCAST: Listen to Grow your side hustle into a full-time job with my guest, Bobby Crew on The Entrepreneurial Leader.

NOTE: Do you want to win? All leaders who are winners have coaches! I love coaching leaders and have for over 30 years! Contact me if you want an in-depth, one-on-one hour over 13 weeks. When you have a coach, it’ll speeds up your ability to influence others, hire the right people, and coach your team for unprecedented results.

How to Improve Leadership Results Before You Need to Fire Them

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Due to the talent tsunami, experts warn 20-50 percent of employees are looking for new jobs or are planning to quit once the pandemic is behind us. To attract top talent, you must have leaders that are considered good leaders. Now is the time to make a positive difference.

A bad leader is someone who fails to work with and through others to keep customers happy and satisfied while building successful teams.

Examples:

When the oldest sibling was promoted to President of the family business, everyone expressed concern. She was insecure and relied only on her favorite people when making decisions. As a result, after losing several key customers, the family fired her.

In another company, a leader wasn’t a strong boss, but did make good decisions and cared about the customers. But a disgruntled employee scrutinized and gossiped about him to the point where he was considered a bad leader and felt forced to leave.

7 Signs of Poor Leadership

This list is endless…what are your key indicators of a bad leader?

  1. Loses focus on the goal by getting lost in the “weeds”
  2. Lacks empathy
  3. Stifles creativity and new ideas
  4. Is unable to motivate the team to achieve intended results
  5. Is indecisive
  6. Is unable to talk straight
  7. Plays favorites when assigning work

Too often, we wait until we’ve lost good customers or top talent before getting the leader the help and guidance needed for success.

7 Tips to Improve Leadership Results Now Before It’s Too Late

  1. Provide Executive Coaching. Many bad leaders are overwhelmed by the challenges they face. The right executive coach guides these leaders to improve communication, navigate politics, and manage sticky situations. Hire an executive coach from outside the company to ensure confidentiality. If the person isn’t coachable, it’s time to create an exit plan or job reassignment.
  2. Use qualified assessments. Use a qualified 360-degree feedback assessment and a job fit assessment. These provide objective insights and guidance based on consistent real data.
  3. Design a performance plan. It’s important to require bad leaders to participate in workshops. This helps them to acknowledge what they don’t know that they don’t know. Focus on one specific area at a time and team them with an internal company mentor (in addition to the outside executive coach). Courses must include addressing leadership blind spots (e.g., emotional intelligence, working with and through others, diversity, ethics, critical thinking, to name a few).
  4. Analyze the cost. Too often, we overlook bad leadership because we don’t see or understand the impact. When conducting a cost analysis, review turnover of top talent and customers, quality issues, and complaints. NOTE: If there are little or no problems, look deeper. The leader may be the scapegoat to distract from the real issue.
  5. Talk with disgruntled team members. Don’t be surprised if the bad leader’s problem is due to the inability to handle group think, cliques, and subjective expectations. Have the executive coach work with the team and the leader to get everyone on the same page. Remember, change is a process, not an event. And, no leader is perfect.
  6. Some bad leaders are good individual contributors as long as they don’t have people management responsibilities. Also, look for a special project or new opportunity that can use the leader’s good skills. NOTE: When making a transfer, the new position may have a new job title. But it’s best to avoid adjusting the paycheck or it could trigger a dissatisfied leader with an axe to grind.
  7. When All Else Fails Let the Bad Leader Go. Be sure you work with HR and/or an attorney to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. If you don’t, this can be very costly, especially if you’ve allowed it to go on for too long.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2021 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach, management consultant, and keynote speaker for over 28 years. Her focus is getting leaders and their teams unstuck and able to achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.  

A note from Jeannette about turning around bad leaders. Turning bad leaders around is one of my primary strengths. As an executive coach, I’ve worked with many poor leaders to transform them, or help them move on. When a bad leader needs help, the best solution is to do the right things now. If a team views their leader as needing help, don’t wait! Otherwise, s/he may need to leave the company! Remember, a bad leader cannot transform into a good one on his/her own! Contact me for a confidential conversation. 

Craft Your Next Career Opportunity Today

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“Are you ready for your next opportunity? If yes, take initiative and create your next opportunity in your current job. You’ll get results faster.” Jeannette Seibly

Instead of looking for a new job with more opportunities, expand your current position and responsibilities. Why? You already know the company structure, customers, industry, and systems. You can hit the floor running faster and produce results quicker with your current team and boss.

How to Create Your New Opportunity

Talk with Customers and Department Heads. Meet with others to determine what is missing. Listen more than talk and ask questions for clarification.

Ask the following questions:

  • “What are your top 1 or 2 concerns right now?”
  • “Why are these important challenges?”
  • “What do you believe are the solutions?”
  • “How do you believe my team can best help?”

Once there is an alignment of what to pursue with your team, explore and focus on the top 1 or 2 concerns.

“Effective brainstorming requires listening to all team members and writing down all ideas.” Jeannette Seibly

Brainstorm for Solutions. To get started, acknowledge your team for their willingness to be part of this new opportunity. Then, together with your team, review the data from your conversations. Also, review the company’s mission and 2021 goals. Now, your team is ready to brainstorm. Remember, effective brainstorming requires listening to all team members and writing down all ideas.

Align Team Members. Don’t rely on consensus for agreement. Align on the project you will focus on. Then, talk with your boss and key influencers to get their buy-in. Be prepared to address any specific concerns or elephants.

Put Together the Presentation. Purpose. Timeline. Budget. These are the three key areas. Keep the narrative to one page for each item. Since it is a new idea, use simple graphs to support your points. During the presentation, don’t be defensive when answering questions or it’ll kill the opportunity. Instead, remember, you’ve been working on this opportunity for a while. But it’s the first-time others are learning about it.

Now, Make it Happen.

If you have the:

  • Green light–Don’t wait. Get into action now and address any required changes along the way.
  • Yellow light–People are not clear. Clarify your proposal. Keep your communication simple and smart. Remember, they have their own agendas that you did not address to their satisfaction. Now is the best time to use your persuasive listening skills to create win-win-win outcomes.
  • Red light–There was no buy-in. You overlooked or missed important points. Talk with your boss and key influencers after working with your executive coach. Then, debrief with your team. Review and determine what’s next. Don’t let one failure sideline your ability to seek future opportunities within your current job.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2021

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach, management consultant, and keynote speaker for over 28 years. She is an expert in guiding leaders and their teams to get unstuck and achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

A Note about Crafting Your Next Career Opportunity Today from Jeannette. Many of your key leaders and employees want more than their current position offers. Instead of letting them leave, encourage them to take initiative and create their next career opportunity within their current position. Then, provide the training and coaching required for their success, or there is a good chance they will fail. Need help? Yes, we all do from time-to-time. Contact me!

It’s a New Normal. Are You Ready to Get Employees Skill-Ready?

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“You will lose key employees and customers if your people are not talent-ready.” Jeannette Seibly

In October 2020, the World Economic Forum released its report of the top 15 skills for 2025. While 2025 may seem a long way off, it’s not.

As you read the list note software development, cybersecurity and technology are not at the top of the list. Instead, it’s about creativity, problem solving, analytical thinking, and innovation.

It is critical companies develop these necessary skills today. Waiting until 2025 won’t work since your company will be left behind its competition. Start training at the top and cascade down now. This reinforces the skills training since your executives and managers will set a positive example.

3 Key Issues Often Overlooked

  • Discrimination practices will get in the way when designing individual training goals. Insert into your leaders’ job descriptions, “training and coaching the next leaders include each and every person!”
  • Failure to budget and use that money for training tells customers your business is not ready to be their vendor or contractor.
  • Hiring, coaching, and managing are much easier and less expensive if you hire and promote based on job fit. This requires using objective data on a consistent basis. Not everyone has an interest in learning and using the new skills appropriately.

Here is the “List of the Top 15 Skills” (click here for the full report):

(Note: most of these are considered “soft skills,” which are often ignored.)

  • Analytical thinking and innovation
  • Active learning and learning strategies
  • Complex problem-solving
  • Critical thinking and analysis
  • Creativity, originality, and initiative
  • Leadership and social influence
  • Technology use, monitoring, and control
  • Technology design and programming
  • Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility
  • Reasoning, problem solving, and ideation
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Troubleshooting and user experience
  • Service orientation
  • Systems analysis and evaluation
  • Persuasion and negotiation
Are you ready? Happy employees are well trained in all aspects of their work.

5 Key Factors to Prepare Your Company for Success

  • Create a strategic plan for ongoing training and skill development. Make sure your budget includes consistent communication reminders on how to use these new skills!
  • Develop skill levels (basic, medium, and advanced) required for different job responsibilities. For example, non-tech salespeople need systems awareness but don’t need advanced systems analysis and evaluation.
  • Select trainers who are shining examples of using these skills (internal and external). They must be able to engage participants and answer questions. Otherwise, your leaders and employees will lose interest.
  • Provide easy-to-access workshops, videos, coaching, and 1:1 training to reinforce skills. Ensure manager/executives receive the training first. This will set an example for all team members.
  • Encourage team members to work in cross-functional groups and rotate who leads the team. This will expand everyone’s knowledge on how to apply these new skills in different situations.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2021

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach, management consultant, and keynote speaker for over 28 years. She is an expert in guiding leaders and their teams to get unstuck and achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

A Note about Getting Your Employees Talent-Ready from Jeannette. 2021 is not business as usual and employees are frustrated with the lack of new opportunities for skill development. (Yes, even your newly hired team members.) Now is the time to develop everyone, from the top-down, to expand their skills and knowledge. It gets team members excited to come to work each day!  Need help? Yes, we all need help from time-to-time. Contact me!

How You Can Create Productive Conversations

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Never underestimate the power and importance of having conversations. But to achieve win-win-win outcomes as a leader, learn how to make them productive.

The challenge is most people have a poor relationship with talking it out. They have not learned how to ensure team members feel valued and heard before decisions are made.

Have you ever had one of these experiences (or been the person who refused to listen)?

  • One strong woman believed she knew best. So instead of talking out differences of opinion she would bulldoze the situations. She would then add fuel to the fire by alienating the person(s) for not agreeing with her.
  • One man believed his ideas were the best ones. After all, he’d spent a lot of time thinking and rethinking through the issue. He wasn’t open to hearing anyone’s input. Needless to say, when he didn’t get his intended results, he blamed his team for poor execution.
  • One team was not open to changing how they worked together since they’d been successful in the past. As a result, when the customer was unhappy with the product, they refused to listen. The client sued for breach of contract and won!
Having conversations that are productive saves time, money, and relationships.

What’s the difference between productive and non-productive conversations?

  • Non-productive conversations focus on gossip, ongoing conflicts, and the news. These types of conversations waste time and leave you feeling un-energized or drained.
  • Productive conversations focus on resolving current issues. They address brainstorming, creating potential solutions, and developing new actions for results.

6 Steps to Transform Your Unproductive Conversations

  1. Develop Basic Meeting Tactics. Have an agenda, create minutes, and set up a communication portal with easy access for all team members. Stay focused during the meeting. Encourage all team members to share (you may need to limit their time to 2 or 3 minutes). If you need basic meeting tactics, hire an executive coach to develop facilitation skills, instead of relying on trial-and-error.
  2. Have 1:1 Meetings. Use 1:1 or smaller team meetings to handle specific problems. Share with the team the results of these meetings, where appropriate. Relationship issues should be confidential.
  3. Stop Mind-Reading. No one is a mind-reader. Share your expectations out loud and clearly. Be a parrot by repeating the vision and the goal(s) at the beginning of each meeting.
  4. Handle Conflicts. If your team meetings include sniping, gossip, and other unproductive comments, STOP. These types of meetings cost time, money, and hurt feelings. Become fearless. Work with your coach to resolve team conflicts and develop this all-important muscle.
  5. Embrace Tough Conversations. Yes, I said embrace! It starts by addressing the “elephant in the room.” Use the straight-talk approach and start the conversation with the facts. Allow each person to share his/her thoughts and brainstorm as a team to resolve it. As the team leader, share your concerns last. This encourages everyone to share and truly listen.
  6. Engage in Strategic Conversations. Using the same strategy does not develop productive conversations for win-win-win outcomes. Be candid about the strengths and weaknesses of ideas and facts after brainstorming is done. Align on a plan instead of relying on a consensus since it removes silos and encourages teams to embrace change.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019 – 2021

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach, management consultant, and keynote speaker for 28 years. She is an expert in guiding leaders and their teams to get unstuck and achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

A Note About Having Productive Conversations from Jeannette. It’s not business as usual (I know I keep repeating this phrase week after week). My intention is to emphasize that the new normal needs to be created. This occurs when you have productive conversations and allow for innovation. If you are unclear how to get started, pick up the phone or email me for ideas!

The 6 C’s to Actually Create Crazy Amazing Success

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Stop waiting for the perfect time. It doesn’t exist.

It’s February! Now that the craziness of January is gone (e.g., creating goals and resolutions, hiding them in a drawer, and dealing with the little negative voice in your head), let’s create real success to support your goals for 2021.

The perfect time is right now because each and every step you take forward makes it happen now.

The 6 C’s to Practice for Success

Create a vision. Create a true vision of what you really, really, really want to achieve. This means putting aside what your parents and/or family and/or friends believe is the right vision. If it is a work goal, create the initial goal, plan, and budget before sharing it with your boss.

Courage is an inside job. Your success is an inside job. It requires telling the truth about who you are and what you really want. Then, create the goal and take action without waiting until the perfect time (since it’ll never come). If this is an entrepreneurial pursuit, keep your day job (or part-time gig work) until you have the income to leave.

Conversations must level up. The conversations in your head and with others must focus on the outcomes you want to achieve. Relying on excuses (I don’t have the time, money, or the right people) only gets in the way of success. Talk like a business person or community advocate when sharing your vision.

For example: instead of talking about feeling unmotivated last year, talk about the new book you are writing. Or, the new project you are leading. Or, the new effort to create a community/family garden. The possibilities are endless. Share why it’s important and why it makes a positive difference for you and others.

(PS: When having these types of quality conversations, others will want to help.)

“Perfection is a myth and gets in the way of you having what you really really really want to have.” Jeannette Seibly

Commitment requires focused action. Telling yourself you are committed, but failing to take the right actions, creates feelings of failure. If you’re truly committed, create a blueprint with the right actions that lead to your intended results! Now, follow it! Do not create busy-ness as your new excuse.

Consistency each and every day. Be bold and audacious by taking one step forward each day. Write in your journal (for your eyes only) and share your brags daily. (BizSavvyBrag.com) This will motivate you to stay in action. If you have a day job, find the time and ask for help (e.g., have your family do chores, hire someone to tutor your kids, etc.). Then, honor the time you’ve set aside.

Coachability: the secret for success. Being coachable and hiring the right coach makes all the difference. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners fear having a coach will change how things are done. Get over it! Be more committed to your success than your ego!

For example: An entrepreneur loved creating new products, but hated creating the business infrastructure required to grow. He continued to struggle with sales until he learned how to work with his coach and do the work required.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2021

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach, management consultant, and keynote speaker for over 28 years. She is an expert in guiding leaders and their teams to get unstuck and achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

A Note About Achieving Crazy Amazing Success from Jeannette. 2021 is not business as usual. It’s a great time to wake-up your entrepreneurial interests. (It doesn’t mean leaving your day job!) Or, waking up community or family dreams to get started on them Learn and implement the 6 C’s to achieve your dreams and get into action. Don’t wait! The perfect time is created by each and every step you take right now. Need help? Yes, we all do from time to time. Contact me!

How to Prevent Overconfidence from Hurting Team Results

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“Remember, 90% of the world’s information is in people’s heads, not the internet!” Jeannette Seibly

Overconfidence is a tendency to hold a false and misleading assessment of our skills, intellect, or talent. (Corporate Finance Institute)

Now, more than ever, confidence is important. It encourages your team, customers, and communities to follow your lead. But problems arise when you are overconfident. This occurs when you fail to understand that business is not the same as usual and fail to adjust for the “new normal.”

A leader worked in an IT company that had great financial success during 2020. But when he oversold a new project, the team balked when he shared the requirements! His overconfidence failed to consider the team was unwilling to come into the office and go into the customer’s office to work on it. The added challenge was, he lacked the skills to manage the new project virtually. He listened to his mentor and reached out to his coach. He got the help he needed. He learned a lot and learned how to brag about his skills in a business-savvy manner rather than be overconfident.

Remember, we’re in a new normal…what you did before may not work today. So, stop, listen, and welcome new ideas. Then, transform how you manage your team, projects, and results asap.

6 Tips to Develop Healthy Confidence

Be aware of your communication style is important. Learn to be aware of words or actions that signal you’re being overconfident (e.g., “I’ve got this handled!” “I never fail!” “This always works.”). Work with your coach to see what you may be stepping over or failing to address when this happens.

Be honest about your skills. Take the time to conduct an accurate assessment of yourself and learn about your blind spots. Work with your coach and use objective data from scientifically validated job-fit assessments. These tools guide you to go beyond how you want to be seen. Instead, they help you discover what it’s like to work with you from the team’s perspective!

Stop comparing yourself with others. Too often, we blame others for mistakes they make, but excuse our own! Develop your emotional intelligence (EI). Learn how to use compassion and empathy to work through mistakes and learn from them. This strengthens your ability to achieve intended results.

Test your assumptions before declaring your decisions. When we make decisions based on fragments of information, we’re often wrong. Develop your critical thinking by deep diving into the factual pros and cons. Use your network to test your assumptions. Remember, 90% of the world’s information is in people’s heads, not the internet!

Listen to others’ feedback and concerns. Leaders welcome brainstorming and hearing others’ ideas. Learn how to manage healthy disagreements and ensure all team members can express their concerns and ideas. Remember, a healthy skepticism will save your career and the financial impact of a bad decision. Most importantly, learn to listen to what you don’t want to hear to improve your results.

Recognize when it’s the right time. While many ideas may work with modifications, it may not be the right time or place to put them into action.  Avoid using circular logic to push through ideas your business and customers are not ready to handle.

“Overconfidence can derail results when your ego gets in the way.” Jeannette Seibly

How to Work with Overconfident Leaders

Stay aware and mindful in conversations. Listen up when your leader is sharing a decision s/he is making or about to make. It will impact you, your project, team, and budget, either directly or indirectly. Ask open-ended questions for clarification rather than debating the leader’s decision.

Stand up and speak up. When leaders are overconfident, we tend to question our own point of view. (Harvard Business Review) Stop! Be assertive and have a conversation armed with the facts. Remember, diplomacy is critical. While you may be right, overconfident leaders will ignore you when their ego feels threatened. The outcome of these types of conversations can impact your future projects and results as well.

If the leader’s idea or assertion does not impact you, avoid confrontation. Choose which issues to pursue. If you confront every issue, the leader and team will stop listening to you. Instead, address major issues that will impact you from a win-win-win perspective.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019-2021

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker for 28 years. She is an expert in guiding leaders and their teams to get unstuck and achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

A Note About Being an Overconfident Leader from Jeannette. It’s not business as usual. During this new normal, take the time to develop your emotional intelligence (EI). Skills include listening, critical thinking, and managing virtually. Developing these skills now will impact the quality of your results, today and tomorrow.

How to Break-through Stress During this New Normal

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Learning how to break-through your stress impacts the quality of your results.

2020 was a stressful year and not much has changed now that we’re into 2021. With the drama of the inauguration behind us, let’s focus on looking and moving forward. Your business projects, profitability, and teams need your attention more than ever.

Learn how to breakthrough your stress and guide your team to manage their stress too is critical. It will impact the quality of your results.

6 Successful Ways to Transform Stress into Positive Results

1. Breathe. Yes, breathe in for a count of 10, pause, then, exhale for a count of 10. Do this at least 3 times. You’ll be amazed by easily this works and impacts your results.

2. Get the facts. Instead of worrying and becoming stressed about every headline you read, get the facts. When you allow a small reaction to grow into a larger one, stress will follow. Start by clarifying the core problem. Talk out the facts with one or two trusted advisors and your executive coach. Now, with a clear perspective, talk it out with your team. At this point, you and your team are ready to create the new goal and focused action plan. Make sure to get into action within 24 to 48 hours.

“Stress can be a gift telling you to slow down and breathe…but only if you’re willing to listen!” Jeannette Seibly

3. Have the tough conversations instead of avoiding conflict. When you and/or team members become offended by someone’s choice of words, hand gestures, or facial expressions, stress occurs. BREATHE. Then, have a conversation to understand the true issue. Remember, handling conflict now, reduces gossip, stress, and hurt feelings. Failure to do so sabotages your team’s results, now and in the future.

4. Keep a private journal. Many people keep a journal about what isn’t working, past failures, and upsets. Instead, use journaling as a way to create a positive future. Write down “brags” about what has been working. Include “I am grateful for …” Write about your future and goals. Write down anything that helps you remember why your dreams and desires inspire you. Include the results you want to have at work (e.g., become a better boss). Encourage your team members to do the same.

5. Focus on something different. When you and your team hit a wall and are stuck in a project or task, or on how to handle a relationship, stress increases. Focus on something else by walking away. Then, after 20 minutes with renewed energy, look and take responsibility for what was missing (e.g., failure to listen, acknowledge an idea, allow a team member to talk, address a detail, etc.). This really works.

6. Be present with people. Multi-tasking is a myth. Stress will occur when you and your team don’t listen and value each other’s ideas and concerns. Learn how to be fully present (mindful resilience) in every conversation. It starts with an openness to hearing other’s points of view! I promise, you and your team will learn something new and life will be less stressful. As a bonus, your results will improve too!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019-2021

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker for 28 years. She is an expert in guiding leaders and their teams to get unstuck and achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

A Note About Breaking Through Stress from Jeannette. 2020 was a stressful year and 2021 hasn’t gotten off to a good start. With the drama of the inauguration behind us, let’s focus on looking and moving forward. The first step is, learn how to breakthrough your stress and guide your team to manage their stress too. It will impact the quality of your results.

How to Use Adversity to Make You Stronger

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“Want to take advantage of new opportunities this year, then, learn from 2020.” Jeannette Seibly

Many leaders, bosses, and businesses experienced difficult challenges, hardships, and misfortune during 2020. This includes closing companies, losing top talent, and facing financial hardships. And, many also dealt with health and family challenges.

It takes brave and committed leaders to use adversity as a launching pad to transform a situation, project, and/or relationship. Doing it the right way makes individuals, teams, and businesses stronger.

Working through adversity is never an easy process, especially when it’s forced on you. But the good news is, you can do it.

A year from now in 2022 when you look back to 2021, you will see how you turned adversity into a great opportunity. You’ll also experience how it made you, your team, and your business stronger.

Now, not tomorrow, is the time to do the right work and use 2020 adversity to make you stronger.

“Seeing situations from others’ points of view make it easier for people to feel heard by you.” Jeannette Seibly

6 Tips to Make You and Your Team Stronger

Get Real About What Happened. Everyone has experienced failure and unexpected adversity. There’s no shame in it. Breakdowns in projects and relationships can be due to things you did or didn’t do. Some catastrophes were beyond your control. (COVID) Regardless, it’s important that you stop and assess what truly happened and tell the truth. Putting frosting on mud pie and calling it a cake doesn’t change it from a mud pie!

TIP: Infuse objectivity into conversations by completing the year, project, and/or situation. Complete this exercise: What Worked? / What Didn’t Work? Then, ask, “What were the lessons learned?” This exercise must be done before you can move forward powerfully.

Develop Empathy. This can be difficult when you have little empathy for yourself and others. But it’s important during 2021 and beyond to develop emotional intelligence (EI). Seeing situations from others’ points of view make it easier for people to feel heard by you. It will also make it easier for them to listen to you!

TIP: To develop your empathy skills, talk with a qualified coach or therapist, and do the inner work required.

Develop Inner Confidence. Fake it until you make it is an old cliché where people imitated confidence, competence, and an optimistic mindset. The problem is today, fake confidence can be easily spotted. Instead, develop true inner confidence which in turn creates success.

TIP: To develop your inner confidence, work on a project with your team. Hire the right coach to guide you and the team along the way to ensure success and keep everyone focused.

Be Responsible for What You Are Saying and Sharing. Today’s focus on transparency can backfire when relying on TMI (too much information). It can damage relationships and the ability of people to trust you! This includes what you share with customers and top talent.

TIP:

  • Keep a private journal and write down your thoughts and feelings. Not everything needs to be shared.
  • Develop mindful resilience by forgiving yourself and others. (This is an inner exercise for you only. Do not tell others, “I forgive you.” Why? Because doing so only creates more adversity.)
  • Work with your coach and craft conversation points to share with your team and customers.

Focus Forward. Stop rehashing what happened by completing your “What Worked? / What Didn’t Work?” exercise. Remember, emotionally strong leaders lead the way by focusing on what’s next, not in the past. Look for new opportunities inside adversity.

TIP: Work with a trained facilitator to guide you and your team through this inquiry. In the process, you will uncover new systems, products, and services for 2021.

Practice Thanks!  Everyone loves appreciation. Saying “please”, “thank you”, and “great work” is important. When done authentically, your teams grow and your customers feel valued.

TIP: Get your copy of “It’s Time to Brag! Business Edition”. Learn how to brag in a business-savvy manner. Then, share with confidence the successes you, and your team and customers have had without sounding like a braggart!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2021

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker for 28 years. She is an expert in guiding leaders and their teams to get unstuck and achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

A Note About Using Adversity to Make You Stronger from Jeannette. 2020 was a good year for some and a bad year for many. Stop lamenting about the awful things that happened. Instead, get unstuck and focus on moving forward. 2021 will be a great year if you learn from adversity and become stronger as a leader. Now is the best time to get started!

2021 Is Here … It’s Time to Get Unstuck for Success

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“2021 will only be as good as your willingness to do the work.” Jeannette Seibly, The Leadership Results Coach

Many of you have thought about your goals and resolutions. Some of you have written them down. Far fewer of you have taken focused action steps to make them happen.

One of my long-term goals has been to write a novel. I even have over 100,000 words written. Over the past decade, I’ve updated. Made changes. Added and deleted characters. Et cetera. Et cetera.

Yet the novel remains safely hidden on my hard drive waiting to be published and see the light of day!

My current excuse is “Writing a novel is different than writing a business book. It requires different writing skills.” While this is true, it is still an excuse. There are classes and writing activities designed to help authors get their ideas published.

So, I’m stepping out! I am declaring, “This year is the year!” (GULP!)

What will I do now that I’ve been unwilling to do in the past? I’ve made it one of my top 3 must-get-done priorities in 2021. My support includes being part of a weekly author coaching group and attending monthly author events. My focused actions are scheduling time to write and then, writing. (Whether I want to or not!) These actions will provide me the inspiration I need to write and the coaching I need to stay unstuck. Plus, my other coaches will keep me in focused action! (NO EXCUSES IN 2021!)

Questions for You to Get Unstuck

Where are you stuck? It’s a great place to start instead of “why am I stuck?” Is it making a declaration? Is it making the time? Is it finding the money? Be clear and be real. If you’re stuck, write down on one page what, when, where, why, and how you feel stuck. Don’t beat yourself up. This is simply an inquiry. Now reduce it to ONLY ten words. When I did this exercise, it was eye-opening.

What do you really really really want to have? Here’s a simple yet challenging exercise my friend, Judith Briles, The Book Shepherd, has her authors do every year. Take four pieces of post-it size paper. On each piece of paper write down your goal in one or two words (e.g., publish book, lose weight, exercise, get a new job, retire, buy a home, etc.). Now you have four pieces of paper, each stating a goal. Here’s the challenging part. Remove the piece of paper you are least likely to do, want, or have. This will tell you the other three are more important. Now, remove the second piece of paper. Now, remove the third piece of paper. Drum roll …. The last piece of paper is your #1 goal for 2021. Now, it’s time to get busy!

“Doing what you’ve done before will have you stay stuck while hoping for different results.” – Jeannette Seibly, The Leadership Results Coach

What is the end result? People do things when they feel motivated to do them. What is motivating you to fulfill your #1 goal? Why is it important? Doing what you’ve done before will have you stay stuck while hoping for different results. Hope is not a viable strategy. It absorbs energy and makes you feel bad about yourself and your capabilities. When this happens, get your brag on! Yes, becoming present to your past successes works! (Especially when selling yourself in a job interview or asking your boss for a raise)!

What new possibilities are there? Look at your #1 goal from a 180-degree perspective. Here’s what I mean. Start with the goal and list key milestones backwards that must be met back to today. Doing this helps you see new possibilities to achieve your goal. So while many of us focus on only our limitations, our creativity and innovation are stifled. Remember, the longer you stay stuck and indecisive the more the next step seems elusive.

Are you waiting until the right time? If you’re waiting for the right time, stop waiting. Remember inspiration comes and goes like rain. It’s never predictable. The added challenge is, when it is raining, are you willing to do the work right then and there? Or, do your excuses get louder? (It’s important, to tell the truth!)

Here’s the million-dollar tip! Hire the right coach to help you stay focused on your #1 goal! Then, be coachable. Both of these are commitments are required to get and stay unstuck. And, you know staying focused can be difficult when life circumstances get in the way. But here’s what I want you to consider: One year from now will be 2022. Do you still want to be sharing your excuses…or sharing your successes? Another way to look at it is, if you have 6 months to live, would failure to achieve your #1 goal be your greatest regret?

Here’s to an amazing 2021! Who’s willing to get unstuck and join me?

©Jeannette Seibly 2021

Jeannette Seibly is The Leadership Results Coach. She has been an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker for 28 years. She is an expert in guiding leaders and their teams to get unstuck and achieve dynamic results. Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

A Note About Honoring Your Goals from Jeannette. Goal creation and resolution-making are common activities for individuals and businesses each year. Yet the problem remains that these goals are rarely fulfilled. Don’t start 2021 as another year with great goals, ideas, and promises with no structure for fulfilling them. Make 2021 the year you actually make them happen!