Unlocking Career Growth: Overcoming JAIL (Judge, Assume, Interpret, Label) for Better Approachability and Coachability

What if your quick judgments and assumptions are sabotaging your career growth? In this episode, we dissect the powerful concepts of approachability and coachability and introduce you to the thought-provoking acronym JAIL—Judge, Assume, Interpret, and Label. We delve into how these behaviors trap us in negative perceptions that hinder our progress. You'll hear a real-life HR scenario about a volatile employee lacking emotional intelligence, highlighting the importance of focusing on skill sets and the value of coaching behaviors to unlock potential. 

Tune in to discover actionable advice on seeking feedback, embracing it with a smile, and actively improving your personal brand to avoid this metaphorical jail. We promise you'll gain valuable insights that can transform your personal and professional relationships, making you more approachable and coachable. Don't miss this episode packed with wisdom on how to navigate the complex interplay of behavior, perception, and career progression.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:36

One of the greatest things that we can adopt is something called approachability and coachability. Now I'm going to introduce you to a concept called JAIL, and I think a lot of us and a lot of people in our lives put themselves in JAIL Now. Jail is an acronym for Judge, assume, interpret and Label. How often do we judge people quickly? We have immediate impressions, we have an emotional reaction to situations or people. How often do we assume and then tell others? How often do we infer what somebody meant? And boy, do we label people quickly? And when we do that and we put it out there and we share it with people, we put ourselves in jail. What does it mean to be put in jail?

Speaker 1: 1:22

Now, not in the literal sense of going to jail, yet jail is a place where management upper-level management will put people in their minds. We will put people in jail saying I'll never promote that guy. He's hard to work with. I'll never promote that lady because she never listens when I give her feedback. Nobody wants to talk about this, and we put a lot on our leaders today. Yet we as individuals have to understand one fundamental concept, and that is our behaviors become a part of our personal brand. You will be in jail or outside of jail. There will probably not be middle ground.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Recently I was in a conversation with an organization where the HR department was talking about an employee that was up for a promotion and they had applied and they were really worried about how to handle it, because this person can be volatile, they did not have a lot of emotional intelligence and I sat there and I said I have two questions for you. Number one does he have the skill set for the job? And immediately I was interrupted, but you don't understand and I said no, no, does he have the skill sets. And number two have we been coaching him on his behaviors? See, in essence, what they were really saying is he's in jail, he can't get out. We don't want to talk about it. My advice is ask for feedback, smile, embrace it, eat feedback, embrace, ask and tell. Don't put yourself in jail.