Welcome to Co-Creation Blog Page
Working in partnership to deliver results
Welcome to Co-Creation Blog
Welcome to the Co-Creation Group Blog page. Visit this page for the latest updates on what has been going on across the Co-Creation group as well as articles and information sharing of the latest market leading services.
Presenting with Impact Virtually
More people are using video platforms to communicate and present to their clients and colleagues. Some may have prior experience of presenting face-to-face, yet considerations should be taken into account when presenting virtually. For instance, maintaining eye contact essential when trying to communicate effectively and reinforce key messages for your target audience. Initially, this may feel uncomfortable, but with practice, presenters will become more accustomed to focusing on the lens, rather than thumbnails of their attendees. Moreover, when presenting in person, it’s considered good practice to project our voices to present ourselves as authoritative, credible and confident figures. This gives the messages that we’re communicating credibility. This concept is also relevant in virtual presentations; therefore, maintain a strong, clear voice as if you’re in a physical conference room. Preparing an effective space is also contributes to effective auditory performance. For instance, soft furnishings reduce echoing and maintains the focus of the audience. It’s also important to consider visuals when conducting a video call; position yourself, accordingly, i.e. fill your screen with your head and shoulders. Also, ensure that the background isn’t cluttered. Not only can this distract your audience, messy surroundings could be considered unprofessional. Finally, don’t view the chat window as a tool that’s exclusively for Q&A. Use the feature to share documents, links, or agendas with your audience.
Why our Mindset Influences our Experience of Change and What to Do About It
With COVID-19 having a profound impact on the world of work, leaders need to keep their teams motivated and maintaining the required performance levels. A motivated team brings an abundance of qualities to a company, including commitment, morale, efficiency and skills gained via personal development opportunities. With circumstances changing significantly since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, leaders need to demonstrate adaptability to prevent workers from adopting a fixed mindset, rather guiding them to the path of possibility, whereby opportunity and positivism are prominent. As identified by McGregor and Doshi, there are negative motivators that can hinder motivation: economic pressure, economic pressure and inertia. Nonetheless, there are positive motivators that can override the influence of the aforementioned factors: play, purpose and potential.
Four Pillars of Motivation
In this blog we will be looking at how to maximise your team’s performance as we begin to emerge from the crisis caused by COVID-19. We will be looking at this topic through four lenses suggested by McGregor and Doshi (2015). They are: Commitment Morale Efficiency...
Motivation – Maximising Your Team’s Performance
With COVID-19 having a profound impact on the world of work, leaders need to keep their teams motivated and maintaining the required performance levels. A motivated team brings an abundance of qualities to a company, including commitment, morale, efficiency and skills gained via personal development opportunities. With circumstances changing significantly since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, leaders need to demonstrate adaptability to prevent workers from adopting a fixed mindset, rather guiding them to the path of possibility, whereby opportunity and positivism are prominent. As identified by McGregor and Doshi, there are negative motivators that can hinder motivation: economic pressure, economic pressure and inertia. Nonetheless, there are positive motivators that can override the influence of the aforementioned factors: play, purpose and potential.
Resilience and Wellbeing
Resilience and wellbeing have been challenged since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet there are ways in which we can adopt a holistic stance and build our self-confidence. For example, the Path of Possibility inspires positivity whilst adopting a Growth Mindset enables us to embrace challenges, confront obstacles, use maximum effort when completing tasks, whilst seeking inspiration from others. Controlling our human responses is essential to build confidence and we need to suppress desires to act instinctively; introducing coping mechanisms such as breathing exercises can help us respond appropriately and increase self-confidence. Similarly, we need to identify factors that are beyond our control and influence. For instance, though we’re unable to influence the COVID-19 pandemic and the government guidelines in the immediate term, we can affect the long-term impact by ensuring that we adhere to the measures. This correlates with Covey’s Response-ability theory, indicating that we must adopt the role of an author, rather than a victim, changing our response to an event, to orchestrate our desired outcome. This model enables us to remodel our thinking; while adopting a predisposed mindset of negative bias is a philosophy that inspires a sense of safety, we can adopt this approach and embrace a positive mindset to build our resilience and improve our wellbeing. Additionally, while establishing short and long-term targets is vital, leaders must acknowledge the adverse conditions in which we’re living. Therefore, the formation of resilience, self-confidence and wellbeing amongst a team hinges on characteristics such as flexibility and adaptability.
Leading Remote Teams Virtually
With COVID-19 closing offices, many workers are working remotely; while this arrangement may be familiar for some, there’s a degree of unfamiliarity for others. Therefore, leaders need to manage their teams, accordingly, putting measures in place whereby their team can work productively, while remaining healthy, feeling psychologically safe and creating the environment to build team cohesion; building trust, encouraging healthy conflict, securing commitment and accountability and ensuring a focus on collective results. While the popularity of remote working has increased in recent years, those forced to work at home by current circumstance may find the unfamiliar setup daunting, with potential challenges including lack of interaction, new routine and new working environment potentially threatening productivity. Leaders can introduce leadership strategies to minimise the risk of work yield decreasing, encouraging workers to maintain relationships, manage expectations of their staff and using buddy systems to alleviate stress. Moreover, leaders can also use technology to manage effectively; leaders must manage by output not presenteeism and ensure that they encourage structure amongst their team.
Promoting a Positive Mindset
We’re in the midst of a global pandemic, with coronavirus impacting our ordinary existence. Despite the changes to the cultural norm, it’s essential to adopt a positive mindset as we strive to restore normality within society. Those who adopt a flexible mindset and embrace personal growth are more resolute and develop core traits needed to enter the path of possibility, whereby we as humans can prosper. This path drives positive emotions, sense of belonging and guides us through challenging periods, such as COVID-19. While daily structure has been disrupted, there are measures that can be introduced to inspire positivity, including breathing exercises, regular breaks in the fresh air, while a Gratitude Journal can boost morale and reduce stress. Currently, exposure to negative messaging has intensified and while the human race has been moulded by such correspondence, it’s essential to evade the web of negativity to successfully implement a positive mindset; problematic events can hinder our engagement socially, professionally and psychologically, potentially contributing to depression and/or addictive behaviours. Therefore, we must remain optimistic, adopt a positive mindset to navigate the current obstacles in a successful and positive manner.
Finding Your Energy & Productivity Edge
Energy is essential for our productivity. Often, people work overtime to allegedly achieve more, yet this can lead to fatigue; long hours aren’t conducive to an effective working model and we need to enable the four sources of energy drive performance. Humans must be healthy, physically and mentally, to sustain productivity. Additionally, while emotional responses can be hard to control, particularly during uncertain times, a pragmatic approach needs to be adopted to ensure that energy-depleting emotions don’t have a detrimental impact on health and overall performance. It’s essential to get plenty of rest and acknowledge the benefits of activities such as breathing exercises to reduce stress levels and improve overall mental well-being, which is central to a positive mindset; contingencies such as effective planning and ensuring that distractions are reduced can have an overwhelming effect. Additionally, the focus must be attributed to the role of spiritual fulfilment in our productivity edge; devote time to what you deem to be important and exhibit your philosophy in your daily life.
Business Performance and Sustaining Progress
Within our previous three blog articles, we’ve focused on three leadership habits - sharing vision, sparking engagement and skilfully executing; these steps must be completed to accomplish business performance and targets. In our first blog article within the series,...
COVID-19 Leadership Model
Abstract During times of adversity, leaders are expected to offer guidance and navigate their team through challenging times, but given the unprecedented nature of COVID-19, how can we lead in a manner that will inspire hope, instil confidence and sustain...
