Posts

, ,

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.

/by
, ,

Leadership and Coaching | How to Predict Your Success?

How to Predict Your Success?

 

Predict Your Success | What’s Your Direction?

There are people that you come across that you know are going to be successful – do you agree? This doesn’t mean they are better than you, but that they simply focus on the right things, manage their time well, and have a clearer vision of what they want in their life. It’s time to predict your success!

Are you ready to set your direction for success?

  • What is important to you in your professional and personal life?
  • What are you focusing on now, and why?
  • Are you focusing on your highest-value activities?
  • Do you need to re-evaluate where you are spending your time?
  • Are you willing to try strategies that others use to be more focused and results orientated?
  1. Focus 100% on high-value tasks that will bring you significant results.
  2. Block off uninterrupted time chunks daily to move your goals forward exponentially.

Do not waiver on project focus, and your results will be three-fold by year-end.

 

80/20 Rule of Thumb

80/20 Rule of Thumb

 

Focus On Success | 80/20 Rule of Thumb

What is holding you back from getting what needs to be done? Is it time to identify your key constraints?

20% of our activities typically produce 80% of our results

When looking at your day and formulating your priorities, you will be surprised how much you can get done when you focus on the top 20%.

It is easy to waste time or be ‘busy’ on unimportant items. To ensure you do not do this, you need to adopt a productivity-focused mindset and retain focus on what is important and brings the most value.

Focus on the top 20% of tasks that are on your list that reap 80% of your results.

Start your day working on the identified top 20% of your activities; you will make decisions faster and make more progress on high-value tasks.

 

Just Say No

Just Say No

 

Be Successful | Say No!

One of the best ways to manage your schedule and not feel so stressed or overwhelmed is to become comfortable saying the word ‘No’. If something is not of value to you, graciously bow out politely and don’t feel compelled to take it on. Focus instead on your professional and personal goals, rather than those of others.

For every ask, run it through the ABCDE process:

A Must do | B Should do | C Something nice to do, but not necessary | D Delegate it | E Eliminate it

 

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.

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

/by
,

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.

/by
, ,

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.

/by
,

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.

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

/by