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Resilience, Grit and Optimism! | Learn from the Experts

 

Life throws you curve balls continuously. I believe that three key attributes will serve you well, resilience, grit, and optimism.

How you respond to a situation through action, language, and body language is critical. Your determination to move forward out of a situation requires grit, and to positively envisage a path ahead involves optimism. Your level of self-confidence, mood, emotions, and attitude will help you guide your journey, so you want them to be positive.

  • Look for the good in a situation — the glass half full is always better than the alternative.
  • Look for the lesson in a negative or challenging situation, name it, learn from it and move on.
  • Look for the solutions to a problem. Be curious, process issues into smaller compartments, and work through each part until you resolve the issue.
  • Relentlessly focus on your goals, and they will come to fruition.

LEARN FROM PEOPLE WHO YOU DEEM SUCCESSFUL… ASK THE EXPERTS!

 

This week ask two people who you identify as successful (professionally, personally, financially) and ask them,

 

‘Can you share three strategies you use around productivity, balancing life’s demands, or finances that you feel I could use in my life?‘.

 

By asking two people per week for the next month (yes, you can do this in person, over the phone, via email or text), you will have 24 options to experiment with to help you improve your performance.

I encourage you to listen, be curious, and then personally try the strategies that resonate with you.

Why reinvent the wheel? If something is proven to have worked for someone around productivity, life hacks, or finances, try it and find out for yourself if it can help you in your situation.

 

‘For 20 minutes in the morning, as a part of my daily routine, I read for professional development. Learning new skills, and developing capabilities and competencies enables me to get better at my consultancy’s critical tasks. Continuous professional development is the key to success.’

~ Jenny Reilly ~

I asked two successful business owners to share three strategies that they have used to help balance life’s demands.

Heather Piowar

Co-Founder — Our Research: Tools to make scholarly research more open, connected, and reusable

Sarah Hay

Founder — Sarah Hay Design: Interior Design and Home Staging Specialist

  • Productivity — On my to do list put my most difficult tasks #1. Getting it done first makes the rest of the day easier.
  • End of work day routine — Organize and prep for next day.
  • Balancing life’s demands — Take time each day to exercise, meditate and laugh. It’s a good day if I get all three in!

 

‘Throughout my many years of experience I have encountered leaders who have lost the drive that propels them forward personally and professionally.

Without it both companies and individuals become stagnant. My objective is to help individuals and companies develop strategies to sustain focus and high-performance over the long term and continue to grow.’

~ Jenny Reilly ~

 

If you are interested in learning about professional development or executive coaching can help support your leadership or your leadership team, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com to schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session.

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Take A Break | Forest Bathing Vs. Beach Bathing

As an Australian living in Canada, at this time of year, when I am seeing my family and friends post pictures of being at the beach, I am very envious. Going to the beach was one of my favourite pastimes that I had to swap for going into the forest.

Forest Bathing Vs. Beach Bathing

Having a 90-pound bernadoodle that requires a great deal of exercise, my go-to, favourite thing to do is to go for long walks in the forest or along the waterfront.

As I put on multiple layers to go outside in Vancouver, Canada, these breaks in my routine help refresh and rejuvenate me.

Now you may have heard of the term ‘Forest Bathing,’ and if not, excuse me while I briefly explain.

This term was initially coined in Japan and called Shinrin-Yoku, a.k.a forest bathing. In stressful positions, we can forget how many hours daily we spend behind our screen, lose track of time and work through even when our energy, focus and productivity are waning.

A short walk outside, around the block, or if you are fortunate enough to live near a forest, a walk in the woods can be a great way to help you reenergize and motivate yourself.

When walking in the forest, especially when I am with my daughter and bernedoodle, we practice being mindful, meditative walking, or simply being aware of what we SEE, HEAR, SMELL or TOUCH. Turn off your cell phone, walk slowly, often stop and look around and engage your senses.

If you are not already, schedule time in your day to get outside and take a break.

The return on investment for your focus and productivity will be threefold.

 

Do you feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to take a break. Are you overwhelmed by all your priorities? Get in touch today to see how we can help.

If you are interested in learning about how professional development or executive coaching can help support your leadership or your leadership team, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com to schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

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Stop the continuous ‘grind’!

Are you in continuous ‘grind’ mode –working long hours, not eating nor sleeping well, not taking breaks to refresh and relax, and feeling as though you are under continuous pressure?  Working like this does not increase your productivity or results; it often has the opposite effect. If you are on a continuous ‘grind’ on  the treadmill going uphill, you will inevitably burn out. 

 

We are now more than ever always connected and easily accessible. Instilling some boundaries to our personal and home time is essential as otherwise, the overlap becomes seamless, and little time is spent on self-care, relationships, and personal growth.

Are you in continuous grind mode? - Jenny Reilly Consulting - Executive Coaching

 

REFUEL

When you are more rested, you simply get more done. You have more energy, are more efficient, and can think and act clearly through a problem to resolution. Refuel with healthy food and try to have three meals per day, at least five hours apart. Reduce your sugar intake and try to eat clean. Combined with a healthy diet, exercise can help restore your body. 

PLAN

Enabling periods in your schedule to plan and think daily is worth your investment of time. At the end of the day, reflect on what was accomplished, record it, and prioritize your top three focus areas for the day ahead.

QUALITY

Through COVID, we relied more on social media than we have in the past to stay in contact. Unfortunately, it is also a great time suck, so challenge yourself daily to reduce your time on social media continually.  It is now time to spend quality time reconnecting in-person to develop your professional and personal relationships. These in-person relationships will inspire, reinvigorate, and motivate us to think bigger, be better, and be happier. 

 

We have all been victims of our own continuous ‘grind’ mode. We hear these great ideas that we know will benefit us; however, putting them into action can be the hardest part to implement. So, let’s consider the consequences of taking this advice, that extra hour you take to recharge you could pay it back to your business, client, or personal endeavour threefold because you’re more invigorated, less stressed, and more focused on the outcome. It’s a Win-Win!

 

Stop the continuous grind and ensure you get more rest. Reflect on your daily accomplishments and target priorities for the day ahead. Decrease your social media time and reconnect in person. Eat well and be active; this will help restore your mind and body.

 

We can help you with your professional development or provide tailored executive coaching that can help support your leadership or your leadership team, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com to schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

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Quarter 3 – Refine Your Strategic Intent

Strategic Intent

What challenges, opportunities or issues should you professionally be focusing on this Quarter?

Every Quarter I block a day off to work on my business. I structure time to do a review of the past Quarter. I then assess the following categories to help determine the top three areas that I should strategically focus on for the upcoming Quarter:

Business Strategy Defined for the Quarter – review, check if still relevant and a priority, and determine if the strategy needs to be tweaked or changed.

Money + Business Finances – evaluate the past Quarter’s financial performance and update the future Quarter’s projections. Assess costs that could be reduced, determine if there are any opportunities to increase profits.

Marketing – review ROI on marketing expenditure, assess distribution channels for improvements, determine any new implementations and digital marketing strategies for next Quarter. Review website content and assess if any changes, updates or additions are needed.

Sales – review the sales process and determine any areas for improving customer focus and service. Develop your revised sales strategy for next Quarter.

Employees – connect with employees to discuss satisfaction, ideas for improvement and overall feedback on the business/unit.

Operations – assess how the business can be leaner and more efficient, focus on reducing costs, and consider ways in which processes can be improved to increase output.

Technology – review technology expenditure in the last Quarter. Evaluate software being used, and determine better ways to utilize it for maximum productivity and profitability.

 

“Designing a winning strategy is the art of asking questions, experimenting and then constantly renewing the thinking process by questioning the answers.”

~ Constantinos Markides ~

Professor of Strategic Leadership at London Business School

 

Strategy Steps - Strategic Intent - Quarter 3 Strategy 2021 - Jenny Reilly Consulting

After prioritizing areas that you want to focus on, follow the next three steps:

Step 1. Articulate your top three Q3 strategies.

Step 2. Define the capabilities, gaps, or potential threats that may stand in the way of achieving your strategy.

Step 3. Keep it simple, detail steps that you will be required to take, by when and by whom through the implementation stage.

Capabilities

Your capabilities, skills, knowledge and competencies enable you to fulfill your strategy. Your capabilities can be compiled under your reputation, people, technology, assets and finances.

The following questions will help provide focus on areas that need concentration and development:

  • Do you have a poor, satisfactory, good, or great reputation?
  • Do you have a loyal client/customer base?
  • Do you have a strong, recognizable brand?
  • Do you have knowledgeable, engaged, experienced and skilled people?
  • Do you utilize technology that meets your expectations to help you grow and scale in your position or business?
  • Do you have sufficient financial reserves to cover six months of expenses in case of emergencies?

As a result of answering the above questions, what areas should you concentrate on to improve in Q3?

For each area identified, estimate how much time you should spend working on improvements, and block off the required time in your schedule over the upcoming three months.

Action + Execution

 

“Strategy is easy – the day-to-day and month-to-month decisions required to manage a business – are hard.”

~ Arthur Rock ~

 

Strategy execution is difficult to facilitate effectively without some of the following core components:

  • Structure: structure enables employees to understand their role and how their core tasks fit into the big picture.
  • Processes + Systems: provide clear and transparent information and a map of how to do things and in what order.
  • People: your people’s skillsets and mindsets are key to having effective processes, procedures, and structures in place.
  • Incentives: rewards enable motivation, establish metrics and key performance indicators to follow in the delivery of strategies.

Your leadership style and behaviour set the tone for your business/unit. When leading a strategic intent, your authenticity is instilled by what you say, what you do, and how you do it. Strategic leadership is based on decisiveness on how to move forward founded on due diligence. Analysis of the facts and stakeholder input provides you with a direction forward and negates personal perceptions getting in the way and lending to errors of judgement. Being decisive in your strategy execution enables you a path to follow, and at the same time, pivot or adjust as new information is presented or circumstances change.

Executing tasks requires time to find the time you have to block off uninterrupted periods in your schedule to enable focus and efficiencies. Not having enough time to execute on a strategic intent is an excuse. Make the time, prioritize your schedule and be diligent in following through.

 

What is your strategic leadership capacity?

Sound knowledge of strategy is critical for all in leadership positions. The importance of identifying, analyzing complex business decisions, crafting strategic intent statements, and being confident in making informed decisions cannot be understated.

Your strategic leadership capacity can be developed, and the best way to start this process is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of all management and strategy areas. Strategy needs to be continually reviewed in our evolving, dynamic and ever-changing environment. Integrating different viewpoints when conducting your analysis of an issue, evaluating those viewpoints and selecting the most appropriate course of action will enable you to develop into a strong strategic leader.

DO YOU WANT TO BE A STRATEGIC LEADER?

Strategic leaders are attentive and listen carefully to external perceptions and internal stories from colleagues on their business. Checking in on internal and external feedback can provide a bountiful of information that can be extremely useful from a strategic standpoint. If there are patterns in the stories, there are often multiple areas that can be pinpointed that will require strategic leadership attention.

Questions you could ask stakeholders:

  • If you had to describe the current business strategies through an internal story that shone in either a positive or negative light, what would it be?
  • Are there any reoccurring problematic issues that are occurring in the business? Can you define them and provide your feedback on how they could be addressed?

Questions for you to consider in Q3:

  • In comparison to the current reputation of your business, can you provide a description of where you would prefer it too ideally be?
  • What are the normal processes you go through when making significant strategic decisions that will affect the bottom line?
  • Think about the internal business culture and the ways in which people behave and are treated within the organization. What are three things that you could be doing in Q3 to improve the business culture?

Tips for leading strategically include:

  • Consider internal and external data factors in the execution of your decisions.
  • Be mindful of the complexity and ambiguity around strategic issues, and ensure communication is transparent when factors are not straightforward.
  • Integrate ideas from cross-functional areas in your business to ensure diverse positions are considered.
  • Don’t micromanage; in fact, take a step back and allow others to manage their responsibilities and deliverables.

 

We can help you with your professional development or provide tailored executive coaching that can help support your leadership or your leadership team, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com to schedule a convenient time for a complimentary strategy session.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

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Your Top 6 Tips to Avoid Zoom Fatigue

Zoom Benefits and Zoom Fatigue

I think I may be one of the few who enjoy connecting over zoom. I have become accustomed to the number of daily video connections. In fact, in my consultancy, my productivity has doubled as I no longer have to include travel time between strategy consults or coaching meetings and can use this time to work on other areas in the business. However, I do empathize with individuals who have reached zoom fatigue and are struggling with the number of zoom calls they are participating in weekly.

In a Forbes article, the following statistics were referenced, which can’t be ignored:

  • 45% of employees reported attending more meetings during the pandemic than when working in the office
  • 40% of employees have experienced mental exhaustion from video calls, and
  • 52 % of employees said background noise and/or poor audio quality disrupted their focus

 

The following Top 6 simple tips will allow you to get into a rhythm that will help you stay organized and engaged during your zoom connections.

  1. Set up a suitable space for zoom calls. Where possible, have an area that is not busy, cluttered or messy. I have moved my desk, so a white wall is behind me. If you feel it necessary, either blur your background on add a virtual background. *Warning: more often than not, virtual backgrounds do not look great. The picture may be interesting; however, you will become distorted or often show a large shadow around your head when you move your head or hands. Please do not put moving videos as your zoom background screen. I was on a call where the person had a video of their small child riding their bicycle in circles. Cute for the first two seconds; however, it did not leave a lasting professional impression.
  2. Mute yourself when you are not talking so others on the call do not have to hear loud background noise such as a lawnmower, a dog barking (yes, that usually is my 90-pound Bernadoodle), or family noise.
  3. Turn off your notifications, so they do not go off loudly during a connection.
  4. Don’t multitask when on a zoom call – be focused, and the meeting will be faster and more efficient (no typing or answering phone calls/texts) when on a video call.
  5. If there is no agenda, there is no reason for a meeting. If there is no objective behind a meeting nor an agenda, I question the necessity and if attending is the best use of your time. Make use of your time; it is valuable and cannot be regained after use.
  6. End meetings promptly and on time. If you cover all that is on the agenda, call the meeting to a close, don’t go until the meeting end time or add additional items to the agenda.

 

Remote meetings do not have to be problematic; we need to be prepared differently; however, the premise of what needs to be done is the same as in-person meetings.

If you have not bought a webcam, it is well worth the investment. I use a Logitech C922; it is clear and has excellent autofocus, stereo sound, and straightforward to use.

Happy Zooming!

 

We can help you with your professional development or provide tailored executive coaching that can help support your leadership or your leadership team, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com to schedule a convenient time for a complimentary zoom strategy session.

Get your leadership strategies and tactics in my monthly newsletter, sign up here to subscribe.

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