Transform the Organization

Want to Improve Results? Stop Creating Scapegoats

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“When you inspire others to achieve intended results, you do not need to create scapegoats.” Jeannette Seibly

Think briefly about a time you were blamed for a poor result, interaction, or situation.

• How did that feel?
• How did your attitude and behavior change?
• What did you do next?

For many, it may feel familiar to have bosses or leaders who normally create scapegoats! Being scapegoated humiliates and diminishes their value to the team and company. (Note: Humiliating anyone is rarely forgotten nor forgiven!) The team or team members withdraw, stop being innovative, and avoid accountability! They adopt a mindset of “going along to get along” until they find a better boss and employer.

When a leader or boss feels the need to blame others and designate scapegoats, it creates a toxic workplace culture of mistrust and distrust – sabotaging results now and in the future.

What is Scapegoating? In a business context, a scapegoat is an individual or group unfairly blamed for problems, failures, or negative outcomes within a company.

Scapegoating is one of the most destructive actions bosses and leaders can take. When leaders fall into the malicious trap of scapegoating, it’s to avoid feeling like a failure. They attempt to deflect accountability from themselves and deflect focus from the true causes of issues, placing blame on someone who may not be responsible. This is especially prevalent during crises, the loss of major clients, or team failures to achieve intended results.

Cecilia’s Story: Cecilia, a team leader, had a very toxic habit. She refused to take responsibility for her team’s poor results. She’d blame certain team members for the results but was careful not to blame those team members lacking strong self-esteem. If someone questioned her decisions or comments, she would find fault with their comments and then, use them as a scapegoat in future conversations.

By understanding and addressing scapegoating, leaders can foster a more transparent, accountable, and supportive work environment.

How to Stop Scapegoating

Hold Yourself Accountable: As a boss/leader, you need to hold yourself accountable for your and your team’s results. Conduct a deep dive into “What Worked?” and “What Didn’t Work?” to create an objective overview. Ask open-ended questions of the team, co-workers, and executive management to explore what changes could have been made or what issues were ignored.

Be an Effective Communicator: When you own your mistakes, it sets the tone for the team and company. Honest communication and straight talk encourage innovation, agility, and profitability where everyone is engaged and not fearful of becoming a scapegoat.

Focus on Resolving Conflict: Resolving conflicts requires your involvement to ensure people are asking open-ended questions and actively listening. When scapegoating occurs, it’s time to stop so you don’t overlook the core cause of the issue or conflict. Don’t forget to provide team training (e.g., project management, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, etc.) for ALL team members.

Build Ongoing Trust: Mistrust and distrust are rampant in a toxic environment where everyone blames everyone else. To build trust, talk straight. Acknowledge every team member’s contribution to the results. Leaders need to make this a daily practice to build and maintain trust with their teams.

©Jeannette Seibly 2025 All Rights Reserved

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

Internal Mobility Creates Profitable Companies

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“It’s tough when markets change and your people within the company don’t.” Harvard Business Review

Many employees are staying longer with their current employers, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they are happier (also known as the Great Detachment—employees who are unhappy but not leaving, according to Gallup). In fact, many are simply waiting for new jobs elsewhere. The significant reasons? Many companies are failing to provide professional development and opportunities for growth.

Promoting internal mobility is a key strategy for retaining employees, enhancing both company agility and profitability. Leaders should leverage their employees’ skills by facilitating their movement into new roles and opportunities within the company. Internal mobility can include lateral moves, promotions, project-based roles, and taking on new responsibilities.

By creating a company culture that builds on and utilizes existing skills and knowledge, your company can be ready for change and profitable growth!

Steps to Make Your Company Ready for Internal Mobility

Update Current Policies and Practices

Review existing policies and identify gaps that make it difficult for employees to apply for and get different jobs within your company. Instead of requiring a long list of skills and experiences, focus on their accomplishments. For example, ask them to describe a recent project where they and their team produced intended results.

Create Career Pathways

Not everyone wants to be a manager of people, yet this is often the only way employees can get a pay increase. Instead, utilize their experiences by building different career ladders or pathways. Use a qualified job fit assessment to focus on employee strengths and actual interests. For example, placing someone who excels with numbers into accounting may not be beneficial if they have no interest in accounting or finance.

Train and Develop Your Leaders

Many leaders hold their positions due to their expertise in finance, technology, or operations, but they may lack people development skills. Hire coaches for these leaders and focus on developing them to develop others.

Address Cultural Resistance

Some managers and employees resist internal mobility. To overcome these blocks, understand why. For instance, some companies base career mobility on length of service, which is not always indicative of effectiveness or ability to learn new skills. Address this type of resistance by emphasizing skill and performance over tenure.

Address Skill Gaps

Everyone can be a leader without a title, but it requires leaders to allow employees to work without micromanagement. Encourage employees to share ideas and take initiatives to close skill gaps. Provide workshops, one-on-one coaching, and training programs in communication skills, critical thinking, teamwork, and project management to prepare them for internal moves.

Build a Talent Pipeline

Encourage employees to participate in small-group and company-wide teams, as well as trade and professional associations. These opportunities broaden their awareness and help them learn new skills. When new positions arise or employees leave, look first at your talent pipeline to fill these roles. This saves time and money, while increasing your company’s agility and profitability to meet new market demands.

© Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

A Note from Jeannette: Developing internal mobility in your company increases agility and improves the bottom line. What does it take? What are some of the issues and challenges that must be addressed? This week’s article covers common, yet overlooked, areas that need attention. Contact me for a confidential conversation to resolve what seems unresolvable.

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread managing your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days. But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience guiding leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully, including helping you get out of your own way and working effectively with your team to achieve the required results. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.

Prevent Poor Results: Proactively Address Bad Behavior

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“Bad behaviors in the workplace need to be addressed before bigger issues are created.” Jeannette Seibly

As a boss/leader, it’s important to address bad behavior before it impacts or hurts results for the company, client, and team.

Waiting and hoping the issue(s) will resolve itself is not a proactive strategy.

This lack of initiative usually backfires and will escalate into a bigger workplace issue that now costs time and money. Even worse, top talent and clients start leaving. Note: This article is focused on a team member, not the entire team. Contact me for help to address bad team behavior.

Proactive Steps to Resolve Bad Behavior

Be Aware: Pay attention to all of your team members’ behaviors, such as being late, dismissive of others’ ideas, and causing conflicts with team members and others. Is this a one-time occurrence? (There may be nothing to do depending on the severity of the behavior.) Or has it happened more than once? (It’s time to address.)

Talk 1:1: Schedule a meeting to discuss your observations and include any feedback you’ve received from others. Be sure that the meeting is confidential (not in your office) and is free from interruptions.

Express Concern: Start the conversation by expressing genuine concern for the well-being of the individual.

o “I’ve noticed some changes in your behavior recently (be specific: arriving late to meetings, argumentative), and I’m concerned about you. Is everything okay?”

Use Open-Ended Questions: This encourages the person to share their concerns and feelings. Be sure not to judge or fall into the “Ain’t it awful” trap.

o “What’s been going on lately that is causing this behavior?”

Listening and Understanding: Actively listen without comments. Silence works wonders if the person doesn’t respond or appear to understand.

Provide Support by Identifying Needs: Never assume you know what needs to be done. Ask the team member for what type of help s/he needs. This could include counseling services, additional training, or adjustments to their workload. If there is an issue with the team leader or another team member, resolve it without embarrassing the person you’re talking with (e.g., hurtful comments, ideas not being heard). If their role on the team or in their job isn’t working, it may be time to use a job fit assessment to determine how to restructure their work responsibilities.

Set Clear Expectations. Use straight talk when outlining the expected behaviors and performance standards. Together with the team member, create an action plan with specific and achievable goals, along with deadlines.

o “Let’s discuss what’s expected in terms of behavior and performance so we can work towards improving the situation together.”

Follow-up and Monitoring. It’s up to you to check in and monitor progress while providing the support required. This is where many bosses/leaders fail to make a positive difference. Use the Sandwich or Direct approach depending on the person … make sure it is constructive. Note: If there are the same excuses each day/week, it’s time for a come-down-to-reality conversation and a revised plan of action.

o I’ve noticed positive changes in your behavior, and I appreciate your effort. Let’s continue working on the remaining areas.” OR
o It’s been several weeks and there hasn’t been notable progress. Let’s review the plan and see what changes we need to make.

Encourage Feedback from Others. Have an open door where team members can share their concerns. But don’t fall into the trap of agreeing with every nuance that occurs (e.g., perceived slights, concern about others sharing off-the-wall ideas) – people are human beings – and are not perfect. Focus on performance and not personalities.

o I’ve found this process to be extremely useful and eye-opening in bringing together a team and overcoming biases and judgments. Use a job fit assessment for all team members and contact me to conduct an effective team debrief.  Then, encourage each person to meet with another one to review the results. This process fosters open communication.

Appreciation Works. Remember to express your appreciation to each and every team member … this can make a big difference in modifying people’s behaviors.

o For additional training, use the “Get Your Brag On!” to guide employees to recognize their impact and successes.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

A note from Jeannette: It can be difficult to address bad behavior … most bosses/leaders ignore it and hope it will resolve itself. The problem? It rarely gets better on its own and usually costs lots of time and money. Even worse, you will lose top talent and clients the longer it’s not addressed. This week’s article provides a proactive approach to address the issue now. Contact me with any questions – we can address how to resolve what seems unresolvable.

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.

The Secret to Overcoming Team Resistance

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“Use a compassionate no-nonsense approach when teams are resistant to change.” Jeannette Seibly

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

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

Use Effective Communication to Address Resistance Constructively

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

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

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

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

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

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

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

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

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.

How Do You Prevent Being Derailed as a Boss or Leader?

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“Be open to knowing you don’t know everything – especially as a boss/leader.” Jeannette Seibly

While studies cite the lack of confidence and accountability as to why many bosses/leaders fail, too often, the culprit is that bosses/leaders are know-it-alls, and this attitude causes poor communication!

As a result, these bosses/leaders talk too much, alienate others due to poor listening skills, and miss hearing important information. How familiar does this sound regarding your experiences with a boss or as a boss?

The challenge is accepting that you don’t know everything and adjusting your attitude when people are talking. It starts with your communication style.

Communication Skills to Prevent Career Derailment

1. Adjust Your Expectations. When a team member, co-worker, or boss talks, listen! Adjust your usual listening from “I’ve heard this before” to “What can I learn?” – even when you’ve heard it before!

2. Be Aware of Your Actual Strengths and Weaknesses. Understanding yourself requires using a qualified job fit assessment. Otherwise, most assessment results will show how you want to be seen – but NOT how others see you (this is critical since people want to work with bosses/leaders they can trust)! Until you have this information, you may communicate in a manner that is not you – alienating others from listening to you. Work with an executive coach to address your communication blind spots.

3. Develop Your Business Acumen. It’s time to discuss numbers, results, and the bottom line. Be sure you’re talking facts by understanding what the numbers, results, and bottom line represent, not how you “feel” about them. Others stop listening if you use the word “I feel” too often.

4. Develop Emotional Intelligence (EI). Manage your emotions and develop compassion as you address people, technical, and financial challenges. You will develop confidence by listening more than talking and focusing on results instead of buying into the “it won’t work” mindset. Encourage everyone to talk through conflicts, difficult conversations, and factions, not avoid them.

5. Stay Informed and Open to Learning. This is a superpower! You must keep up with industry and professional trends and changes. Listening, reading, and asking questions is the best place to start. Then, have conversations with industry experts — you will make better decisions and speak knowledgeably when addressing competitive issues and leveraging data.

6. Empower Your Team Members. You can empower your team members through your listening and asking open-ended questions. This encourages them to bring solutions when there is a problem instead of relying on you for the answers.

7. Address Issues with your executive coach and industry mentor. Get the facts and do this before making decisions. Learn how to create win-win-win outcomes by listening more than talking and setting aside your ego: “I already know/did this.” Instead, ask, “What am I missing?”

8. Get Your Brag On! When done correctly, bragging builds confidence and the ability to influence others. Remember to develop your ability to use your brags to pitch, negotiate, and sell your ideas.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

A note from Jeannette: Many bosses/leaders today are unaware of how their communication style, poor listening habits, and being a know-it-all can hinder their success. Often, it causes career derailment. Need guidance to improve your communication as a boss/leader? Contact me.

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.

It’s Still Crucial to Develop Quality Human Interaction Skills

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“Quality human interaction is a major reason companies succeed along with their newest technology.” Jeannette Seibly

Sadly, companies today are hiding behind their technology instead of training employees in basic customer service and communication skills.

Recently, a woman went to a major pharmacy for her annual vaccines. Although a sign stated, “Try This New Check-In,” she went to the counter to check in since no one else was in line.

Thirty minutes later, the woman is still waiting. The four other people waiting were being served first because they used the “New Check-In” QR Code. They were frustrated because there was a problem with their vaccine orders and told the pharmacist to allow the woman ahead of them to go first. The pharmacist and assistant ignored all of them.

When an older man arrived for his vaccines 40 minutes later, he went to the counter to check-in. The assistant insisted he sign in using the QR code. The problem was he had to return to his car to get his phone, causing an unnecessary inconvenience. This was poor customer service.

At this point, the woman spoke with the store manager. When the store manager apologized, the woman responded, “The biggest issue wasn’t the wait; it was the disrespect and lack of human interaction that was so frustrating. While technology is important, it should never overshadow the value of human interaction.”

Did you know that people will drive further to buy and pay more for identical or similar items when they can talk with a human rather than AI?

As bosses, you must develop all your team members to be responsible for good customer interactions and responsiveness.

Great Customer Service Requires Ongoing Training

Train for Basic Communication Skills. Too often, team members train their people in technology, finance, and mechanical operations. Unfortunately, they fail to include essential interpersonal (verbal and non-verbal communication), respect, and emotional intelligence skills. This has become a big issue since companies opt for technology-based customer interaction to save money. But does it really?

Many people today “talk” via “texts,” “emojis,” and other “social media posts.” They are at a loss to respond to people when situations require human interaction. Instead, they choose to say nothing or make inappropriate comments or gestures, worsening the problem and increasing the possibility of the customer never returning. Provide workshops, podcasts, and other training opportunities. Hold bosses and leaders accountable for using these skills, too.

Quality Work Means Doing Complete Work.  Hiding behind emails and texts and failing to do the quality of work required (e.g., minimum work, being late, and doing sloppy work) will have your customers looking at your competition! Apologizing for poor quality, promises not kept, and long wait times are essential. But relying on apologies instead of improving quality issues and time delivery problems is a critical mistake! Have weekly (or daily) meetings to keep your team updated with any changes. Expect them to work collaboratively and respond appropriately to different customer(s) situations.

Address Issues in Real Time. When a person is responsible for customer service and using technology, it can feel challenging to do their best job when someone is waiting, especially an impatient person. Team members will default to their natural way of talking with others (which can be problematic). This needs to be addressed immediately before others follow suit. One company lost a major national contract when allowing their service reps to make wildly inappropriate comments.

As bosses, we must train all our employees to be customer service-focused and ask, “How can I help you? Then, follow through.”

Update Training and Make It Ongoing. While training should include routine procedures, it must also address those exceptions that will pop up. Expecting everyone to learn and remember after one or several training sessions isn’t being responsible for ongoing training! People will forget about 50 percent after each session, especially if the boss and co-workers fail to use the skills appropriately. Poor training creates a poor reputation for the company. Provide certificates and other acknowledgments to reinforce the importance of good customer service results.

Remind team members that their customer service attitude will determine the quality of their day and enjoyment of their job.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

A note from Jeannette: Bosses, when you rely on AI and other technology to handle customer concerns, you’ll lose customers! Quality human interaction is still required, and so is developing all your employees to use these critical communication skills. You never know when an off-handed comment or gesture can cause a customer to fire you. Contact me.

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.

Get Your Brag On! (International Amazon Best-Seller)

Why is it important to self-promote and share your successes?  

Listen to this 15-minute interview and learn why.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0B8voYqwPCooIA95zHmwSp?si=rfnEN6pjRa2ZWzttCpiTDA

YouTube: https://youtu.be/hoF1Obii7RQ

To grab the book, go to: https://SeibCo.com/books/

 

Want to Improve Your Hiring Decisions?

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“If predicting job success were easy, or quick, we wouldn’t see expensive early hiring failures!” John W. Howard PhD

As you know, hiring and investing in your people costs money. Too often, mistakes are made despite all the interviews and other pre-employment rituals. Your retention, revenues, and results suffer.

The problem occurs when you hire, transfer, or promote people into jobs that don’t fit them. This often results in the person leaving your company and taking other top talent with them. For example, taking your top salesperson and promoting them to the manager role is a frequent misstep.

Current Problems Most Companies are Experiencing

Relying on:

Intuitive Hiring. Yes, it’s easy to rely on our “intuition/gut” to tell you if the person is the right one. The problem is two-fold. #1: There is no objective data, which often results in the collection of false information and hiring mistakes. #2: Your retention, reputation, revenues, and results suffer.

The Resume. Over 80 percent of resumes contain inaccuracies, embellishments, or lies. Many resumes today are created using AI, online templates, or professional resume writers. The question is, “How valid is the information?” Remember, you need objective and reliable data to improve your hiring decisions. The resume alone will never give you that.

Any Assessment. Over 95 percent of assessments today are not validated for pre-employment or job selection use. It’s time to learn about the science and legality of using objective job fit assessments. (See Chapter 9 in Hire Amazing Employees)

Overcoming These Challenges Requires Using Real Systems

Use the interview, assessments, and due diligence equally in hiring decisions. Do not rely solely on the interview; stop asking questions that are not job-related. (SEE Chapter 1 in Hire Amazing Employees)

Select a job fit assessment with the validity, reliability, and predictive validity that comply with the Department Labor Guidelines for pre-employment and selection use. (Most hiring bosses don’t do this.) The proper assessment will guide you to hire the right people with your eyes open to any challenges you may encounter. Remember, no one is perfect, but you cannot teach a cat to become a dog.

Train your hiring bosses. Use an intracompany system that provides all the tools and resources required. This will save you and them from hiring mistakes, costly turnover of current employees and clients, and legal challenges. (See Chapter 3 in Hire Amazing Employees)

Don’t Overlook Hidden Talent: Many talented people are already employed in your company. You overlook them based on biases and other subjective factors and seek top talent from outside the company.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

A note from Jeannette: Is the way you hire people working for you? Are you happy with your hiring results? Improving your retention, revenues, and results creates a positive reputation for you and the company. Contact me for a free, confidential conversation on how to improve your selection process and hiring decisions.

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.

The Secret to Creating Goals that ARE Achievable

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“Teamwork requires working together to achieve better results while not ignoring issues.” Jeannette Seibly

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

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

7 Strategies for Achieving Your Real Goals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Examples:

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

OR,

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

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

A note from Jeannette: We all have goals, desires, and dreams we wish to accomplish. What gets in our way is that we camouflage our goals with too many words to describe them. This makes it impossible to achieve them. This week’s article focuses on simplifying and clarifying your goal to achieve the intended results. Want help discovering and fine-tuning your actual goal?  Contact me.

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.

Is Your Team Not Hitting the Results Required?

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“Teamwork requires working together to achieve better results while not ignoring issues.” Jeannette Seibly

While only 10 percent of teams produce the intended results, it doesn’t mean you, and your team needs to be in the 90 percent range!

As an effective boss/leader, you must be able to diagnose team issues and communicate the changes effectively as soon as possible. Allowing problems to linger, or ignoring or denying them will sabotage your results now and in the future.

Secrets to Achieving the Required Results

Ensure the Goal is a Real One. Goals should be ten words or less! If it is longer, the true goal may be camouflaged in vocabulary and sabotaging actions. Shorten the goal to be crystal clear and flat as a pancake without add-ons. Now, review the milestones and actions being taken. Do they support fulfilling the goal?

Manage People for Results, Not Their Personalities. The foundation for successful results is bring the right people onto the team by using objective job fit data and assessments. If they later decide to leave, let them. Focusing on the work that needs to be done and the best people willing to make it happen is critical. Manage team conflict and different personalities to ensure everyone’s opinions are heard, and everyone is valued. Do not allow name-calling or blaming — since those actions are not easily forgotten nor forgiven.

Complete What Worked? / What Didn’t Work? When done correctly, this exercise will provide insights into progress made and what stopped the team/project from moving forward. Have everyone complete this exercise individually since collectively are less likely to skim over critical details that initially seemed meaningless. Now, review all the results together as a team.

Address Miscalculations, Bad Data, or Other Critical Thinking Issues. Ask one or two experts from outside the team for input when this happens. It doesn’t mean you do it the way they recommend, but it does require incorporating their insights appropriately.

Brainstorm. Focus on the top three issues. Address one problem at a time while knowing one can impact other concerns and current non-issues. For example, reworking the budget can impact money already spent. Ask open-ended questions and ensure complete work is being done.

Go Round Robin. Encourage everyone to speak. While this may seem like it takes longer to resolve the issue, it doesn’t. If someone withholds information (e.g., not being asked for their opinion), the person may end up withholding important information delaying a resolution later in the process.

Alignment Not Consensus. Waiting to reach a consensus will limit the speed of moving forward since factions have agendas. Doing complete work upfront makes decision-making easier. Address everyone’s issues and aim for alignment (for the details click the link).

Inspect Results. By reviewing the numbers, did you achieve the intended outcome?  What is the impact on others and their thoughts? Address further actions to be taken. Don’t forget to acknowledge each and every team member for their work.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

A note from Jeannette:  Only 10 percent of teams achieve intended results. How do you intervene when your team is failing to achieve the target? Communication is one of the keys to improving results! Need guidance in transforming your team efforts? Contact me.

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.

Are You Doing Complete Work?

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“What we say we will do and actually do matters!” Jeannette Seibly

One of the most difficult challenges for bosses/leaders today is ensuring they’re doing what they say and doing “complete” work.

What does “doing complete work” mean?

  • Taking action to research and present all data needed to approve new ideas or solutions.
  • Providing all necessary information for bosses, employees, and customers to make good, well-informed decisions.
  • Completing duties to the highest standards.

Due to busyness, fear, lack of motivation, or poor communication skills, many bosses/leaders today fail to ensure they and their teams are doing complete work. When shortcuts are taken, quality and customer and job satisfaction are negatively impacted, and challenge the bottom line.

Do you …

  • Ignore resolving team conflicts by agreeing there is an issue/conflict but fail to resolve it?
  • Have great policies but fail to enforce them?
  • Have well-designed systems but fail to coach, train, and manage others to use them effectively?
  • Complete part of the job and hope others will “clean up” after you?
  • Wait to feel motivated to do the complete work – and then, just keep on waiting?
  • Fail to focus (e.g., mind wandering) or allow yourself to multi-task?

It’s essential to be the type of boss/leader who gets the job done by doing complete work.

How to Do Complete Work

Hire for Job Fit. Use objective job fit data to select, coach, and manage team members for better results. Many surveys show that outcomes can be spectacular when people fit their job responsibilities and are given opportunities to learn and grow. The outcome … retention, revenues, and results increase!

Communicate Clearly. It starts with you providing transparent and effective communication. Be clear about expectations and goals, and provide the training required to achieve them. Remember, word choice matters. Be open to hearing honest communication from your employees.

Delegate and Empower. Believing in yourself and your team members is critical. Giving them opportunities to excel and expand their skills makes for a positive work experience. It shows up in the quality of the work completed and their willingness to admit mistakes, be coachable, and enjoy learning.

Provide Resources. Ensure you’re providing appropriate tools and training — it makes a visible difference.

Share Feedback in Real Time. Don’t wait until performance appraisal time since waiting allows minor incidents to expand into upsets and conflicts. Use the direct or sandwich approach to share feedback, which must occur now to make a positive difference.

Monitor Results. Without micromanaging, use digital tracking to ensure tasks are on track. Make the scoreboard available for all to see. Check for progress daily or weekly so there are no surprises or issues occurring that can sabotage results. Remind teams frequently about the purpose of the project or job and the value they provide.

Be Accountable. Accountability starts with you! It means taking responsibility for showing up, asking for help, and accomplishing the results you said you’d produce. Hire an executive coach to discover your blind spots that get in the way. For example, overcoming the fear of talking to team members about mistakes without being heard as critical. Don’t forget to face head-on the obstacles that get in the way (e.g., factions, silos, difficult team members, etc.).

Encourage a Culture of Excellence. This isn’t about perfectionism. It’s about doing quality work that elicits favorable responses from others. Don’t forget to reward and acknowledge each and every person for their efforts – it encourages more of the same complete work.

©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved

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

A note from Jeannette:  What does doing complete work mean? Many bosses/leaders today are incredibly busy. They do just enough to get by and hope someone else will take care of the rest. The problem? Failure to do complete work impacts everyone!  Want to better understand this required work practice? Contact me.

Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.