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Many leaders grapple with building trust. Yet, trust is critical in today’s ever-changing workplace. If employees or customers don’t trust you to take care of them, they will leave and find someone who will.

Employees and customers won’t trust you if you:

• -Are unable to communicate in a positive and caring manner
• -Find fault with others’ concerns and ideas
• -Make decisions based on how you feel
• -Fail to honor your commitments

If you are a leader that fails to consider others, you are training others not to trust you to do the right things the right way.

It’s important to understand that trust begins with you.

Trust starts with an awareness of how you ask questions, make your decisions, and honor your commitments.

Remember, trust is a building process with others that requires your daily attention.

Build Trust Each and Every Day

Be Present. When you multi-task or allow other distractions, you stop being present and hearing what is said. Active listening is crucial toward building trust. The quality of questions you ask and the decisions you make as a result of these interactions will build trust, or diminish it.

Honor Facts and Intuition. Intuition can be wrong due to your biases and other feelings that limit objectivity. But, 100 percent reliance on data can send you down the wrong path too. Remember, 90 percent of the world’s information is not on the internet, but, in people’s heads on how to make things work. Trust the process of building alignment from team members. Listen to a select few business advisors (too many will only create indecision). Yes, the process may take longer, but, trusting the process will save you a lot of time and money in the future.

Integrity. Honoring your word (whether you remember giving it or not) not only allows you to trust yourself it encourages others to trust you too. Be present and actively take part in conversations.  Always take time to complete conversations by asking, “To be sure I’m clear, what do you need for me to do?”

Successful leaders are open to building trust daily. When you practice being present, honoring facts and intuition, and honoring your word, the results will amaze you.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019

For the past 26 years, Jeannette Seibly has been recognized as a catalyst and leadership expert. She has helped 1,000s of people create more fun, money, and inspiring results. To learn more about building trust, contact Jeannette for straight talk with dynamic results.

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“Leadership requires taking responsibility for your feelings and reactions towards others. A momentary lapse can create a permanent impact.” Jeannette Seibly

Have you ever struggled with your emotions?

It can happen when:

• -Employees don’t agree or have an emotional reaction towards you.
• -You’ve had a meltdown after a bad meeting.
• -You’re worried about the outcome of a project or the fear of being embarrassed.

Every leader has experienced these emotions. Successful leaders have learned how to effectively handle these emotions during difficult times.

“Emotions have power and that power can enhance or limit your leadership.” Unknown

Broaden Your POV

Improve your decisions...consider all the data. Employees will react when they don’t believe you’ve made the right decisions. Get all the facts. Instead of becoming defensive, understand “why.” Ask them, “What would you do to improve this decision?” Remember, your ability to make good objective decisions will address the facts and people’s concerns.

There will always be disagreements…it’s not personal. When employees disagree with you, lashing out in response or retaliation is not a good idea. Remember, other’s emotional reactions are not about you. To overcome upsets, use persuasive listening skills to clarify and build alignment for a new outcome. With a broader POV, you will stop taking sides regardless of your opinions.

People will challenge you…address quickly. Many take part in rumors or gossip without considering the impact on others. Normally, it’s due to feelings of insecurity and disempowerment, and/or hating their jobs and bosses. Often, it’s because they want your attention. Be aware that the perpetrators often turn into victims. If you don’t address the issues now, they will grow from small molehills into giant mountains!

Productive employees do not happen by accident…focus on employees first.  It’s up to you to create a healthy and happy workplace. Review coaching, managing and training programs to ensure they support employee success. Design benefit programs to provide for counseling, health, and wellness. Update your hiring and selection process to focus on job fit (the #1 reason people are successful in their jobs!).

Acknowledge your emotions…then, address them appropriately. Being a leader can be a lonely job. Hire a coach to confidentially share concerns and address issues in an effective manner. Also, engage in conversations with others. Stop talking at them. These simple actions will improve your relationships, remove biases, and help you develop compassion. Remember, you have a choice in the words you use to express your feelings.

Take responsibility for your emotions, expand your POV, and become a successful leader.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019

For the past 26 years, Jeannette Seibly has been recognized as a catalyst and leadership expert. She has helped 1,000s of people create more fun, money, and inspiring results. Contact Jeannette for straight talk with dynamic results.

For weekly keys to your success, sign up to receive this weekly newsletter. When you register, you will receive FREE “How to Select the Best Coach for You!”

I predict the skills that will be most in-demand in the future will be some of the hardest to train – resilience, resourcefulness, and flexibility. (Dr. Thomas Frey, DaVinci Institute, September 2018)

When reading the above prediction, many bosses, executives and leaders automatically think about how to train, hire, manage and coach their employees for these skills. But, it’s critical to remember… success starts with you!

Resilience: It’s important to expand and bring added value to your employees, customers, and company. Mistakes will be made along the way. Resilient leaders learn from them and move on. Otherwise, you become less effective and myopic in your POV.

Successful practices include:

• -Delegating to and coaching others
• -Listening to and using new ideas
• -Utilizing critical thinking (e.g., ROI, strategy, impactfulness)
• -Bouncing back from mistakes and errors
• -Improving interactions and relationships

     Success Tip: What training and coaching do you need to expand your POV? Schedule it now.

Resourcefulness: Question whether or not you are doing the right things the best way for win-win-win outcomes. Being aware and taking initiatives to achieve successful results!

When working on projects for successful start and implementation:

• -Establish the ground rules (e.g., target date, purpose, company and vendor policies, legalities, ROI, etc.)
• -Encourage out-of-the-box thinking through true brainstorming and off-the-wall ideas
• –Align everyone on the goal and create a focused-action plan
• –Manage for intended results
• –Coach employees to move outside their comfort zones

     Success Tip: What do you need to develop real strategies that work? One idea is to bounce your         ideas off of a trusted business advisor.

Flexibility: When you are stubborn or believe how things “should” happen, you get in the way of success. Learn how to adjust for necessary changes and when to do so.

Successful change agents know:

• -Be clear of the vision and mission of the company
• -Make changes with integrity and honesty, which may not be the fastest or easiest way
• -Stay in communication during the change process

     Success Tip: How can you embrace change to grow your employees, customers, and company?        Hire the right coach for you and your team!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019

For the past 26 years, Jeannette Seibly has been recognized as a catalyst and leadership expert. She has helped 1,000s of people create more fun, money, and inspiring success. Contact Jeannette for straight talk with dynamic results.

Many experienced business professionals were ghosted last year. It seems to be the tread for employees and other business professionals to avoid having important conversations.

What is ghosting?

Ghosting is now so prevalent that many use this behavior to avoid having conversations or saying “no.” They fear disappointing others. Also, it’s their way to avoid confrontations. They believe it’s easier to “ghost” than say, “no” or “I’m unhappy” or “I got a better job offer” or “I don’t agree.”

Most fail to realize the consequences of not having these important conversations. They use ghosting to experience a momentary feeling of relief or a surge of personal power. But, it never lasts. Ghosting can irrevocably hurt a person’s reputation because we don’t forget.

Encourage Open Conversations to Decrease Ghosting

Verbal Communication. Today, many employees need help with their communication abilities. Workshops and podcasts teach participants how to listen, ask questions, and engage voice-to-voice. Remember, texting and social media are not the same as actually talking to another human being.

Soft Skills Training. Training is crucial to build a resilient team. Teach them how to have tough conversations, make requests, and share concerns instead of ghosting. Create win-win outcomes to turn around poor performance. These are important, trainable, and learnable skills. As a boss, make it easy for others to share their ideas and frustrations with you. Remember, it’s better to know the issues up-front and work through them than to wait until you’re ghosted (than, it’s too late).

Emotional Intelligence. Many people today expect to be happy in work and jobs. They don’t understand that the grass is rarely greener elsewhere. They expect their job, boss, and company to become their happy-place. They forget happiness is an inside job, not provided by someone else. As the boss, encourage your employees explore other interests outside of work (e.g., gardening, writing a book, side gigs, etc.). Also, encourage them to become key employees within their workgroups as a way of improving life and job satisfaction.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019

For the past 26 years, Jeannette Seibly has been recognized as a catalyst and leadership expert. She has helped 1,000s of people create more fun, money, and inspiring results. Contact Jeannette for straight talk with dynamic results.

“When you shut down your curiosity, opportunities stop coming your way.” Jeannette Seibly

Curiosity is a strong desire to know or learn something. (Oxford Dictionaries)

People are born creative geniuses. But life, education, and societal norms squash the value of curiosity to try something different or new.

Many bosses and leaders have a vested interest in not rocking the boat or disrupting the workplace. So curiosity or “what if…?” questions are not encouraged. However, to be innovative and competitive today, you must engage your team in curiosity. Curiosity creates an opportunity for an endless number of solutions. In the process, it builds your company’s reputation and bottom line.

5 Tips to Build a Curious Workplace

1. We often shut down new ideas out of fear they won’t work or need too much of our time. We limit new ways of thinking about things. During weekly team meetings, pick a topic and ask, “What if …” You’ll be amazed by the ideas your teams have been afraid to share. Capture these ideas by using flipcharts, post-it notes, or electronic brainstorming technology.
2. Curiosity and idea generation are required to develop solutions. To encourage your team to share their light bulb moments, training is required. Training should include persuasive listening skills and how to conduct effective meetings. Companies that excel include a scientifically validated job fit assessment. These tools allow people to learn how to value each other’s differences and ideas.
3. Curiosity can’t exist without awareness. It becomes a skill and not a threat to the status quo. Being curious allows for the question of “what if …” Expand this question by asking open-ended questions (e.g., who, what, when, where, why and how).  When you are dealing with nay-sayers, ask them for 5 reasons it could work. For Pollyanna’s, ask for 5 reasons it could fail.
4. Be OK with Uncertainty. Curiosity has to include uncertainty. There are no guarantees. Unfortunately, fears of uncertainty or not knowing will stop most ideas from moving forward. Instead, use a system for developing ideas and conducting realistic ROIs. Stop allowing fear and indecisiveness to get in the way of moving forward.
5. As the ideas start to flow, use technology to build a system for projects to work. This can uncover errors when the process gets stuck. Don’t forget to share your findings on why it will or won’t work early. Remember, while ideas may look good on paper, in reality, they may not work for your company.

When your team has a strong desire to become curious, your results will be amazing.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2019

Jeannette Seibly has been recognized as a catalyst and leadership expert for the past 26 years. As an executive coach, speaker, and author, she provides straight talk with dynamic results. Brainstorming new ideas is easy. Getting out of the way is not so easy. To create curiosity and develop new solutions with your team, contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation.

It’s the holiday season…often the most stressful time of the year. How do you manage work, family and all the other stuff you have to do? How do you minimize stress with so many holiday distractions? And, in your business, how do you focus to get the most out of Q4?

11 Ways to De-Stress and Focus for Success

Pick one now. Be bold. Do it now!

1.Prioritize and Rank. Not everything is a priority. Make a list of everything that you believe needs to get done. Circle the top ten. Now, cut the list down to the top three. Rank them 1, 2, and 3. Do number 1 now. When it’s done, move on to number 2. Now, it’s time for number 3. Celebrate the completion of each task. If you actually do this one, you’ll be amazed by how much you get done.

2.Let Go. Not everything needs to happen immediately. If you need to file or shred papers, get an oil change for your vehicle, or buy holiday gifts, schedule it. Then, honor that time with focused energy. Make your calendar your friend.

3.Delegate. Stop being a lone ranger. Consider, your employees may do a better job than you would…if you let them. It’s a great gift to them…trusting them to do the work you normally do.

4.Do It for 20 minutes. We all have dreaded reports and other activities that we hate to do. Try this. Do it for 20 minutes. Then, decide if you wish to spend another 20 minutes or schedule it for later. This approach works.

5.Excuses Be Gone. Too often, we create excuses about why we haven’t completed something. Stop doing this! These mental gymnastics energy deplete you and sabotage your energy. Create a mantra: “I can do this and do it now.” The secret is, take the first step.

6.Stop Multitasking. Make a commitment to get one thing done at a time. There is satisfaction in fully completing something. While it may seem like multitasking allows you to get more things done, it rarely works that way. For example, attempting a business conversation while you are grocery shopping only adds stress. And, you will miss important points during that conversation.

7.Walk It Out. Take 10 minutes, three times daily, to simply walk around, go up and down the stairs, and MOVE! Remember to breathe! While out and about, say, “Hi!” to people and smile. This is one of the quickest ways to de-stress.

8.Talk It Out. Turn your internal monologues into dialogues. Get them out of your head. Share your concerns with someone who can actually help you. Now is the time to find a business coach for 2019 who can help you stay focused and improve your effectiveness. The relief you will feel is priceless.

9.Write It Out. Studies have shown it is cathartic when people write down their fears, upsets, and frustrations. Writing helps get negative thoughts out of your head and provides insights. The key is to keep things private and not share your written journal with others. Again, keep this private.

10.Meditate. Take time to quiet your mind from the mental chatter and be silent for several minutes. Sit comfortably. Focus on breathing in and out. When thoughts appear—and they will—say, “Noise.” Don’t make these thoughts good or bad. This highly effective method reduces stress and improves focus. And, you will feel refreshed.

11.Brag. When you learn how to brag, it is a huge self-confidence booster. Keep your Brag statements up-to-date and review them any time stress doesn’t go away. Or, when you need a confidence boost. They are also great when requesting a promotion or pay increase. Complete your Brag! statements today.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2018

Jeannette Seibly has been a catalyst and leadership expert for over 26 years. As an executive coach, speaker, and author, she provides straight talk with dynamic results. Remember, reducing stress improves your ability to focus and produce intended results. Hire a coach for even faster results. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a preliminary confidential conversation.