Optimize Human Performance

Groupthink Hurts Results, Retention, and Revenues

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This is Part 1 of a 2-part article. Part 1 focuses on teams alienating leaders and team members due to groupthink. Part 2 focuses on how leaders can avoid or overcome team alienation.

Every team comes to the table with long‑held traditions, sacred elephants, and the mindset of “how we’ve always done it.” Even when the leader or team member is steady and capable, the team’s anxiety can turn into quiet resistance, defensiveness, and groupthink where they believe the past matters more than moving forward or telling the truth.

Groupthink erodes trust, stalls decisions, and magnifies every unresolved issue. Slowly, the team disintegrates turning the original problem into an impossible mountain or disbanding entirely. The false sense of unity will eventually fracture the team into silos and factions.

In the process, the team ignores the leader or team member(s).

When Groupthink Takes Hold

In a study by ScienceDirect, “groupthink is more common than one would like to think.” Groupthink emerges when team members prioritize harmony, belonging, or shared frustration over critical thinking, and leads to dysfunctional decision-making.

  • The group reinforces its own beliefs, filters out contradictory information, and rewards conformity.
  • Dissent becomes risky, so no one challenges the emerging “leader we don’t like” narrative.
  • Develop an illusion of invulnerability — the belief that the group’s decision is correct and infallible.
  • Ignore ethical or moral concerns, overlook risks, or fail to consider outside perspectives.

The Escalation Pattern

Once groupthink solidifies:

  • The leader’s decisions are interpreted negatively, regardless of merit.
  • Neutral actions are reframed as evidence of the leader’s incompetence or bias.
  • The group amplifies small mistakes into “proof.”
  • Silence becomes agreement, accelerating the alienation.

The Cost of Groupthink

Alienating a leader or team member, especially a competent one, creates ripple effects:

  • Loss of direction and accountability.
  • Fragmented communication and diminished trust.
  • Increased turnover and political maneuvering.
  • Decline in psychological safety and innovation.
  • Closed doors and opportunities for the team, company, or association.
  • Loss of top talent, avoidable expenses, and poor results are unavoidable.

How to Break the Cycle

To prevent or reverse leader and team alienation:

  • Reintroduce structured decision‑making. Brainstorming, critical thinking, and alignment on decisions (not consensus) are important to ensure active participation of all team members. This also brings up issues that need to be addressed. Do not avoid elephants!
  • Ask each and every person for their input. This includes accepting diverse viewpoints. As the leader, you will need to go around the team several times to ensure all voices are heard.
  • Address cliques and insider groups directly. When you bring a team together for the first time or for each new project, outline expectations, goals, and processes. Also, mention you expect people to work together for the benefit of the client or project goal. This normally needs to be repeated during each meeting.
  • Rebuild trust through transparency and shared goals. How does this client or project benefit others? What can we do to improve the process or delivery?
  • Use objective tools (e.g., assessments, facilitation) to set or reset team dynamics. When hiring, use job-fit assessments to ensure you are hiring the right people for what needs to be done. When selecting people to work on a team, conduct a short interview to ensure they will be committed to the goal of the team. Ensure you are continually improving your facilitation skills.

Leaders and all team members must stay aware of group dynamics, challenge groupthink early, and avoid the trap of blaming others instead of strengthening their own leadership effectiveness. As the leader, it is your responsibility to stop groupthink in its tracks.

©Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people in empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.

How Do You Handle Feedback without Being Defensive?

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Receiving feedback and hearing it is a skill that many leaders and bosses need to develop. Being defensive is a difficult behavior to overcome since, too often, people want to defend their actions, attitudes, and results.

Why?

They:

  • Find it hard to laugh at themselves
  • Worked hard but failed to ask for help and instead accepted mediocrity
  • Have a perfectionist attitude
  • Feel misjudged (and it may be true)
  • Are overly sensitive to hearing anything that is negative
  • Blame the person delivering the feedback for the way they speak or deliver the information – their excuse for not listening

As a leader, you may cause team members to be defensive when you:

  • Are critical
  • Overreact to situations
  • Expect perfection
  • Take things personally
  • Have poor feedback and coaching skills

The additional problem is, coaching and feedback are difficult to hear when delivered poorly!

Yet, you will find that people excel when they are open and receptive to feedback without being defensive. (Think of well-paid sports people, leaders excelling in their work, entrepreneurs selling their startups, etc.)

How to Hear Feedback without Being Defensive

  • Be open and value the insight, whether you want to hear it or not.
  • Set aside ego. While you may not like being judged, develop a healthy ego that is committed to your success.
  • Ask for clarification or example. Ask open-ended questions, and hear the value offered. (Even when the feedback or coaching is poorly delivered.)
  • Thank the person for their insights. Include their recommendations where appropriate (e.g., if you winging presentations, a plan and practice will make a big difference in your career).
  • Remember, saying you’ll think about it is a different way of being defensive.

How to Deliver Feedback without Being Defensive

  • Talk with a select few people that were impacted or aware of the situation. Be careful about nitpicking someone’s personality. If someone talks too much, instead of saying that, say, “It’s important in these situations that you listen more than talk. And, here’s why.”
  • Use sandwich or direct approach. This depends on the person and the type of feedback you need to deliver.
  • Practice with your coach. Especially if you’re a new leader, or believe the person will be defensive.
  • Keep it simple. No more than two key issues or challenges. Yes, there may be more feedback you feel is necessary. But that can be overwhelming and not helpful. (I’ve seen leaders and bosses give an employee a list of 20 items … the person was overwhelmed and became defensive. Consider, in this case and similar ones, that it is due to poor job fit.) Again, to ensure great results, only provide two at a time and check in with the person to determine progress before adding additional areas for improvement … you find additional feedback is not necessary.
  • Make a plan for improvement. For team members, it’s important that there is a process they can follow and learn from.
    • Either: The most effective choice is to have the person create it (be clear about required outcomes and have a “By When Date” this will occur).
    • Or, provide a process for them to follow, which will not be as effective because there may not be buy in, and will be effective as long as you are managing the process.
  • Now, follow-up and follow-through. Most people skip this … big mistake! You need to have regular check ins to ensure progress is being made. It also shows your commitment to the person’s success.

©Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a legacy‑driven Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author. For over 33 years, she has empowered thousands of executives and business leaders to achieve sustainable success through strategic hiring, values‑based coaching, and intentional leadership development. Her work blends clarity, accountability, and soulful impact—activating performance and purpose at every level.

Do You Need to Hire Salespeople? What Are 5 Key Tips to Ensure They Fit the Job?

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Hiring salespeople can be a challenge. Many look and/or talk the part, but once hired, fail to produce the required results. It’s up to you to improve your selection process to uncover salespeople who can actually sell your product or service, and fit the job requirements.

Remember, it’s always faster, easier, and far less expensive to determine their ability to sell before you hire them. If you don’t, you’ll spend too much money and energy — and face sleepless nights attempting to fix them (and this never works out well for anyone).

5 Tips to Improve Your Selection Process

  1. Listening Skills Are they listening? Can they hear you? Do they respond appropriately? Ask the candidate to summarize the interview or parts of the conversation by asking, “Tell me what you heard?”
  2. Do They Ask Questions? Do they have questions about your company, product, management style, etc.? If not, move on. Candidates who don’t ask questions lack the curiosity, interests, and skills to inquire further.
  3. Are They Calm and Patient? Does the person squirm in their seat? Do they rush the conversation or attempt to finish your sentences? Do they look at you when speaking or listening? While closing is a required skill, it also requires the ability to ask several times in several different ways without being offensive.
  4. Do They Fit the Job? To determine key traits, most salespeople need prospecting, presenting, and closing skills must have the interest to use these skills. Use a qualified job‑fit assessment. Can they do these things? Will they do these things? And can they do these things for your company and product?
  5. Do They Tell the Truth? To objectively answer this question, first use an honesty/integrity assessment to uncover omissions not found in public records. It saves time and money by eliminating candidates who stretch the truth (think customer expectations and fulfillment). Second, always conduct thorough due diligence with final candidates by checking background, education, and other accomplishments.

Bonus Tip: Do They Follow a Sales Process?

Sales Process Discipline. Many salespeople rely on charm, personality, or improvisation. But consistent results require following a repeatable sales process. Notice whether the candidate follows your interview structure, asks clarifying questions, and moves through conversations logically. Salespeople who resist structure rarely produce consistent results.

©Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people in empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.

Want to Accelerate Career Options? Make a Lateral Move

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I remember talking with a woman who had been unemployed for a while. When I suggested she ‘stretch’ from finance into operations by making a lateral move, she looked at me like I’d grown another head.

“Oh no! I’m very committed to staying in my profession,” she exclaimed.

I replied, “It doesn’t mean you will not return to finance. However, gaining operational experience in running a department or team can greatly boost your business acumen. Lateral moves can provide you a diverse skill set, increased visibility, and credibility as a future leader.”

What are lateral career moves?

A lateral career move is a strategic transition to a role at the same level of responsibility and pay, designed to broaden skills, gain new experiences, and position yourself for future advancement. (Indeed)

What are the benefits?

  • Can be beneficial for learning new skills or securing your future.
  • Learning different duties or responsibilities.
  • Increased visibility
  • Credibility as a future leader
  • Note: Not recommended if you make too many of them or face a career setback.

Making a lateral move doesn’t mean you were not qualified in your current profession or previous position. A “stretch position” can accelerate your career growth and options because it provides broader exposure to business challenges, making you a better boss/leader, decision-maker, and business professional. It’s also a great way to skill stack your experiences, education, and expertise.

How to Prepare for a Lateral Move

Job Fit Assessment. Be clear about your strengths and weaknesses before making a job transition. Use an objective job fit assessment that provides a “job fit pattern” for the lateral position. This helps you (and your new boss) understand where to focus when coaching and managing you for success.

Get Your Brag On! Complete the five easy steps for sharing your wins and successes. Sharing these during networking meetings and interviews for the lateral position will make a difference. Remember, there will be “cross-over” skills, and you must emphasize them (e.g., communication, finance, people, technology) since you cannot rely on the job titles, professional experiences, and job responsibilities they normally seek.

Networking Works. Do your homework by going out for coffee or lunch, or Zoom with several people already working in the profession. What do they enjoy about it? What are the challenges? How can you, with your current experiences, make a difference? Use open-ended questions to learn more. Remember, this is crucial … listen to learn!

Prepare for the Interview. You will be ready for the interview after following the first three recommendations above. Be sure to conduct your due diligence during all interviews for the lateral position about expectations, goals, and any challenges in the position. It is important to address any reluctance of the company, team, or hiring boss upfront without being defensive. After you’ve been offered the position, it’s time to discuss salary and benefits … they may not change … this is about gaining experience, not a pay increase at the present moment.

Keys for Success: Learn the basics, listen more than talk, and have a positive can-do attitude. Hire an executive coach and select a mentor to talk through the inevitable sticky situations and political work relationships that will occur. Also, take the time now to develop essential leadership skills in emotional intelligence, communication, critical thinking, and project management. These are valued “cross-over skills” in any position aka skill stacking.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024-2026 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a legacy‑driven Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author. For over 33 years, she has empowered thousands of executives and business leaders to achieve sustainable success through strategic hiring, values‑based coaching, and intentional leadership development. Her work blends clarity, accountability, and soulful impact—activating performance and purpose at every level.

Build a Strong and Dynamic Team to Produce Great Results

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Many leaders today struggle with building a team that produces intended results, is innovative, and works well together. Many leaders blame their lack of success on the belief that the “right” team members cannot be found.

The real problem? Leaders fail to take responsibility and be held accountable for hiring, coaching, and managing their team (individually and as a group) to be strong and dynamic. Instead, they rely on outdated management of the processes and execution of the goal. When they claim they “don’t have the right people,” it is a way to distract others from their inability or unwillingness to lead effectively.

How to Transform Your Team and Achieve Intended Results

A leader’s beliefs matter. Your beliefs can become an excuse that prevents you from developing teams, addressing blind spots, and doing the real work required to build a strong and dynamic team. To improve everyone’s skills, you must be willing to look in the mirror, acknowledge what’s not working, and take deliberate steps to strengthen your leadership effectiveness through coaching, feedback, and consistent practice.

Hire for job fit. This is the ignored key to ensure you have the right people on the team, with the skills, attitude, behavior, and interests to achieve the intended results. Don’t forget onboarding is critical to each person’s success … it gives them the direction and support to integrate well and become productive more quickly.

Remove your ego. A healthy ego is key. An unhealthy ego will sabotage your results. If you’re egotistical and unable to be a true leader for your team, step aside. OR hire an experienced executive coach to guide you along the way. This requires developing emotional intelligence and awareness of what may trigger your upsets, frustrations, and other poor communication habits.

Manage for results, not personalities. This can be a hard one: Focus on the action plan while staying focused on the goal. This can be difficult when people don’t get along, create miscommunication, and are not team players. Use a qualified job fit assessment that reveals objective data, not how the person wants to be seen, which will camouflage job fit and hurt results. This clarity will improve results, while strengthening your team.

Define role expectations. Address clearly defined roles, who makes which decisions, and expectations. Many teams fail not because of talent, but because people don’t know what “success” looks like in their role or how their work connects to the bigger picture. It’s up to you to communicate and guide the way.

Create or follow accountability systems. Instead of “winging it,” create or use structures that keep teams aligned: metrics, check-ins, dashboards, or performance conversations. Leaders often “get out of the way” by stepping back so far that the team lacks direction, guardrails, and timely feedback, leaving people to guess at priorities, make assumptions, and commit avoidable mistakes.

Communicate with intention. When you are being indecisive, people will take advantage of you. Instead, be clear about the goal, budget, and any other defined structures or limitations. Admit when you are uncertain about what to do next. Ask the team for their input by asking open-ended questions. Encourage brainstorming, and avoid the trap of seeking consensus. Remember, innovation and communication improve when people feel safe speaking up. The solutions will reveal themselves.

Apologies are required. When mistakes occur, and they will, own them. Apologize. Move forward. All is not lost if you are looking for the lesson(s) learned from the mistake or failure. Many times, it leads to the next successful innovation!

Use Please and Thank You! People want to feel valued. If you are not appreciating your team and the individuals that support the process and achievement of the intended results, you are not building a strong and dynamic team … just one that’s waiting to move on … and away from you.

Celebrate and Brag! Every milestone is important, since each one leverages your next one. Speak positively about your team members, and ensure there is a celebration beyond a weekly pizza.

©Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people in empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.

Why We Block Ourselves and How to Finally Step Through

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Many people block themselves, especially if they are high achievers and struggle with self‑imposed barriers. What’s missing for them and the rest of us? Accountability, resilience, responsibility, clarity, and moving forward.

These blocks can last hours, days, and weeks.

Common blocks are:

  • Many of us have confidence, yet choose not to use it.
  • We can be great listeners, yet talk over people.
  • We are reliable, yet arrive late or deliver incomplete work.
  • We are results‑producers, yet fail to make the sale or get buy‑in for a new idea.
  • We are leaders, yet have become followers of something we don’t even believe in.

The problem isn’t the block. The problem is what we make the block mean.

No one is perfect. Forgive yourself, apologize when needed, and step through and move forward now. Stop waiting and take one step today that honors your word and moves you forward. If you’re still stuck or blocked, consider talking with an executive coach or therapist to help you regain clarity and momentum.

The Real Reasons We Give in to the Blocks

When asked why we don’t get work done, pursue a dream, or complete a project, most people offer familiar excuses:

  • “I have a bad boss.”
  • “I don’t enjoy my job.”
  • “Someone else can handle it.”
  • “I don’t have the money.”
  • “I don’t have the time.”

But the truth is simpler and harder to admit: You actually don’t want to do it, and no one is going to make you. It’s your block!

Today, many people feel entitled to their emotional reactions, using them as justification to block their own success. We all have emotional blocks. They can tend to show up at the worst possible times. Yet, the problem is we treat them as if they are the truth about ourselves, the situation, or the relationship!

Remember, there are many other people with the same familiar excuses, yet they persevere and step forward, creating momentum by taking one small step at a time.

A Moment of Choice

Recently, at a first‑time event, I found myself hesitating since I didn’t know anyone but the host of the meeting. I was being careful, quiet, and holding back. Then I caught myself: “Whoa. Stop.”

When the leader called on me, I stepped through the block and spoke with confidence. That’s the moment everything shifted: the moment I chose to be the person I am.

Now, think of a moment when you have allowed your self‑consciousness or fear to block you and get in the way. Then you used it as your excuse to play small, withhold ideas, or leave the conversation early (while still in the meeting).

This is your reminder to stop letting those moments define you. It requires taking the first step through them now, or reach out to an executive coach who can help you practice doing so.

How to Get There

  • Get thoughts out of your head and onto paper.
  • Acknowledge the block. Name it. Don’t dramatize it.
  • Listen to podcasts. Fill your mind with voices that elevate your thinking.
  • Write a full page of successes. Wins, abundance, positive moments. Writing activates the brain differently and builds confidence. (For additional insight, “Get Your Brag On!”)
  • Stay out of rabbit holes. Overthinking is a trap disguised as productivity.
  • Set a daily goal and intention. Small commitments build momentum.
  • Dial up humbleness; dial down ego. Replace “I shouldn’t have to do this” with “This moves me forward.” A healthy (not overactive) ego can make a world of difference!
  • Allow others to help. Drop the “I can do it myself” mindset.
  • Review what’s true. Separate your reality from others’ expectations.
  • Apologize to yourself and others. Then follow through. Integrity grows from action.

If you continue to struggle on how to step through you block(s), work with a coach or a therapist to help you stay accountable and move forward faster.

© Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a legacy‑driven Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author. For over 33 years, she has empowered thousands of executives and business leaders to achieve sustainable success through strategic hiring, values‑based coaching, and intentional leadership development. Her work blends clarity, accountability, and soulful impact—activating performance and purpose at every level.

Leaders With Healthy Egos Produce Intended Results

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Your ego, as a leader, can be both a benefit and a cost to relationships, retention, results, and revenues. Egos can be both useful and dangerous: it can fuel confidence and drive OR blind leaders to reality and damage trust and results.

Example: When hiring employees, your ego gets in the way by not listening and instead, relying on intuition, gut reactions, or biases. The hiring boss fails to collect objective data, and then, acts surprised when the new employee miscommunicates, ignores team members, and performance is subpar.

Egos fuel entitlement and self-sabotage. Egotistical leaders believe the rules don’t apply to them or that their position earns them special treatment. They rely on being right, being in control, or being seen as the smartest person in the room. This erodes their credibility and trust because the ego is wired to protect identity and status, especially when a leader feels insecure, which undermines intended results.

Conversely, a healthy ego becomes a stabilizer. Leaders who don’t need special treatment or constant validation make clearer decisions, build stronger relationships, and earn genuine respect. This grounded approach strengthens trust, psychological safety, and a culture where team members follow because they want to.

Costs of Allowing Egos to Manage the Leader

  • Self‑Belief vs. Arrogance. When confidence becomes arrogance, leaders become defensive, overconfident, and dismissive, driving poor decisions and pushing top talent and customers out the door.
  • Lack of Self‑Awareness. Without self‑awareness, leaders miss the moment when the ego takes over, derails conversations, damages relationships, and creates avoidable conflict.
  • Breakdown in Listening. Ego-driven leaders talk over others, assume they already know the answer, and shut down collaboration, which stifles innovation and team engagement.
  • Distorted Decision‑Making. Egos narrow perspective, causing leaders to ignore data and dismiss alternatives to “prove they’re right.”
  • Avoid Accountability. Leaders who let their egos run the show blame others, justify poor choices, and resist feedback, weakening credibility and slowing team performance.
  • Erosion of Trust. When ego overshadows humility, psychological safety disappears, people stop speaking up, and overall innovation and performance decline.

How to Develop a Healthy Ego

A healthy ego provides confidence, resilience, and steadiness when under pressure. Strong leaders know when to dial the ego down and dial humility up to move teams forward, handle tough conversations, and build reliable working relationships.

  • Self‑Belief vs. Arrogance. Leaders with true confidence asks open-ended questions, listen, and build win-win-win results. When they make mistakes or misspeak, they apologize immediately.
  • Self‑Awareness as the Regulator. Self‑awareness helps leaders recognize when ego is helping and when it’s hijacking judgment. Pausing, noticing triggers, and using feedback as a mirror prevents unnecessary conflict and poor decisions.
  • Intentional Listening. Practicing curiosity and humility are skills that can be developed. This way of listening restores collaboration without letting conversations go sideways.
  • Objective Decision‑Making. Using objective data while engaging in diverse viewpoints and structured decision processes prevents costly missteps, especially in hiring, strategy creation, and fulfillment of intended results.
  • Accountability and Ownership. A healthy ego takes responsibility, slows down to include the team, and ensures everyone contributes for stronger results.
  • Build Trust. When balancing ego with humbleness, a healthy ego helps leaders believe in their teams, overcome setbacks, and create win‑win‑win outcomes.
  • Strengthen Effectiveness. Leaders with a healthy ego build self‑awareness habits, seek reality checks, use structured decision frameworks, separate identity from ideas, and treat humility as a leadership tool.
  • Ask For and Accept Help. Healthy‑ego leaders know they can’t do it all. Asking for help, accepting support, and working with mentors or a coach keeps blind spots in check and strengthens decision‑making.

A healthy ego models strength by showing the team that collaboration, guidance, and continuous improvement are essential to effective leadership. Tools like PXT Select® and the PXT Select® Leadership Report provide objective insights into how leaders think, behave, and make decisions, especially when under pressure. (The PXT Select® also bolsters team members, especially when there has been conflict, miscommunication, and too many mistakes and failures along the way.)

©Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved (Written with research assistance from AI)

Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people in empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.

Work Well with Anyone, Anywhere at Any Time

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Successful business relationships do not happen overnight. They are created from mutual respect, trust, and experience. The focus is developing win/win/win outcomes that make a positive difference.

Developing the Leadership Skills Required to Work Well with Anyone

  1. Do what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it.
  2. Apologize when you “drop the ball” and keep your word in the future.
  3. Take an interest in the company, people, products, financials, safety, community of others where you work.
  4. Be informed about the interests and concerns of your coworkers, boss, and team. Be able to interact appropriately.
  5. Show respect everyone on the team regardless of their opinions and personalities.
  6. Stop judging people by their manner of dress, background (e.g., education, work experience), or title in a company.
  7. Make it a habit to say “Please” & “Thank You.”
  8. Keep confidences. Don’t talk negatively about other people (aka gossiping).
  9. Level up your listening by setting aside your need to form comments or opinions while others are talking.
  10. Be comfortable with silence.
  11. Ask open-ended questions.
  12. Pay attention, nonverbal gestures and actions speak much louder than your words (80+ percent).
  13. Always, consider other people’s ideas and concerns when developing solutions.
  14. When talking or writing, use KISS: Keep Ideas Simple & Smart

©Jeannette Seibly 2010-2026

Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.

It’s always challenging to work with so many different personalities and expectations. Developing yourself as an effective leader requires the know-how to work with anyone, anywhere at any time. Contact me for a guide on how to work well with everyone.

 

Are You a Critical Leader?

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Effective leadership style produces intended team results on a regular basis.

Do you:

  • Find fault with other’s ideas and actions?
  • Believe your way is the only right way?
  • Blame mistakes on others?

Being a critical leader or boss can be tiring for both you and your team members. Your attitude and behavior make it difficult to work with you and nearly impossible to learn from you. Until you transform your critical mindset, you will never have a team that produces intended results on a regular basis.

How do you transform your critical mindset to lead an effective team?

Look for opportunities to praise.  Acknowledge others for a job well done, even if it’s a small step or contribution. Consider ideas that may initially seem off-the-wall or inappropriate, and acknowledge contributions in a positive manner.  Your openness will encourage everyone to stretch their thinking and behavior to improve their skills.

Learn from mistakes.  Every mistake can be turned into a learning moment. It’s important to understand the difference between a Zero Tolerance Policy for unacceptable behaviors versus reviewing and learning from mistakes. You and your team inevitably will make mistakes during a new task and new project, or working with new clients. Ensure your systems are up-to-date, and all your employees have the training needed to minimize errors at repetitive tasks. Develop a repeatable process when creating and executing new opportunities to ensure employees are aligned.

Make 2-2-2 your paradigm. Acknowledge two positive things they have done well. Then, share very specific areas for improvement, no more than two. Wrap-up with two positives they have done well. This makes feedback easier to give, and receive! (See Direct Approach vs. Sandwich Approach)

Hire a coach. It’s important for your own career and leadership development that you learn to effectively work with and through people to get the job done. An effective leadership style produces win/wins on a regular basis.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2010 -2026 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people in empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.

All leaders need a periodic “checkup” on their effectiveness as a leader. Learn how to improve and produce intended results. Give me a call.

What Are 5 Confidence Builders Needed to Produce Amazing Results?

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Confidence is required to build your career, professional reputation, and results. The challenge? Allowing saboteurs (e.g., factions and people with ulterior motives) to deplete your confidence. Then, you do your best to shrink who you are and deny your own inner power when attempting to handle sticky situations and complex working relationships. With poor results.

Here are 5 practices to develop and build your inner power and confidence!

Believe in Yourself. It’s challenging when you face a setback, error, or rejection. Remember, everyone makes mistakes and experiences failures. Take a moment to breathe. Embrace what you learned from the recent experience. Now, engage with your executive coach and regain your focus and confidence! Self-belief is your key to confidence and empowerment, and is an ongoing skill that you will need to develop as you move forward.

Be Present. Don’t let your mental thoughts, feelings of fear, or multitasking distract you from the present moment. These can hinder your results and relationships! When engaging in conversations, attending meetings, or participating in events, give your undivided attention to the speaker. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the new insights you glean from listening, even when you think you already know the information – there is always more to learn!

Be a Results Producer. Going through the motions without a conscious intention or outcome to improve the quality of the situation or relationship isn’t taking focused action.

To achieve intended win-win-win results, you need to:

  • Get honest about the actions you are taking and why
  • Prepare for and have the tough and needed conversations required to move forward
  • Focus on quality and workability of performance challenges, not personality differences

Be Coachable. Ask for help! Recognize that you don’t have all the answers, and often, when you approach people, projects, and situations with “fear” written on your face, they hide from you. By choosing the right coach, you can witness your confidence bloom with newfound clarity and composure. This openness to coaching is a powerful tool for your personal and professional growth.

Get Your Brag On! Pay attention to your daily activities and wins by keeping a written log of your achievements … no matter how small. When it’s time for a job promotion, job interview, board meeting, sales presentation, or pitch for your book or product, you’re ready! Your brags make a big difference in building your confidence. They also build your reputation, credibility, and ability to influence others!

©Jeannette Seibly 2023-2026 All Rights Reserved

Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people in empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.

Building self-confidence is a daily practice that requires you to recognize when saboteurs appear. Contact me for a confidential conversation to ensure you’re moving forward rather than staying stuck.