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Setting the Tone for Success in 2024

Goal Setting and Planning:

If you have not already communicated your goals for 2024 to your team, it is time to do so. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of setting clear, measurable, and achievable goals for yourself, the team and individual employees. As important as it is to have professional goals, your personal goals should hold equal weight. I do this exercise annually and revisit the goals quarterly to check in on progress made and determine if a pivot needs to be made.

Key Takeaway: Regularly revisit and adapt goals to align with your evolving priorities and aspirations.

Building Resilience:

Resilience is a crucial leadership trait in our current political and economic climate. Consider sharing strategies for building resilience in the face of challenges, such as promoting a growth mindset, fostering open communication, and providing resources for managing stress within your team. Highlight the importance of empathy in supporting employees’ well-being during uncertain times.

Key Takeaway: Promote a resilient mindset by encouraging your team to view challenges as opportunities for growth.

Remote Team Management:

Roughly 50% of my clients are remote workers globally, and with remote and hybrid work becoming the norm for many, providing specific tools and techniques for leaders to motivate and engage their remote teams is top of mind. A focus on maintaining team cohesion, leveraging technology for seamless communication, and fostering a positive remote work culture is required to lead a successful remote team.

Practical Action: Implement practices that enhance team connection and well-being in the virtual work environment.

Professional Development:

Prioritize the professional development of your teams in 2024. Share resources and strategies for providing ongoing learning opportunities, coaching and mentorship. Consider incorporating insights, identifying individual development needs, and creating personalized development plans to help employees grow and thrive.

 

Reach out today to learn more about how Jenny Reilly Consulting can help you with your 2024 goals. You can book a complimentary 30-minute  consultation.  Or, please email askme@jennyreilly.com to coordinate a convenient consultation time.

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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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Resilience Is Your Superpower

Jenny Reilly On Resilience

Jenny Reilly discusses the importance of professional resilience and how events in 2020 have been a test in resilience for all of us. Being resilient enables you to bounce back when things do not go as planned and helps you handle what life throws your way.  Jenny describes resilience, why it is needed and strategies to develop and strengthen your level of resilience. For more information on participating in Jenny’s TEC Canada Small Business Peer Advisory Group in Vancouver, strategic business consulting, or executive coaching, please reach out to askme@jennyreilly.com or phone +1-604-616-1967.

 

RESILIENCE IS YOUR SUPERPOWER

 

2020 a Period of Great Resiliency

Resiliency is a relevant topic for us all today, as we navigate our way working through:

  • the global pandemic
  • the second lockdown in British Columbia, Canada
  • the state of the worldwide economy
  • the media coverage of our neighbours across the border. The angst around the lead up to and aftermath of the US Presidential election, and now Trump refusing to concede to Biden 
  • a new way of working and socializing where virtual meetings make up our days, wearing a mask, standing six foot apart, and reducing our professional and personal connections is our ‘new norm.’

 

Corporate Resilience

 

Resilience Is Amazing

I have the opportunity to consult with small to mid-size companies and coach resilient small business owners and C-Suite leaders. I believe that RESILIENCE IS A REAL SUPERPOWER, almost like a muscle; we can build on our level of resilience to ensure it is beneficial in our professional and personal lives.

 

In this challenging time of COVID-19, for many, we have had to reassess our positions, or businesses, and be conscious of our vulnerabilities concerning the pandemic. We have had to foresee disruptions, leverage resources quickly, and ensure we have a real focus on our reserves and cash position.

What is Resilience?

Resilience helps us get back up after we have been knocked down, allows us to try again, and handle whatever life throws our way.

 

vancouver_business_consulting

Why do we need to be resilient?

Being resilient enables us to move forward after a failure or disappointment. A resilient individual acknowledges a situation, learns from an experience and then can move on. 

 

Being resilient enables us not to be paralyzed by an event, nor permit it to destroy our self-worth or confidence; instead, a resilient individual sees the opportunity for growth and a positive future. Resilient individuals are motivated and committed to moving forward in their professional and personal pursuits.  They have a compelling reason to get out of bed each morning and take the next best step, rather than the alternative of dwelling and fixating on the past. Resilient individuals focus on events that they have control over and do not worry about the unforeseeable or uncontrollable. 

 

Now that being said, I appreciate entirely that being resilient is not easy! Having a resilient mindset enables us to fail and be okay and acknowledge that life is not a perfect upward trajectory of professional and personal success. Being resilient enables us to aim high and go for our big hairy audacious goals, despite the risks involved.

 

Resilience after Covid

Building your Resiliency Superpower

Resiliency does not come naturally; however, the good news is that you can strengthen your ability to have a resilient attitude and positive mindset. 

 

Step 1: Self Awareness

  • A good night’s sleep will help you manage your stress levels. You will wake with energy and be able to cope with demands and challenges more effectively.
  • Balanced nutritious meals throughout the day. Eating well will ensure you do not become ‘hangry.’ Simply put, when we take care of what we put into our body, we can deal better physically with challenges as they arise.
  • Getting in even a 20-minute walk daily (preferably outside rather than on a treadmill), being in the outdoors and moving will help your refresh, which in turn will increase your ability to focus and increase your levels of productivity.  
  • Being nice to yourself, by that, I mean stopping the negative self-talk as it occurs. This cognitive adjustment will help you change the way you think about situations and pivotal events as they occur. 

Step 2: Awareness of Others:

  • Responding and acting thoughtfully, calmly and logically with your colleagues and clients. Being a hothead, not listening or jumping to conclusions does not help anyone. How you react in a situation is your choice, so make it a priority. Being knowledgeable about those around you and aware of their needs is hugely beneficial.

Step 3: Being Conscious of the Resiliency Gap

  • Knowing how resilient you are and measuring that against the resiliency levels of others around you may show a resiliency gap. Once a gap is identified, you then need to and work out how you can shorten it.  This action’s payoff will be three-fold and be seen in long-term engagement, increased focus, and better bottom-line results.

 

Resiliency Self-Assessment and Personal Strategies

Three questions to rate your resiliency on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest):

 

  1. How resilient are you intellectually?
  2. How resilient are you emotionally?
  3. How do you cope when a door closes for you (maybe imagine the proverbial slammed door in your face)?

 

In each of the above three areas, what could you work on to increase your resiliency level in the future?

 

The following five questions can assist you in identifying your professional vulnerabilities and where you can be more resilient:

  1. Does this second lockdown pose an additional threat to my position or business?
  2. What disruptions can I foresee and prepare for in advance?
  3. How healthy are my financial reserves?
  4. What resources could I leverage quickly if needed?
  5. How will my team and customers/clients be impacted?

 

Resilience at Work

Building Your Resilience

Building upon your ‘Resiliency Superpower’ will help you see the positive possibilities moving forward. Although there have been many negatives that we have had to navigate through COVID, living through a pandemic has also provided the opportunity to hit a ‘refresh’ button on our professional and personal lives. What has the pandemic made possible for you? In what areas will you now focus on in your business and personal life moving forward?  

 

Make everyday count!

 

For more information on Jenny Reilly Consulting, please email askme@jennyreilly.com, call +1-604-616-1967, or book a 15-minute discovery call directly through my Calendly appointment schedule. 

 

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