Happy New Year! Insights gained?
Wow, what a doozy of a year 2020 turned out to be! Who would have guessed when were excited about starting a new decade what would unfold!
As you reflect back on “sheltering in place”, working virtually and all of the video conferencing, what did you learn about yourself?
What attitudes helped you navigate this new way of doing things?
What new habits helped sustain you when we all became required to be more isolated?
What simple joys did you discover?
While the vaccination is underway, and hopefully life will eventually return to “normal”, what insights and nuggets would you like to keep in mind as we step into a new year?
Wishing you a year of robust health, purposeful work and meaningful moments of connection and joy.
Cheers!
Gwyneth Anne
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What One Thing Would Make a Big Difference?
Having just read Cheryl Richardson’s latest book “Waking Up In Winter”, it invited me to think about what I’m feeling nudged to consider changing in my life. Perhaps more Self-Care, saying “no” to what doesn’t feel engaging, to make room for saying “yes” to more stimulating opportunities, for example.
We don’t often stop to reflect and ask ourselves what we now want in life, and ask if we are on a path to get there.
I invite you to pause and consider these questions for yourself. What do you want in your career at this stage? Is it the same as in the past, or has it morphed as you have grown and learned more, and as the world changes? Is there an emerging field or slice in your area of expertise that would be intriguing to learn more about?
Happy reflection!
To your success,
Gwyneth Anne
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Appreciating
As February is the month of love with Valentine’s Day, it’s a great reminder that expressing appreciation up, down and sideways in an organization can go a long way in creating a culture that keeps a workforce motivated.
Be specific and timely with catching people doing things right – this will reinforce what you are seeking, and have the greatest impact.
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Off to a Focused Start?
Here we are on the last day of January.
How are you doing with your New Year’s intentions / goals?
Already knocked some off your list?
Have new habits firmly in placed?
What needs a little fine tuning?
What needs to be put back onto the top of your agenda for this week?
Quick tip: Put a monthly recurring note in your calendar with your top 5 goals for the year. This way you won’t be more than 31 days from a quick reminder. What color could you make that reminder to have it catch your eye? To make it feel fun?
Reach out if you need any support!
To your success,
Gwyneth Anne
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DISC Certified!
At Personal Journey Coaching I work mostly with corporate employees who are growing their careers, often taking on more leadership roles within their organization. This requires learning new concepts, expanding their comfort zone and expanding their skills, especially their communication skills.
As someone who needs to “walk their talk”, I’m always reading, learning and seeking new knowledge, concepts and skills to help clients.
This past month I’ve been certified through TTI passing my exam for DISC, the Universal Language, as well as 12 Driving Forces, earning the designation “CPDFA”!
The DISC can help people understand their communication preferences, understand the preferences of others, as well as what motivates them. It can be a great tool for understanding ourselves, as well as those on our team and how to effectively engage them.
If you’re curious to learn more, send an email!
To your success,
Gwyneth Anne
Career and Leadership Coach
gaf at personaljourneycoaching.com
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Tips for Increasing Productivity
Having just finished reading The Productivity Project: Accomplishing more by managing your time, attention, and energy by Chris Bailey, thought I’d share with you a few of his insights. Consider buying his book or borrowing it from the library to learn more!
Some interesting tips to consider:
- From David Allen – have a “waiting for” list – a list for jotting down all the things you are waiting for. Such as items you’ve ordered online, information or an action from a colleague, a payment from a client, etc.
- “Parkinson’s law” – work expands to fit the time you have available for it. To increase focus, shorten the time, accomplish it faster!
- Track your time throughout the day. Rate your energy level for working on various projects every half an hour for a week or two. When are you most energized for the most important areas of your work. For example: Being creative? Analytical? Strategic? When do you have the lowest energy and when it would be most productive to do low energy work such as checking emails, data input, or even going outside for a walk?
- Chris found when he worked 20 hours or 90 hours a week, he only got a bit more done in 90 hours than 20! Yikes! Consider when you have the energy and ability to focus throughout the day and work on important projects during those key hours.
- “Disable” distractions for chunks of time to allow for focused thinking. Turn off email / text notification, move the phone to a different room, work at a place where you can’t be found.
- Multitask physical tasks, not mental ones. No checking email while on the phone (both require mental attention), but do run the washing machine while listening to music and cooking dinner (physical tasks).
- Meditate to clear your mind, allowing you to better focus the rest of the day.
What are you favorite tips that increase your productivity? Would love to hear!
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Expanding One’s Perspective
Do you ever get caught up in what’s right in front of you and what you need to get done? Do you sometimes have a meeting with peers, or perhaps your boss, and tell them what you’re working on and sometime even what they need to do to help you? How do they respond? Excited to jump in and help you? Give you a blank look and share what they are working on and what you need to do to help them? Sometimes we are excited about our project and don’t understand why others aren’t getting on board.
I imagine most of us have found ourselves in one of these situations. If any of the above sound familiar, you are not alone. Here’s an idea: before your next meeting, think about the situation from the other person’s perspective – put yourself in their shoes: How would they feel? What would they think about what you are proposing? How might the other person benefit from what you’d like to achieve?
If you know the other person pretty well, you can probably make a pretty good guess. If you don’t know them well (perhaps you or they are new to the organization) what do you know about them? How have you seen them react in similar scenarios? What are their concerns? What are their goals? How does what you are proposing fit into their goals or potentially address their concerns?
By looking at the situation from the other person’s perspective, it will give you insight into how best present your idea or request for optimal results. It may even have you rethink your idea or request, and the two of you may even come up with something even more innovative!
Would enjoy hearing what ideas this sparks for you. Where could you implement this concept?
To your success,
Gwyneth Anne Freedman
© 2015 Personal Journey Coaching
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Information Interviewing – Coda (Part 5/5)
Congratulations! You’ve made it through the information interviewing process. You’ve researched a new field, identified people from whom to glean a sense of reality about it, developed questions to reveal the answers you’re curious about, and conducted the interview itself.
As with regular job interviews, it’s nice (and appropriate) to follow up with a handwritten note of thanks. Feel free to include what you found particularly helpful, and express appreciation for the contacts/leads they shared.
I’d encourage you to mark your calendar to follow up a month or two down the road to reconnect and share where you are with the process. I’ve heard frustration from well sought after people that they spend time sharing, give guidance and counsel, and then they never hear from their interviewer again. People do like to hear of the impact they made and the ROI. Even if you choose not to pursue the field, you can share your appreciation and what the determining factors were for not pursuing that field.
If you do pursue the field, then staying in touch can be all the more important. It’s always helpful to have a strong network you can tap into as you move forward.
On a final note, whenever I make a request of someone, I like to also ask if there is anything I can do for them. Even if I don’t know what that might be, just an open invitation for them to tap into my knowledge and connections helps to ‘even the playing field’.
I’ve had numerous clients who have felt uncomfortable asking for help, or asking for an information interview because they felt they were being burdensome. When I suggest that they also offer to be a resource to the person with whom they’ll interview, to reciprocate the favor, they often feel much more comfortable. Furthermore, when I ask how they’d feel about being contacted for an information interview, they almost always reply with enthusiasm that they’d be happy to do so, because it feels good to help someone else, and share what they’ve learned.
To your success,
Gwyneth Anne
408.246.7427
© 2007-2015 Personal Journey Coaching
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Information Interviewing – The Interview (Part 4/5)
You’ve selected whom you’d like to interview, what you’d like to learn, contacted and emailed the interviewee your questions and resume, and scheduled the interview. This week, let’s look at what will make this a successful interview.
First and foremost, be on time, or even 5 minutes early if you’re meeting in person.
Second, feel free to bring 2 print outs of the questions you’d like to ask – one for each of you.
During the interview, make sure that you ask the most important questions first, so that you don’t run out of time before you get to them. Another approach is to ask if your interviewee would like to run through and answer the questions, or do more of a free-flow sharing. I’ve tried both methods and they can both work well. If the interviewee chooses the free-flow approach, keep an eye on the time to make sure that have them focus on your top 1-2 questions if they haven’t touched on them by that point.
At the 18 minute mark, start to wrap up. Acknowledge that the 20 minutes you’ve requested are just about up, and if you have additional questions, you may request scheduling another time to talk. If they decline, wrap things up quickly and thank them for sharing. They may offer to continue the conversation a few more minutes. If so, I recommend that you limit your questions to only 1 or 2 more to again be respectful of their time.
As you wrap up the interview, two great questions to ask are: Is there anyone else you think I should speak with? And, is there anything else you think would be helpful for me to know?
Finally, if you feel like you’ve connected well, you might request if you can stay in touch with them to ask any follow up questions and/or share your progress.
To your success,
Gwyneth Anne
408.246.7427
© 2007-2015 Personal Journey Coaching
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Information Interviewing – Contacting Interviewees (Part 3/5)
Congratulations on identifying what you want to glean from the information interview and narrowing down your questions in order of priority to 6-10. That can be tough to do!
This week I’ll share the formula for how to successfully contact the people we identified at the beginning of the month (or others we’ve identified since), to request an information interview.
First and foremost remember this is an *information* interview. Unfortunately this type of interview has gotten a bad rap by those who pretend they are requesting an information interview, then try to turn it into a job interview. While this can happen, please, let it be at the direction of the person you’re interviewing and not the other way around.
To request the information interview, simply call and tell your source that: 1. you are considering getting into their field; 2. are at the preliminary stage of researching it to see if would in fact be a good match for your skills and temperament; and 3. you would really appreciate schedule 20 or so minutes to talk with them either in person or via phone. If they agree, set up a time right then and there. Let them know that you’ll be sending them a confirming email, including your resume and the questions you’d like to ask.
Be clear that this is an information interview, and that the purpose of sending your resume is for them to understand your background: what might be your transferable strengths and what areas would they suggest you learn more about.
We all want to feel confident and prepared. By sending the questions in advance you help set them at ease and give them time to consider how they’d like to respond.
To your success,
Gwyneth Anne
408.246.7427
© 2007-2024 Personal Journey Coaching
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