Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Juan Kingsbury. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Juan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client?

“Hire selfishly.” is my advice to all clients and the foundation to coaching business. Leaders want less avoidable chaos and more satisfying results from their work. The advice is a bit of a bait and switch since people do not want to be viewed as egotistical, yet leaders who undervalue the work they really want to focus on, find themselves making hires that don’t serve them or the company. Being ‘selfish’, in hiring is bluntly saying “This is a role I do NOT want to do, I want do to more of XYZ, so therefore I need someone who I can rely on to do ABC.” You can get to a good hire without being selfish – but don’t expect a great hire without being honest.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

“You are always blunt, but kind.” is one of the best compliments I received relative to coaching and giving feedback. Which is absolutely contingent on earning a participant’s trust to be vulnerable and open – something I aim to never take for granted. Earning trust is significant enough, yet I am most excited when a client updates me on a conflict they faced with confidence and integrity – they were ready to be themselves and stayed the course is the best news I get in my business. I care about values, the companies, leadership, yours – not solely the written values, the real values that are acted out everyday. Values are either the glue that holds a team together—or the friction that pulls it apart.

My start came in 2007, training in premium behavioral assessments tools for workshops, coaching, hiring, sales development, etc., Working for industry leader and Scottsdale based Target Training International (TTI); I worked with our clientele of coaches, consultants, and facilitators worldwide. In 2012, I created Career Blindspot, a name born out of the inevitable blindspots at work in talented people and the unplanned changes we rarely see coming.

In 2019, I created the Career Blindspot Podcast born out my strong desire to have more nuanced conversations on leadership, workplace trends, and changing expectations. Cliches and stereotypes are helpful yet boring, and I wanted to engage the jaded, especially those who know they have so much more potential! In 2021, I self published “A New Work Mindset: The Truth About Leaders, Jobs, and Ourselves at Work. Based on the patterns, trends and unspoken inevitabilities I see at work in all industries and organizations.

I love and eager for change, innovation, and fulfillment in the workplace but… the reality is a lot more messy and challenging that people realize, yet worth it. Therefore, creating better workplaces is something I’ll never tire speaking and learning about. As technology, politics, and the last bad hire we make come and go, what I know to be true, the real work is in realigning our actions to our values, rather than wait for other’s to figure theirs out.

Have you ever had to pivot?

During the pandemic I lost 60% of business, regular users of assessments, workshops, coaching, etc. The irony, a year prior I had intentionally pivoted away from collaborating with my peers, something I still do today but was far more reliant on back then and wanted to break away. Halfway through 2020 I wasn’t sure what to do and just started calling everyone and asking how they were. Then the shift came, in the past I worked with leaders adjacently to their team workshops and one off events, but until then I only saw their well-being as bi-product, the pandemic revealed my highest value was in leadership development and advocacy. “You’re not crazy, that makes sense…” probably was said hundreds of times to leaders who were just overwhelmed or stuck leading overwhelmed teams.. Mental health is a trend I’m grateful for, but is still a challenge to get the right help at the right time, even from some of the most productive people. Especially from the most productive people! So a regular practice of focusing on the human in the role was the pivot, the business from the outside looked more or less the same, but I became more adamant that everything starts/ends with the leader otherwise it’s a nice to have one off.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Embracing mistakes clears the air and builds trusts. Mistakes aren’t the problem, ignoring or making excuses but not correcting them is worse! Cutting heads off clearly kills morale, but so does letting mistakes linger and fester, whether it’s your fault or something else’s own and learn from them. If perfection is expected but never met or rewarded than perfection is not really supported. Be open to a more fluid reality. Take the lead and create a steady diet of humble pie, admit where you messed up, ask the team how to improve. If you don’t, they likely won’t and mistakes seep into morale. When you do embrace your mistakes, teams may take a while to admit theirs but once the consistency is there, the camaraderie will follow.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.careerblindspot.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careerblindspot/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juankingsbury/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@careerblindspot

Image Credits

TTI Success Insights
NBMA Photography