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HOW CAN ‘DEEP WORK’ GET YOU BACK TO DOING AN EXTRAORDINARY JOB?

Do you want to do your job or do an extraordinary job?

There are times when we run on all cylinders, everything comes together, and we feel like we are at the top of our game. In contrast, there are times when we may feel we have lost our work mojo, are bored, stagnant, and just go through the motions of our job. I know how I prefer to feel, how about you?

A tool to help you regain focus on what you are doing and how you are doing it is to ensure you immediately implement ‘deep work’ time into your schedule. This mode helps you have an uninterrupted focus on a significant task.

Your ‘deep work’ time should be allocated to projects or tasks that require your undivided attention to move forward and will have the greatest impact. This sounds so straightforward and obvious that you may ask why I even need to write about this, so I challenge you to look at your schedule over the past month and honestly evaluate how much time you allocated to ‘deep work.’

When you allocate time in your day where you can work in isolation, without distraction, the quality and quantity of work you can complete can be extraordinary. It takes time, focus and persistence, but it will be worth it.

Reorganize your month ahead to ensure you have time in your schedule daily for ‘deep work.’

Your days maybe spent, rushing from one meeting to another or putting out continual fires – this is fractured work. Fractured work occurs when you are primarily responding to others’ needs and requirements. It is unrealistic to think that you can cut out fractured work in your day-to-day commitments; however very realistic to combine it with periods of uninterrupted focus.

To do extraordinary work, we need periods of concentration and focus.

Determine how much ‘deep work’ time you need daily, schedule it, and make it a non-negotiable priority for the month ahead.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO ANSWER:

  1. How can I schedule my time in September so five days per week, I have at least one hour daily allocated to ‘deep work’?
  2. Are there any periods in the year that I need more time to focus on ‘deep work’? If so, when? Now go ahead and block off that time in your schedule.
  3. What will you have to do in your space to ensure it will promote ‘deep work,’ or where else can you go to facilitate ‘deep work’?

EFFECTIVE ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS WITH DIRECT REPORTS

Having effective one-on-one meetings is a critical leadership skill. I recommend having weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your direct reports. The objective of this meeting is to ensure there is open and transparent communication on priorities, identification of opportunities, issues or challenges and time to address any questions or concerns that may be affecting the progress of your direct report.

To have effective meetings, ensure you have a plan, are organized to optimize your meeting time, have clear outcomes in mind, and record who is responsible for what by when, making it is easier for you to follow up.

The following are an example of questions that you could ask in a one-on-one:

  • What were your biggest wins over the last week/since we last met?
  • What worked well, what didn’t and why?
  • Are there any areas in that I can support you?
  • What are your top three priorities for the upcoming week?
  • Is there anything else that you would like to cover today?

I encourage you to monitor how much you talk in these meetings. My suggestion is that you should not be speaking for more than 20% of the meeting. Focus on listening, not jumping in and solving problems but asking clarifying questions.

MEETING TIPS

For many, meetings are painful, and I am sure you have felt, heard, or empathize with the following:

‘I have too many meetings.’

‘The meetings are too frequent and too long.’

‘Meetings are a waste of my time.’

‘I hate it when people show up late or don’t contribute – why bother!’

 

Here are some helpful tips for you:

  1. Look at the meetings in your schedule over the upcoming week and determine if your attendance is necessary. If it is not, message the organizer with your rationale and withdraw yourself from attendance.
  2. When scheduling a meeting, ensure that the right people are in attendance and the duration is the correct length (the shorter, the better).
  3. If you are organizing or chairing a meeting in advance, prepare and circulate an agenda along with any documents that need to be reviewed.
  4. Follow up on your meeting notes, complete what you said you would and hold others accountable for assigned tasks.

Speak up on annoying behaviours like:

  • Individuals being on their phones during the meeting, checking emails, social or surfing
  • Arriving late and being disruptive
  • Interrupting and talking too much
  • Not coming prepared
  • No participating

Each behaviour is a sign of disinterest and disengagement, don’t ignore it. Be focused on acknowledging it and changing the behaviour.

If you have any questions about implementing deep work times in your schedule or want to learn more on the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your professional success, please reach out to +1 604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session. If you want monthly leadership and professional development tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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PERSONAL VISION

So many people go through life without a personal vision. If you are one of those individuals (don’t worry, I was too), it is not too late. The following questions will help you think about what your personal vision could look like. Your personal vision should guide you in all other aspects of your life.

  • If you could project ten years from today, where will you be, what will you be doing and who will you be with?
  • If you attain your vision, what would you be doing differently than you are today?
  • Will you commit to taking the actions needed to reach your vision?
  • What obstacles or challenges do you feel you may have to overcome to attain your vision?
  • What support do you need, and from whom to get started, stay motivated and keep accountable?
  • Have you shared your vision with anyone?
  • Share it, review it regularly and commit to moving it forward by continuous execution of ACTION.

 

‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’
– Mary Oliver

 

FIVE EASY STEPS TO YOUR PERSONAL VISION

  1. Develop a PERSONAL VISION – what do you want to do, where do you want to go and how do you
    want to feel? See it, feel it, imagine it.
  2. Set GOALS that will help you achieve your vision. Goals will help you identify actions required for execution. Prioritize your goals and define what you need to focus on per quarter moving forward. List the goals that you will work on through to completion next quarter.
  3. For each goal, PLAN the keystone actions required for every week of the quarter (12 weeks) to produce the results you are looking to achieve. When possible, list action items that can be completed within one week. These will drive your weekly and daily plans.
  4. Commit to working on the WEEKLY ACTIONS. Don’t lose traction. Even when you don’t feel like working on one of the actions, remain true to your commitments. Continuous execution of actions will ensure you retain momentum.
  5. Every Monday, spend 15-30 minutes conducting a WEEKLY REVIEW (what you focused on the week prior) and weekly preview (what you will focus on this week). Your weekly plan will help you map out the actions required in your schedule. Do not skip this step! This will help you MEASURE your weekly success and identify areas that need your attention and improvement.

 

WHAT DOES A GREAT WEEK LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

Our days are often taken up by items we have not planned or scheduled. To allow time in your schedule to work on priorities, I suggest you allocate three periods in your weekly schedule to increase your efficiency and enable greater focus on tasks required for goal attainment.

WEEKLY THREE-HOUR STRATEGIC BLOCK

This three-hour period is scheduled, not interruptible and prioritized in your weekly plan. During this time, turn your notifications off. Don’t answer the phone during this period, and if in an office, close your door. This time will require 100% of your focus and should never be bumped. It will help you dig deep into strategic activities and get things done.

TWO DAILY 30-MINUTE BUFFER BLOCKS

Schedule one 30-minute period in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Use this time to make/answer phone calls, return voice mail, answer/send emails, and deal with low-value activities.

WEEKLY THREE-HOUR FREE BLOCK

Use this time to get away from your computer and perform face-to-face activities. Lunch or coffee with colleagues/clients/stakeholders. This time helps you focus on priority relationships that require your full attention.

 

‘Unless commitment is made, there are only promise and hopes; but no plans.’
– Peter Drucker

 

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

‘Once I have a holiday, I will have more energy.’
‘When we hire additional resources, we will be more organized.’
‘When the economy picks up, things will be better.’
‘Things will settle down after our busy period, and we will have more time to work on process improvements.’

Stop waiting for things to change. Make the change. You have control of one thing – your actions.

Take responsibility for the actions you take.

Commit to focusing on your actions to make your vision a reality, be self-accountable, and consistently execute on what needs to be done.

No more excuses, demonstrate your commitment – let’s get going.

BE IN THE MOMENT

Technology is excellent. However, how often do we get so distracted by it and forget to be in the moment? Alerts pinging, social notices, text messages… all take you away from being in the present. It is almost as though the fear of missing out outweighs social interaction conventions, whether in a professional or social setting. Being continually on is exhausting, stressful, and often a factor of burnout.

How much will you miss if you don’t look at your phone when you are in a meeting or when talking to one of your colleagues, clients, or stakeholders?

I encourage you this week to SLOW DOWN, be present and focus on one thing at a time. You will be surprised by how much you get done and how better you feel.

ACTION COMMITMENTS

Choose one thing that would make a significant difference if you did it daily in your professional or personal life.

Got it? Now commit to doing it daily for one quarter. The simple act of consistently executing on a critical action item that will help you be better in your job or personal life will benefit you fivefold.

 

‘There’s no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.’
– Jack Welch

 

If you have any questions about personal visions, or want to learn more on the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your professional success, please reach out to +1 604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session. If you want monthly leadership and professional development tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY IN LEADERSHIP

Leadership is complex and challenging. You need to set the direction, communicate your vision, and be on top of strategy execution.

Focus on a positive workplace/team culture, align and mobilize talent to ensure they are working to their strengths and effective in their roles.

You are connecting purposefully internally and externally with a timely cadence. And…all the while personally managing your effectiveness and energy levels.

How a person performs in a leadership role matters. This is an obvious statement, but one we need to ponder as the top 20% of leaders could contribute more than 2.8% of the average leader.

Working on soft leadership skills is hard – ironic, isn’t it!

If you rate yourself on how you are performing as a leader on a scale of 1-5 (1-being abysmal to 5-knocking it out of the park)

  • How are you performing?
  • Why do you give yourself this rating, and in what areas can you improve?

No matter the industry sector nor size of the business or team, a leader’s key areas of responsibility include these steps:

1. SETTING THE DIRECTION

Looking back to look forward or conducting a review to do a preview of what’s coming is an essential leadership tactic.

Think of a Venn diagram, with the overlapping circles intersecting in the middle, that central area of overlap is the core focus. In the instance of setting direction, consider what is needed (your customer/client needs), what is your superpower (what you are good at), what drives you (what you are passionate about) and the big business kicker $ (how you can make money).

Be bold when setting your vision, direction, strategies, and resource allocation. Think beyond what is needed and focus on what is required in the future.

QUESTION: Why should we exist five years from now?

2. ALIGNING STRATEGIC PRIORITIES WITH BUSINESS GOALS

When taking on any new priority, ensure first it aligns with your overall business goals. This will ensure that you stay on track and focused for the long game. Don’t forget to set performance milestones, these will motivate and keep you accountable. Eliminate activities that do not contribute to core areas of focus.

QUESTION: What strategic priorities are you working on that ARE NOT aligned with your business goals? Why?

3. LEADING TO AN INDIVIDUALS PSYCHOLOGY

Everyone has a different psychology. What they need from a leader and how they receive it can be unique. A good leader makes the time to understand how to best lead each person in their team and get the psychology and mechanics right to help the individual be the best they can be in their position. A leader applauds an individual’s wins, supports them in situations, and provides professional development to help them be more effective in their role.

QUESTION: Do you know how you can best lead each team member?

4. EXECUTING CONSISTENTLY ON THE RIGHT THING

I love this quote:

‘There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.’
~ Peter Drucker

A reminder to constantly be assessing what the right thing is to be focused on and consistent in the execution of action to get it done. Remember the 80/20 rule or Pareto Principle (80% of our outcomes come from 20% of our causes), prioritize high-impact tasks, resulting in greater productivity and results. Look at your entire task list, prioritize based on the impact level each task would have if complete on your work/business goals, focus first on those top 20% of items on your list as they will result in 80% of the impact that you can generate for the day.

QUESTION: What are the top 20% of tasks I need to focus on today?

5. FOCUSING ON CULTURE AND ENGAGEMENT

One of the most challenging things about leading a business team is not the work that needs to be done but… working with the people, navigating personalities and reframing a business culture to be more positive. Motivating and inspiring someone to improve their mindset, work ethic, or ability to work with others takes time and needs to be very intentional.

From a work culture and employee engagement perspective, I encourage you to start by working on one thing. It could be your: hiring process, onboarding, annual performance reviews, processes to address bottlenecks and points of frustration, engagement survey, revised job descriptions or the incorporation of team building activities to look forward to.

There are so many items that you can focus on, pick the lowest hanging fruit that will help you improve culture and engagement and go for it!

QUESTION: How can you inspire your team to do their best work?

6. CONNECTING WITH STAKEHOLDERS

To ensure strong relationships with your stakeholders, you need to start with a foundation of trust.

When was the last time you asked your stakeholders for feedback on any process or improvement recommendations?

Engage and share the goals you are working on, help your stakeholders understand your opportunities and challenges, harvest new ideas, and stay focused on a forward-looking agenda.

QUESTION: What stakeholders should you connect with this week?

7. MANAGING PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

As a busy professional, one of the most important things to focus on is your time. Take back your calendar, be conscious of every item scheduled one week out and determine if you need to be present in every meeting. Be intentional about what you want to achieve daily, weekly, quarterly and annually.

QUESTION: Can you articulate your professional areas of strength and work style? What changes do you need to make to be more consistent and effective in your role?

 

‘You have to reinvent yourself. The world changes. You have to change.’
~ Roberto Setubal, Chairperson, Itau Unibanco

If you have any questions about leadership and leader’s key responsibilities, or want to learn more on the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your leadership success, please reach out to +1 604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session. If you want monthly leadership tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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STRATEGIC FOCUS AND PLANNING

For our businesses to continue to thrive, we must constantly evolve and adapt to changing needs of the market and our clients. Transformation only happens when we focus on it, and at the beginning of every quarter, it is time to take stock of our areas of focus and determine if we need to change or pivot our direction. Be strategic. Consider the impact of technology, talent, and operational changes to help you continue to grow and remain competitive.

Q1 REVIEW

Strategic focus sustains and builds on an organization’s high performance and effectiveness. Set aside time to conduct a Q1 review:

Step 1: List your three biggest wins and accomplishments from Q1.
Step 2: How far did you get on your Q1 goals?
Step 3: In Q1, list what worked and what didn’t that you can learn from.
Step 4: Define what you will keep doing, improve upon, stop doing and start doing due to this review.
Step 4: List your goals for Q2 and who will be accountable for the results by when.

STRATEGIC FOCUS TIMING

Remember it takes time to define your focus, implement and execute the action.

    • 20% planning
    • 40% implementation and change installation effort
    • 40% sustaining high-performance effort on the direction and plan over the long term

NO STRATEGIC PLAN?

If you don’t have a strategic plan, it is time to work on one. There are three core phases to follow:

Phase One – Assess and Organize

    • Environmental scan and organization assessment

Phase two – Strategic Design and Plan

    • Define company positioning
    • Articulate customer focus
    • Clarify competitive strategies and critical success factors

Phase three – Operational Design

    • Plan priorities
    • Strategic budgets
    • Performance management systems
    • HR management strategies

COMPONENTS OF A WRITTEN STRATEGIC PLAN

There are core components of a strategic plan. The points below can be used as a checklist for you in the design of your plan:

    • Introduction – opening defining your ‘why.’ Include your company vision, mission and values
    • Current State Assessment (SWOT: Strengths – to build on, Weaknesses – to eliminate, opportunities and threats))
    • Environmental Scan
    • Marketplace (segments and characteristics) Analysis: key customers, main products and services, the value of segment, market share percentage, industry competitors, the life cycle of product or service
    • Organizational Goals
    • Key Success Factors (KSF) and Action Plan (Areas of concentration, actions to develop target measures and baseline data, who is responsible and due date)
    • Core Strategies and Actions for Each Strategy
    • Major Change Summary (summary of significant changes desired over the life of the strategic plan) and Change Management Structure
    • Priority Actions (key must-do actions in addition to the day-to-day operations and other stats that you can complete in addition)and Implementation Game Plan
    • Annual Plan Format – break this down into a yearly roadmap

TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC PLANNING

    1. Have the process facilitated
    2. Take an organization-wide approach and integrate all level planning
    3. Define quantifiable measures of success
    4. Include short and long-term forecasting
    5. Use transparent and straightforward terminology and language
    6. Clarify and benchmark against the competition
    7. Define strategic business units
    8. Make informed budget decisions
    9. Make tough decisions when necessary
    10. Be open to pivoting from the initial direction
    11. Implement an effective process to roll out new initiatives
    12. Empower and support staff to take action on strategic initiatives

Acknowledge that the process does not end once a document is produced. It needs to be executed on, implemented, evaluated and measured. Your strategic plan has to be a living document, one that is continually reviewed.

HOW WELL ARE YOU DOING?

On a scale of 1-5 rank (1 being the lowest and 5 the highest), your organization on the following:

    1. A culture of excellence
    2. Accountability of resource
    3. Effective and efficient business processes
    4. Collaboration and teamwork
    5. Communicated long term vision and direction
    6. Constructive problem solving
    7. Continuous process improvements
    8. Data based decisions
    9. Employee empowerment
    10. Equality of opportunities
    11. Facilities and equipment
    12. High staff productivity and performance
    13. Innovation and creativity
    14. Job design and descriptions
    15. Marketplace competitiveness
    16. Performance appraisals
    17. Profitability consciousness
    18. Quality production of products/delivery of services
    19. Resilience level to adaption to change
    20. Resources (monetary and other)
    21. Reward systems
    22. Staffing levels
    23. Team development
    24. Technology
    25. Visionary leadership

STEP ONE: Highlight any score below three
STEP TWO: Brainstorm action that could be implemented on low scoring areas to raise your rank
STEP THREE: Attain buy-in on identified actions, implement and execute

 

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

~ Winston Churchill

 

If you would like more information on strategic planning, and you need someone to keep you accountable through this process, I can be contacted at +1-604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com. If you want monthly leadership tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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WHY IS COACHING ESSENTIAL TO GREAT LEADERSHIP?

There are various leadership styles we can exhibit, and one of them is the coaching style. 

Coaching requires patience, instruction, and feedback. In a fast-paced working environment, leaders often find it easier to answer a question or solve an issue rather than coaching, as it takes less time. Ironically, the long-term coaching results override the initial time taken, and it is worth adapting your leadership style to have more of an emphasis on coaching your employees. At its core, coaching will help you work with your employee to become:

  1. More self-aware
  2. Help them move forward, learn, develop and grow so they can take on more, and
  3. Create more satisfaction in their roles as they take on added responsibility in their positions.

Coaching is a positive and powerful tool that you can use to improve performance, results, increase engagement and company culture.

I challenge you; the next time you are about to answer or solve a problem for an employee, think long-term and coach the employee through the process, I appreciate that it will take time, but the outcome will be worth your return on investment. 

 

You cannot teach a man anything. 

You can only help him discover it within himself.

-Galileo Galilei

 

Coaching benefits:

  • Coaching can positively impact performance, culture, and the bottom line.
  • Coaching can help individuals unlock their potential
  • Ongoing coaching dialogue improves clarity and understanding of expectations
  • Coaching allows leaders to delegate, give challenging assignments, and promote an environment of learning and knowledge 
  • More companies are trying annual bonuses to a leader’s development of their direct reports. The reality is that there is an understanding that coaching does positively affect bottom-line results

Listen intently and ask powerful questions

When we listen, we are not distracted by anything else around us. The individual has our full attention, and we are not as prone to jump in and provide an answer, solution, or fill in the gaps. 

Ask powerful, short questions. When formulating a question, I keep in mind two things: 

Why are they telling me this?

What’s the real problem?

I then follow with an open-ended question that starts with ‘What…‘

Try the following questions in your next one-on-one:

  1. What should we focus on (a work project, people issue, or behaviour) discussing that will help you most?
  2. What is the heart of this issue for you? Tell me more… what else…
  3. What is the challenge, and why is this important to you? 
  4. What have you done so far to address the issue?
  5. What is your ideal outcome?
  6. What is the next best step to take?

 

Most people do not listen with the intent to learn and understand. They listen with the intent to reply. They are either speaking or preparing to speak.

-Stephen Covey

 

Don’t be the bottleneck

Leaders and managers need to coach their people. Coaching helps decrease overdependence overwhelm, and this dependency creates bottlenecks and frustration for both leader and staff member. 

Stop being the bottleneck and allow your team members to develop. Coach your team members to help them learn and grow. 

Empower your staff by giving them the responsibility to do their job, coach them through knowledge gaps and then allow them to run with it. Autonomy allows the employee to learn by doing and demonstrates your trust in their ability. Trust that there will be setbacks and debrief on these areas in your regular one-on-one meetings. 

Coaching Tips

  • ask one question at a time 
  • listen with intent for the facts and maintain neutrality
  • ask ‘what’ questions
  • be curious about the details
  • focus on what matters most
  • explore off-hand comments (what is not being said). They will often assist in getting to the heart of a problem
  • ask questions that will help the individual expand the way they are thinking about the problem or issue
  • don’t use rhetorical questions that offer advise
  • Using the 80/20 concept allow the staff member to speak 80% of the time and yourself only 20% 

If you would like more information on leadership and coaching tactics, and you need someone to keep you accountable for your process and execution, I can be contacted at +1-604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com. If you want monthly leadership tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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