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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.

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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.

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

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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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Quarter Two | Understanding Your Numbers

As we commence Q2 this week, an item to prioritize in your schedule is your Q1 budget review. As an entrepreneur, business owner, or leader, you need to have a good handle on your business and financials, both critical for success. Understanding your numbers will help you make better business decisions and enable you to have a greater understanding of your revenue, expenses, and profitability margins.

We often become absorbed in our business’s day-to-day operations and allocating time in our schedule to ensure sound financial management is a challenge. Even if you have an accountant and bookkeeper, you still need to understand your financial management practices and controls to scale and grow your business.

own your numbers

 

What is Your Quarterly Scheduled Financial Management Process?

Cash flow issues can be a challenge. Understanding your cash conversion cycle will help you improve your cash flow and ensure you have sufficient resources to pay your employees and suppliers.

Questions to consider during your quarterly review:

  • What financial Key Performance Indicators are you using?
  • How long are clients taking to pay their bills?
  • How is this affecting your cash flow cycle?
  • How can you reduce payment times?
  • Are there any overhead costs that can be trimmed?
  • Are there any unproductive activities that you are spending money on but not seeing a true return on investment that can be eliminated?

Your Quarterly Financial Review will:

  • Promote forward-thinking
  • Identify short term problems
  • Motivate managers to better business performance, and
  • Provide a financial control process

 

Quarter Financial Review - 4 Steps for Success

Quarter Financial Review – 4 Steps for Success

 

If you need help with your finances, we are ready for you! Let’s get you the financial results you deserve. 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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Leadership and Coaching | Focus on Getting the Right Things Done

How do I focus on getting the right things done?

Do any of these statements sound familiar to you?

  • Everyone else’s needs hijack my time
  • I am so busy but feel like I am not getting anything important done
  • I am finding myself stretched thin and the only way to get ahead is to spend more hours working daily

I am all about incorporating time management and productivity techniques into your schedule. The first step is to determine what is essential to focus your time on, and the second to eliminate all else to maximise the bottom-line results. 

I have a sticky on my computer to continually remind me of ‘what is the most important thing I need to work on next .’ This helps me commit to working on what is essential in my business, focusing on work quality, not quantity.

What will mean more to you at the end of the day, getting more done or getting the right things done?

I work with busy professionals who often are working at maximum capacity and being pulled in one hundred different directions. Initially, we focus on analyzing what is being worked on and determine the most important things to prioritize for the most significant results. When you are feeling overwhelmed, have too much on your plate, and are struggling with meeting priorities, try these three steps:

  • Determine if what you are working on is the most essential task to make the most significant contribution towards your goal. You do have a choice in how you spend your time and energy, so take control of your schedule.
  • Eliminate activities that are ‘time sucks’ or not essential. I refer to the minutia that individuals spend a lot of time on as ‘noise’ in our schedules. Free up your schedule, cut out what is unnecessary, work on essential things, and be diligent about doing so daily.
  • Focus on execution and implement systems to help you focus daily on executing the required actions to move your goal forward.

WORDS OF WISDOM

I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to connect with brilliant leaders across industries and sectors. This month I asked Yin Lau to share one tip on how she manages multiple projects and remains organized.

Yin Lau - Yin Executive Services - YES

 

‘Make a to do list and prioritize! You are only human and there is only so much time in the day. Be kind to yourself and believe that anything worth completing will happen at exactly the time it was meant to.’

~ Yin Lau ~

YES – Virtual Executive Assistance

 

 

 

 

We are ready for you! Let’s get you the results you deserve. 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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