Fear of Failure Vs. Fear of Success — What’s the “dif” for my career?

The difference simply depends upon your mindset.  Are you more likely to think in negative terms (e.g., failure) or positive terms (e.g., success)?  Failure is on the same continuum as success.  Fear is used to mask the reality of what you’d truly love to do, be or have, and prevents us from taking responsibility for our career choices.

When people are in low paying jobs where they are miserable, and use their kids’ expenses (kids is the “politically correct” excuse right now) or other excuses for not hiring a career coach to get a much better paying job that they will love, it is a reflection of them not taking responsibility for their career.

We all have a committee of one in our head (aka ego) that loves to chatter.  This chatter reflects conscious and unconscious thought patterns, and reinforces the limiting fears and concerns.  Or, it supports the illusion that you will have a great career someday when other things change.  This keeps us from becoming responsible for our chatter and pursuing a great career: work smarter, have financial freedom, and realize our dreams now. 

If we were to delve slightly deeper into our chatter, we would find that the fear is:

  • normally a fear of the unknown,
  • not being in control of a situation,
  • being right that others are wrong, or
  • avoiding someone else’s poor opinion of us.

 If we were to delve slightly further, you would find that the true fear is:

  • not saying the right thing in an interview,
  • not having your ideas heard,
  • others not making the right decisions on your behalf,
  • not being clear about your career direction,
  • effectively dealing with difficult bosses, employees or co-workers, and/or
  • making difficult ethical decisions.

The point is that you need to get real about your true fear(s).  When you can specifically state what you fear in your job or having a career that you enjoy, then you can make a positive and profound difference.

Why?  What you focus on will expand.  If you focus on fear, it will consume you, hinder any forward movement and impede your decision-making.  If you focus on your goals and move forward with a specific plan in place, confidence will replace fear.

Steps for Positive Results:

1)     Declare a positive mantra.  This will start you thinking in a different manner.  Without doing so, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to move on to Step Two since your excuses are designed to prevent you from changing anything.

2)     Hire a coach.  WHY?  Usually you will make it harder than it needs to be to achieve results on your own.  We inevitably get in our own way.  Having a coach will support your forward progress to keep you on a positive track.

3)    Design a results oriented goal and focused action plan to move forward, and fine-tune it with your coach.  This will support your results by acknowledging your achievements and reinforcing the positive expansion of them.

 (c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2009

 Jeannette Seibly is a nationally recognized coach, who has helped thousands of people work smarter, have financial freedom, and realize their dreams now.  Along the way, she created three millionaires.  You can contact her:  JLSeibly@gmail.com OR http://SeibCo.com

Making Decisions Simple

Yes, I will.  No, I won’t.  It seems easy to make those statements.  Yet, many people have a hard time making decisions that work for them, or on behalf of their internal and external customers.  How do you make it easy by taking into account the facts, as well as the “feelings” of others when making decisions?

1)  Be clear as to the specific request or issue.  Make it as objective as possible.

 2)  Write out a “Cheat Sheet” or list of any specific criteria you want to have, or needs to be included in the result.  (For example, when buying a benefit policy, have a list of specific items that the policy must have before you buy it.)

 3)  Review any written company policy or procedure regarding the specific issue, or items. 

 4)  Ask boss and co-worker if there is a different practice in place.  And, ask their opinion about your pending decision.

5)  Make your final decision based upon the facts and doing what is the right thing to do.

6)  Communicate this decision in a manner that is respectful and considerate of the person or persons involved.

Making decisions is never easy.  And, making decisions based upon your feelings will only provide inconsistent decision making, and possible legal liability.  Making objective decisions requires that you objectively look at the facts, while reviewing your policies and procedures.  Additional research (people, internet, library, etc.) may be required.

If you don’t believe the objective outcome you reach is the right thing to do for the other person, make appropriate requests to your boss for an exception.  Always remember, there will always be additional facts available or pending; and therefore, it will never be perfect.  Your job is provide your company and your client (internally and externally) a win-win outcome.  How well you communicate your decision is everything.  If it is not communicated appropriately, it may not occur as a win-win for the client or other person.

 ©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2007

Stay Motivated During an Economic Downturn

With an economic downturn in business, you may have started feeling the pinch. Budgets have been slashed. Training and development dollars suspended. Travel curtailed. Salaries decreased. Expenses reduced.

During this time, some executives will succeed financially while others will fail. While it’s not a law of life that one must fail during a downturn, people who are afraid to learn and give it all they’ve got could find their personal financial growth negatively impacted. Those who succeed find their success depends upon their attitude and their ability to use this time as an opportunity to increase their business savvy.

When your company experiences a growth slowdown or experiences financial trouble, now is the time to improve your “business depth and breadth.” Or, your alternative is to become a job seeker. The Labor Department’s latest survey of employees found that even when the economy was still red hot, that even during the best of times, many displaced employees take a big hit. And, executives are not exempt! In fact, the rule of thumb is that the higher up the corporate ladder you go the longer it’ll take you to find another comparable position, not necessarily with the same financial renumeration!

A year or two after being laid off, over a fifth of former full-timers were either still unemployed or had left the labor force–and another 11% were either self-employed, working part-time or doing unpaid family work. Nearly 40% of re-employed workers had to change occupations to find work—and—39% back on full-time payrolls were receiving less pay than at their previous jobs (and over half of these suffered wage declines of at least 20%).

With the economy slowing down, now is the time to get yourself some executive insurance—developing your business depth and breadth, or another way of saying it: your business acumen. It can result in you staying and growing with your company or moving on, on your own terms, thus ensuring your personal financial growth.

Golden Rule #1: “IF YOU’RE WAITING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT, SO ARE THEY!” What can you do when your company’s growth has slowed or is in financial trouble? First, and foremost, get in action NOW. What immediate challenges does the company face (whether or not you’re directly responsible for that area)? Interview different managers. Ask questions and really listen to their responses: “What are 3 issues facing us today?” “Why are these issues important?” “How do you suggest they be resolved?” “How much will it cost if we do?” “How much will it cost if we don’t?” 

Golden Rule #2: “DON’T BELIEVE IN THE NAYSAYERS.” Be careful not to fall victim to the naysayers of the company. In order for this process to work, you need to believe in your company, employees, and products/services. In asking the questions from Golden Rule #1, a common theme/issue will emerge. Investigate with outside people. Ask them their thoughts and opinions. Then get into action, put together a plan. Now is NOT the time to wait until all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed.

Golden Rule #3: “DON’T KILLTHE MESSENGER IN WORD OR IN ACTION.” Review with people, from within your company as well as outside of your company, your outline of the solution. Really listen to their ideas and whenever possible incorporate their ideas and thoughts. What do they like? What don’t they like? What alternatives could they provide? Don’t be afraid of brainstorming. True synergy will result in a better solution. Can they at least live with the plan even though it’s not ideal? Remember to listen to their rationale, even when you don’t agree. Ask for their help. If they’re not willing to, move on. [Remember, part of the reason your company is in its’ economic state is due to blaming it on external factors and not being responsible internally for moving projects forward, improving customer service, closing prospective sales, etc.]

Golden Rules #4, #5, & #6: “HAVE THE GUTS TO FAIL (do the best you can “by when” you say you will) … AVOID PERFECTIONISM (it can always be done “better”) … DON’T WAIT FOR ALL THE FACTS (there will always be more).” Establish 3-month goals. Hire a coach or consultant (YES, find the money) that will keep you on track and moving forward. This will keep you out of the quagmire that internal thinking has already gotten you into. It’ll be the best money ever spent.

Golden Rule #7: “NOT EVERYONE IS GOING TO AGREE WITH YOUR GOALS: BE CLEAR, BE CONSISTENT AND FOLLOW-THROUGH, THEY’LL COME AROUND.” Now is the time to stay focused on sales and delivering products and services on time and within budget. It’s not time to worry about the carpeting. Nor the new system you believe will save time someday. Curtail unnecessary spending. Stay focused on having money coming in the door while ensuring the highest quality of products/services are meeting customers’ needs.

Golden Rule #8: “BE WILLING TO LEARN YOUR LIFE LESSONS NOW INSTEAD OF WAITING FOR TOMORROW.” Remember to stay focused on achieving the results. You may need to layoff people. Many companies put this dreadful task off too long or jump at it too quickly to save a few bucks sacrificing future growth. This will require a level of objectivity that most managers fail to use and can be a very uncomfortable process. It can also become a turf war. The bad news is that you may win the battle, but ultimately you’ll lose the war if you’re not truly looking from a bigger picture. Ask questions: What happens with different projects if we cut those employees now? How do those projects impact the bottomline? Which employees are most versatile? Which employees have the best skills? Which employees work best with customers, internally and externally? These are the employees you need to keep. They may not be the employees you like best! You’ll learn a life lesson of being able to work with anyone at anytime, anywhere, under any circumstance. 

For instance: I have a client that did not like his boss. And, if I had told this client a year ago, when I began working with him, that he’d enjoy working with his difficult boss, he wouldn’t have hired me. We made extraordinary process, he was the only one achieving all of his goals in a $150MM company. During this process I suggested he talk with his boss about how to work better with him and apologize if necessary for anything he had not done to support the boss or the department. As a result of that meeting, he changed his attitude toward his boss, and vice versa. They became great allies. Also, his employees now liked his boss! His life lesson? He’s able and capable of working with anyone at anytime; and this is well recognized throughout his company.

Golden Rule #9: “HAVE FUN AND ENJOY YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS WELL AS THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OTHERS.” There are no guarantees that if you follow all these “Golden Rules” that you’ll keep your current job, your company will succeed or stay in business. A benefit however is that you’ll learn to move forward with ease. You’ll learn valuable lessons about yourself, your relationship with goals and achieving them, and how to work effectively with different types of people to get the job done on time and within budget. Now is also the time to celebrate your successes and others’ achievements. While you’ll need to keep your primary focus on the company and achieving these goals, make sure to take a couple of hours weekly (for early morning breakfasts or after work meetings) to ensure your network is working in the event you need a job. Follow these Golden Rules and the possibility of multiple job offers, either from within or from other companies, will appear.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2003

Company Ethics – Walking the Talk

“Integrity is how you act when no one is watching, when no one knows what you’re doing. It’s always telling the truth, clearing up misconceptions or partial truths. It’s never knowingly hurting anybody or anything. Integrity is keeping our commitments.”– Steven W. Vannoy

Integrity and ethics provide the legal, financial, environmental, safety, community and customer relations, and human resources fabric of a business. These decisions naturally and profoundly impact the future of the enterprise, and the future of its employees, not just the present situation.

Most companies claim that their “Number One” asset is their people, yet spend more time and effort in buying copiers, printers, or laptops than on selecting, managing and developing people! It is a common and unfortunate ethical disconnect with their stated mission and values.

Your employees, and the manner in which they are treated, are clear reflections of your company’s ethics and integrity. “Walking the talk” includes your hiring, selection, and leadership development practices, and how you value your employees.

Personal integrity focuses on individual values, and is reflected in the way each person handles his/her own life. In a healthy business environment, professional integrity must also be considered. This requires deeper and broader examination, since decisions and actions impact a range of others (employees, stockholders, investors, customers, suppliers, vendors). In the past decade, the public has seen the disastrous effects of questionable professional ethics. Consider the costs of integrity deficits: “It won’t matter as long as no one finds out.” “The numbers can be made to reflect what I’m saying.” “We can cover the losses before they become public.” Ongoing court cases remind us how deeply such ethical lapses can get leaders, and employees, into life-destroying trouble.

Ethics and integrity are a two edged sword; positive values pay off. Recently, an association awarded a business owner “Leader of the Year.” Subsequently, they discovered he didn’t qualify. (The business owner let them know, after finding out his employees had submitted the data.) The dilemma, since it had already been made public: “What do we do?” They acknowledged the business owner for his honesty (his business increased), and then awarded the correct person her award. Their members use this as an example of how to handle mistakes with integrity and honesty.

When employers hire people, they also hire the person’s personal values. Merging corporate culture into personal ethics can be complicated if the two don’t match. Assessing prospective employees for integrity and ethics should be an important step in selection. Appropriate assessments can help clarify for business and candidate, how well they will fit within your company–and how happy each of you will be with the match.

If you are a business leader, one easy and elementary example of integrity is being on time for meetings. If you’re continually late, others will believe these meetings are of little importance, no matter what you say to the contrary. (Think, you’re not “walking the talk.”) Another example is failing to return phone calls after you’ve left a message on your voice mail indicating that you return all calls within 48 hours. Do these seem unimportant? Remember, exceptions and inconsistencies loom large to those around you.

When employees, and customers, are at odds with a company’s ethical standards and policies, they see it as a direct reflection on management.

Ethical leaders take the pulse of how others see them: Are they competent in communications, problem solving, planning, implementation, human relations? Are they perceived as fair, ethical, honest? Multirater assessments, executive coaching, and valid assessments of strengths and weaknesses help insure that these pulse-takings are grounded in reality.

Ethical organizations take time to communicate and reinforce their corporate values consistently, and clearly. Ethics and integrity are incorporated into daily meetings and dealings with others. They steer a course that is above reproach, even if unpopular. They do what they say they will do, at the promised time. They work hard to select and hire people with personal integrity, which fits well with their business integrity.

The cost of the alternative: A candidate went through the interview process with a business, who promised to contact her regarding their decision within two weeks. Two weeks came and went; no phone calls, nor were calls returned to the applicant when she initiated contact. The candidate, being of an enterprising nature, went to work for one of their clients. A few months later, her new employer was selecting vendors for a highly desirable contract. Not surprisingly, the first business was not the selected supplier. When asked why, the former applicant gave a simple reason: If you cannot make a simple phone call to a potential employee, how will you handle more difficult issues ethically, and with integrity?

Remember, highly ethical companies “walk the talk!”

© Jeannette L. Seibly & John W. Howard, 2006

Jeannette Seibly, Principal of SeibCo — your partner in developing work and career strategies for selection, results and growth, we improve your bottom line! JLSeibly@gmail.com 

John 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. jwh@prol.ws

 

Seven Basic Requirements for Working Effectively with Anyone!

1. Do what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it. Apologize when you “drop the ball.”

 2. Take an interest in the company, people, product, financials, safety, community, etc. Get to know what is of interest and/or concern to the other people. And, be able to converse appropriately.

3. Respect everyone on the team regardless of his/her opinions and/or personality. Make it a habit to not to judge anyone regardless of their manner of dress, organizational style, position in a company, etc.

4. Be willing to acknowledge others. Make it a habit to say “Please” & “Thank You.”

 5. Take into account other people’s ideas and concerns when developing a solution. Remember KISS: keep your ideas simple & smart so that they can be easily understood.

 6. Truly listen for understanding. Be aware of how you normally listen. (Normally we listen to comment, to form an opinion, or we really don’t listen at all because we think we already know what they’re going to say.) Remember you’re non-verbal actions speak much louder than your words.

7. Keep confidences. Don’t talk negatively about other people. (Hint: it’s also known as gossiping)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2007

Jeannette Seibly is a nationally recognized coach, who has helped 1,000’s of people achieve unprecedented results.  She has created three millionaires.  You can contact her @ JLSeibly@gmail.com or http://SeibCo.com