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Delivering bad news to your employees? Here are five ways to soften the blow

For most of us, we’ve been on the receiving end of one (or more) of the following statements. If you’re the one who is delivering bad news to your employees, however, your approach needs to have five key elements for the conversation to go well. Learn more…

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Are you looking for a business coach? I can provide you professional and certified executive coaching services and solutions. Visit christinaholloway.com/business-coach/ to Learn more about my programs and options!

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Five Ways To Build Credibility As A New Leader

Recently, I started working with a new client who had a great problem. She had just been promoted. She worked for years to build up her experience, knowledge and skills to win this promotion. It was the director of sales position at a large telecommunications company. She was going to have a new staff, bigger projects and a larger budget. She would answer directly to the executive vice president of her division and she was ready for all of it. Her only concern was starting on the right foot. How could she win over so many players right from the start and then keep the momentum going?

She needed to build credibility and trust fast with a group of people she did not know very well, but who also depended on her, not only for her success but for their success, as well. With some leadership development and executive coaching, here’s how she did it.

Leadership Development

Find your alliances: Of course, your most important alliance is with your boss. This is the person who took a chance on promoting you, or hiring you. This is also the person who is waiting to be “wowed” by you, and the one who will give you the benefit of the doubt when things get tough. Find out what his priorities are and make sure to align your strategy with his expectations.

Create a strategy: This is about creating a quick win. Strategize by identifying key problems or opportunities you could tackle quickly to deliver visible results. Keep in mind; it should be a win that creates value for the organization, so look for something that directly impacts the bottom line. Make sure it’s measurable so that you can easily demonstrate progress.

Focus your attention: As a new leader, it’s an easy trap to fall into – taking on too much too soon is a recipe for disaster (or certainly burnout).  To do it right, make sure to focus on the most important things in front of you and do not overcommit. To start, this typically means taking on only two or three new projects. This will give you the chance to get used to your new team, figure out existing processes already in place, and understand the reasoning behind some of the choices your team makes. You’re here to make an impact so make sure you study what’s working first before you start making changes.  

Develop a plan: Once you’ve taken the time to observe what’s working and what’s not, it’s time to develop a plan for tackling what’s on your plate. If you don’t already have an effective project management plan in place, now is the time to craft one. To begin, you want to ask yourself some basic questions. How much budget will I need? Who will be on my team? How often are we checking in? What are the main steps involved in completing this project? How long will this project take? The more structure you have in the beginning, the easier it is to course correct down the line, if necessary.

Build genuine relationships: Your team wants to know that you care. As I mentioned earlier, they want you to succeed, but they also want that to be a reflection on their success, as well.Get to know your team individually, as well as a group. Make an effort to collect their feedback, opinions and ideas and get a feel for how they work collectively. You could very well have inherited a team that runs like a well-oiled machine. More than likely, though, you will have an opportunity to make some changes and create better alliances.

Don’t forget to think creatively. As a person in a new environment with a new role, some of the steps I outlined might seem unnatural to you, so take the opportunity to experiment with different approaches. Sometimes the most effective way to make an impression is to use methods and approaches that don’t come naturally to you. Hold on to what works and discard what doesn’t so that you keep evolving until you get comfortable in your new role.

Your goal as a leader in a new position is to show that you’re making a positive difference in this role. You want to secure wins early and build energy and excitement, not only for the people who work for you, but also for the people who work around you. And that’s the point. Your goal is to create value for your organization by empowering those around you to trust you through your leadership development skills. Sometimes it needs to happen fast, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

If building credibility quickly is a priority for you, check out my Leadership Breakthrough Session  to take the next step and book a free consultation with me visit christinaholloway.com

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Get a free executive coaching consultation with me today! Learn how you can become a next level leader and maximize your executive career today. Learn more now!

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If You Want To Win, Develop A Strategy

Let’s talk about strategy.  This is the ability to assess a situation, decide on an approach, and then come up with a series of decisions that will lead to a successful outcome. It’s not as easy as it sounds. The main driver of a strong strategy is to consider multiple options and to choose the best one for your current situation, knowing that you may have to adjust in the future if conditions change, all in an effort to accomplish what you originally set out to do. Many top businesses and promising careers have been ruined because of poor strategy decisions. We typically use strategy when we play a game, engaging in strategic thinking to outsmart our opponent, but strategic thinking can be applied to nearly every decision we face on any given day. Even better, the more we do it, the better we become at it.  

Take my client. She owns a floral and landscaping business with her partner. It’s successful so she wanted to expand and grow the business. Her first step was to participate in a business development course. It was quite informative and she learned a lot. So much so that when she implemented what she learned, her business took off. Well, that’s great until a couple of her best employees left during the busy season and her business partner unexpectedly became ill. Suddenly she was faced with a growing business and no one available to help. She was overwhelmed and realized that she didn’t actually have a clear strategy for dealing with growth beyond getting more clients.

Here are fourthings to consider as you build a strategy for your career or business.

Do your research and keep your options open For any effective strategy to work, you need to be able to analyze data. The more information you have available to you, the more likely you will be to make the best decisions for your situation. Conducting research can be anything from reviewing charts and spreadsheets looking for trends, to interviewing colleagues or competitors, to assessing processes and procedures. The more informed you are, the better your chances are of making the right decision from the beginning.

That being said, it’s also important to consider as many options as possible until you make a decision. My client would have saved herself a headache had she taken a moment to consider what a growth initiative for her business looked like. The purpose of a strategy is to help you move forward even when you hit a bump in the road. It’s about anticipating the unknowns and having options available should those unknowns suddenly materialize.

Focus on the most important thing in front of you This can be tricky. Once business started to grow for my client, she was faced with a number of priorities. Some she anticipated and some she did not. She set about dealing with the most urgent problem first – lack of help – by rolling up her sleeves and doing it herself, but that wasn’t the most important issue. In fact, her partner’s illness and how it affected the business was her priority. From there she could set expectations with her clients, buy herself more time to fill orders and then look for part-time help to bridge the gap until she hired new staff. Find a mentor, coach or friend who will listen to you as you determine a clear roadmap forward.

Get a sense for how hard to push Many of us have ambitious goals, and we want to achieve them fast. It’s validation for our hard-won efforts. My client really wanted to grow her business. It was an important goal and it represented a level of accomplishment that she had only dreamed about before. Because it was so important to her, she didn’t want to slow down, but that only caused more problems. An effective strategy works best when you realize that there will be times when pushing hard makes sense, and other times when hanging back will work in your favor. It’s a delicate balance and it requires patience, but mastering this skill will take you far.

When things go wrong, look for opportunities to build relationships Sometimes you will end up where you don’t want to be. You will make all the right decisions, anticipate potential unknowns, and still end up on the losing end of the situation. When that happens take a step back. With a clear head you can assess where you went off course and ask yourself some hard questions about where you want to go next. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that nothing is a wasted effort. There’s value – and certainly a lesson – in every loss. Having the ability to potentially build an unexpected relationship can work in your favor down the line. I cannot emphasize enough to my business coaching clients that building a power network is important and fostering relationships, in good times as well as bad, is just good business.

My client made it through the busy season and is now working on a business development plan with her partner – one that includes systems and processes to address staffing needs, higher demand, and inventory control, as well as incremental growth objectives that won’t overwhelm her current business model.

If you’ve been wondering why you aren’t seeing the progress you hoped in your career or business, perhaps you’re ready to develop a strategy. As you move closer to the end of the year, it’s a great time to assess where you are today, where you want to be next year, and what changes you’re willing to make in order for that to happen.

For a free strategy session or more information on coaching packages that will help you grow your business or career in the New Year, contact me today.

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Are You Busy Or Are You Productive? The Devil Is In The Details

Recently, a new client came to me for business coaching and asked for help scaling her new web development business. When I asked her about some of the problems she was facing with scaling her offerings, she told me she was aware of some inconsistencies in delivery as well as some missed deadlines. In reviewing her online material, the cracks began to show, particularly in quality. She told me that she was aware of the grammar mistakes on her material (blog posts, emails to subscribers, social media posts) but she’s just in so much a hurry to get her useful solutions and information out to her audience that she doesn’t bother with correcting the problems. “Besides,” she justified, “My clients are just as busy as I am and understand that a few typos and missed deadlines don’t dilute my message. I can’t be bothered with those details when I’m doing important work and they understand that. The days of getting things perfect are over.”

I was stunned by her comments, for a number of reasons:

She was overwhelmed and it was starting to show

She was trying to justify sloppy effort

She thought she was on the leading edge of redefining client expectations

Her attitude and approach were selfish

But, most of all, she was missing the point.

I understand that mistakes happen and sometimes they aren’t caught early, and it’s true that your audience or target market attention span today is much more fleeting than ever before. At the same time, using that fast-paced environment as an excuse to do mediocre work has consequences.

Here’s how I worked with her and used my business coaching to change her perspective.

What you put out is what you get back

Finding success with a new business is an amazing experience. You put your idea out there and you get positive response. Suddenly you need to deliver on all those great ideas that you developed and promised to your clients. It can also be a very overwhelming experience, especially if you start as a solopreneur – someone who’s been successfully working alone and suddenly morph into an entrepreneur – someone who can build teams, systems and processes to mass produce that great idea.

The signs and symptoms of overwhelm can be subtle. You miss one or two deadlines, you have a bad experience with a few new clients and brush it off as a bad match with your work, or you notice mistakes in your web copy that you would never have made in the past. Growing a business alone is hard, but the sooner you realize that small mistakes signal cracks in the foundation, the sooner you can fix it. Hiring a part-time assistant with that extra revenue will go a long way in curbing overwhelm. Think of it as a small investment now that will lead to greater gains in the future.  

The golden rule of output

Do your best work … always. If you have a business, your biggest focus should be on solving the problems of your client and not trying to justify your sloppy efforts. Don’t fool yourself into believing that if you think it’s okay, others will too. You may have started out by selling your services to friends and family who may have been forgiving of a few mistakes because they knew you and already trusted you, but your biggest gains will come from total strangers, people who need to establish trust immediately in order to take a chance with you. In that case, there is no room for sloppy effort.

You’re not in business for yourself

Don’t make this about you. Many times, we get advice to position our business as a solution we always wanted to see in the marketplace. Naturally, we might see ourselves as a perfect client. That’s a problem if we impose our own assumptions into our target client profile. Of course, you will be forgiving of your own mistakes, but potential clients will not be as forgiving.

Remind yourself of the times you spent your good money on something of high quality and what you expected when you made that purchase. It’s the same with delivery. Your clients expect a certain level of quality and that expectation of customer service will never be redefined. It will never change, loosen up, or relax. For every person that’s okay with lesser service, there are two customers who will demand excellence. Those two should always be your target market. Why? They will pay more for better service and will sing your praises. It’s the quickest way to develop a reputation of excellence and grow your client base.

Missing the details reduces opportunities

Giving my client some real life feedback really hit home for her. I actually fit her demographic. I was a potential customer and would have loved to give her some business, but hearing her justify mediocre service turned me off. She was floored. She didn’t realize that she was missing important opportunities that could increase visibility for her work.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your clients are just like you. They’re not purchasing from you because of your personality. They’re purchasing from you because of your offering … they’re willing to tolerate your personality to get the work done. The more you abuse that courtesy, the more likely you are to alienate your client base.

As an entrepreneur, growing a business and scaling up means taking on more than you can handle, and then learning to delegate. It’s the most important skill you can master and it doesn’t come easy, especially for those of us who naturally like to work on our own. Finding ways to build this skill will translate into tremendous gains. Remember also that practice makes perfect, so keep working on it.

If this story resonates with you, checkout my business coaching and leadership development solutions https://christinaholloway.com/business-coaching/ and start accelerating your career and your life!

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Looking for a business coach? I can provide you professional and certified executive coaching services and solutions. Learn about my programs and options!

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Get a free executive coaching consultation with me today! Learn how you can become a next level leader and maximize your executive career today. Learn more now!

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Three Reasons You Might Be A Micromanager, and How To Stop It From Hurting Your Career

If you’ve ever worked for someone who obsessively micromanages, then you know firsthand just how counter-productive it can be. Whether it’s in the form of countless unnecessary reports, never-ending meetings, or required briefings for every single customer contact, excessive micromanagement disrupts the work flow and often demoralizes employees, all while adding minimal (if any) value to the situation.

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Respect: How to Create and Capitalize on Ultimate Network Advantage – Part 3

What does a business social network mean to you? If you don’t have a clear answer to that question, it’s probably a good time to start thinking about it. Like it or not, you’re a part of a social network – whether you’re self-employed, a senior executive, or an entry level staffer – and how you interact with it is either helping or hurting your career.

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Christina Holloway, a leading executive coach, provides expert leadership services & solutions that can help improve your brand & business. Call today!

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Your Personal Brand – Could It Be The Missing Piece?

More people are becoming interested in their personal brand, and for good reason – it’s the foundation of a sustainable career. If having a personal brand is an idea that’s new to you, there are probably some big questions you’re looking to have answered.

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Improve your personal brand with leadership development programs from executive coach, Christina Holloway. Strengthen your performance & team today. Call now! 

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Career Development | Executive Coaching | Christina Holloway

Learn how to stop a bad boss from hindering your career development with Chrisitna Holloway’s newest blog. Read how you can improve your career today!

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Need business coaching to improve employee engagement? Christina Holloway offers executive coaching services that focus on maximizing potential. Call today!