Focus Question: What are the skills which are really going to move you ahead as a remote professional?

Description
“The research shows that for jobs of all kinds, emotional intelligence is twice as important an ingredient of outstanding performance as ability and technical skill combined. The higher you go in the organization, the more important these qualities are for success. When it comes to leadership, they are almost everything.”
 - Daniel Goleman

In the virtual space, helping team members become more proficient in developing and utilizing Emotional Intelligence skills, not only helps with getting things done, but it helps people in self-management (managing triggers, and enablers), and in building effective working relationships.

Under the umbrella of EI we can have more than a dozen skill sets – from optimism, to change catalyst, to empathy, and adaptability. It is a four-quadrant model – and emotionally intelligent people are strong in a number of skill areas.
Since the 1990s EI training has been offered to leaders. This is a skill set required by all team members. It is usually provided as a four-part model focusing on self- management, self-awareness, relationship management and relationship awareness.

Why is this important
“Emotional Intelligence is a way of recognizing, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. It defines how and what we learn; it allows us to set priorities; it determines the majority of our daily actions. Research suggests it is responsible for as much as 80% of the “success” in our lives.” - J. Freedman.

Activity
Spend some time learning more about Emotional intelligence. You may wish to do one of many EI assessments available in the books listed in this week’s reading list or reach out to us to learn more about the Agile EQ Everything DiSC assessment we offer. Email us at [email protected]. 

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Focus Question: What is important to communicate in your next presentation? How do you want to capture people’s attention?

Description
As a remote professional it’s likely that you'll be giving presentations to a wide variety of audiences, in possibly both the in person and virtual realms.

Fear of public speaking is usually listed as a Top 10 fear of adults. So how can we prepare to give a WOW presentation?

As a starting point, take 5 minutes to brainstorm. Make a list of everything you could possibly talk about. What are the topics that your clients or customers would really appreciate?

As someone who's been involved in presentation skills training for almost 2 decades, here are a couple of key things to keep in mind:

1. Speak in bullet points – reinforce what the main points are at the start, middle and end. What would you like people to take away from the presentation?
2. Connect people early on to what’s important about the topic for them. We often call this the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?)

​One of the biggest pitfalls you can experience as a presenter is that no one wants to participate. Tips to get participation happening:

• Be clear with process let people know what process will unfold. Describe what they can expect to take away from the session (3 bullet points). Return to this throughout your session.
• Connect them with their WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? Connect people early in your presentation to how this topic has relevance to them. You might do this by asking the question – What’s important about this topic to you right now? OR Who has a story that they can share? Consider how you will connect people early on.
• Have a variety of strategies to engage people on a regular basis. From the litmus test of incorporating a pace change 7-10 minutes, to a more frequent pace change virtually, we want to keep things moving and involve the audience. Virtually, this can range from breakouts to annotation to polls. Get people involved in the presentation. Bring in their stories and voice.

Activity
Consider an upcoming presentation:

1. What is important to note about the process? What is the purpose? What is the presentation all about? What do you hope people will take away?
2. What will you do to connect people to their WIIFM?
3. What are the strategies you will use to connect people to their WIIFM? When?

 
For more on this topic check out
Section 3 of PlanDoTrack, specifically pages 81 and 82.

All the best, 
​Jennifer

Focus Question: What do you want to focus on today?

Description
There are many competing priorities in a business. What are the things you want to focus on today? This week?

As solopreneurs, it’s unlikely that our To-Do list will ever be complete. We can overwork ourselves to the point of burn out.

As virtual and remote professionals the issue of prioritization takes on immense significance given that we are likely to be part of multiple teams, working across different time zones, with each team and leader having different priorities. Having to work more autonomously, and independently, we also can benefit from prioritizing what’s important from the “bigger picture” of what’s on our desk at any given moment of time.
​
In Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, I share four different prioritization tools which will help you identify what is going to give you more focus:
1. The Strategic Issues Mapping
2. The SWOT
3. Covey’s Urgent/Important Matrix
4. Urgency/Importance Matrix

Activity
It can be useful to adjust our lists and tasks laying them out in different ways get different perspectives. Here are several ways to slice up your current list:
Make a list of the most important tasks you have on your plate right now. Assign them a weighting in terms of a 1-10.
Then look at the original list again and distribute them according to whether it’s something you can DO, DELEGATE, DEFER or DUMP. Now renumber them again. Assign those that can be deferred to a new list or schedule them in. Dump items need to get dumped. Delegate those onwards that you can. What do you notice now?
 
If you are doing some longer-term planning, refer to the SWOT and/or Strategic Issues Mapping which you’ll find in PlanDoTrack If you are feeling overwhelmed, stuck or working on immediate priorities consider using the other prioritization tools.
 
For more on this topic check out
Pages 118 to 125 of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner. These sections cover the topics of Time Management and Personal Productivity for the Virutal and Remote Professional.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Focus Question: What does renewal mean for you?

Description
The fields of sports and business shows us that teams that excel, are great at both “playing hard” and also resting hard. When working remotely, our boundaries between work and life often get blurred.

Just as physical renewal is essential after a long race, periods of renewal are key in business to help us remain at our prime. What does renewal mean for you? When is the last time you took time to renew?

Decision fatigue, social media burnout, task switching and cognitive overload, take a toll on us as professionals. When things become unbalanced it can also become luggage we bring into our family life.

As solopreneurs, keeping ourselves “at our prime” is key as the business relies on you. Without you there, it’s unlikely that it can keep going for long. Therefore, renewal should take a priority.

Here are some different ways to consider renewal:

• Taking vacation time on a regular basis
• Scheduling time away from our work (i.e. conferences, meetings with colleagues)
• Enjoying a compressed 4-day work week at different parts of the year so you can enjoy a longer weekend
• Having clear boundaries around “when you are ON” and “when you are OFF”
• Swimming/running/hiking/going to the gym over lunchtime on a regular basis
• Going on a retreat

 
What will help you renew?

Activity
 
What are the things that are going to help you renew? Build some time in to do this.
 
For more on this topic consider tracking your routines and renewal via the Daily Monthly Trackers.

All the best,
Jennifer

Focus Question: What are the tasks which you need to let go of and have others complete?

Description
Following up on last week’s focus on delegation, what do you need to say no to?
Saying no is just as powerful as saying yes.