Reflecting on 2023 and Welcoming 2024

It's that time of year again – the season of reflection and renewal. For those who've been following this blog for a while, you know this article is a holiday tradition for us. Each year, as the calendar turns, we share a set of thought-provoking questions designed to help you process the past year's experiences and look ahead to the opportunities and challenges that the new year brings.

Image by Annette Meyer from Pixabay

Dedicating just a few distraction-free minutes (as little as 10 will do the trick) to reflect can help you walk away with substantial insights. We've heard from both our coaching clients and dedicated readers that these end-of-year questions help build momentum and set a positive tone for the year to come.

Ready to get started? Just grab a pen and paper. (Yes, you can use your computer if you want, but you'll get the most out of this exercise if you write your answers out by hand because it engages your brain differently.) Remember, the goal isn't perfection; it's simply capturing your initial thoughts as they arise. There's immense value in slowing down and listening to your own insights.

What Did You Learn About Your Leadership in 2023?

What did you observe about yourself as a leader over the past year? What recurring themes or patterns did you notice?

One thing I realized this year was that I really benefited from putting myself in different settings with different people. These experiences exposed me to new ideas, shifted my thinking and added some new relationships to my network. I’ll maintain this focus as a way to continue to broaden my thinking in 2024.

What Did You Learn from Other Leaders?

Our growth as leaders often hinges on the wisdom and experiences of those around us. What lessons did you glean from your interactions with other leaders? Reflecting on those experiences can illuminate your path forward.

In 2023, I saw more leaders who embody the idea that vulnerability is strength. (Or maybe I’m spending my time with bolder leaders!) They remind us that everything doesn’t have to look perfect and that it’s OK to share your ups and downs because it gives others permission to be more authentic about their own experiences.

What Do You Want to Take Forward Into 2024?

Successful leaders recognize the importance of self-awareness. Do you pause often enough to acknowledge your accomplishments and how you achieved them? Identifying your 2023 wins and the strategies that fueled them will help you be more deliberate in using those strategies.

For me, 2023 was the first year without physical constraints since my surgeries in 2020. I got back to exercising regularly and was able to take some adventurous trips. Both things helped me keep my energy level high, and I plan to tap into the power of being in nature, exercising  and traveling in 2024.

What Do You Want to Leave Behind?

Have you experienced any setbacks, conflicts, limiting beliefs or lingering thoughts about changes you've been through this year? Resilience is not merely about powering through; it involves proactive introspection and learning. Reflecting on setbacks allows you to identify what may have impeded your progress and empowers you to make more informed choices in 2024.

When I thought about this question, I realized that in my eagerness to get New Lens® out to a broader audience and democratize access leadership development, I was spending too much time focusing on the gaps instead of my progress. We had some huge wins this year that I allowed to be clouded by my giant goals. Next year, I plan to focus on my passion and progress and celebrate our successes a bit more. 

As you prepare for 2024, equip yourself and your team with powerful tools designed to drive high performance and advance careers. If you haven't explored it yet, checkout our award-winning New Lens app which is designed to do just that. Schedule a demo now, and let's explore how New Lens can elevate you and your team in the coming year.

Finally, I so appreciate you being part of our community in 2023. This marks our final article for the year, but we're excited to return in the first week of 2024 with more resources to help you achieve your goals. All of us at Newberry Solutions wish you a joyous holiday season, a reflective close to 2023 and a prosperous start to 2024!

Is Your Team Overwhelmed? Here’s How to Help

I don’t have to tell you how stressful the past few years have been. As we developed our most recent white paper, “Managers Under Pressure,” we found research showing that all of this cumulative stress has taken a toll. Performance and morale are suffering. Employee engagement is at a seven-year low, which Gallup calls “one of the biggest threats to organizations and entire economies” in 2023. On top of that, more than 40% of professionals report feeling burned out at work. 

Photo by Vlada Karpovich

With your energy tank running on empty, you may find that you and your team members may feel more overwhelmed in the face of challenges — such as a major project or an organizational change — than you did in the past. 

Finding both short and long-term solutions is critical. 

Let’s start by taking a look at some quick ways to get yourself on track —three questions to ask your team and yourself.

1. Are you focusing on the right work?

When things feel chaotic and you are strapped for time, it’s even more critical to focus on where you can have the biggest impact on the business and your career. Challenge yourself to identify the top three areas and the percentage of time you should allocate to each. Use this to guide what you say “yes” and “no” to. With only so many hours in each day, remember that making the highest and best use of your talent and skills will help you deliver more in less time. And remember to strategically leverage others to free up your capacity. 

2. Do you create space to be strategic?

High performers know that they can’t simply react to what’s going on around them and still deliver consistently strong results. Being strategic and intentional about what they say and do is key. When things get hectic, how consistently do you carve out time on your calendar to reflect so that you can do just that? Don’t underestimate the importance of this strategy in keeping you focused on the bigger picture. Even setting aside 15 minutes a week can help you be much more proactive.

3. Are you getting enough rest?

Maintaining your energy during demanding times can be the difference between thriving and surviving. When people work long hours, they may not get the rest or sleep they need. Both are foundational to giving you the energy to maintain a positive attitude, outlook, and perspective and the ability to make good decisions. If you don’t get 7-8 hours of sleep a night or take short breaks throughout the day, what one step can you take to address this? It can be as simple as taking some deep breaths, walking away from your desk, or going to bed 15 minutes earlier.

With a longer-term view in mind, remember to also look for ways to help you and your team put sustainable practices in place.  Through thousands of hours coaching leaders, we’ve seen where individuals get stuck time and again and the strategies that can really help them move forward. That led us to make this content available through our award-winning New Lens® app. But it goes way beyond content, to help you take action with the support of cohorts and managers. We’d love to show it to you. Let us know if you’d like to see a demo.

To Prevent Burnout, Do a Midyear Check-in

Can you believe we are already halfway through 2022? We’ve all been navigating a lot of change for a couple of years now, and that change shows no signs of slowing down.

That means it’s more important than ever to work mindfully and to take care of yourself. When you’re always charging full steam ahead, you’re risking burnout.

Photo by Anna Shvets

So let’s pause for a moment so you can check in with yourself and recalibrate. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I always recommend doing this at the end of each year. But in the intense work environment we’re currently experiencing, a lot may have changed for you in these past six months. And you may need to shift your game plan from the one you started the year with. The following questions can help you assess the best way forward.

Where Are You Right Now?

Sometimes it’s hard to look up from your daily responsibilities to see the big picture at work — or even how you are doing yourself. But you’ll be more productive if you can catch your breath for a moment and take a look around and within. 

First, how have the company’s priorities changed since the start of the year, and what does that mean for how you should spend your time? For example, if your company’s top leaders are prioritizing employee engagement, how does that affect the way you manage your own team?

Next, what changes have you personally experienced in the past few months — for example, going back to work in the office — and how have they affected your stress level? Remember that your executive presence is tightly linked to your internal wellbeing. In other words, feeling exhausted and overwhelmed will make it tough to exude a calm and confident demeanor that is so important for leaders to show right now.

What Do You Want to Take Forward?

Even if this has been a difficult year so far, notice what has worked well. What have you accomplished and what strategies made the biggest difference in achieving those results? It’s too easy to overlook your personal best practices if you’re moving quickly from one thing to the next. But when you pause, you can identify and leverage them to create positive momentum.

Here are a few examples to spark your own thinking:

• Regularly scheduling time to connect with people who give you energy.

• Getting involved in projects that develop your skills and leverage your strengths

• Engaging in activities that are fulfilling.

• Delegating at home and at work.

What Do You Want to Leave Behind?

Now let’s look at the other side of the coin: the challenges of 2022. What are the top two challenges you have faced and what have they taught you? For example, was there a type of situation you don’t want to find yourself in again, a behavior you want to change or emotional baggage you want to leave behind? 

A good way to distill meaning from challenging situations or roadblocks is to write a thank-you note (for your eyes only) to the difficult person or experience. By doing this, it will force you to reframe the negative aspects of the situation into positive lessons. 

What Do You Need to Do for Yourself?

You may have a to-do list that is a mile long, but how often do you make it onto your own list of priorities? Take a moment to identify what you need right now. If you honestly don’t know, getting more rest may be a good starting point. Other ideas could be:

• A longer break

• Regular exercise

• A flexible work schedule

• A new challenge or opportunity

Based on your answers to these questions, identify one small step you will take to set the tone for the second half of 2022. I also want to invite you to invest in your own growth and wellbeing with Newberry Solutions’ products and services, including the award-winning New Lens app.

2 Questions to Shape Your New Year

Each new year, I encourage my clients and readers to complete a simple exercise that can have a profound effect on how they move forward. As we begin 2021, this exercise has never felt more important. So carve out as little as 10 minutes for some self-reflection and think about these two questions. You'll get the most out of this exercise if you write your answers out by hand.

1. What Do You Want to Leave Behind from 2020? 

Your first instinct might be to answer "everything!" And that's fine. But what comes up if you go a little deeper? Here are a few examples to spark your thinking:

• Do you need to leave behind any ways of working that just aren't relevant anymore in our reshaped business landscape?

• Has your perfectionism become more of a weakness than a strength lately?

• Are there ways you can reduce the amount of time you spend with people who drain your energy?

• Do you need to escape any thinking traps (like assuming that it's always your fault if something negative happens) that hinder your productivity and happiness?

• Are there any other situations you experienced in 2020 that you don't want to find yourself in again?

2. What Do You Want to Take Forward into 2021? 

This question might feel a bit harder to answer. But as difficult as 2020 was, it also left you with new wisdom and insights. Do any of the following examples ring true for you?

• From working under stressful conditions, you learned to make decisions more effectively and efficiently.

• You realized that self-care is non-negotiable.

• You saw how your strengths helped you get results even in difficult circumstances.

• You got better at delegating, at work and at home.

• You got a clearer sense of what you really value and the work you want to be doing.

By answering these questions, you will now be able to maximize the power of the things that are working for you and be more mindful about changing the things that aren't working. As you start your year, I also invite you to explore Newberry Executive Solutions products and services for both teams and individuals, including:

• The award-winning New Lens® App

• Executive coaching

• Corporate programs

• Self-paced tools

The First Step to Making Your Career Pandemic-Proof

As an executive coach who specializes in working with high-performing women, I've closely watched how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting women's careers. 

In both news reports and conversations with clients and other leaders, I'm hearing that professional women disproportionately handle the added domestic work (like managing kids' online learning) caused by the pandemic. As a result, some have decided to leave the workforce while others are approaching burnout as they try to juggle it all. Those who remain in the workforce face the added challenge of making their accomplishments more visible in a virtual environment.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

As the pandemic continues, it poses a threat to the gains women have made in the workplace during recent years, especially in pay and promotions.

What can you do to protect your career amid these difficult circumstances? Let’s start by talking about how to manage things on the home front, to keep you showing up at your best personally and professionally. In my next article, I’ll share what strategic self-promotion can look like in today’s environment.

Managing It All

Even in normal times, women take on a greater share of responsibilities at home than their male partners do. Women spend more time on childcare and housework, and are more likely to interrupt their careers to care for a family member. The pandemic has only exacerbated that situation, especially with so many women working from home.

So how can women shift to a more sustainable way of working and living? It all starts with the strategic pauses that I recommended in a past article. During one of those essential pauses, answer these key questions:

• What does the full picture of your life look like right now? Getting a clearer picture will help you notice what is and isn’t working. How chained are you to your phone and computer, especially if you’re not commuting to an office anymore? How much do you work in the evenings or on weekends? How big is your role in your kids' schooling? How many added responsibilities, like grocery shopping or taking care of elderly parents, are you managing? How much time do you allocate to people and activities that energize you?  And, even more importantly, how is all of this affecting you — your sleep, diet, exercise, stress level, and how you’re showing up with colleagues and loved ones? 

• What do you want life to look like? Be really specific. What do you really want for yourself? For example, you may want to carve out 30 minutes to an hour of time just for you each day to recharge or unwind. Or to have quality time with your family from 6-8 every weeknight without any work distractions. Or to get help with the most time-consuming tasks that eat into your personal time. Or to reduce the high volume of email, instant messages and texts from your team so that you have time to focus on priorities.

• What needs to change? Once you’ve defined the picture of what you want, it should lead to conversations about how to make it happen. At work, it could mean helping others understand how your schedule works, arming your team with the strategic questions they should ask themselves before they fire off a request to you or delegating in ways that develop your team. Or it could be about resetting expectations about reasonable turnaround times on requests.

At home, identify some simple changes you can make. Sit down with your spouse or partner and other family members to manage and more equitably share the domestic workload. For example, ordering out a little more often could mean that both of you have some evenings where you don’t have to cook – and that you can reinvest the time in something else that matters to you. Online grocery shopping may make it easier to delegate grocery shopping to someone else in the family. Remember to add some fun in there for all of you together, like doing something active outside (to get more exercise and quality time). Get creative.

If some of the changes you’re contemplating bump up against your high standards for yourself, remember that time is a finite resource. Saying “yes” to doing something means saying “no” to doing something else. Over the course of a week, freeing up just 15-30 minutes each day could mean gaining a few hours for bigger priorities, so be intentional about your choices.

Small steps can lead to big results, so let’s get started. Take five minutes right now to clarify two or three things what you want for yourself and one action you will take this week to move in that direction. You can find more strategies like these in "Staying in the Driver's Seat," one of the booklets in my Leadership EDGE Series℠.

Is Perfectionism Holding You Back as a Leader?

The coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying economic fallout are more than short-term disruptions in the way that we work. As major shifts in business continue, leaders must update their approach both to stay effective and to keep themselves from burning out.

In my last two blog articles, I talked about a couple of the most important adjustments you can make: creating more capacity in your day and using that capacity to recharge and reflect.

Today, I want to look at a roadblock that might be keeping you from making those changes and from being the kind of leader your team needs right now. Perfectionism may have helped you get where you are as a leader. But, especially in these fast-changing, high-pressure times, it can be a double-edged sword.

The Perils of Perfectionism

Throughout your career, you may have been recognized and promoted based on your high standards, your ability to drive results and your passion for hard work. 

But, in the current environment, many perfectionists are running into problems:

• With demands increasing in both your work life and your personal life, it's getting impossible to keep all the balls in the air, no matter how many hours you put in.

• Your team members are trying your patience. They aren't getting things done, and they don't even seem to hear you sometimes.

• You feel like you're being rushed to make decisions without your usual thought and deliberation.

Perfectionism and Your Leadership Identity

When the going gets tough, perfectionists tend to respond by just digging in harder. This is not just about habits; it’s about identity.

I saw this recently play out with one of my clients. She's on track to move into a C-suite role, and she's worked very hard to get there.

In fact, the executive who's currently in that role says my client is working harder than she needs to and believes she would perform even better if she eased up some.

But she can't adjust her expectations for herself. That's true in both her work life and her home life. Like many of us, she's dealing with significant changes domestically as well. She's working from home all day with her spouse, kids, and other family members. And she has high standards for herself on that front, too.

In the long run, her approach isn’t sustainable and her perfectionism sabotages her longer-term goals.

Less Perfect, More Productive

So what are some more productive ways to honor our high standards without driving ourselves — and others — crazy? Here are a few ideas:

• Reassess your priorities. What was of paramount importance (or at least seemed to be) just a few months ago may be less important now. For example, maybe you were used to doing exhaustive research before making decisions. But it's now necessary to reach decisions more rapidly, even if you have to do so based on less information. As author and former clinical psychologist Alice Boyes told Harvard Business Review, sometimes it's more productive to be “less perfect about some things, so you can concentrate on what’s important.” 

• Set realistic expectations for yourself. Let's say you're about to start an annual project that, in the past, has taken you about a day to complete. This year, though, you have more responsibilities on your plate because your team has shrunk. And you're working from home while your kids are also home doing online school. What will it really take to get this project done under these circumstances? It's only realistic to assume that you will need more time than before. So go ahead and give yourself a bit of a cushion in your planning and negotiate the timeline with your manager.

• Set realistic expectations for others. Are your team members not themselves lately? You might be used to telling them something once and then they get it done without a hitch. If that has stopped happening, don't automatically assume there's a performance issue. Remember that fear and stress can keep others from hearing you. And your team members might be experiencing any number of stressors, from fears about their health or a loved one's, to a spouse's job loss, to difficult questions about what's best for their family. 

With that in mind, regularly ask your team members how they are doing. What's going on in their lives that could affect their work? How can you adjust your communication style based on their new reality? That might mean talking more on the front end of projects to ensure you are both on the same page. Or it could mean making more frequent progress check-ins.

This week, identify one way that perfectionism is showing up in your expectations for yourself or for your team, and one step you will take to adapt your approach. For more strategies on effective leadership, ones that can help you as you deal with challenges, pick up a copy of my book "Show Up. Step Up. Step Out."

Want to Be More Productive? Pause

Over the past week, I coached at least four high-performing leaders on the importance of carving out time for critical work. Although they know this matters, they are having difficulty making it happen.

For example, one client told me that he regularly blocks time on his calendar, but when the dedicated time slot rolls around, something interesting happens. Instead of tackling the work he intended to complete, he starts responding to emails.

So why is he getting bogged down in email when he knows it’s not the biggest priority?  The answer is simple: He is tired — and the critical work he should do is mentally taxing. 

Reducing the size of his email inbox still makes him feel productive — like he did accomplish something. But he knows that he is sabotaging his own effectiveness. To change this pattern, he has to go beyond blocking time on his calendar to address his underlying mental fatigue.

In my last blog article, I shared the importance of putting a little breathing room in your schedule, especially if your level of busyness has reached new heights in this crazy  environment. Today we’ll build on that idea. Once you have more capacity in your schedule, how can you use it to lead more effectively?

What Kind of Break Do You Need?

High performers often instinctively respond to stressful times by doing, doing, doing. But here's an important distinction: Being in motion does not necessarily mean that you're moving forward.

None of us are built to work nonstop. In fact, researchers say we need a pause about every 90 minutes so that our brains can consolidate information. After reading my last article, I hope you identified some strategies to integrate more pauses into your day.

So, how should you use your break? Start by checking in with yourself. During busy days, you can easily lose touch with how you are really feeling. Emotional intelligence — knowing what's going on internally for you and taking effective action based on that self-understanding — is key to being an effective leader.

On your next break, simply notice what’s going on for you physically and mentally. What’s your stress level? How connected do you feel? What’s your level of energy and engagement?

Once you realize how you're doing, you’ll know the type of break that will help you the most. If you've been on back-to-back calls, a walk to get some fresh air, stretching or deep breathing and quiet might be the most restorative things you can do. On the other hand, if you've had your head down doing complex work on your own, you might want something more interactive, like checking in with family or friends or a quick conversation. One size does not fit all, so do what works best for you. 

The Proactive Pause

Be intentional about how you use breaks to refocus your time and energy. In other words, determine where you can have the biggest impact on the business and redirect your time accordingly. When you're “in the weeds,” you may not notice anything beyond what's right in front of you: your next email, meeting or fire drill.

Even taking just 10 minutes to reflect can boost your productivity and effectiveness. Use these questions to get started:

• How well does my calendar align with what’s most critical?

• If my calendar is out of sync, what can I delegate, defer or stop doing?

• Which critical meetings do I need to prepare for in the next two weeks?

• What issues or obstacles should I prioritize and proactively manage?

• Whom do I need to check in with? How in tune am I with my manager and team?

To get more done in less time, use some of the breaks in your schedule to proactively reflect.

What's Coming Up

So far, we've worked through two big steps toward developing a more sustainable approach to work during these stressful times:

1. Create capacity in your schedule for breaks.

2. Use those breaks to restore yourself mentally and to reconnect to what matters most.

In my next article, I'll help you clear a mental block that's making a lot of high performers unproductive and even unhappy right now. In the meantime, I invite you to explore my self-paced tools that will help you keep growing as a leader no matter how busy you are.

How to Stop 'Getting By' and Start Leading Strategically

Back in March, the global pandemic upended the way we work. For most of us, this initially felt like a short-term crisis. So we dug in to power through.

But now, almost five months later, you might be stuck in this mode — which damages both your executive presence and your career prospects.

As the deep shifts in our work lives continue, we have to find a more sustainable approach. Today I'm kicking off a new series of blog articles to help you pause, reconnect with the bigger picture and be the leader you want to be even in the most challenging of times.

At Home, We're Working More 

As an executive coach, I'm seeing too many leaders right now who are packing their calendars, working at all hours and saying "yes" to everything.

What's driving this? Cuts and restructuring at many organizations are leaving fewer people to do the same amount of work (or even more). There's also a new urgency around showing your value in order to protect your job.

At the same time, working from home is making our jobs more logistically challenging and blurring the lines between our work and personal lives.

When Microsoft recently studied its own newly remote workforce, it discovered some dramatic changes in how employees were working:

• Time spent in meetings each week rose by 10%.

• Using instant messaging activity as an indicator, Microsoft found that employees were working more during lunch and evenings. Weekend work also grew.

• Also based on instant messaging, managers' workload has grown more than that of individual contributors.

• All of this adds up to a workweek that, on average, is about four hours longer.

Are You Neglecting Strategy?

This relentless pace has consequences. You might think that your hard work makes you a team player. But constantly focusing on the tactical vs. the strategic actually reduces the value you create as a leader. If you're always "putting out fires," you have less time for your truly important work, such as tracking what's going on with your team, motivating and engaging your team members and managing up with your bosses.

Remember also that, as a leader, you are always in the "invisible spotlight." Others are constantly drawing conclusions about your leadership based on what they observe. As working from home eliminates our in-person interactions, your virtual executive presence takes on greater weight. So think about what messages you are conveying by, for example, sending a lot of after-hours emails or arriving late to Zoom calls because you were in another video meeting.

Give Yourself Some Space

It's time to start thinking beyond just getting through these unprecedented times. How can you do so in a way that shows others that you are a strong leader and that sets the stage for your future success?

The first step is simply freeing up some more capacity in your schedule. To do so, take a moment to think about the most important work you need to be doing right now. Has it changed recently? Do you need to adjust your schedule to shift more time toward your top priorities?

Next, think about what you can get off of your plate. Are there meetings you can cancel or decline? Can you turn a one-hour meeting into a 30-minute one? Can you delegate more? Adding even a few minutes back into your day can provide some relief if you're feeling frenzied and overscheduled.

In my next article, I'll show you how to make the most of the capacity you've restored to your schedule. In the meantime, I invite you to explore my self-paced tools that will help you keep growing as a leader no matter how busy you are.

What Does Your Decision-Making Look Like?

As a manager or executive, how many decisions would you guess that you make each year?

Three thousand? Three hundred thousand?

Try 3 billion.

And the stakes are high when it comes to getting all of those billions of decisions right. Researchers have found a 95% correlation between effective decision-making and financial performance. 

Sadly, they've also found that 98% of leaders fail to apply best practices when making decisions.

With all of the recent upheaval in the way we work, you and your colleagues may have been forced out of your comfort zones when it comes to how you make decisions. But I believe that can be a good thing. Here's how to turn those on-the-fly changes into lasting improvements in decision-making.

What Has Worked For You During This Crisis?

The past few months have turned up the intensity on decision-making at work. Your team may be trying to get the same amount of work (or maybe even more) done with fewer people. At the same time, you may be discarding existing plans to react to and get ahead of rapidly changing events.

Those are big challenges. But I'm seeing lots of organizations really rising to those challenges by streamlining, expediting and improving their decision-making processes.

Such changes have been spurred by the extraordinary circumstances we're all working under. But you may want to keep some of them even after your team or organization moves out of crisis mode.

Improving the way you make decisions can have a big impact on the bottom line. Excess bureaucracy costs the U.S. economy more than $3 trillion a year. Slow decision-making hampers innovation, productivity, resilience and growth.

So I want to encourage you to check in with yourself and with your team to see what you've learned about your decision-making process this year. What have you done differently? What has worked well? What do you want to keep doing?

You might have answers like these:

• "We don't need as much information as we thought we did to make effective decisions. So we can save time on information gathering."

• "It's working well for us to have fewer people weigh in on decisions. Decision quality hasn't suffered, everyone still feels engaged, and we're reaching decisions faster."

• "We've all gotten better at building a consensus, which is also speeding up our work."

• "We've seen how clear communication expedites decision-making, and we now have some communication best practices to use as we make decisions in the future."

• "We used to let roadblocks slow down our decision-making, but now we know more about how to remove them or work around them."

As with many other things, making better decisions comes down to noticing what works so you can keep doing it — and do it more often. Carve out a few minutes today to reflect about your own decision-making. For more strategies on effective leadership, even during difficult times, pick up a copy of my book "Show Up. Step Up. Step Out."

How to Stay Focused Before the Holiday Break

The fast pace of work seems to get even more hectic as the year winds down and the holidays get closer. You probably have more work to do than you can actually complete in a day, and distractions are everywhere. It's easy to feel scattered and that you aren't accomplishing anything meaningful. So today I want to share some ways to regain your focus and make the final workweek of 2019 a productive one. You can also use these strategies to get 2020 off to a productive start.

1. Prioritize the Right Work

The first strategy is to always focus systematically on what matters the most. In other words, focus on the “right work” — the work that will have the biggest impact on business results. That typically includes just three or four priorities. How clear are you about what those should be? If you haven’t recently identified where you should focus to have the biggest business impact, given your role and skills, take a few minutes to do so.

Raising your awareness about this will help you start making different choices about how you spend your time. You may be juggling a lot of balls, but are they the right ones? Make sure you take some time to evaluate that. 

2. Set Aside Reflection Time

During this hectic season, you need quiet time more than ever. Book an appointment with yourself to step away from your tasks and just reflect. Whether you're identifying the right work, finding ways to create more capacity in your schedule or preparing for what’s coming up next year, blocking time will allow you to be much more deliberate.

3. Shut Out Distractions

Also recognize when you need uninterrupted time to complete important work. Leave your desk if you think you’ll have too many distractions. You can go to a conference room or another quiet area of your office. Sometimes it can help to work a little bit from home before you come to the office.

4. Take Control of Email

Another big distraction is email. Put some more structure in place for how you manage your inbox. When I ask people if they get more than 100 emails a day, most say yes. And a lot of them get distracted by each email as it comes in because there’s a notification. So, regardless of what they are doing, they get derailed by an email that might not be that important compared with what they should be working on.

A great first step toward getting a handle on email is turning off notifications. Resist the temptation to constantly check your email. Instead check it at specific intervals throughout the day. 

5. Tell Others What You're Doing

No matter what strategies you use to stay focused, communicate them to others. For example, let others known about your new approach to email so that they know how to get hold of you if something urgent comes up at a time when you're not checking email. You might say, “Text or call me if it’s something that can’t wait.”

These conversations help others understand that you are taking steps to increase your efficiency, responsiveness and ability to get the most critical work done. It will get them thinking about your effectiveness and what they should be doing to improve their own. 

Pick at least one of these strategies to try and notice how the changes you make affect your productivity. For more tips like these, check out "Staying in the Driver's Seat," one of the titles in my Leadership EDGE℠ series.

Maintaining Focus in the Midst of Chaos

Life is moving at a fast pace for many people and shows no immediate signs of slowing down. If that sounds like what’s happening in your life right now, take a look at the three questions below to help you maintain your focus.

1. Are you focusing on the "right work?"

In the midst of the flurry, are you focusing on where you can have the biggest impact on the business and your career? Are you making the highest and best use of your talent and skills, and leveraging others effectively? If you answered no to these questions, what one step will you take to refocus your efforts?

2. Do you create space to be strategic?

High performers know that they can’t simply react to what’s going on around them and still get the results they want. Being strategic and intentional about what they say and do is key. When things get hectic, do you consistently carve out time on your calendar to reflect, so you can do just that? Even setting aside 15 minutes a week can help you be much more proactive.

3. Are you getting enough rest?

Maintaining your energy during demanding times can be the difference between thriving and surviving. When people work long hours, they may not get the rest they need – and sleep is a foundational source of energy. It can affect your attitude, outlook, perspective, and ability to make good decisions. If you aren’t getting 7-8 hours of sleep or taking short breaks throughout the day, what one step can you take to address this? Again, simply adding 15 minutes of rest can have a big impact.

If you are working in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment, it makes it harder to maintain your focus on what matters most. So, this week I challenge you to identify one small step you will take in one of the three areas above. Remember, small steps can lead to big results.

© 2013 Neena Newberry | All rights reserved.

Clean Up Your Physical and Mental Clutter

In a recent article, I told you that I'd kicked off the year with a big physical and mental decluttering project. Since we're in spring-cleaning season, I want to share more about the value of freeing up space in your life, especially since research shows that it can affect your happiness.

Clear Your Space

In our busy lives, sometimes we become blind to our physical workspaces and the effect they have on us. Bring a fresh eye to your surroundings. What does your office or workspace look like? How does that affect your mindset? How much do you enjoy versus feel distracted working there? What can you remove from your workspace? For me, it was reams of back issues of magazines that I had to admit I was never going to read. Getting them out of my space was a huge weight off my shoulders. And with them gone, I'm now making much better use of my office bookshelves.

Also think about what else you need in your workspace, from an organization tool to an inspirational or meaningful photo or memento.

Clear Your Mind

Just like my office, my mind felt cluttered. I kept thinking about the same things over and over again, which disrupted my sleep.

One thing that helped me break the pattern was keeping a journal by my bed. I use it to get everything out of my head before bedtime – or when I would toss and turn for too long. I started by writing out the question "What am I worried about?" and then let the words flow unedited. Once I filled up almost two full pages! By dumping it out of my head and seeing it on paper, I noticed some themes and could more easily pick one or two things to start addressing. When I let it keep rolling around in my head, it took so much effort just to keep up with it. If you try this exercise, handwrite everything because doing so engages your brain differently.

If you want to take this practice a step further and get a little adventurous with some fire, you can try a burning bowl ceremony. On a small piece of paper, write down something you want to let go of — perhaps it's something you no longer want to tolerate or something that's holding you back. Light it on fire with a candle and place it in a nonflammable bowl to disappear before your eyes. The symbolic power in this action can really shift your mindset to eliminating this constraint from your life.

If playing with fire and journaling aren’t appealing, meditation can be another powerful tool. I don't practice traditional, sitting meditation, but the rhythmic cadence of running along with being out in nature, really centers me in the present moment. I usually listen to a guided meditation as I run. If running isn’t something you enjoy, simply go for a walk outside and purposefully notice the beautiful things around you can ground you. And, of course, traditional meditation is always an option. The point is to be fully present and deliberately create more mental space.

Where Is Your Clutter?

Now, think about any clutter in your own life. Is physical or mental clutter making you feel irritable and anxious? Perhaps it’s a bit of both. Pick one action to take this week it. If decluttering is something you mastered a long time ago, jot down what you do that works and refer to it periodically to make sure you stay on track. Whatever you choose to do, know that you are making space for something better to enter your life.

What’s Next for You this Year?

As the year progresses or comes to a close, take a moment to step back and look at the bigger picture. As high performers, we’re always pushing to achieve and tend to leap from one goal to the next without a pause.

Taking some reflection time, though, helps you be more strategic. Here are five questions to consider:

1. What have you accomplished this year? What has most excited you? What have you been most proud of? Those answers will give you insights on how to put your strengths and passions into play more powerfully.

2. What has helped or hindered your progress? Revisit any goals you set for the year. Do you need to shift your approach in any way to reach those goals this year?

3. What have you learned about your leadership? As you consider the answer to this question, identify what you want to take forward into the rest of the year, and what you want to leave behind.

4. How will you celebrate what you've done so far? However eager you are to keep moving forward, remember to pause to celebrate. You'll give your energy a boost.

5. What's next? Now that you've taken stock of where you are, be deliberate about how you want to move forward during the rest of the year. Where do you want to focus your energy and effort, given what you have learned so far this year?

This week, set aside some time to reflect on these questions and set your course for the rest of the year. You'll find more ideas on becoming proactive instead of reactive in my video "Making the Most of Your Time." Even pausing for a few minutes can open the door to new insights. Remember that small steps lead to big results.

Get More Out of Your Meetings

This month, we've been talking about how to lift others up. We've already discussed helping them grow professionally and celebrating their successes. Another way you can bolster your team and your colleagues is by helping them work smarter and avoid practices that stand in the way of their best results. I'm willing to bet that most people would cite meetings as one of the things that hamper their productivity — and happiness — at work. But a few surprisingly simple tweaks can shift that.

• Request at least one expected outcome and objective when people ask to meet with you. Ask for these before you commit the time for the meeting. This will help you and the other person clarify what you want to get out of it and make better use of the time.

• For meetings that you lead, restructure your agenda so that the purpose of the topic is clear: to provide an update, get input, or make a decision. (See my gift to you below). If the agenda involves mostly updates, challenge the need for the meeting. Look for other more efficient ways to provide them. Reserve meetings for topics that require input and discussion.

• Set expectations about how far in advance you need meeting materials so that you can prepare and contribute to the meeting.

• Shorten your meetings. For example, reduce one-hour meetings to 45 minutes. This will give you time to process what happened in the meeting and follow up before your next one.

• Show up with intention and purpose. What would make this meeting worthwhile, and how can you make sure that occurs? By simply asking yourself this before you walk in, you will be more deliberate about how you use the time.

As our gift to you, we're offering a free, downloadable agenda template to focus your meetings by clarifying the purpose of each topic. It is simple, but effective. Give it a try this week and let me know how it worked for you. Find more tips for working smarter and having more impact in the "Getting the Right Work Done" module of the WOW! Women On the Way to Peak Performance ProgramSM and in the WOW! Highlight AudioSM.

Give Yourself an Ear Worm!

Have you ever heard a song on the radio in the morning that stuck with you throughout the day? Some call that an ear worm - a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing1. And according to research, 98% of us experience these pesky occurrences every once in a while. But what if your ear worm worked to your advantage?   My WOW! Women on the Way to Peak PerformanceProgramSM can give you just the messages you need to take your performance and career to the next level. If you’re not ready for the full program, the Lite version includes two high impact modules – “Getting the Right Work Done” and “Building a Network of Advocates” – to help you keep some powerful tools front and center.

“Getting the Right Work Done” focuses on:

* Determining the three most critical areas where you can make the biggest business impact

* Understanding where you are getting side-tracked

* Develop strategies to ensure you are getting the right work done

Listening to this audio module periodically during the year can serve as a checkup or help you refocus on the most important areas for success.

“Building a Network of Advocates” helps you assess and strengthen your current network of colleagues and contacts, to help you get results and advance your career with advocates in your corner.

* How do your attitudes and beliefs impact your ability to network?

* Who should you leverage in your network?

* Strategies to strengthen your network in a way that works for you

* Develop action steps to leverage your contacts to achieve your goals

Designed with busy professionals in mind, you can download and listen to these two 30-minute modules from my website here at your convenience. They come with transcripts and exercises to help you get the most out of the content. Whether you need a boost in the morning to make sure you are showing up the right way, or would like to have a coach available at the press of a button when tackling a difficult challenge, these audio programs will give you a positive ear worm!

1 Wikipedia definition – ear worm

Did You Get The Right Work Done This Year?

Wow, this was a busy year full of change, new projects and challenges. In the midst of the flurry, did you get the right work done? We all know that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your effort.  So, how well did you invest your time and energy this year? Find out by answering these three questions: * Did you focus on the top three things that would have the biggest impact on business results?

* Did you make the highest and best use of your talent and skills?

* Are the right people fully aware of your results and impact?

If you answered yes to the first two questions, congratulations! If key stakeholders and influencers also know about the value you bring, you get serious accolades because it means you didn’t just put your head down and work. You took it one step further to help others recognize – and therefore further leverage – your strengths and experience.

As you reflect on your achievements and plan for 2014, what small step will you take to invest in yourself in 2014?

If you’re ready to get results you couldn’t before, consider the WOW! Women On the Way to Peak Performance Program. It will help you stay focused on the right work, removing the barriers that get in the way, and tastefully toot your own horn so you get recognized for it. And these are just two of the six impactful leadership topics included in the Program! Check it out to see if it’s that extra boost you need.   http://newberrycoaching.com/shop/

Getting the Support You Need

I coach my clients all the time on making the highest and best use of their talent and skills and focusing on the Right Work (the three things that will have the biggest business impact). Two weeks ago, when I was out facilitating a leadership development program for one of the Big 4, I realized that I wasn’t practicing what I was preaching. So, of course, this inspired some action on my part to make some big changes and the following questions for you:

1. How much time do you reserve each week to be strategic?

How much do you find yourself reacting to what’s going on around you versus strategically driving things forward? Many of my clients have instituted a practice of setting aside uninterrupted time at least 2-3 times a week. To get started, I have them dedicate 15-20 minutes once per week unless they can do more. Most people can find that small amount of time even if they have a packed schedule. As they realize how much of a difference a small amount of time can make, they inevitably find ways to carve out more time. Once you start implementing this strategy, I would encourage you to specify exactly what you want to accomplish in the time you set aside and communicate to your team that this is sacred time (i.e., please do NOT interrupt me!).

2. What takes up a lot of time but just isn’t the right work for you?

One of my clients recently expressed her frustration that she spends too much time reviewing and editing PowerPoint presentations for meetings. In fact, if she could resolve this issue, she would get back 20 hours per month!!!! Now, that’s a serious incentive to make something happen.

As we delved deeper, we realized that this situation presented an opportunity for her to delegate while developing her team in a meaningful way. We discussed several ideas including arming the team with her three review criteria, instituting a peer review process, and pairing up employees who are less skilled with those who can already do this well to promote teaching.

So, what’s taking up a lot of your time? How can you use it as an opportunity to develop your team, while freeing up more of your time? What other resources should you ask for?

3. Are you taking a long-term perspective?

Sometimes you can get in your own way whether it’s because of perfectionism, just doing what you’ve always done, or simply thinking it’s just easier to do the work yourself than ask for help.

I want to challenge you to take a longer-term view and think about whether it makes sense to invest a small amount of time now to teach someone else how to do a particular task so you can save a LOT of time down the road. Remember that all of those minutes can add up to a lot of hours or days that you could wisely invest elsewhere. With that perspective, what are you going to stop doing?

As you read through the questions above, I hope they stimulated some ideas. Identify one thing that you’d like to change and put into practice for yourself starting next week. Remember, small steps lead to big results and the goal is to just get started.

© 2012 Neena Newberry | All rights reserved.

Get the Results You Want

It's that time again when we ask ourselves, "What do I want to accomplish this year?" Some of us write New Year's resolutions, many which never come to fruition. We may start out with a lot of energy and excitement, but don't recognize how we set ourselves up for failure. Read on for tips to help you get better results this year - in how you write goals and your approach to achieving them.

1. Unbundle and be specific

Let me take an example of Judy who sets a goal to get 20 new clients this year. We all know that she won't find all of these clients immediately and it may take a while to meet her goal. So, first she needs to unbundle her large goal into its component parts. For example, revising her goal to get 5 new clients by the end of each quarter will still allow Judy to meet her overall goal but breaks her goal into manageable pieces. She will also know when she's achieved her goal because it is measurable and time-bound with specific interim milestones.

2. Identify what makes it so important

Judy should also think about what makes this goal so important to her. Perhaps, it's about feeling good about herself, making more money, or getting promoted. Whatever it is, reminding herself of the underlying reason will motivate her - especially when she feels stuck. Often, having a visual reminder (e.g., a note in a visible place, a screensaver) or someone who periodically reminds Judy of the importance of her goal can be very powerful.

3. Think about what it will really take

Is Judy's goal realistic and attainable for her? What will it really take to meet her goal and what obstacles might get in her way? For example, does she need support from someone who is more skilled in developing new business? How should Judy prioritize her time and leverage her team so she can focus more on sales? Does she have the budget she needs? Answering these questions as she's formulating her goals and developing supporting strategies will help Judy be more successful.

4. Assess and Adjust

Periodically, Judy should assess what's working and what's not and make adjustments to her approach. For example, if she's not spending enough time on developing new business, what's getting in her way? What does she need to change about her strategy? She should schedule checkpoints often enough that she can make adjustments before it is too late to meet her goal.

So, I challenge you to try these tips in 2010. I have no doubt that you will get better results. Who knows, maybe this will be the first year you follow through on your resolutions!

Are You Doing the Right Work?

Time is a precious resource that we just can't get back, so use it wisely. Time management strategies can help, but yield minimal results if you aren't focusing on the "right work" - areas where you can have the biggest impact on the business.  Here are three simple steps to help you focus your efforts:  

Step 1: Determine your "Big 3" - the three critical areas where you can make the biggest business impact this year

As you define your Big 3, also think about what your boss would say should be your Big 3. If your boss hasn't clearly stated what is most critical, there are usually clues in his/her actions or behavior. If you're unsure, take the mystery out of the equation and get clarity through a conversation. A common definition of the "right work" will ultimately shape how you and your boss define and measure YOUR success.  

Step 2: Understand the gap in how you spend your time

After you've identified your Big 3, draw a pie chart. Determine how many work hours your pie represents over a one-week period (e.g., 40 hours, 50 hours, etc.). Then, carve your pie into slices that represent major areas of your work (e.g., getting new clients, developing your team, etc.), with the size of each slice indicating the percentage of hours you SHOULD spend on that area each week. For example, if you should spend 50% of your time on getting new clients, that slice would be half of the pie. Be sure to include your Big 3 as separate slices in this pie.   Then, compare this pie chart to one that shows how you ACTUALLY spend your time.  You can do this by tracking your time for a week, noting your activities in increments of 30 minutes, and then summarizing how much time you dedicated to the Big 3. If it's easier, review your calendar for a recent week that represents how you typically spend your time.   It's up to you how specific you want to get, but the ultimate goal is to recognize the gap between what you should be doing and what you are doing.  

Step 3: Develop strategies to redirect

If you reach the conclusion that you need to shift your focus, figure out what's getting in the way today. Is it perfectionism, too many distractions, or just that you weren't clear on the Big 3? Whatever it is, determine 1-2 strategies you can start implementing tomorrow to help redirect you. Often starting small with just a couple of strategies can start building the momentum you need to achieve big change.   Just remember that when you say "yes" to too much time on less critical areas, you are saying "no" to the "right work" - and your potential impact on the business!!