Snippet – No.3: Perseverance

Snippet – No.3: Perseverance

by | May 20, 2020 | Snippet

I didn’t have whatever skills and behaviours I needed for working from home, and I needed to learn fast. Having struggled with English at school, communicating online was always a struggle, and it’s something I avoided. Lockdown has forced me to accept my fate.

Let’s bring in some of my stats: 33% more screen time over the first 7 days of lockdown, 30-minute daily average on Netflix (50% increase), more facetime calls in the last 2 weeks than in my whole life, 4 new family WhatsApp groups! Having now accepted my fate I’m starting to get used to it, and dare I say good. My screen time is now my quality time, a paradigm shift.

If I think about it, returning to working in person may now be the problem. We’ve all adapted, but more than that the practicalities of work have shifted, or at least personally my own hang-ups have evaporated. I’m even having house parties through an app!

Angus Hopper
Marketing Lead Jyre

Snippet, Reflect, Fix

Snippet
Changing our habits and developing strengths requires being able to pursue change and growth in the face of obstacles, boredom, fatigue and anxiety. As we hit the point where our actions no longer feel inspiring or fun, most people give up. It is here that the right effort is key.

Reflect
If there’s something that you want to change, first imagine how things will look once you’ve reached that goal (vision)?
What could stop you reaching the vision (obstacles)?
How could you plan to overcome these obstacles (plans)?

Fix
You need to persevere if you are going to be successful in changing a habit. Pick one thing that you would like to change and have the courage to see it through (persevere).

Hidden secrets of the Innovator

Hidden secrets of the Innovator

by | Sep 2, 2019 | Featured

Hidden secrets of the Innovator
Mark Loftus 

Innovators: entrepreneurs taking risks, investors with confidence in their own judgement, colleagues who find the new angle. What makes them tick?

You may assume they are filled with self-confidence, but not every innovator is (or at least has not yet been recognised as) the next Jobs, Gates or Musk. They could well be quiet and unassuming, and not display their potentially explosive talent. You may sense from them underlying unease or tension, a symptom of the dark side that leads them to discovery and invention.

Whoever they are, they are in demand with the world’s business leaders. Leadership teams are learning to identify and attract them, and ensure that they arrive once they’ve been lured in.

Novelists, musicians and artists all create, but innovation goes further. It means experimentation, time-wasting, risk-taking, being prepared to search for something that may not exist… or even be possible.

Ironically, based on the reports of 15,000 Jyre users surveyed, innovators are likely to be low in self-belief. They often doubt their own work, and are constantly evaluating and dismissing their own ideas before they’re properly formed.

Their colleagues can inadvertently add to the problem by being over-critical, or fretting about potential risks and downsides too early in the piece.

Managing Innovators requires care and nurture. Some will need encouragement, to be told when to push on, and when to quit. But identifying the innovators in a company is not always straightforward. Data shows that many people whose pattern of strengths indicating a strong fit to the innovator will be invisible because of that lack of self-confidence.

What’s more, fresh ideas are fragile things: subjected to too much scrutiny too early, they will shrivel and die (unfortunately reinforcing self-doubt in the process).

To nurture the spirit of innovation, think more like a midwife than a surgeon: be encouraging and supportive, and guide when you can in what is often a messy and disruptive process.

If you are the innovator, try to find a creative mentor who is willing to support you. The most satisfying part of innovation is doing it with like-minded people, working co-operatively.