With everyone talking about “The New Normal”, it makes me wonder: can the “old” version of me thrive with this “New” environment? What are the things about my current habits and lifestyle that have to give way for the new?
The lockdown has certainly made me rethink a few things – some as basic as needing to get more boosters for the WiFi so the family can both work and school at home without having to converge at the strongest points for online meetings and classes. Other things that I’ve had to change are more work-related. Such as keeping my team nationwide connected and productively engaged in the middle of the separations, social distancing and challenges of working remotely.
Personally, I’ve also been reflecting on the direction the year is going and getting comfortable trying different things – from hair experiments (my hair’s currently an interesting shade of copper from a DIY henna treatment. No there won’t be any pictures lol!) to work out routines and learning new things online (thank you to all those who slashed their online course prices during this period).
You may also be asking yourself how relevant you and your skills/business/company will be in the new order. What’s become very obvious is that as times have clearly changed, so must we: our decisions, habits, lifestyles. Maybe it’s time to reinvent and re-introduce yourself? If you’re open to considering this, then here are 5 practical things you can do to start the process.
- Be clear on what the new version of you looks like – In an ideal world, who would you be and what would you like to do? How would you present yourself? How would you communicate your thoughts and to whom? What would your lifestyle be? What spheres will you influence and how?
- Assess yourself – How near or far are you from this ideal picture? What strengths do you want to highlight and accentuate? What are the things you want to start, reduce or eliminate? You can ask these questions across all aspects of your life (mental, physical, emotional, spiritual). It’s okay if you don’t have all the answers immediately, the key is to start asking yourself the questions.
- Identify and understand your audience – Your audience could be your colleagues at work, your customers or business partners. Personality-wise have you been reactive and waited for people to come to you first? Are you losing potential business or stakeholder engagement with this style?
- Have a clear engagement strategy – You can’t be all things to all people, so in this very ‘noisy’ world how do you connect and engage with the relevant people? What meetings do you need to set up (virtual or otherwise), what info do you need to share on a regular basis? How do you present this?
- Step up your digital game – I can’t overemphasize this enough. The ‘new normal’ is that there will be some form of restrictions on physical gatherings for a while to come. With that reality, you need to have some form of digital engagement plan – whether it’s a simple email, or a full-on digital engagement platform – connecting with people is going to happen more frequently in a virtual arena.
