Results producing ideas

Avoid strategic plan nightmares.

by

Executing ideas that sounded great in creative sessions can turn into nightmares. Often, execution fails because of the “bright, shiny object” illusion or a failure to address the reality of current work practices.

Poorly designed goals and action plans that don’t incorporate the current systems and people or are mismatched with the company’s vision and values will fail. Jokingly threatening to fire everyone and hire the “right ones” to get the idea to work is a fool’s mission for any company. Threats like these should be seen as warning signs about the workability of any blueprint.

Create workable goals and don’t change the goal to accommodate the action plan! Learn how to work backwards to produce a focused action from the desired result—it will illuminate often-overlooked problems. These discoveries, when realistically addressed, will help you avoid strategic plan nightmares.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Are you really ready?

by

You, like many employees today, may believe you are ready to move forward in your company to take on more responsibility. The bigger questions to first ask yourself: Do my customers, co-workers, partners, and management agree? It’s not enough for you to believe you can do it. Others need to have faith that you can and will deliver the intended results. A qualified 360-degree assessment can help you clarify what you need to do to advance. Hiring an executive coach can help you close the gap from where you are now to where you need to be in the near future. (http://SeibCo.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly

Have you waited too long?

by

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

Cross-Train for Success

by

With summer vacations approaching, it’s a great time to be cross-trained in other jobs to learn new skills. Sell your boss the idea, as well as the person who currently holds the position. Also, it’s a great occasion for bosses to get realistic hands-on experience doing their employees’ work! Be sure your own work responsibilities are handled, and that you meet current deadlines. These new opportunities will provide you with a breadth of knowledge on how your department and company work and additional Brag! statements (TimeToBrag.com) when seeking future promotions and pay increases. Remember, do the job as it’s been structured by not making any changes—being labeled a meddler will limit your future success.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Revealing Your Vulnerabilities

by

“We all have a habitual tendency to act in a particular way – often unconsciously – that thwarts our results.” Jeannette Seibly

As rising stars within our companies, we are careful not to show our emotions and to hide our sensitivities. We fear doing so shows incompetence or weakness. Revealing your vulnerabilities has derailed many upwardly mobile professionals, especially when they are simply sharing to share. They don’t have a point, wish to join the “ain’t it awful” club, or want to minimize someone else’s experiences.

As a leader, learn how to disclose your experiences with the intention of showing others how to learn from your mistakes. Start with the end point before including any other information. Communicating personal experiences can help when talking with idealistic or difficult employees in order to get them to open up. Be open to admitting you don’t have all the answers, and talk straight. Revealing your vulnerabilities appropriately builds trust!

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Do you know when to trust the data or your instincts?

by

Successful leaders have to grapple with this dilemma often. They believe their intuition is telling them what the true answer is. Or, they want to trust the numbers. However, intuition can be wrong and 100 percent reliance on data can send you down the wrong path too. Developing a strong business balance between statistics and your sixth sense takes experience, time, and practice. As business owners and executives know, making the wrong decisions can cost the company more than money. It can also cost their reputation, clients, and top talent.

What do you do when you don’t trust the data? Trust the process. For example: When you hire a person based upon your gut reaction, even when the facts disagree, you didn’t trust your selection system. The truth is, failure to pay attention to good objective information will negatively impact your decisions.

Better questions to ask yourself: Do you know how to correctly use qualified hiring tools and follow a strategic selection process? (BizSavvyHire.com)  Do you have an unconscious habit of hiring and firing until you find the right person? (Hint: Honestly look at your turnover numbers.) Asking these types of questions can help you determine the underlying (aka real) reason you may not trust the data. 

Which one do you trust when your data or intuition is contrary to others’ opinions? Trust yourself and be open to being right and wrong. For example, many times when a company is experiencing difficulty achieving results, it’s because a controlling leader or dominating team member made erroneous judgments based heavily on facts or feelings. Learn to ask good business questions and listen to people’s responses. Being open to changing your mind doesn’t mean you have to. However, being adamant that you are right is usually a sign of impending disaster.

Strong leaders trust themselves and know how to develop win-win outcomes by working with and through others. They are prepared for the downside of any decision. They use their results as dashboards to develop trust in themselves and others when making balanced factual and intuitive decisions.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Has Your Project Gone Off Track?

by

Project managers can become fearful when a project is past due and over budget. At that point, they have usually lost control of the team and feel disempowered and blameful. To make things more difficult, they refuse to get qualified advice on how to get back on course to achieve their goals.  Instead, they spend more time coming up with excuses the boss will agree with than making the right changes to the action plan.

Successful project managers have a stronger commitment to the project and team than to their egos. They stretch their minds by listening and asking good business questions, not questions designed to force others to agree with them. They believe 99 percent of the world’s information is in others’ heads, and their successful results show it!

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

What if …?

by

Many times we don’t listen and ask good business questions. We fear others will become upset, and many times they do. Their emotion signals their attachment to what they’ve already spent time working on and how they think about it. However, not asking the “What if …?” questions can prevent an adequate project from becoming great, a poor ROI from being wildly successful, or an OK employee from becoming a top performer.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Upward Mobility Requires Coachability

by

Do you wish to advance in your career? Be an upwardly mobile leader? Make more money? Have more responsibility? The first step is to raise your hand and get the attention of your boss (and his or her boss) by learning how to brag in a business-savvy manner (for suggestions, visit TimeToBrag.com). Asking and communicating your readiness and willingness will help overcome any hesitation on your boss’s part.

Once you’ve been given an opportunity, it’s important you make a full commitment to successfully completing the project, on time and within budget. New assignments require you to operate at a new level (yes, it can seem risky), being resourceful while ensuring the team has the opportunity to bring forth new ideas and daily generating your “game on” with the team when problems arise and excitement wanes. Lone rangers seldom succeed. Being responsible and accountable from start to finish is required for success. Giving up is not an option and will nix future opportunities. Communication and bragging are the keys to keep everyone on the same page (visit TimeToBrag.com for ideas on how to do this).

During this time, your blind spots will become glaringly noticeable to others and can actually derail upward mobility if not addressed. Simply being aware of them will not help you transform these weaknesses into strengths—you cannot build upon weaknesses! Minimizing their impact (and avoiding the natural tendency to dominate others to avoid responsibility) requires you to be coachable and have a good coach, someone who provides straight talk. By seeing potential problems faster, you can manage them more effectively. Clarity helps you take what’s working and develop the discipline of practicing good habits—it makes it easier to handle people and system challenges. This enhanced awareness is a great starting point for the next project. It is the signature of upward mobility as a leader.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Jeannette Seibly delivers straight talk with immediate results to business owners and executives of $1MM to $30MM enterprises, achieving dynamic results. Along the way, she helped create three millionaires. You may contact her at JLSeibly@SeibCo.com to discuss your coaching challenges.

Create Consistent Results

by

Change is constant. What worked once, may not work again. Outcomes may not be what we anticipated, long term. Outside factors beyond our control can change even the best of plans. Achieving consistent and intended results requires vigilant attention!

Sometimes the smallest of changes can cost money if we do not catch them! When a plan doesn’t work, we often ditch the whole program instead of looking at the specific component(s) that may need to be altered. We forget employees may not run our systems exactly in accordance with set policies and procedures, thus changing expected outcomes.

A company, fast becoming a leader in their industry, created a strategic hiring system. It worked. Turnover was remarkably reduced. People fit their jobs and enjoyed their work. However, as veterans from the industry joined the team, they refused to trust the new system – it was different from their former cycle of hiring/firing until someone finally stayed. They were not used to following a well-defined system designed for retention. Only after the bottom line suffered, and their jobs were jeopardized, did they jump onboard.

Everyone has their own concept about how things “should” run. The reality is there are many inside and outside influences that can unpredictably vary how things actually do work out. Train your new employees on your systems, policies and procedures; give them the background information about why it works that way within your company. Be sure you have the right employees in the right jobs with the right training to handle outside technology and social media influences. These factors, along with others, will impact your sales.

Review your results objectively with your business advisor – it pays to be focused on the right things daily and catch changes early to maintain and improve your bottom line!

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Jeannette Seibly challenges you to ask yourself:

  • What changes have you had to make to maintain or increase your results?
  • Did they work?
  • Why?