Three Styles that Will Ensure You’re Doomed as an Executive!

Growing a business requires developing your people! Without them, you are doomed to fail as an executive! To be successful and effective, you must be able to elicit the best in others and focus on what’s important.

Three styles that will doom your effectiveness:

  1. Failure to motivate. While you cannot motivate others that are unwilling to move forward in their careers, you still have the responsibility to offer them opportunities. Laser-like coaching can make a positive impact. Remember, you’re responsible for each team member’s success. When you believe in each person — even when they don’t believe in him- or herself — unprecedented results can occur.
  2. Assess blame. While you are busy finding fault with others, they are busy doing the same! Taking responsibility trumps blame every time! Hold yourself and others accountable for results, as a team. Remember, straight talk, not what you believe others want to hear, is the key to moving forward together.
  3. Micromanage the team. When you become a cog in the wheel of progress, mischief happens. The wheel breaks down. Focus on the results and trust your people to get their jobs done well. Spot check by asking the right questions to ensure systems are being followed and updated when necessary. While it’s important to keep your eyes on the goal, having a well-trained team that takes focus action is also critical for success.

By developing your ability to effectively manage and motivate others, you and your employees will flourish and thrive.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2015

Need to transform your management practices? Contact me before it’s too late! http://SeibCo.com/contact

Jeannette Seibly is an internationally recognized business advisor. For the past 23 years, she has helped thousands of people work smarter, enjoy financial freedom, and realize their dreams now.  She has an uncanny ability to help her clients identify roadblocks, and help them focus to quickly produce unprecedented results.  Each client brings their own unique challenges, and her gift is helping each one create their success in their own unique way. Along the way, with her commitment, she helped create three millionaires.

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Build a Strong Business by Working Smarter

As a business owner or executive, you can be very busy juggling the demands of day-to-day business operations, customer needs, and family and community commitments. However, you also need to focus on building a strong business by working smarter. That will create opportunities for more fun, more money and more freedom!

Follow these 5 key practices:

1) Handle challenges as they occur. Putting them off and hoping they’ll go away rarely works. You will actually create more work the longer you wait. Remember, a mole hill will turn into a mountain if not handled in a timely and appropriate manner.

2) Listen well the first time. Most of us are poor listeners. Not listening will create more work when we don’t deliver on what clients want, internally and externally.  Although it may take more time, when you slow down and truly listen, it will make life easier and reduce your workload.

3) Hire right the first time. You and your team will need to work harder if you have the wrong person in the job. Use a strategic process and qualified assessment tools. While they may seem expensive, they are not. A bad hire can cost the company 2.5% of the annual gross wage for that person (and may not include numerous intangible costs). Unfortunately, many small businesses have had to close their doors simply because they did not know how to hire right. (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

4) Follow-up and Follow-through. After networking, take 10 minutes and send everyone you met a “thank you” email or card. If you promised material or a call, do it now! Waiting may lose you customers, both current and future.

5) Honor expectations. A couple of examples that business owners need to honor: a) Arrive 5 minutes early for all meetings — if you’re late, you’ll need to work harder to get people to trust you. b) Manage your business with good financial data — use Generally Accepted Accounting Practices. Failure to do so may result in a time-consuming IRS audit. What else can you think of?

Working smarter does not mean working harder. Follow the above 5 practices and you will grow your business and enjoy the rewards.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2015

Need to transform your management practices? Contact me before it’s too late! http://SeibCo.com/contact

Jeannette Seibly is an internationally recognized business advisor. For the past 23 years, she has helped thousands of people work smarter, enjoy financial freedom, and realize their dreams now.  She has an uncanny ability to help her clients identify roadblocks, and help them focus to quickly produce unprecedented results.  Each client brings their own unique challenges, and her gift is helping each one create their success in their own unique way. Along the way, with her commitment, she helped create three millionaires.

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Do You Have Silly Customers?

Recently I had an on-line experience with a person that offered a free book – at least that is what my computer said. When I attempted to order it, the link didn’t work. I contacted the author’s customer service rep who agreed that there was a computer error on their end. It turned out that the book wasn’t free and I was called “silly” for expecting it to be free.

An example of a better way to handle this happened to me a couple of years ago. A reader wished to purchase my It’s Time to Brag! book online in a PDF format (this was before I setup an agreement with Kindle and am no longer selling PDF copies). (Time2Brag.com) The person didn’t have a good on-line experience so I gave her the book, complimentary, with my apologies! (No, there was not a problem on my end.) I did not have another on-line issue, and more importantly, I kept a customer.

Three things to remember if you sell on-line:

#1: It costs way more to attract a new client than to keep a current one.

#2: When it is brought to your attention that your system is not working, you need to thank the person and offer them something in return. Obviously, don’t call them “silly!” After all, they took their time to help you solve a problem to keep your technology working correctly so you can continue to attract and keep customers.

#3: Customer service interactions via email (or other electronic means) may not translate in the tone you intended. It’s important to slow down and reread your correspondence out loud (and listen to yourself) before sending it. Remember, keep it simple and smart because the average national reading level is 6th grade.

Get your brag on — your customers are about to stray! http://SeibCo.com/contact

Jeannette Seibly is an internationally recognized business advisor. For the past 23 years, she has helped thousands of people work smarter, enjoy financial freedom, and realize their dreams now.  She has an uncanny ability to help her clients identify roadblocks, and help them focus to quickly produce unprecedented results.  Each client brings their own unique challenges, and her gift is helping each one create their success in their own unique way. Along the way, with her commitment, she helped create three millionaires.

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Are your employees on the same page with you?

Many bosses, including you, inevitably will get upset with employees who are not doing things the way you would do them. You expect them to know what to do after reading a manual or being shown once how to do something. Rarely do you stop to see what is missing from the employees’ perspectives so that they can produce consistent work product and be on the same page with you.

3 key points to get your employees on the same page with you:

  1. Review your training, systems and procedures. What’s missing? The average national reading level is 6th grade — this can reflect a person’s ability to adequately read, write and comprehend any material and put it to good use. It’s critical to remember that people learn differently. Some people need to talk it out to ensure they understand. Some need to be shown how to do something more than once. Still others need to “try” it themselves first, and then ask for coaching to fill in the gaps.
  2. Use legally and scientifically validated job fit tools for hiring, coaching and managing. This helps you understand objectively why people fail to do work the way you would do it. Also, it creates a laser-like opportunity for you to provide guidance for skill development (this will help you and your employees).
  3. Set specific goals, and then manage the milestones to ensure the project and people are all moving forward. When people fail to deliver the required results, coach them by focusing on the task at hand. Do not try to fix the person – it will never work and leave them, and you, frustrated. Instead, you need to be very specific about your instructions and other times you’ll need to help them understand the bigger picture.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2010-2015It can be lonely at the top! An experienced business advisor, always accessible and at a nearby desk can make a positive and powerful difference for you, and your employees. My goal is to be your in-house advisor, your ally and sounding board as you navigate the complex world of your business! (Contact: JLSeibly@SeibCo.com OR 303-917-2993)

Transform your failures into greater success. Get my copy of “We all fail! How can we use failure to create greater success?” http://ow.ly/Kp34R

Are Superstar Clashes Getting You Down?

As a boss, it’s challenging to manage high performers. Most of these superstars know they know their stuff. Since they believe others are less knowledgeable and less capable than they are, it sometimes taxes them to listen to others. Even to their boss!

If they’re causing you sleepless nights, most likely you aren’t the only one. As their boss, it’s up to you to manage these superstars and their egos, to keep them engaged and growing with your company.

Look beneath the surface. We often believe that if a top performer does well in one area, s/he will do superbly in other areas too. This is not true. Unfortunately, if you’re not using scientifically validated assessment products to ascertain their thinking style, core behavioral traits, and occupational interests, you may lose them. Superstars hate to fail. Provide them challenges, not to be confused with busy work, which they are quick to spot and resent.

Expect good people skills. Too often as bosses, we overlook our superstars’ interpersonal skills. When we step into a dispute to resolve it for them, it creates more animosity between the superstar and co-workers (or clients). Instead, expect them to work it out themselves by a set time and report back to you the results.

Understand their strengths and weaknesses. Use a qualified 360-degree feedback assessment to focus on their effectiveness and not whether someone is likeable. This can help you uncover any of their missing leadership skills, and focus them on developing themselves for future positions and opportunities.

Remember, money is not a motivator. While your superstars may demand more and more money, higher salaries will not provide the incentives necessary for them to continue to excel. Find other ways of compensating them based upon results (e.g., perks, vacations, gift certificates, etc.).

©Jeannette Seibly, 2010-2015

It can be lonely at the top! An experienced business advisor, always accessible and at a nearby desk can make a positive and powerful difference for you, and your employees. My goal is to be your in-house advisor, your ally and sounding board as you navigate the complex world of your business! (Contact: JLSeibly@SeibCo.com OR 303-917-2993)

Transform your success into great success. Use a qualified 360-degree assessment to move you forward faster. http://SeibCo.com/contact

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Why is Your Leadership Credibility SO Important?

When busy leaders fail to establish credibility for themselves and their companies, it leaves others wondering about them personally and professionally. Credibility influences the loyalty of internal and external customers. If the marketplace’s perception is that the business, its leader, their products or services are untrustworthy (not credible), this perception drives purchasing decisions whether the perception is accurate or not.

As a leader, your employees emulate you. The keys are to Honor:

  • Your word. Follow through. “I’m too busy” is one of the biggest excuses busy professionals use to justify their behavior. Have you considered, if you’re too busy to follow-through, you’re probably too busy to provide the quality of products and services promised? Get yourself well-organized to keep track of your commitments and find the money to hire necessary support. Develop a dependable system to follow-up and follow-through. Then, follow it!
  • Your company’s vision and mission. Credible leaders consistently make decisions that support their companies’ values. Implement them in a manner that promotes positivity. Too often we follow our ego (aka as our own self-interests) and this quickly limits sustainable company growth. Others will shy away from doing business with you if they perceive association with you could limit their own success.
  • Your commitments. We judge others by their behavior and ourselves by our intentions. What are your commitments? Are you conscious of them when making decisions that impact others? Most people make decisions based upon the tiniest fragments of information and forget about their values and commitments. As a leader, this can be excruciatingly painful if you need to defend your decisions. Instead, apologize and admit when you are wrong. Encourage others to provide you with their opinions and fact-based solutions in the future – don’t forget to include the impact on others. Simply make good decisions based upon all the information you have; your credibility hinges upon them.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2011-2015

I specialize in straight talk with immediate results. With proactive and extensive “people” management experience, I have been particularly successful in coaching and training business owners, their executives and managers, to achieve unprecedented results by working with and through others. 

Build faster credibility when introducing yourself — get your “brag” on with a copy of my book, It’s Time to Brag! http://Time2Brag.com

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Improve Your Results

It’s more important than ever to stay on-course in your business or career, particularly when things don’t seem to be happening as fast you would like. 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!

3 keys to improve your results:

Know Thyself. You can build faster and stronger results using your strengths (remember, every weakness has a strength and every strength has a weakness). Although, many people like to think they know themselves — it’s hard to see yourself from others’ perspectives. To get a true picture of yourself, use your coach, a highly qualified assessment tool and a qualified 360-feedback assessment. These tools will provide clarity on how you interact with others and your effectiveness in managing projects. (Note: Highly qualified assessments require quantifiably higher validity, accuracy and reliability than most products in the market.)

Set Compelling Goals. Many business professionals make pie-in-the-sky goals or set goals too small – neither of these will get you the results you want. Not only are your results unlikely to happen, they create unnecessary stress for you and your employees. Also, it can create needless financial expenditures and loss of energy.

Make goals realistic, do-able and quantifiable. Work with your business advisor to ensure you’re on the right track, moving forward strategically and tactically, while measuring the right key indicators.

Create Focused Action. This is the key to success. Too often we set goals and forget to set up structures to fulfill these goals. Beware, busy work does not equal focused action! Work with your executive coach to ensure you’re working smarter and taking the necessary focused steps each day. Putting everything off will not help you attract new clients or the results you desire.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2010-2015

I specialize in straight talk with immediate results. With proactive and extensive “people” management experience, I have been particularly successful in coaching and training business owners, their executives and managers, to achieve unprecedented results by working with and through others.  Get my copy of “We all fail! How can we use failure to create greater success?” http://ow.ly/Kp34R

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Would you allow 2 miles or 2 minutes to get in the way of achieving your results?

Unfortunately, many of us do. We are afraid to ask for help or clarification on a project, or get a reality check on an idea. We won’t ask for directions on how to get to a meeting.  We don’t plan or prepare for meetings, rationalizing we are too busy. After a networking meeting, we don’t take two minutes to connect via email or LinkedIn.  These lost opportunities cost companies millions!

A true story! When someone was late for a meeting due to lack of planning on where the restaurant was located, they simply gave up. They didn’t use technology (411 (directory assistant), GPS, or MapQuest). The restaurant was only 2 miles away!

Question: Would you work with someone who gave up so easily? What opportunities were lost? 

Answer:  We’ll never know!

Get in focused action. Stop rationalizing why you don’t want to or shouldn’t have to! These excuses take the same amount of energy and time as getting into action!  The question to ask yourself: What is the best use of my time? Now write down a brief outline of what needs to be done and take the first step.

Ask for advice. You look competent when you ask others for their opinions. It shows you wish to solve an issue, move forward to complete a stopped project, or get where you are going. The key is to take the recommendations and follow-through – these few minutes will set you apart from your competition.

Ask the right questions up front. Working smarter means asking for clarification (e.g., timeframe, budget, important information) at the beginning of a project or a plan to resolve any challenges. It takes less than two minutes to ask, and saves mega-time, money and frustration.

 A critical question to ask: What needs to happen for this project to be completed on time and within budget while achieving the necessary goals and outcomes? Yes, the response may take 20 minutes. (Hint: 20 minutes now vs. 20+ hours later)

Plan ahead for 100% success. Plan for breakdowns and pitfalls. They are a reality. When they do happen, do not allow them to stop you. That is what speed dial and social media connections are for — ask your network for input, be responsible for any confidential issues. Meet with your business advisor or coach (or retain one) to clarify what the true issue is. (Hint: If the issue persists, you haven’t gotten to the source of the problem and taken the right actions required to resolve it. Keep digging.)

Taking the two minutes or driving the two miles will make you unstoppable, and have you create unprecedented results!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2010-2015

It can be lonely at the top! An experienced business advisor, always accessible and at a nearby desk can make a positive and powerful difference for you, and your employees. My goal is to be your in-house advisor, your ally and sounding board as you navigate the complex world of your business! (Contact: JLSeibly@SeibCo.com OR 303-917-2993)

Transform your failures into greater success. Get my copy of “We all fail! How can we use failure to create greater success?” http://ow.ly/Kp34R

 

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Highly effective bosses have highly effective employees

As a boss, you love those days when you and your team feel productive and appreciated — you’re in the zone! Everything is going well. Your projects are done on time and within budget, and healthy disagreements are kept to a minimum. It gets even better when a new idea from your department has saved the company (and client) money and time — solidifying your reputation as a highly effective boss with highly effective employees. Everyone is happy and satisfied.

These types of days don’t happen by accident. They are created by design when you have the right people and you are the right boss.

Hire for Success.  Use objective and scientifically qualified pre-hire assessment tools to assess accurately for job fit, including: thinking style, core behaviors and occupational motivation/interests. Create a 180-day Success Plan and On-Boarding process that helps the new person get up to speed quickly and become an integral part of the team.  Also, use these validated tools to help you build a strong team, by knowing where the strengths and weaknesses lie.

Coach for Results. Use laser-like coaching to get better results. It starts with believing your employees are great contributors, and allowing them the freedom to do their work. It builds trust and loyalty.

Build the team.  Provide learning moments when they make mistakes or there has been a failure. Don’t forget to provide on-going training and outside coaching to help your employees soar to new levels.

Share your expectations. Clarify your expectations of others, and then be a great role-model. For example, as the boss, you arrive on time for meetings and actively participate.

Set the tone for appreciation. Celebrate and acknowledge your employees individually and as a team, on a daily basis.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2015

It can be lonely at the top! An experienced business advisor, always accessible and at a nearby desk can make a positive and powerful difference for you, and your employees. My goal is to be your in-house advisor, your ally and sounding board as you navigate the complex world of your business! (Contact: JLSeibly@SeibCo.com OR 303-917-2993)

Transform your failures into greater success. Get my copy of “We all fail! How can we use failure to create greater success?” http://ow.ly/Kp34R

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Valuable Advice for Accelerating Leadership Success!

“The mark of a true leader is working with and through others to achieve goals.”

True leaders in this global market must understand the importance of being competitive and collaborative! Accelerating results requires leaders manage people and projects to meet intended goals with a competitive edge. Also required is an ability to learn lessons from their successes and failures, while working collaboratively with and through others to achieve required results. While it may seem time-consuming to work with others to achieve the company’s goals, being the lone ranger will limit the success of the company, project, and, your career!

How do you develop these valuable skills? It requires being involved–it goes beyond reading books, attending workshops and watching videos. It requires you participating, hiring a coach and being in focused action. Today’s effective leaders have others wanting to work with and for them to learn from their amazing experiences and results.

Set and achieve intended goals.

With your team, it’s important to develop a strategic plan with focused action steps to support it. Alignment of others that will be impacted by the plan is also critical. Develop a structure to review what is expected, the timetable and actions to be taken. Beware of busy-ness that often hinders the process from moving forward. Remember, some of your team will be uncertain about the where, what, when, why and how to do the necessary work. Your coaching, or hiring a coach, provides accountability and develops trust when handled in an effective manner.

“Communication can resolve issues; but first we must have the conversation!”

Communicate powerfully.

Don’t be afraid to have those difficult conversations when you’re stuck. Effective leaders are bold. Healthy disagreements can actually clear the air and provide quantum leaps towards the end result. As the leader, learn how to state your point so that others can hear you. Staying in the conversation when it gets tough allows you to build on others’ comments in a positive manner. These skills will make a huge difference in moving forward and having others feel valued.

Facilitate meetings that have value.

Conducting an effective meeting is critical. When leaders have poor facilitation skills, it can lead to their downfall. Learn how to manage the logistical and human sides of meetings efficiently and effectively, either one-on-one or in a group. Remember, to include off-site groups in a way they will feel part of the team.

Develop others.

First — appreciate their contributions. Second — trust your team members to do their jobs and don’t micromanage how they are doing them. Third — manage their progress and check in to ensure efforts are focused on intended results. These are keys to success.

Celebrate!

Celebrating your successes is important. So, is celebrating failures (yes, that seems strange) – however, failures are our learning lessons. Too often we only celebrate what has worked and miss out on the opportunity to learn the important lessons. As an effective leader, it’s up to you to bring forth these valuable distinctions.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2015

I specialize in straight talk with immediate results. With proactive and extensive “people” management experience, I have been particularly successful in coaching and training business owners, their executives and managers, to achieve unprecedented results by working with and through others.  Get my copy of “We all fail! How can we use failure to create greater success?” http://ow.ly/Kp34R