It is the end of the month and I usually dedicate this end of month post to some questions for you to reflect on, to use as a learning and planing tool. I hope that you will take 5-10 minutes today to make some notes of your key successes and learning so far in 2017.

Here are some questions to consider:
1. As you reflect on January, what have been your successes and accomplishments?
2 What are you most proud of?
3. What successes this month do you want to duplicate? What has been some of your key learnings?
4. What key relationships have helped you so far this year? Which ones need more attention?
5  What has helped your successes? What has hindered?
6. What does your team need to be acknowledged for?

As you look to February, consider these questions:
1. What are your key priorities for February. 2.
2. What are the key goals?
3.  What are the major priorities?
4. What will you need to place attention on?
5. What changes do you want to make in February?
6. What resources do you want to tap into?

Have a great Tuesday!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009)
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

Supporting virtual teams to do some of their best work is a major focus of our work at Potentials Realized. Having been a virtual leader myself for many years I know how complex and challenging, as well as rewarding and autonomous the role of virtual team leader can be.

Last summer (Summer 2016) I did a series of different posts on virtual facilitation and in Spring 2016 we did the A – Z of Virtual Team Leadership. If you are a virtual team leader, or considering how to support your virtual team leader more, I hope that you will consider taking a look at these posts.

In a virtual team connection and building relationships is not always on the top of our list AND we do know that virtual teams need the same ingredients to do their best work – clear and shared vision, clear roles, accountability, clear performance measures, and commitment. Virtual Team members need to feel a sense of connection with their other team mates and a sense of connection. So what are some quick ways we can do this? Well, you can take a look at Teams365 Team Development Activities -26 different team development activities I shared during November 2016 through January 2017.
I wanted to zoom into three quick activities today which you might also find useful:
1 What’s on my desk – Understanding what our team member’s context and reality is can be very useful in building trust and connection. It also helps us to understand where we may have synergies and overlap, as well as competing pressures.
What’s on my desk sparks the conversation around what each person has on their desk. Visually it can be snapshot of each person’s desk shared as part of the team meeting (think about collecting these before the call and then putting them into a blank slide). Depending on your time available this might be a quick 30 second share from each team member or it might be a longer presentation around “what’s on your desk – projects, priorities, etc,

2. What’s outside my window is a similar activity which can be scaled according to your time available. The picture provides a snapshot bigger than the virtual screen permits and can facilitate some useful sharing about different office contexts, location priorities, customs, time of day when people are connecting. It provides another way for people to connect across the team.
 
3. What’s in my lunchbag – A final quick connector is having people share what they have in their lunch bag (which might also be breakfast or dinner for some team members!). Likewise, have people share what their meal of the day is.

These three short activities are one quick way to “widen the lens” on the context of each virtual team member. How might you incorporate this to your work?

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer
 

Over the past few months a key focus here at the Teams365 has been our posts on different team development activities you can incorporate with your team. Whether you are an intact team, project team or virtual team, these 26 quick activities can support you on a range of topics from boosting connection, to clarifying goals, to leveraging your strengths. If you missed any of the blog posts here are the first 13 of the full 26. I'll create links to the next set in an upcoming blog post this week, or feel free to view the whole series here.

Teams365 #1063 A is for Assumptions. View it here.
Teams365 #1064.  B is for Boundaries - View It Here
Teams365 #1065 C is for Conversation. Read it here.
Teams365 #1067 D is for Delegation. Read it here.
Teams365 #1070 - E is for Exceptional. View it here
Teams365 #1071: - F is for Foil Modelling. Read it here.
Teams365 #1072 - G is for goals. Read it here
Teams365 #1074 H is for habits. View it here
Teams365 # 1077 I is for Innovation. Read it here.
Teams365 #1078: J is for Jeopardy - Read it here.
Teams365 #1079:  K is for Knots. Read it here
Teams365 #1080: L  is for lifecycle of teams and groups . Read and view it here.

Enjoy your Sunday and if you've used some of these activities with your team let us know about your experience.

If you'd like to catch up on some of the different videos we did in the series, please check out our Potentials Realized Teams365 YouTube Channel.

Our Saturday teamwork skill in focus is about collaboration. In high performing teams, team members know each other's unique strengths and abilities, and are clear on roles. This helps to leverage those moments when collaboration is possible.

In his book, Collaboration, Hansen cautions about collaborating in every instance. Consider the current opportunities for you to leverage collaboration and when it might be more appropriate for people to work on their own.

To make collaboration work most effectively consider:
What's the task at hand? What will success look like?
Are we all clear on the end result and what that looks like?
Are we all clear on roles and how they intersect?
Are we each in the right role, leveraging our talents and strengths?
How does my contribution feed into or impact others on the team?
What checkpoints do we have to come together and discuss progress?
What will we do if things go off-kilter?
What else do we need?

Note for yourself what questions are important to surface in your team right now.

Have a great Saturday,
Jennifer

On Friday's we are taking look back at some of our thousand plus posts here at the Teams365 blog. Given yesterday's focus in Team Building Tip #120 on questions and the art of the one on one with staff, I thought it might be useful to revisit a post from last year which included 20 of my favorite questions for a one-on-one conversation. While I wouldn't use these all in the same conversation, they are a great sparker for different contexts. You may want to have these on hand.

​Let's take a look back at what I wrote in Teams365 #778:

For more than a decade now I’ve had the privilege of running coaching skills training - for leaders, professional coaches, HR professionals and trainers. Regardless of the context they have been within one of he core skills for coaches to develop is the art of the powerful question;
 
One activity which can be useful tis to develop a list of questions which you can use in upcoming conversations. While you would never use all these at one tie, here’s 20 of my favorite:

1. What’s the most important goal you are working on right now?
2. What’s really important about that
3. What could get in the way?
4. What additional supports would help you be successful?
5. What perspective are you in around x?
6. What’s another perspective around that?
7. What else?
8. 3 adjectives that describe….
9. If you were to make one change that made the biggest difference, what would it b?
10. If you were to do something in the next 24 hours, what would that be?
11. What impact would it have?
12. What’s aligned?
13. What’s not aligned?
14. What would “wild Success” look like?
15. What will help you focus?
16. What’s our vision?
17. What’s at the core?
18. What is really important?
19. Who is an ally for you in this?
20. Imagine it is now 5 months down the road. How will be you know you have been successful?

What are some of your favorite questions. As always please feel free to comment below."

​You can view the original post at:  http://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-778-20-coaching-questions-for-your-next-conversation

Have a great Friday,
Jennifer
​

This week's team building tip #121 includes five ingredients for a successful presentation. Professionals at all levels are being asked to deliver presentations of all types. From leading team meetings, to webinars, to in person presentations, these five tips are important to keep in mind:

​1. We can break down every presentation to three elements - the open, body and close. In creating an engaging presentation, it's important to think about what will capture the group's attention, and quickly connect them to what's important about the topic for them. The close is also as important as the start and may include a quick recap of key themes or leaving people to think about what their next steps are.
​The body is the bulk of the presentation. A quick tip around making this memorable is to consider honing in you material to 3 main points. What are those three points? what can you do to anchor the presentation around those

​2. WIIFM -WIIFM stands for What's In It for Me. Connecting people early on to what is important for them in the presentation is a critical part of engagement. We have a very short window of time to capture people's attention. What will you do to get people to connect with their WIIFM? 
​Possible questions you might want to ask are:
​What's important for you about this topic?
​How does this topic impact your work right now?
​What would be a good use of our time?
​The question to connect people to their WIIFM will vary according to what the context I.

​3. Preparation - Even seasoned presenters know how important it is to prepare for presentations. Reviewing the materials out loud is just as important as reading ti through. Note that you have all materials. Think about what questions you may be asked. Think about your transition points in the presentation and how you will move from one section to another. Consider how you will engage your audience? What is the takeaway you want them to leave with?

​4. Engagement - Helping people connect early on with their WIIFM brings people into the conversation. It does not guarantee that people will remain engaged. Take note of what your group member's preferences are.  What do they value - speed? Implementation? Practicality? Detail? Having a variety of different engagement tools and back pocket activities can be useful to have on hand. Some of these are facilitated processes, or it may be a coaching question, or it might be a process like a one-page plan framework. What will help people engage with each other?

​5. Pacing - Every group or meeting will have it's own pace. What is the pace which is going to serve this group best? Are they used to moving quickly and getting into action OR does this group prefer detailed focus step-by-step?

Have a great weekend,
​Jennifer

Last week I led a series of webinars on enhancing your leadership conversations. As I was mentioning, one-on-ones are one of a leaders most powerful tools in their toolbox.

Today's post looks at seven elements which makes a one-on-one really effective.

​These are:
1. Listening - In a one on one conversation it is important to be listening on a number of different levels - from noticing body language and alignment with what is being said, to really seeking to understand and hear what the person is saying. So often in leadership conversations we are thinking about how we are going to respond and what will we say next that we fail to listen deeply. What do you notice about how you l listen in one-on-ones? What changes would you like to make?

2. Focus - We don't always have a lot of time in a one on one conversation so creating a focus for our time with our staff can be important. You may ask questions such as "What would you like to get out of our conversation today? OR "What would be a useful takeaway?"

3. Minimize Distractions - Creating a pause point can be easier in some contexts than others. Consider how you and your staff can minimize distractions during your 1-1s. This might include turning off your phones, moving the conversation out of the office or to a different floor. What will minimize distractions for you?

4. Use powerful questions - Powerful questions invite people to explore, expand or sometimes focus. Powerful question are open ended questions, inviting the staff you are talking with to elaborate and share their ideas. We can build trust by asking great questions to our staff and giving them time to speak and share. Note that WHAT questions are usually the most "powerful" in opening up the space for dialogue. WHY questions in low trust can put people on the defensive.

5. Suspend judgement - It is important to note how and where our judgements are surfacing and how even subconsciously our bias can come through. What do you need to do to become neutral or as unbiased as possible in your one-on-one calls? What happens when you are able to do this?

6. Watch body language - In face to face conversations body language can make up more than 50% of the message. What does your staff's body language say? How does this  compare to what is being said?

7. Create an action plan - One of the reasons why I chose to do more training and have a focus on coaching almost a decade ago was because coaching focuses on having a "Conversation with intent" and having a specific action plan which we can loop back on. In your one on ones what are the next steps for the staff member? How will you check in together around these next steps?

​What opportunities do you have coming up around one-on-ones? What notes do you want to make for yourself about important things to keep in mind?

Have a great Thursday,
​Jennifer

We are now at the final activity of our a-z team development activity series. I hope that you have enjoyed the others!

Work around perspectives can be invaluable for team members and this activity helps team members look at current situations -challenges or opportunities – from a multitude of perspectives.

Get the team to identify one challenge or opportunity they want to look at. Write that down so everyone is clear on what the focus is. Then have the team reflect and share their insights around each of these questions:

• What’s the current view on this situation?
• If we moved up to the 30,000 foot view, what would that look like?
• If you got granular (or right in the sand or weeds) around this issue, what do you notice? What are you seeing at this level that you can’t when you are looking at it from above?
• What’s at the core?
• What’s the most valuable perspective to stand in around this issue?
• From this perspective, what’s important to note?
• What are our next steps from this place?

 
Enjoy the conversation! AND I hope that you have enjoyed the series. Stay tuned as we turn our attention back to virtual team leadership issues, collaboration and coaching for the month of February. Stay tuned!
 
Jennifer

We have finally reached Y in our a-z series of different team development activities. As I was thinking about y a number of different words came to mind - yearning, yes, yippee, and yellow. As a former project manager the Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light framework was critical in project status meetings to flag things that were going well (green light), what needed some attention (yellow light) and what was urgent (red light).

​In my quest to offer something a little more creative than this I turned to the dictionary and found that there is such a word as "yesable", meaning "to agree to". Although I haven't heard the term in use before I like it, and came up with a quick idea which both virtual and in person teams might find useful, especially in brainstorming and/or prioritization.

​Introduce the term "yesable" and its definition. Frame this conversation according to the opportunity or challenge you want to explore. For example, if you are eager to create some alignment around next steps with a project, the focus might be "What next steps are 'yesable'?

​Grab a blank wall (real or virtual) and have people list out the next steps they are agreeing to. Putting these on post it notes (in person) will allow you to note similar next steps and prioritize them.

​If you are facilitating virtually you may want to have people annotate on the screen according to different categories or first do a brainstorm and then categorize and prioritize as a team.

​I'd love to hear how this goes for you and your team and what you find most yesable!

​Tomorrow is our final post in this series. Hope you'll join us for Z.

​With best wishes,
Jennifer

Today we are at the X, winding down our journey of the a-z of 26 different team development activities. Whether you are looking to bring something quick into a team meeting, or a longer team development process, these 26 different ideas are geared to get you moving into dialogue around your group and team programs.
At x we are thinking about What does it take for us to excel?
You can either design a worksheet around this, or depending on the size of team, have these terms labelled on different sheets of paper, hanging around the room.
What we know is that teams which excel share some common characteristics and have spent time creating alignment and shared agreements around many of these items:

• ·         Clarity on goals
• ·         Communication channels
• ·         Role clarity
• ·         Resourcing needed (overlap, gaps etc)
• ·         Skills required
• ·         Materials needed
• ·         Shared, clear and energizing vision
• ·         Values
• ·         Feedback loops
• ·         How we have each other’s backs

 
If you choose to post these around the room have team members move to the one which they think the team is doing in well right now. If multiple people are at that sign have them talk about examples of when the team demonstrates it, and how it supports the team in “excelling”. If there is sufficient time have the team members share their insights around this.
In a second round, have team members now move to the one area they feel the team could focus on to help them “excel” more. Again, provide some time for individuals or small groups to identify what specific activities or behaviors would help the team excel more in that area.
From this you may have some concrete focus areas which you can then prioritize for the year! This activity will likely take 20-30 minutes for sufficient dialogue and planning, especially if the team is larger than 7 people.
What will it take for your team to excel?