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The Importance of Transitions

“It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive.”
— William Bridges

This quote from William Bridges emphasizes the importance of transitions in our personal and professional lives. While some transitions can be challenging to prepare for, they can also give us energy, motivation, and inspiration. How we react during a change is critical to our success as leaders. We must focus on our leadership traits and how we react in different situations, primarily how we handle stress and unpredictability.

It’s essential to listen first, act consistently, and communicate transparently.

Here are some tips to keep in mind during a transition:

  • FOCUS on the next best step you can make and act on it.
  • THINK about the consequences of what you say and how you say it – before opening your mouth.
  • LISTEN to your team, ask questions, and be curious.
  • USE facts to back up your perceptions.
  • INVEST in what will put you in a better position to improve productivity.
  • CREATE a one-page document that includes your vision, values, strategy pillars, and targets – this will help you remain focused on what is critical to the triple bottom line and not get sidetracked.
  • FOCUS on what you are good at and what you can get results on that no one else can – delegate everything else, and don’t get stuck in the minutia.

Remember to be conscious of your time management, the talent you are surrounded by, and your operating rhythm to ensure you spend time on what matters most. Conduct a weekly review and preview of your priorities to stay on track and focus time quarterly on organizational operational and strategic issues.

Transitions can be challenging but can also be opportunities for growth and success. Embrace the change, focus on what you can control, and lead with clarity and purpose.

“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”
— John C. Maxwell

If you have any questions or want to learn more on the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your success, please contact us or reach out directly to jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session.

 

 

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First Impressions and Self Care

First Impressions Count

‘You never get a second chance to make the first impression.’
— Andrew Grant

It doesn’t matter the situation; first impressions count. You will always be remembered for your first interaction, so smile and go into it with the intent of the interaction being positive. You can’t fake a smile. You can see it in someone’s eyes (yes, their eyes) and body language and hear it in their tone of voice.

‘ Two things remain irretrievable: time and a first impression.’
— Cynthia Ozick

When you are 100% focused on those you are talking to, you will find yourself paying close attention to their language, mood and tone of voice. The more open and curious you are, the more they will be in return. I enjoy meeting new people. It is not the art of small talk that you need to meet new people; just plain good manners and knowing how to listen.

Take Care

Self Care - Jenny Reilly Consulting, Vancouver Executive Coach

If your child, family member, partner, or workmate is not doing well– you stop what you are doing and take care of them and give them the attention they require. We often put ourselves last in our order of priorities. I have been guilty of not always prioritizing my health and have turned this around – if I am not at my best, how can I be my best with others?

Trust me, it is noticed if you are not sleeping well, eating well, getting exercise, taking note of your appearance or going to work ‘with a low readiness score, ‘ It’s time to take note of how you are ‘turning up at work and home.’

Two clients in January were singing the praises of their Oura ring (ouraring.com) that tracks their sleep score and readiness level, activity, heart rate and body temperature. I was intrigued and purchased one, which is an excellent accompaniment to my Apple watch. Both help me stay on top of how I care for and prioritize my health.

Surround Yourself With The Right People

Surrounding yourself with the right people in your personal and professional life is critical. It impacts your mood, motivation and engagement levels.

I often see in professional settings the hesitance to move someone on if they are not a good performer or fit for the position or team. They may have been a strong performer in the past; however, their heart is no longer in the job, or they are not in the right position. You are only helping an individual if they are in the right job, and placing an underachiever in a team of high performers can pull a team down. It is often assumed that the poor performer will pick up on excellent performer’s habits. However, the opposite tends to happen, and bad habits spread.

‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’
— Jim Rohn

Your team’s makeup is critical to its success. For each person in your team, rank them on their level of effectiveness in their position (1 low – to five high). For anyone, you rank as a three or under, define if training can help performance or if a position shift is the best alternative.

DISC

Everyone has their own psychology, so how you approach and talk to one person may not be the best way to speak to another. I have been using the DiSC profile with my clients and facilitated 100+ coaching sessions with this tool to help individuals be better communicators.

DiSC is an exceptionally popular behavioural assessment that helps individuals identify their behavioural styles and learn how to interact more effectively with others. The assessment profile will help you adapt your communication style and expectations to increase results, improve team performance, target new hires/clients, develop “rockstar” rapport, and more.

If you are interested in the DiSC profile, the cost is $150, and with an hours debrief with me and the assessment, it is $500. If you want a 60-90 minute training session with your team, the assessment costs $150 per person and a $1,500 workshop fee. Please contact us or reach out directly to jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session.

 

Jenny Reilly Consulting, Vancouver Executive Coach

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Tactics to Help You in Periods of Professional Transitions

Do you find yourself answering “YES” to any of the questions below?

  • Are you making or thinking about a career transition this year?
  • Are you in the process of turning your business, department, or team around?
  • Have you recently been promoted and struggling to determine what to focus on first?
  • Are you considering a move into a different area of the business or a geographical move in your job?
  • Are you in the position where you now lead some of your former peers?

Your professional life is made up of one transition after another. All professional transitions provides you with the ability to shine, falter or fail. Shine, and you will advance. Falter, and you may lose the credibility and trust of your colleagues. Fail, and you may not recover if you don’t have the right attitude or outlook to learn from your mistakes and move forward.

‘What got you here won’t get you there.’
~ Marshall Goldsmith

 Steps to Help During Professional Transitions

  1. Determine what you need to learn – fast. How does the company, unit or team operate? Who has influence and why? What internal and external alliances can help support you in your role?
  2. Identify your ‘A’ priorities. Along with A priorities, integrate changes that need to be made in the structure and processes to increase efficiency, productivity and the triple bottom line.
  3. Outline your vision, goals and strategic intent in the position. Be communicative and transparent.
  4. Build your team. If you are taking over leading a team, evaluate your people. Determine if they are in the right seat, need development or are not a good fit.
  5. Focus on early wins. Identify the most pressing weaknesses and make the necessary changes to turn those around. This will help you build credibility in your position.

‘ You only know what you know.’
~ Loretta Swit

If you have any questions about professional transitions or want to learn more on the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your success, please contact us or reach out directly to jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session.

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Leadership Tools For Your Day-To-Day

I am sharing two leadership tools with you to help you focus on your role.

  1. A brief questionnaire to help you identify your leadership focus.
  2. A self-ranking assessment to assist you with your core leadership activities.

Tool 1: How is Your Leadership Focus?

STEP 1: Answer the following ten questions in the questionnaire below with a yes or no answer.

STEP 2: Prioritize your ‘yes’ answers in order of what would help you most in your role if improved.

STEP 3: Select the top three, and list one thing you can do in each area to improve. These are your top 3 areas to focus. Implement these actions into your schedule to follow through to ensure improvement.

Leadsership Tools - Questionnaire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tool 2: Your Core Leadership Activities

Leadership requires continual development. Competencies can be strengthened when managing yourself and your team and supervising managers, leads and senior leaders.

HOW DO YOU RATE YOURSELF ON YOUR CORE LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES?

Step 1: Rate yourself on a scale of 1 (being low) – 5 (being excellent) on the following.

Step 2: In areas where you are rating yourself low, prioritize improvement for next month.

Leadsership Tools - Core Activities

 

If you have any questions about these leadership tools or want to learn more on the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your leadership success, please contact us, or reach out directly to jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session.

 

Leadership Inner Circle

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2022 Review & 2023 Preview

It’s time to review your past year and set your professional and personal goals and intentions for 2023.

2022 Review

Reflect on 2022 and answer the following four questions:

  1. What worked well for you professionally and personally in 2022?
  2. What did not work and why?
  3. What were your most significant time wasters this year?
  4. What did you enjoy doing most in 2022?

“We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.”
— John Dewey

2023 Preview

Now the fun part, projecting ahead and defining what you want to focus on professionally and personally in the next year.

Annually, I set between seven and ten professional and personal goals.

Professional and personal goals

 

To start, I look at the buckets that are important to me professionally and personally and go about listing the focus for the upcoming year:

For example:

PEOPLE – is everyone in my consultancy in the right seat? They must get it, want it and have the capacity to do it. I then look at how I hire, onboard, train, review, engage and recognize individuals.

CLIENTS – are our clients satisfied with our work? Check-in on client satisfaction, and determine what we can do better to serve client needs.

DATA – what metrics am I using to measure my consultancy. Focusing on my scoreboard of 3-5 core high level numbers form my business that are essential for continuity and scalability.

PROCESSES – review core processes and determine if they remain simple, scalable, efficient, and profitable to the bottom line. Determine if any new processes are required and ensure they are executed uniformly.

FINANCES – review current cash position, pricing model, areas that can be tightened up and financial reporting model for improvements.

Action Plan

After you have determined the areas on which you would like to focus your professional and personal goals in 2023, it is time to write them into a S.M.A.R.T.E.R. statement.

 

Goal Planning

The last step to ensure action on each of the identified goals is to write the first three tasks that you will complete under each goal. This will give you the momentum to move forward and help you work on your goal through to completion.

Action Plan 2023

 

 

If you need executive support to create a production action plan for 2023, please contact us, or reach out directly to jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session.

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