Grab a pen, or a computer, and capture these in this short Sunday audio:
Today's Teams365 Sunday audio, our second for the year, focuses in on 10 questions to be asking you and your team on a regular basis.
Grab a pen, or a computer, and capture these in this short Sunday audio:
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The first Essential Leadership Read of 2015, a weekly column I host on Saturdays, is Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. For many years now I have been sharing this as a resource for team leaders and team members. In the book Lencioni explores five main areas which if focused on lead to incredible performance. Unfortunately, many of these five become the "dysfunction" that put the team into trouble.
Consider these five areas and what they mean to you and your team right now. If you were to rate yourself on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being low and 10 being high, where would you be: Trust Conflict Commitment Accountability Results Since April of 2014, I have been privileged to be one of a handful of Canadian companies to be able to offer the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team which Lencioni has partnered with Everything DiSC (which we also offer), around. The program is an intensive series of dialogues, which provide the team members with greater information about their own individual DiSC style while also mapping out the team's levels of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results. Exploration of these five levels help teams excel. If you are interested in learning more about how these work, please contact me to set up a time to discuss how it could benefit you and your team. Have a terrific weekend, Jennifer Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized: Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) Authorized Partner of Everything DiSC and the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Habits are sets of consistent behaviors which support us in focus and more automatic behaviors.
As we've seen in other posts, high performing teams create shared practices, habits such as consistent team meetings, standard ways of communication, handling issues etc. As leaders, we also may evolve our own individual habits such as an allotted time of day to we spent in planning, a habit of regular 1-1s with team members, or consistent behaviors we undertake to keep us renewed and at our prime (i.e. getting to the gym a couple of times a week). With habits these are things we do regularly and become part of the way we operate. Habits become second nature and are often unconscious. Habits reflect our values and what is important. Today's check it off tip encourages you to think about what habits you currently have, individually and as a team. How are these supporting you? How are they not? For those interested in learning more about this topic, you may want to read Charles Duhigg's, The Power of Habit (featured as one of the Essential Leadership Reads last year) or Schwartz and Loehr's Power of Full Engagement. Have a great weekend, Jennifer Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized: Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) Authorized Partner of Everything DiSC and the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team In their book Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan and John King, write a lot about the stabilizing power of three.
Today's team building tip gets you to think about the stabilizing force of a three legged stool. If you were to think of each of these legs as a different theme or focus for the team, what would the three legs be? What are the three areas, or foci, which ground the team? Have a great week, Jennifer Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized: Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) Authorized Partner of Everything DiSC and the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team A few hours ago I hosted the January 2015 Team Leader Breakfast Cafe call on Goals for the new year. I cover five main areas you will want to keep in mind as you are setting and executing your team and leadership goals for this year. You can listen to the 20 minute call here: This was the first of our monthly Team Leadership Breakfast Cafe calls which are typically held on the first Wednesday of each month. The sixth in the series, you can listen back to my past monthly calls which covered topics including Team Culture, Strengths, High Impact Meetings and High Performing Teams at it's dedicated page over at my CoachingTeamLeaders.com site.
One resource you may want to download is the One Page Plan Framework from my Inner Biz Leader Virtual Business Planning Retreat. You can download the one page plan document here and use it to house visibly your top 5 goals for the year (or month or quarter). If you are looking for more resources and support in this area I hope that you will consider the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Business Planning Retreat a program you can take at your own pace, which will support you in exploring your vision and plan for this year, along with some of your core leadership foundations. Udemy, the site I host it on, has it on a dramatically reduced price of $10 as a new year's special for a few days. You can take it at any pace you'd like and can access it here. Enjoy this month's team leader breakfast cafe and hope you will join me in early Feb for the next one! You can listen back to the first six in the series here. Have a great Wednesday! Jennifer Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats Authorized Everything DiSC partner and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Email: info(at) potentialsrealized (dot) com (416)996-8326 In my work as a coach in supporting teams to do their best work, I like to share with them what some of the research says about what makes teams high performing. I often refer to these as the six factors. As we start the year, it can be useful to take stock of where you are as a team right now and which ones need attention. We will circle back to these throughout the year as well, given their fundamental nature.
As you start this year, consider how your team does on a scale of 1-10 around these six areas, and have some dialogue around the questions I have posed: 1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY) What is your purpose? Your mission? Why you exist? Does everyone hold the same understanding? What does this mean practically for your work? What priorities does your purpose or mission naturally create? 2. Shared behavioral norms How you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team? What behaviors and habits exist? Which ones are supportive of exceptional performance? Which ones aren't? 3. Shared commitment What are team members committed to? What will you get done, no matter what? Is there anything that needs to be dropped off the list? 4. Shared performance goals What are key goals for the team this year? What are key individual goals? How do your goals align? Overlap? What does success look like for each member? For the entire team? Does everyone have an understanding of the key goals of others on the team and how they feed into them? 5. Shared team practices Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event. What practices support your relationships? 6. Clear Roles (How our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities? Have a great week, Jennifer Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats Authorized Everything DiSC partner and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Email: info(at) potentialsrealized (dot) com (416)996-8326 It is that time of year when we get back to work with a lot of energy and best of intentions around our goals and what we want to achieve. Today's post includes five areas for you to think about as you firm up your 2015 goals. Taken separately and collectively these can help you refine your goals into ones that are clearer, and hopefully have more resonance and "sticky factor" throughout the year.
1. Consider making each one of your goals SMART-E, goals which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timebound and of course exciting. Test out each one of your goals with this framework. Rather than saying you will build a more robust network, get specific on this - what will it look like? How can you track your progress? What's exciting about it? In the work that I do with leaders, it's the excitement factor that usually makes the big difference between a "nice to have" goal, to one that does get achieved. 2, Consider how each one of your goals connects to the team, organizational and personal level. If you are a team leader, what is the connection between your goals, your team goals and your organization goals. How do they differ? What's the overlap? Where can you get some leverage by working on one, or the other? 3. What's going to be a stretch for you? it's important to have stretch goals which will support us in moving forward in comfortable ways. This links us back to the A of SMART-E. How are your goals Achievable (with some stretch)? Getting just the right amount of stretch is going to look different for each one of us - too much stretch may lead to inertia, to little stretch may mean that it becomes another check-box activity. What stretch is going to be supportive of your growth at this time? 4. Create an accountability partner - Who will you share these goals with? Who will hold your "feet to the fire" or cheer you on though the peaks and valleys of the year. This is where a lot of leaders I work with enjoy the Teams365 Coaching Groups, a peer group focused on supporting you with your goals, learning and successes. Who will support you throughout this year as you move forward? When will you be revisiting your goals throughout the year? 5. Keep your goals visible - Keeping your goals visible creates a regular reminder, and conversation point, about what is important. Yesterday I included a one-page downloadable goal sheet from the Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Business Planning Retreat. I hope that you will enjoy using it to keep your top 3-5 goals visible throughout the year. What other tips do you have about making goals more effective, based on your experience? Have a great back to work day! Best Jennifer Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) (416)996-TEAM (8326) Looking to create your plan for 2015? Participate in the on-demand Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Retreat Program - 7 hours of structured activities to support you in developing your vision and one page plan for the next year! It's time for the first Sunday Teams365 audio at the Teams365 blog. Today's eight minute audio includes questions to support you in creating your vision for 2015, along with your top 3-5 goals for the year. It is the start of a longer process of creating your vision and goals for the year. If you haven't done so already, carve out 20-30 minutes to create your vision and plan for the year. I am including here for you a One Page plan which you can use from the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Business Planning Retreat (launched last month at Udemy). I hope that you find the one page plan a useful reference as you move throughout the year, or each month of the year. Download the One Page Plan here. You can listen into this week's Teams365 Sunday audio here: For a longer visioning audio, please check out the Preview Vision Audio at the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Planning Retreat - Lesson #7 Available to all as a preview.
Hope you are having a great first Sunday! Best Jennifer Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) (416)996-TEAM (8326) Looking to create your plan for 2015? Participate in the on-demand Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Retreat Program - 7 hours of structured activities to support you in developing your vision and one page plan for the next year! Last year here at the Teams365 blog I focused on both teamwork competencies and team leader competencies. Today’s post highlights some of the most important team leadership competencies for 2015:
Delegation - Delegation is still an area many team leaders struggle with. Key to leadership and empowering our team is letting go and handing off tasks and projects (as appropriate) to those on our team. As you think about what's on "your list" for January, what are the tasks you can delegate? Who could benefit by taking on this activity? Read my 5 W post on Delegation from last year for more tips and ideas about delegation (Read past Teams365 posts on delegation here) Facilitation Skills - Virtual and In Person Business today continues to suffer from what Patrick Lencioni termed "Death by Meeting". What I find commonplace today is "Death by Conference Call" . Leading in a virtual environment requires a firm hand on process, and relationship building skills. It also helps to have some key facilitation skills under your own belt so you can run effective meetings, strategic planning sessions and involve or engage all those around the table. This year I will be continuing to offer two programs which support leaders and professionals in this domain - the Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive (for those leading virtual meetings and training) and the Facilitation Skills Intensive (for those leading in person meetings, strategic sessions and training). These skills can be a make it or break it for our team. Consider joining me later this month and next to bolster your skills. Feedback and Difficult Conversations - Providing both positive and constructive feedback also continues to be a challenge for many team leaders. Regular one-on-ones are key to providing feedback regularly and building a performance culture. Likewise, providing all team members with a framework and ability to hold difficult conversations is also key. Coaching and Mentoring Skills - Going hand in hand with these other skills are coaching and mentoring skills. Our ability as leaders to coach our team members to do their best, and providing mentoring to those that follow are key to organizational capacity development. Operating in a business context which is likely to continue to increase in complexity, it is even more urgent for us to build bench strength every way possible! Read my summer 2014 series on coaching and mentoring skills. Given that this is one of my areas of expertise, contact me to discuss how we can support you in building these skills in your organization. Relationship management skills - Finally our relationship management skills are also critical for success in 2015. As team leaders relationships upwards and downwards create success. The ability to influence (when you may not have the final decision), understand and navigate the political context of your organization or industry, and build connections virtually are all key relationship management skills for 2015. I look forward to continuing to address these topics throughout our daily posts for the year. As you consider your core skills, which of these are your strength. Which one will be the greatest stretch for you in 2015? Jennifer Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) (416)996-TEAM (8326) Looking to create your plan for 2015? Participate in the on-demand Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Retreat Program - 7 hours of structured activities to support you in developing your vision and one page plan for the next year! For the last year here at the Teams365 blg I took a look at what makes teams exceptional . We explored in depth the six factors of high performing teams which include:
1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY) 2. Shared behavioral norms (How you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team) 3. Shared commitment (What are team members committed to?) 4. Shared performance goals (How are people measured? How do your goals align? Overlap?) 5. Shared team practices (Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event). 6. Clear Roles (How our roles overlap, align and connect). What can you do this year to harness the best of your team? What practices, such as Monday morning huddles, or more time out of the office working on projects, will bring the team together and boost not only results but the relationships that exist? Five practical things you can do to harness the best in your team is: 1. Clarify expectations - Make sure everyone is on the same page and that the six factors when rated area at an8 or 9 out of 10 with everyone. Read two past posts on clarifying expectations (Teams365 #134 and #239 - Trust Builder #6) 2. Get to know your team members, and have them get to know each other. Business is done through relationships. What are people’s strengths? Preferences? Real talents? What special projects could they lead this year? Assessments such as the Everything DiSC opens up dialogue and creates common language for exploring differences. 3. Dedicate time to team focus - Great teams don’t just happen. They evolve through focus, practice and working together. We need to dedicate time to making a team work well together, not just expect it to happen by itself. 4. Dedicate time to regular 1-1s. These should not just happen around performance review time, but every week, if not every day! Read this blog post for some questions to incorporate into those conversations. Read what I've written on 1-1s in the past. 5. Create shared success measures and revisit these regularly. Together create a vision of success and revisit these regularly. Schedule them in and be ruthless in maintaining that meeting! Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC Potentials Realized Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time Coaching | Teamwork | Leadership Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) (416)996-TEAM (8326) Eager to focus on your development as a leader during 2015? Consider joining me for the Teams365 group coaching program or Teams365 Team Leader Foundations course. Looking to create your plan for 2015? Participate in the on-demand Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Retreat Program. |
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