We’re now on our second month into a new year; however, many things don’t feel “new,” especially when it comes to our work environment. Are you still working virtually? What have you learned over the last 10 months? Are we better equipped to go back into an office setting, or has our “new normal” become how we wish to work?
According to FlexJobs, A Gartner survey of company leaders found that 80% plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time after the pandemic, and 47% will allow employees to work from home full-time. In a PwC survey of 669 CEOs, 78% agree that remote collaboration is here to stay for the long-term.
So, is this a good thing or a less than desirable side effect of the pandemic?
It turns out that in general, managers are discovering that their employees are just as productive—if not more—working remotely. However, this begs the question of how workplace relationships are adapting. Sure, there’s wonderful technology to help us, but have we lost the human connection? If so, what does that mean for our careers and the organizations we work for?
Having to adapt so quickly to such a major change was a challenge for many. When the dust settled, some surprising information came to light:
Remote workers are 35 to 40 percent more productive than those in-office.
Remote workers express greater job satisfaction (57 to 50 percent) versus in-office employees.
What are some reasons for these positive changes?
- Fewer interruptions
- More focused time
- Quieter work environment
- More comfortable workspace
- Not being involved in office politics
All of that makes sense, right? But how do we really feel about not being able to pop into our colleagues’ offices when we need to? Do we miss the interaction, having lunch together, participating in in-person meetings? Does it really make a difference?
When handled efficiently, most feel it does not make a difference. Having regularly scheduled team meetings or check-ins with managers goes a long way in keeping momentum going, projects being completed on time, and general accountability in place.
These positives are what long-term remote workers and entrepreneurs have known for a long time. A little flexibility lends itself to a more dedicated worker, and the routine of going to the office doesn’t necessarily make for a more productive environment. I can’t think of a single person who misses office politics, sitting in traffic, or constant interruptions.
Is it the wave of the future? Perhaps. Can something better for humankind be done with these office buildings? Possibly. Can we keep perfecting the virtual environment and the remote interactions with our colleagues? Time will tell.
We’re interested to know about your experience working virtually. Would you be happy to continue doing so, or you are waiting patiently for the day when you can return to your workplace? If you would like to explore this or any other concept about your working environment through the coaching process, please visit my website at: www.mbrownassociates.com
There’s something special about the end of one year and beginning of another. It’s not unlike a fresh start or that “new car smell” so to speak. We’re presented with the opportunity to map where we’ve been, where we stand, and where we’re going. There are many tools to accomplish this, but the classic Vision Board is one of the best. My blog today focuses on making vision boards work for you—and there’s no better time than the start of a fresh new year!
What is a Vision Board?
By definition, a vision board is a methodology to create a visual representation of one’s goals, based on the theory that physically seeing this repeatedly helps bring motivation, direction, and unleashes possibility. It’s a powerful tool that reinforces the theory that our thoughts are powerful and visualization of achieving goals is part of achieving them. Athletes, for example, can draw on the power of vision boarding to manifest their goals. Entrepreneurs also find value in this tool as a way to chart their business aspirations. You’ve heard the adage, “Energy goes where attention flows,” right? This is the premise in a nutshell.
How and why do they work?
We all know we can train our minds; the brain itself, though, is more malleable then we might imagine. We can in fact train our brains for success using tools such as a vision board. Our brain has this ability due to process called neuroplasticity, which is the ability to learn, adapt, and in essence rewire itself. It’s what allows people to recover from traumatic injuries. Surely, if it’s powerful enough to do that, our brain can help us reach our goals, right?
Aside from the scientific point of view, the simple concept that vision boards are a tool to unleash our potential is one that we can utilize, be it for career, self-improvement, or personal goals.
Who needs a Vision Board?
We can all benefit from a vision board, whether you’re a student, an entrepreneur, a manager, or brand new to the job market. Everyone can use one in their personal life in regard to relationships, aspirations, self-improvement, etc. The possibilities are limitless.
Creating your Vision Board
You’ve decided to create one – now what? The first step is to do a lot of introspection and self-reflection. What goal(s) are you striving for? What dreams do you wish to bring to reality? There are plenty of helpful free worksheets to help this process along.
Next, decide if you will create a physical or digital vision board—or both. How do you respond best to visualization? By being able to look at, touch, and see a physical product? Or, does a phone or laptop background speak to you? Perhaps, if you decide to create a physical vision board, you can take a photo for your phone and laptop backgrounds. There are also apps for this purpose. Remember, the more you see it, the more it ingrains into that malleable brain of yours.
You’ll want to draw from variety of images that are powerful to you—people that are important, places you love, and words that inspire you to achieve goals. It can be physical things such as a cottage at the beach or a classic car, and it can be images of how you want to make a difference in your community, or a comfortable life with less stress. It can and should be a little snapshot of your desires in relation to your goals, and it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Words and images cut from a magazine work just fine. Maybe there’s some original artwork you can add, or photography. It’s really only limited by your imagination. Think postcards of a favorite destination, your favorite quote, a graphic depicting your goal. It’s those images and words that speak to you and create a spark when you see them that’s important.
My Vision Board is assembled—now what?
The key is to place your vision board where you can see it daily. One good suggestion is to look at it twice a day, perhaps at the beginning and end of your day, for that visualization reinforcement it’s intended to create. By your desk in your home office or by your bed are two good places to place it. If it’s a background on your phone, you’re seeing it many times per day. Whatever works for you and keeps those goals top of mind is an individual preference—just make sure you’re viewing it regularly.
Should I update my Vision Board?
In short, yes; goals can change and circumstances can shift our plans. The idea is not to give up on your original goals, but to be fluid and recognize when things have taken a different direction. Let’s face it, sometimes we make powerful changes in our life’s journey that will serve us better, and it’s important to include these on your vision board. They are easy to change—paste on a new picture, remove what is no longer a goal, and reset your intentions as needed.
Free Tools for Vision Boards
Check out these great resources and remember, as with anything, the key is getting started and focusing. Take the time to do this during the holiday season as we approach 2021 – you’ll be glad you made this wise investment in yourself!
31 Free Vision Board Printables to Inspire Your Dreams
Jack Canfield’s Vision Board App
Create a Virtual Digital Board with PicMonkey
And in full disclosure, creating vision boards has been a very powerful tool for me as well as my clients. It really helps to keep us focused! I encourage you to try it and let me know what you discover!
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish my readers a joyous holiday season and a prosperous New Year! For more information on my services, visit my website at: http://mbrownassociates.com/
Entering the last month of 2020, we have a great deal to reflect back on, particularly when it comes to our careers. The changes in how we successfully navigate the workplace have been vast, and for now, there doesn’t seem to be a definitive end to our new way of working. That said, we still need to consider developing our career amongst these unique circumstances. Today we’ll discuss some ways we can accomplish that, despite the current climate.
Even though we’ve been caught up in the seemingly endless virtual meetings, we need to take time to evaluate not just how we’re working, but look at our current performance and future goals. It may seem counterintuitive at the present time when some days it may seem all we can do to accomplish our norm, but the time is right to do a lot of introspection. How has working from home affected your performance? Did you acquire new leadership skills or become more self-reliant in your home office? No longer surrounded by the office noise, have you discovered that you really love what you do—or discovered that it’s time to change directions? It’s just you working away solo now—you can be honest with yourself. Express your feelings by journaling or whatever notetaking system works best for you.
Self-study
Once you’ve laid your thoughts out, it’s time to formulate a plan which includes the necessary education and certifications. To that end, you may not be aware of how many free or low-cost opportunities are at your disposal. Let’s take a look at some resources:
Certifications You Can Obtain for Free! From AES Certification to Project Management, check out these great ideas: https://www.jobscan.co/blog/5-certifications-add-resume-free/
Recent College Graduate? Check out Handshake, a job portal that has become a leading community for those early in their career: https://joinhandshake.com/
Continue to Build Your Tribe: Take advantage of the virtual meetings to introduce yourself with a brief “elevator speech” if you will, and actively engage with other meeting/event participants. Pay special attention to opportunities to share contact information. Check out some of these great apps to make your virtual business card:
HiHello: https://www.hihello.me/
Haystack: https://thehaystackapp.com/
Inigo: https://inigoapp.com/
Managing Your Mind: The very habit of practicing mindfulness is a deliberate action, and one that can not only help us through current career challenges, but in our personal development as well. Here’s a mindfulness quiz that can help you evaluate where you are in the mindfulness sphere. After your score is tabulated, a list of valuable recommendations are given. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/mindfulness
Learn, grow, and document: Be proactive and go a step above and beyond (perhaps use that time was formerly spent commuting). Use tools like Google Drive, Evernote, etc. to document what you have done in the way of continued development so they are easily accessible for future reference. In the event you’re asked to perform a self-evaluation, you’ll have this information at hand. As far as sourcing the courses, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and other major players. Here’s some interesting alternatives:
A Collection from The Muse – 41 Free Classes from Various Sources: https://www.themuse.com/advice/43-classes-you-can-take-right-now-to-advance-your-career-and-theyre-free
Free Professional Development Courses: https://www.futurelearn.com/subjects/business-and-management-courses/professional-development
500 Free Learning Resources for Nonprofit Professionals: https://www.nonprofitready.org/
Performance Assessments
Another method that can be utilized is the 360-degree Performance Review, which can be adapted to the remote office situation. This is where the employee, managers, subordinates, and a cross-section of peers perform a review, as well as extending this to outside sources such as vendors, associated companies in different cities, etc. In the remote situation, this is a great tool to assess communication, conflict resolution, and interpersonal skills. Communication can be a bit off kilter in our virtual world, and this assessment reinforces its importance. There are a variety of tools that can be utilized including Doodle or Survey Monkey polls, or even the poll feature in Zoom. Managers can take the existing performance evaluations and with some creativity adapt them to the remote learning environment. With continuous improvement in mind, this exercise is extremely valuable.
Continuous Improvement of Soft Skills
Now more than ever, we need to master our soft skills so that we can communicate effectively from a distance. Problem solving is paramount, and being able to devise adaptable solutions allows the team to flourish. Strong flexibility and adaptability skills will serve us well during the pandemic and going forward in our careers. We had to switch gears so fast with the onset of the pandemic that we just did whatever we needed to do to get our work done; now we can refine processes such as responding to new challenges, continuous learning, and even some novel improvisation when things in our virtual world don’t go as planned. By encouraging employees to stretch their creativity and step outside their comfort zone, you may find a plethora of great ideas to strengthen the sense of community while accomplishing goals.
There is so much to be learned from the times we are faced with in regard to continuous career development. If you’d like to speak with Marshall about coaching services, please contact him at 202-669-2065. Visit the website for more information, and follow us on our social channels. www.mbrownassociates.com.
Wishing you a healthy, safe and successful new year!
This year has brought changes to all our careers; the way we work, interact with others, and manage to stay connected. Challenges usually bring learning opportunities, and today we’re examining what COVID-19 has taught us in regard to our careers.
We have become more adaptable: Flexibility and the ability to adapt to ever-changing situations is the name of the game in 2020. As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and it’s never been more true. Recognize your ability to create strategies to help yourself, your colleagues, and your family, and share those ideas freely.
There’s a new humanity: Remember the old joke that no absence was excusable, save for your own funeral (if you gave proper notice)? Things are different now, and the fact that families work and learn differently has given us the opportunity to see each other as people, not just well-dressed colleagues who occupy
As a follow up to my last blog, I believe that there are even more benefits to participating in a Mastermind group which is why I am continuing the list today. Without further ado, let’s take a look!
Feedback – In life, there are common issues that are bound to arise whether it is with running a business, changing careers, or simply trying to make ends meet. Regardless, having people who may have been through these problems can be invaluable. In the group, there is always the same goal to grow personally and professionally and become more successful so you will be guaranteed help in some way or another.
Accountability – When you brave the world alone, there is very little accountability for actions. However, a mastermind group will look to change this by setting objectives at the end of every meeting. If the targets are not hit, you will be held accountable which should improve your discipline as well as keeping you motivated.
Improve Confidence – With the help of other members, you will start to make huge decisions in your life and for your business, which will allow you an improved confidence. Once you have more confidence, this will show to everyone in the same room and will soon spread to those that you can influence.
Expand Skills – When you attend meetings for your group, you will be meeting with all different types of people who all have different skills and perspectives to offer. With any luck, each member will specialize in something different, which will allow you to interact and expand your very own skill set. When you attend your very first meeting, you will see that there is a very special atmosphere to be experienced. In some ways, it is like being back in school again because you have peers who are pushing you to become even stronger. As you continue to challenge each other and raise the bar, you will soon see an improvement in your performance.
Help Others – So far, many of the benefits have been focused on what you will see in return of your investment but there is also a flip side to this since there are many other members. When you contribute an idea that gets taken forward and helps someone to increase his or her happiness in life, it can be a great feeling. When you help others, you also know that you will see the return of this at some point in the future.
Summary – As you can see, there are some amazing benefits that you will get from joining a mastermind group. Besides gaining business ideas, having many voices of reason, improving your confidence, having accountability, and expanding your skill set, you will have an opportunity to spend time with influential people and this will have a profound influence on both your personal life and your business. Amongst other things, you will make small changes, which can be a great way!
Interested in joining a Three-Month Mastermind group that I will be facilitating starting in June? In this group, you’ll learn how to be more strategic by setting SMART goals, brainstorming together, and you’ll receive a private coaching session from me each month. You’ll get three hours of strategy monthly, checklists, resources, networking, and more. Sign up by April 30th for an instant $100 discount. Want more information? Visit our 2017 Mastermind Group page, or call me at 202.518.5811. I invite you to share this with your like-minded colleagues.
Here’s to your success!!