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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.

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Core Connections | Expand Your Network

Over the years, you would have developed a circle of individuals around you, your trusted friends, advisors and colleagues. It is vital to continue to build on this group adding additional people who may be able to help you attain your goals more efficiently and faster. Expanding your circle is not all that difficult; the first step is to ask your current connections if they have any suggestions on who you need to know that would help you in your current role or attain your goals moving forward. Secondly, I encourage you to reach out to individuals on LinkedIn who you would like to get to know. When sending them an invite, add a brief note explaining your ‘why.’

I try to have conversations with at least ten new people weekly, and I walk my talk – I reach out to individuals recommended and connect through LinkedIn. LinkedIn had it right when they broke down their connections into 1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree levels. I am sure you have heard of the infamous six degrees of separation. It is a theory based on the premise that even though we live in a world of 7.6 billion people, in all likely hood we are only six degrees (or less) away from someone that we want to connect to. The idea is that we are all connected in some way, through personal or professional acquaintances, and if you want to communicate with a specific person, then you start by telling all you know of your request, and it goes on from there.

The thought of ‘networking’ often gives individuals a level of anxiety. I want to help you develop a different outlook on ‘networking,’ and during this time of COVID, I have felt it to be easier than it ever has been (yes, I really do mean that!)

The majority of my clients do not come from my social media feed, advertising or marketing but through referrals. The referrals primarily come from my circle of connectors (or circle of influence around me); they have gotten to know me well and readily refer people to me when they see a fit.

Core Connections | Expand Your Network - Challenge - Jenny Reilly Consulting

Jenny Reilly Consulting – June Challenge

June Challenge

Set a simple goal of initiating a meeting with two new people weekly (phone call, zoom or depending on where you live, an in-person connection). If you fail one week, don’t stop or lose your momentum; reach out to two more people and start again.

Be curious – ask questions rather than talk about yourself

Be generous – share your contacts or resources that may help the individual in their role

Be teachable – if the individual has a new or different opinion than yours, listen and learn

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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Verbal Fluency and 3 Ways to Motivate You to Take Action

The Importance of Verbal Fluency

I have had the opportunity to work with educated and technically brilliant individuals and the most hardworking and verbally fluent entrepreneurs who have excelled in their field.

The individuals who stand out to me have verbal fluency, can communicate their point, develop and build relationships, and have increased levels of influence and persuasion skills through their communication ability. Being verbally fluent enables you to speak comfortably and confidently to anyone, and this is a skill that I cannot emphasize enough is essential to success.

Being verbally fluent does not mean that you have to have the most extensive vocabulary. Instead, you know how to communicate and what works best to be easily understood by the receiver.

When you are initially connecting with someone finding common ground is crucial. By that, I do not mean peppering someone with question after question, but being genuinely interested, listening more than you speak and sometimes even showing vulnerability, especially when you are discussing complex topics. It is not often that I connect with someone whereby I cannot find something we have in common. When you look for similarities rather than differences, you will find them everywhere, and they are often around family, travel, food, interests or concerns.

Once you find something in common, there is no such thing as breaking the ice – you have already done it. I often find myself saying ‘tell me more’ when meeting individuals and learning their stories. Asking an individual to ‘tell me more’ is not a technique but a genuine interest I have in learning more about an individual. Listening more than speaking, being fully present genuine and warm, comes naturally when you are enjoying making a connection.

 

“The individuals who stand out to me have verbal fluency, can communicate their point, develop and build relationships…” ~ Jenny Reilly

 

Analysis Paralysis | 3 Easy Steps to Motivate Your to Take Action 

When we are at the crux of making a significant decision or involved in a critical or complex project, we may go through a period whereby we experience analysis paralysis. When you feel dumbfounded by the number of options or information that needs to be processed, you may procrastinate on the action that should be taken.

Follow these three steps to help you get to the other side, and focus on what matters to enable you to be productive and attain greater results:

 

3 Easy Steps to Motivate you To Take Action (1)

 

If you need help developing your verbal fluency or getting motivated again. Get in touch with us today.  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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Value Chain Analysis | Do You Have a Competitive Advantage?

VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS

 

  • Do you have a competitive advantage?
  • Has your competitive advantage been recently confirmed?
  • When was the last time you performed a benchmarking analysis on benefits that your company can provide?

A Value Chain Analysis is often only conducted when starting a small business; however, it is something that should also be reviewed quarterly. To maintain your competitive advantage for the long term, you must perform your activities more effectively than your competitors. This can be through specific differentiation or in some form of cost advantage.

I find it helpful to analyze my business through a value chain analysis, reviewing each value-creating activity and determining if there is potential to improve and provide additional value. Value chain analysis can be made in both product and service businesses.

As a service provider, I review the sequence of activities leading to client acquisition and retention. The analysis’s objective is to identify and reduce or eliminate activities that incur costs and affect profits that are non-value-adding to a client. Reviewing these activities quarterly ensures a continual focus on added value for clients, and my consultancy retains a competitive advantage over my competitors. It also helps to crystalize the business’s strengths, weaknesses and prioritize areas for addition or improvement.

Total Quality Management

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

When you buy a product or attain a service, you expect high quality, don’t you?

Quality provides your business with a competing edge. In the simplest form, Total Quality Management (TQM) can be characterized by ‘getting it right the first time, and every time.’ The emphasis is on meeting and preferably exceeding customer expectations and requirements at a price that clients/customers are willing to buy.

When I am leading quarterly reviews for clients, in addition to providing insight into the business value chain analysis, Kaisen methodology, and the importance of benchmarking, I spend considerable time talking about quality. To provide a culture of quality in your business, employee involvement is essential at every level and is a continuous effort, not a single-time exercise.

There are multiple steps a business can take to address a culture of quality, and below is a list of four items to consider to get you started:

  • A high level of communication and consistency in messaging between all levels in the organization ensures a transparent understanding of quality expectations and goals.
  • Customer focus on ensuring clients or customers are satisfied with the quality of the product or service.
  • Providing training to ensure quality in all process areas.
  • Employee empowerment to make process changes that will improve quality.

Benchmarking

BENCHMARKING

Do you want to be the best in your sector?

The activity of benchmarking needs to be on ‘repeat’ in your business, and I encourage this as part of your quarterly review. Benchmarking enables you to compare your business against a similar company and provides insight into your performance. Benchmarking can also identify pitfalls to avoid and factors of success that you may not have previously considered incorporating into your business. Benchmarking is similar to the Kaizen process however is primarily based on external rather than internal analysis.

Follow these steps below:

  • Decide on the function or process to be benchmarked in your sector
  • Identify company/s that you will benchmark
  • Outline measures for the benchmarking process
  • Research and analyze information relating to the selected benchmarking measures
  • Define areas of improvement
  • Implement new processes or practices against revised targets

 

If you are interested in learning more about the topics above, or 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.

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KAIZEN = Change for the Better through Continuous Improvement

KAIZEN

For over 14 years, I had the opportunity to lead a program in Japan where I visited many companies across the country and learned first-hand the Kaizen methodology’s benefits. You may be familiar with how Kaizen was popularized, so bear with me while I briefly explain.

Kaizen is a term in Japan that simply means ‘continuous improvement’ or ‘change for the better’ and is a business philosophy around gradual and methodical product and service improvement that increases quality and productivity levels. Through Kaizen, Toyota revolutionized its car manufacturing production facility. Continually evaluating, fine-tuning, and implementing better and more efficient changes to improve the production line.

I use the Kaizen principles when evaluating my business consulting, leadership training, and executive coaching practice quarterly. I review processes (think process mapping each of your business activities) and also strategies being used in goal attainment and analyze where an issue has been identified that would warrant improvement.

I encourage you to think about how you could do the same in your business no matter your industry sector.

 

Seriously… why continue to do the same thing in the same way if you continually get the same results?

 

Kaizen - Plan, Do, Review

 

Focus on making processes better and more efficient to improve your productivity and increase your client service levels.

KAIZEN | PLAN

Quarterly, after I have conducted a thorough review of goal progress or OKR’s (objectives and key result) attainment and analysis of strategies and processes used in the quarter, I then determine if an action taken could have been done in a more efficient or client-focused manner. Areas identified for improvement are prioritized based on the greatest return on efficiency, and actions that will increase client satisfaction levels.

KAIZEN | DO

The next step is to identify an action plan of improvement for each process chosen. The action plan should map out the current process from beginning to end and from data analysis or feedback given, compare potential solutions, and select and detail the best implementation option. Time should be scheduled in advance in your schedule to work on and implement the desired changes.

KAIZEN | REVIEW

Test the new process to determine if any other tweaks can be made for improvement and measure that the planning phase’s improvements are accurate.

TEAM

The Kaizen model of continuous improvement includes the involvement of employees who are a part of the process that has been chosen for improvement. Involving the individuals affected by the process improvement is common sense and improves teamwork, discussion on quality improvements, and between levels in your organization.

In larger groups of employees, I have seen this process work very effectively. It has improved individuals’ discipline in performing activities, increased morale by empowering staff to improve how they do their job, increased engagement and employee satisfaction levels. In larger teams, quality circles have been implemented of five to seven employees who meet regularly to discuss any issues from work processes and then determine, assess and choose solutions that will address the problems and result in improvement.

Questions to help your Q1 review:

 

KAIZEN | PLAN

  • What were your Q1 (January – March 2021) goals and objectives?
  • What were the projects and key results for each goal?

KAIZEN | DO

  • Were there any unexpected factors that arose (e.g. COVID restrictions)?
  • Was there project scope creep? If so, what?

KAIZEN | REVIEW

  • Did you achieve your planned results?
  • What worked? What didn’t? Why?
  • What lessons will you take forward from this?

 

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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