Leaders have coaches!

#1 Strategic plan failure

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Designing a company’s strategic plan can be fun and exciting. However, after the one- or two-day workshop, it’s time for the real work of implementation. The #1 strategic plan failure starts at the top with the company’s president if he or she isn’t accountable and exercising leadership. During planning sessions it’s important to incorporate how, what, when, and where the team will get started when they return to the office. It’s the president’s job to ensure actions taken are focused on achieving the desired goals and any problems or plan failures are immediately addressed.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Need to Be Revitalized?

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Many times because of the monotony of set job responsibilities and resolving the same problems over and over we need to be revitalized. Seek out new opportunities by talking with employees within and outside your work group. What are the three top challenges? What do they believe are the possible solutions? What are the commonalities in your discussions? Then, share with your team and boss while brainstorming potential solutions; see if you can lead the new assignment or project, or be an important contributor.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Have you waited too long?

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Many bosses and managers wait too long before calling a business advisor. Why? It’s hard to admit they need someone else’s help. They falsely believe asking for help diminishes their credibility, and they hope if they wait long enough the issue will simply go away. Instead, the situation often continues to get worse. Eventually, a once simple fix will no longer work! While you may be able to initially outtalk your employees and board’s concerns, it’s simply a matter of time before your job is on the line. Get into action now. Contact a business advisor today. It will be the best call you ever made! That call may save your job. (http://SeibCo.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Promises are important.

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Too often, we don’t pay attention to what we are saying to others, or ourselves. We make promises and don’t keep them. We forget or don’t hear our own words, get too busy or change our minds. When making promises, be conscious to what you are saying and say it in a clear and concise manner. When someone is making a request of you, agree, say no, or counteroffer. Then repeat the agreed-upon promise before fulfilling it. Write it down and take focused action.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013 

When do you need a coach?

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Everyone needs help to build a company, create unprecedented results, and work with and through others to complete a successful project on time and within budget.  Make sure your coach has the experience and ability to help create new ideas or methods that will help you. Simply following a standardized program is usually not the answer for most successful business owners, executives, or highly mobile professionals. Make it personal in order to achieve your intended professional results.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Are You a Moody Leader?

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  • Do you thrive on drama?
  • Do people calculate your approachability before talking to you?
  • Do you gossip about your employees or clients?
  • Do others consider you untrustworthy?
  • Do you make decisions based upon your feelings at the moment?

Leaders set examples for the rest of the organization to follow. If you lack consistency in how you communicate, disrespect others in word or deed, or don’t trust others to do their best, employees respond accordingly. If you react (or over-react) before getting the facts, they may be afraid to speak up for fear of retribution. You create more of an issue.

If others are concerned about your effectiveness as a good leader, they will withhold valuable information. In these situations, often your employees’ focus is not on the organization’s goals. They are focused instead on how to work around your moodiness and still keep their jobs.

As a leader, immediate help is required to reaffirm your leadership position and move the enterprise forward. What can you do to resolve this?

Hire a business advisor. Being coachable is critical to anyone’s success, particularly top management. It can be lonely at the top; too often leaders don’t have someone else to talk with and their job can feel like a burden. Talk weekly with a business advisor. Focus on less dramatic ways to handle issues and have the benefit of consistent clarity to guide your organization forward.

Communicate effectively.  #1 concern for any leader! Be prepared to listen more than talk. Learn to ask the right questions. Be open to news you may not like, or new ideas you had not considered. Stop the internal chatterbox ; it inhibits your ability to actually hear what others are saying. When you need to deliver unpopular news or decisions, first think through what you need to say. Write it out. Read it out loud in the mirror. Keep it short, not long-winded.

Stop “should-ing.” Too often we believe people should have known or shouldn’t have said something. We forget the mistakes we’ve made ourselves over the years! A good rule of thumb: When someone does something great, let them know. When they make a mistake, take time to discuss it as soon as possible, one-on-one. When performance concerns are addressed in a consistent and respectful manner, it provides clarity about your expectations. Your employees will usually make the corrections required. If you scream at them, even once, it can damage your long term effectiveness.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2012

Accountability Elephants

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A company wanted to terminate an employee who was not achieving results. She had a multitude of excuses, blamed her boss for his lack of support and refused to be held accountable for her employees’ actions. When the boss had had enough, the HR Director stressed, “Her employees won’t be happy. She is well liked.” The reality? Many of her employees were happy to see her go since they already realized she was the bottleneck for not getting things done, poor decisions being made and low morale.

Laissez-faire leadership has been creating a devastating impact on companies worldwide, according to Herman Trend Alert, August 22, 2012. Many business professionals are not holding themselves accountable for their results or their employees’.  They blame increasingly complex business environments, workloads and lack of financial and other resources. To complicate these concerns, many leaders have become more concerned about being liked, holding onto their power of control, not rocking the boat or micromanaging to the point of exhaustion.

Delegation. Work-life balance is something we strive to achieve. We blame our employers for our failure to achieve this ideal. The truism is there are time periods when personal concerns (e.g., health, family, and home) will take precedence in your life. There are other times when your professional considerations require stronger attention. Be proactive. Learn to manage these inevitable transitions by requesting help (at home and work).  Stop waiting for the perfect time to cross train. Do it now before the need arises. Learn to trust others to make decisions appropriate for their experience and abilities to alleviate bottlenecks before they start.

Build on strengths. When you are in a job that aligns with your strengths, work life becomes easier to manage. The same is true for your employees. Learn how to hire people who fit their work, and how to manage them accordingly. Hold your employees accountable for results, sales quotas and other objectively set metrics. If employees are unable to meet these measures, it may be time to review their fit with the job. A good person in the wrong job can inhibit her/his own ability to accomplish normal tasks with ease, and issues seem to get muddled and, never resolved. Take the time and spend the money to hire the right people. Learn how to create a work flow that recognizes a person’s strengths.

Handle the Elephants. Most people love to put off until tomorrow what isn’t urgent today. Unfortunately, this growing stockpile doesn’t deplete naturally and unaddressed issues actually grow exponentially.  Hold yourself accountable by enlisting the help of your business advisor as an objective sounding board. Determine effective resolutions for both potential and long-term elephants. You may be pleased to find some can simply be crossed off your list!

Need immediate help to transform your leaders into fearless, effective, no-nonsense contributors? Contact your business advisor today to transform your business! JLSeibly@SeibCo.com

Want to be leader of excellence?

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Many business professionals have the goal of becoming leaders of a team, company or industry. Yet, many fall short. They fail to develop the key characteristics so crucial to giving them and their company the competitive “edge factor” required for excellence.

Great leaders inspire.

They are visionaries. Often strong employees and managers focus too narrowly on their own little sphere. They fear political corporate pushback. They hope someone else risks making the changes required for the company to become successful. As a result of this paralysis, they fail to create the opportunities, systems and attitudes necessary to generate a positive ROI. Visionaries, however, are fearless and know that if someone isn’t listening, they can find someone else to support their efforts.

They believe there isn’t a problem that can’t be resolved. Leaders have a mindset that recognizes problems and obstacles, but do not allow themselves to be limited by them. They formulate ideas and know how to enroll others into devising solutions to “make the results happen.”

They are driven to excel. While many companies rely upon incremental steps to achieve goals, great leaders look beyond 100% success. They create goals to achieve what may initially seem impossible. They hire the right business advisors, coaches and trainers to support their people to succeed.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2012

Leaders Hire Coaches – They Need the Help!

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By Jeannette L. Seibly and John W. Howard, PhD

 

  • Do you think of yourself as a leader?
  • Does someone pay you to be a leader?
  • Do you want to be a leader?

If your answer to any of these questions is an emphatic “Yes!”, ask yourself some more questions:

  • Do you promote a vision, mission, and purpose for your company–yet no one follows you?
  • Do you empower others–yet these same people criticize you?
  • Do you allow ongoing conflicts among managers?
  • Do you avoid admitting a mistake?

If you answered any of these questions “yes”, you are among the vast majority of us who could benefit from coaching! A good coach can be critical to any leader’s success.  Listening to, even learning, theories and concepts will not necessarily result in leadership. Coaching provides real-time feedback, while projects and people issues are being handled. It can develop and strengthen solid leadership skills. Coaching accelerates growth and contributes to success!

A good coach can help you:

  • Set and achieve goals! If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there? To achieve results, you must set goals and develop a structure to track and ensure progress. Put together action plans and review them frequently!
  • Be consistent! Maintain your commitment to fulfill your goals, even when “you’ve hit the wall” and it looks like failure may be imminent. This sends a very clear message to your employees.  It says they can trust you in good times and bad. It helps them make better decisions, and keeps them in action.
  • Work with and through others! This will help ensure that your results will be on time and within budget.  Poor communication skills are a major factor in leadership failure. People are too often promoted for their successes, without assessment of their communication skills.  Simply put, the higher up the corporate ladder you climb, the more people rely on your communication skills.  A leader with poor communication skills must improve, or negotiate another position without people responsibilities. The good news: Good communicators are coached, not born.
  • Listen to those with different ideas! Most people consider themselves good listeners, but they do not always hear the critical factors that keep customers and co-workers happy and satisfied. Knowing how to get a point across while listening to others, particularly when what you hear is unpleasant, can make or break your career!
  • Handle conflict promptly. The sooner you’re able to resolve conflict, the less likely it will negatively impact your people, projects, and customers.  Work will always include disagreements, differing points of view, and concerns that people bring from outside. The key is to resolve issues promptly, effectively and efficiently, while empowering the people involved to work them through.
  • Being accountable for ALL the results, including your own growth, is a true mark of a leader.  Being accountable entails managing details, and acknowledging results—both positive and negative. Let others take credit for a job well done.

As a leader, hiring a coach can accelerate your growth and success. You will see your weaknesses faster and more clearly, and develop your strengths sooner and more fully.  The fact that you are open to coaching will inspire confidence in your co-workers and customers. If your goal is to be a good leader, start by hiring a good coach!

© Jeannette L. Seibly & John W. Howard, 2005-2011

Jeannette Seibly, Principal of SeibCo, LLC, Transform Your Business. We provide straight talk with million-dollar results. Contact SeibCo, LLC @ 303-660-6388 JLSeibly@SeibCo.com Jeannette is also the author of Hiring Amazing Employees.

John W. Howard, Ph.D., owner of Performance Resources, Inc. helps businesses of all sizes increase their profits by reducing their people costs. His clients hire better, fire less, manage better, and keep their top performers. He may be reached at 435.654-5342, OR jwh@prol.ws