Creating Leaders

Is indecisiveness plaguing your results?

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For many leaders, it’s fun and inspiring to create the future during a strategic process. New goals. New business practices, products and services. However, the problem arises when it’s time for the rubber to meet the road in a focused, tactical implementation of the Plan. This is the danger zone, the time when a great idea can become a bad idea due to nothing more than a leader’s (or group’s) indecisiveness. They may simply be uncertain as to how to close the gap between today’s circumstances and tomorrow’s goals. Or unsure how to handle the natural dissension inevitably caused by change.

The Plan will never be perfect while still in progress. Changes can cause apprehension and new challenges even if they create opportunities. Change brings out the fear in otherwise fearless leaders once everything is in motion. They may feel as if they can no longer control the outcome, or people’s perceptions. Team members worry about making wrong choices. Nay-sayers reinforce these doubts! The economy, community opinions and even natural disasters are often used as excuses for maintaining the status quo. Resorting to comfortable Band-Aid modifications rarely work long term. The key is to be flexible without taking your eyes off the end results. Create a step-by-step Plan. Elicit other’s ideas at the beginning and incorporate them as is appropriate. Communicate the Plan and walk people through it. Try it for thirty days and do not make any ad-hoc deviations; these variations will create unnecessary confusion and dissent.

Budget and time constraints are really an opportunity. To resolve an issue, get the team started by asking simple questions to get the team’s thought processes started. Stay away from conceptual or abstract questions since they tend to stifle creativity. When following a team’s recommendations, be sure to ask the right business questions of them and make sure they think through and answer those questions adequately. Do not focus on reaching group consensus; this idealism has thwarted many companies from meeting timely business challenges and making positive advances. Strive for alignment. This means team members can agree with the Plan even if they have some reservations.

Sustainable Plans require a team effort. Sole reliance on one person rarely creates lasting outcomes. Poor leaders quickly stifle followers if they micro-manage everything and everyone. Their team members only participate to dot i’s and cross t’s, then, blame failure on the leader. Unfortunately indecisive leaders make up the process as they go along, dismissing any structured plans along the way. They lose even the staunchest of supporters since the Plan cannot be replicated. Strong leaders trust their teams, working with and through them for results. Even if team members would not do it the same way, they have confidence in their leader! Decisive leaders know how to check in (verbally and in writing) with their teams to assess progress, the reality of reports and viability of solutions.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Is your team’s project destined to fail?

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Today’s teams can be large, virtual and geographically spread out. The more dispersed the team, the more challenging it is to manage for results. Regardless of a team’s size or location, excellent communication and people skills are required. Without adept handling of the people side, any project is destined for failure. A leader’s career can be derailed when their team misses the mark.

Material Side of Meetings. Is critical to ensure decisions and responsibilities are documented and communicated. Agendas keep teams on focus and on time. Minutes clarify accountabilities and assure others the team is on track. Be sharp as a leader. Ensure agendas are distributed ahead of time, and minutes sent out within 48 hours of the meeting’s conclusion.

Human Side of Meetings. People management is crucial. If the team leader has poor people skills or an inability to effectively facilitate a meeting, participants will simply go through the motions in order to keep their job (aka busy-work). They will use a myriad of excuses, such as why the project can’t be completed, who is to blame and why the end results shouldn’t matter. A team like this will fail. A true leader enables the team to produce unprecedented results on time and within budget by utilizing brainstorming and taking turns, persuasive listening and acknowledgement.

Social Media. To help virtual team members learn about each other, use Facebook, LinkedIn or other resources.  Encourage local teams to meet and get to know one another at company-sponsored functions. It will build a stronger sense of community. Ensure your Social Media and Code of Conduct policies have been clearly communicated to reduce inappropriate comments and activities, and ensure confidentiality of proprietary information at the same time.

Technology for Meeting Resources. People learn differently. When working with off-site team members, use on-line resources to help participants visually understand others’ ideas and keep them engaged. Keep graphs and charts simple. People also read and comprehend in different ways. So distribute any narrative materials days before the presentation and require attendees to read them ahead of time. Have someone other than the facilitator handle the logistics during the meeting, and keep everyone focused on the discussion.

Strategy and Focused Action Creation. Depending upon the size of the team, include team leaders (and if possible, team members) along with the executives to create goals and intentions. This will increase clarity and reduce future ambiguity when “group think” attempts to thwart results. Executives will be emulated! They not only need to know how to work well with others, they need to remember that their job status doesn’t make their insights more important or correct than anyone else’s. This provides an opportunity for everyone to learn from one another. Develop good decision-making skills while avoiding potential pitfalls.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Do Leaders Use Common Sense with Social Media?

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In today’s world, social media venues keep people connected and let others know about your products and services. They can develop the camaraderie necessary to trigger the waterfall effect of “know me, trust me, buy from me.” However, as leaders, social media can make or break your career or business if not used wisely.

There are differences in what is appropriate for business professionals to post and repost, versus an individual who is merely exercising her/his personal liberties. All too often, there is such a fine line between the two, it is best to keep in mind these postings can be viewed by everyone, not just your friends. Unfortunately, most people will not differentiate between what they consider to be poor business acumen and personal fun.

Some examples:

  • Posting inappropriate pictures of people’s anatomy, signs, etc.
  • Dissing a company, or venting about your boss, co-workers or customers.
  • Inadvertently violating privacy laws (e.g., HIPPA in the United States).

Company Policy. Today many companies have already faced the challenge of writing social media policies to communicate clearly the difference between acceptable company and personal usage. These guidelines help employees (and executives) clarify what is appropriate to be posted and reposted. Keep in mind that any posts (e.g., pictures, commentaries, ideologies, etc.) must clearly be viewed as your own, and not a reflection upon your company/employer. Understand current and future employers and customers may view your postings from a different perspective. Unfortunately, they may infer that you don’t have the business savvy or leadership common sense to work in their company or be promotable within your own company.

Global Market. Although it is true citizens in many countries throughout the world have the freedom to say what they want, when they want, doing so can hinder their ability to attract new clients, or keep current ones. Especially since most social media venues are world-wide, take into consideration any cultural differences when posting. What may be considered normal in one country may not be acceptable in another one. Writing disparaging remarks about your company, boss, co-workers, product, and services might cause slander claims in many places around the world. Adhere to this familiar personal rule: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything.

Privacy. Complaining about your customer’s requests or client’s peculiarities will only hurt you, and may even cause them to leave. Or they may be vocal in return, and cause you to be terminated. Be sure your employees (and you) understand confidentiality and how to abide by it. Not talking about others on social media venues would be the best practice. If you need to vent, talk with your coach. Here’s a sobering thought: Once posted, your rants may be available for others to view for a long time … maybe even throughout your lifetime and beyond.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Is Innovation Thwarting your Business?

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Many companies today want to get on the technological fast train. They love to change systems simply for the joy of having the newest best thing! They falsely believe that to be competitive they need to be different, innovative, or ahead of everyone else. The problem is when companies move too fast, their creativity may cause them to lose sight of the company’s vision and mission. By moving too fast they may fail to create the buy-in necessary to embrace change. They make it difficult for their customers to understand time-saving value and actually enjoy the new product or service.

Remember, change requires people to operate outside their normal habits. Most people don’t like to be forced to do that!

First, listen to the customer. The old adage, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!” may no longer be appropriate. However, if it normally works most of the time, simply make small adjustments to simplify, save time and allow others to work smarter. Communication is the key. Anything new needs to be easily and quickly understood. Be sure that you include your customers in a structured brainstorming process when creating any new product or service, or overhauling your systems.  Failure to do so may have customers talking with your competitors.

Second, keep it simple and straightforward. Unfortunately, people who design systems may not have a comprehensive business perspective or direct interaction with the customer. Innovation costs money. Ineffective innovation may result in losing customers. Create the blueprint. Run it by the people who actually will use it. Calculate a Return-on-Investment prior to launching an initiative. It is good business to run a parallel system while piloting the new – just in case.

Last, but never least! Training is the cornerstone for success. Start with your internal users and others within the company. Be sure they understand the reason and benefits for the change. Help your sales and customer advocates understand how to communicate the changes in a positive and easy to understand manner. Everyone will have a conceptual opinion about whether something should work or not, particularly if they are hearing about it for the first time. Before following those suggestions and making any changes, require people to use it. If you’ve included them in the planning for execution and implementation, you’re less likely to get any pushback until real issues arise.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Improve Your Results

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With the economy providing a roller-coaster ride, it’s more important than ever to stay the course in your business or career. While modifications may be required, making changes without clarity is not a wise course of action. Remember the fable of the tortoise and the hare? While the hare was faster, he wasn’t able to sustain his activities. The tortoise kept going. Steady and straight. He won!

The key to improve your results? Take action now!

Know Thyself. You can build faster and stronger results using your strengths. Every weakness has strengths, every strength has weaknesses. Many people like to think they know themselves. However, it’s hard to see yourself from others’ perspectives. Along with your coach, use a highly qualified assessment tool, which will provide clarity of how you interact with others. Highly qualified means that the assessment tool meets Department of Labor guidelines for hiring and selection. These tools require quantifiably higher validity and reliability (think, accuracy) than most others on the market can provide.

Set Compelling Goals. With all the current uncertainty, many business professionals are tempted to either make pie-in-the-sky goals, or set goals so small, they do not make any measurable difference. Not only are these changes unlikely to happen, the go-nowhere process creates unnecessary stress for you and your employees, financial expenditures and loss of energy. Make goals realistic, do-able and quantifiable. Work with your business mentor to ensure you’re on the right track.

Create Focused Action. This is the key to success. Too often we set goals and forget to set up structures for fulfilling these goals. Busy work does not equal focused action! Work with your coach to ensure you’re working smarter. Take small steady steps each day. It’s better than putting everything off until it’s either urgent or your prospects have moved on.

(c)Jeannette Seibly, 2011

It Starts with Small Steps

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Achieving any new result in life or building upon success, requires starting with small steps at first. Just as a baby first starting to walk, you may be hesitant in the beginning. As babies become less wobbly and gain confidence, they take more steps and they walk. Then, they are walking all over the place due to this new-found freedom.  They have built a new habit.

As adults, we too often attempt to go for the big win and are unable to sustain the required activity. Or we falsely believe the systems we’ve built for our first victory will work on our next one. Or we’re waiting for people and things to align; but, there is always something missing. Or we start with the wrong questions and can’t seem to find the right answers!

To get started:

Brainstorm for Clarity. If you start with the big questions (e.g., How can we make a million dollars this year?) most employees and even executives shut down their thinking.  Or they base their remarks on something that worked elsewhere. Instead, ask simpler questions that most people can answer, (e.g., “What’s one step we can take to improve our customer relationships?”). Listen to all suggestions. Pick only one to focus on at a time. When you ask the simplest questions to get started, people will be able to answer them.

Build on Focused Action Steps. Same principle. What’s one small step I can take today that will move me closer to my results? Keep it simple and smart! Instead of saying, “I’ll make ten calls today,” and fail to pick up the phone. Say, “I will have one conversation today for new business.” This may mean picking up the phone or attending a networking meeting.  This will help recondition your brain to create a new success-habit to build upon. If the step fails to produce a consistent result, simply make it a simpler step!  The key? Break down the step until it’s doable each and every day! This will allow your brain to support the actions you needed to build the results.

Hire a business advisor. In today’s market everyone is looking for “free” or attempting to be “lone-rangers.” This attitude alone will hinder your business results. There are four and one-half months left in 2011 to achieve this year’s goals. Hire an advisor to help you reinforce the steps needed to achieve the results you desire. Let’s get busy and make this the best year yet!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Economic Doldrums

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Tired of all the political bantering? Has it got you down? Has your business or career been suffering, making it hard to stay in action?

First, ignore dismal news. Many companies and careers are flourishing. Regardless of the economy, take key steps NOW.  Don’t wait until the never-ending political rhetoric has subsided.

Second, complete the following:

Learn to Brag. Take time to conduct an inventory of everything great you’ve done, all the successes your business has experienced. Put this information together into a short (very short!) one to two paragraphs. Share them at networking meetings, elevator introductions and opening remarks at sales meetings.

Show appreciation. Take time to say thank you to all of your employees, customers, vendors and suppliers. Don’t forget business associates who have been helpful. If you can’t afford to take them to lunch, buy them a cup of coffee. Send them a thank you card – hand written is best. If you can swing it, send them a book, or simply provide a gift card. Don’t forget to send hand-written thank you for any gifts you’ve been given. It’s unprofessional to neglect expressing gratitude.

Move forward. It’s time to hire a coach/business mentor to refocus your activities. There are five months left this year! That’s time enough to achieve your goals for 2011! Most professionals who succumb to the doldrums find other things to do to keep their minds occupied … and do not achieve hoped-for results. This is nothing more than creative avoidance!  You are much more likely to succeed if you have someone to help you be accountable for taking the focused action steps necessary. A good coach can also help you find the right short-cuts! A good coach not only inspires action, s/he tells you to “cut it out” when you become unfocused.

©Jeannette Seibly

Master Leadership

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Leaders have learned the secret! Mastery, like anything, requires on-going practice. Your attitude towards learning how to achieve success requires developing a muscle. Adapting a “high-level” attitude usually signifies that you may have the title and compensation, but limited followers. Roll up your sleeves. Get involved. Earn respect.

Here are five critical components of being a leader others choose to follow.

Initiate and Make Things Happen. Create a direction for you and your employees that supports the Mission and Values of your business. Be seen as the leader. Walk the talk. This  is crucial for your employees, customers, vendors and communities to see you as a leader. Execute plans by focusing on how to get to where you want to go, step by step. Don’t buy into the usual array of excuses. Focused action plans are critical if you are to achieve your goals.  

Core Values. Tell the truth, but be tactful. Blurting out you don’t like the color of someone’s tie or dress will only hurt their feelings. Being afraid to ask good business questions, or being unable to answer them yourself, hinders your ability to build solid company practices and results! Relentlessly ensure your business is in compliance with the law and contracts. A handshake still means something in many companies. Always honor your verbal agreements.

Hire the Best. To grow the best business, consistently hire only the best. Reliance upon traditional hiring practices thwarts this critical element of leadership. Use scientifically validated assessment tools to help you better understand your employees and enable them to craft the career of their dreams! Build on talent. Engagement and inspiration occurs when you become a laser-like coach. Employees feel understood. They value your leadership. 

Get real! Putting frosting on mud does not make it a cake. It’s simply frosting hiding the mud! If you rely upon excuses to support your inability to achieve results, it’s time you learn how to operate outside your comfort zone. Stop making decisions based on tiny fragments of information; normally these bits and pieces have no truth to them! Don’t rush – get both sides of an issue – both factual and human perspectives. Make the right decisions and implement them in the right manner.

Build on your strengths. We all have inherent business strengths and weaknesses. Hire a business advisor to help you with the strategy. Hire an executive coach to ensure you’re doing all the things you should do but don’t really want to do, so you can achieve your goals. In the process you’ll learn a lot about yourself. You’ll become the strong leader others want to follow.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Do you constrain ingenuity?

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As bosses, too often we lament that our employees lack common sense or are unable to think. The reality? We rely upon our own thoughts and ideas to address issues or concerns, invalidating any ideas others may want to contribute. We disregard what could have been valuable input from employees and customers. So what happens? We cause them to leave and ultimately our competition gets the benefit of their ideas! While money may be perceived as the holy grail of business, there are many successful companies that started on only a shoe-string, with plenty of ingenuity and determination. Train your employees to be fiscally responsible yet simultaneously think outside the box.

The million dollar questions are: What are you doing to constrain their ingenuity? What can you do to unleash their resourcefulness? How can you use others’ input to stimulate innovation?

Fiscal Responsibility. Remember, the sky is not the limit to fulfill upon a client’s need or resolve an internal systems issue. Train employees to create and follow a budget based upon a plan and become fiscally responsible. Do not reduce their approved budget unilaterally. Review milestones with them when they are working on a project to ensure they are on-time and within budget. Remember, keep the goal sacrosanct. Take them out of their comfort zone (aka perceived limitations due to money) and help them realize that with some guidance, they can indeed achieve the intended results!

Stimulate brain activity. Human brains react to stimuli, so while a blank sheet can terrify some, others will feel inspired. Providing a clearly defined problem (since it provides parameters) along with a sense of urgency can help most people come up with ideas. Don’t stop there! Have them put together a do-able goal and plan for its implementation. Set Due Dates; procrastination can be the worst enemy of innovation and forward movement. Also, reward right behavior to see it recreated time after time. Celebrate successes, no matter how small!

Teach resourcefulness. Some employees are naturally cost-conscious and resourceful, but have them be responsible so quality is not unduly modified. Take time to test employees, as a group or individually, to create alternatives to issues and not rely upon the misperception there is only one way to resolve a challenge or act upon an opportunity. Have them conduct their own benefit/cost analysis. Stimulating employees to learn from you and others will build trust, establish sustainable systems that can be built upon, and create new opportunities beyond the team’s immediate thinking.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011

Responding to Mistakes

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Everyone reacts differently to mistakes. Some have no fear and admit them. Some learn from them and move on. Others regurgitate the facts to place blame on others. Ignoring your mistakes can have a detrimental effect on client and/or co-worker relationships. It’s a sure-fire way to derail your career now and can prevent future opportunities. The next time you make a mistake, or your team fails to fulfill a project’s intended goals on-time or within budget, resist the temptation to find excuses and blame others or situations.

What worked? What didn’t work? Take time to objectively review the elements of the project. Start with objective (factual) items that did work. There will always be some. Then, focus on objective items that did not work. (Objective facts can usually be quantified.) Come up with resolutions with your team. Then, present these results to your boss for  approval to resolve and move forward.

Talk it out with boss or coach. Sometimes we make things mean more than they do. Other times we may be obtuse and not accept the seriousness of our words or actions. Feeling bad does not erase the impact of the mistake. But failing to resolve it and hoping it will go away can be detrimental to your future with the company.  It’s better to talk it out with someone who has more experience and will provide learning opportunities. Resist starting a gossip mill in an attempt to place the blame elsewhere. Not only will doing this limit your ability to positively impact the concerns, you will loose your credibility as a leader.  

Stop mind-reading. Ask! Do not assume you know what others think. Gather their feedback. Allow them to vent, appropriately, if warranted. Actively listen so they will share their experience of the impact on them, or their company. Apologize first, then explain your own actions and intentions. Offer an equitable resolution. Give them time to think about it and set a time to come back to the discussion. The key? Keep communication lines open. Don’t stop talking until the issue has been resolved to their satisfaction, whenever possible. Failure to resolve the mistake sadly means this type of issue will occur again and again, until the lesson has been learned.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011