The last few weeks of February have been unseasonably warm in our part of Toronto, making the longer days noticeable as the snow has melted and birds are out. It's bringing a lot of people out of hibernation, and sets the stage for a reflective month end series of questions and planning for not only the month head but the spring season.

I hope that you will find yourself 5-10 minutes today to capture some of your thoughts on the following questions:

Reflecting on the month of February and/or the winter:
What were my major achievements this month?
What do I want to celebrate?
As I consider my goals (and resolutions) I made at the start of the year, how am I doing with these on a scale of 1-10? Which ones are becoming new habits or something I can check off?
Which ones need to be let go of?
As a leader, what have I noticed about my team this month?
As a leader, what notes should I make about performance issues (if I haven't done it already!)
The thing that has helped me be most productive this month has been ______
The thing that has helped me be most successful this month has been ______
The thing that has helped me be happiest this month has been ________
The thing that has helped me be most healthy has been _______
What have I noticed about my work/productivity/results and/or relationships during the winter months (if you are in the northern hemisphere) or summer (if you are in the southern hemisphere)?

Looking ahead to March and spring/fall:
The project I most want to wrap up is...
My priorities are:
Our team priorities are:
My goals are
My teams goals are:
I want to......
I'll be really happy at the end of March/spring when....

While the temperatures are due to drop again in a few days, it's been wonderful having a break from the cold days of winter!

Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer

As we go to wind down the month of February, we are winding down our focus on collaboration. In March I'll be focusing more on the topic of virtual teams.

This month some of our most popular posts were:

Teams365 #1152: Five Ingredients for Successful Collaboration - Listen into this audio post here.

#Teams365 #1149: Leveraging Peer Conversations for Better Collaboration - Click here to read the post

#Teams365 #1135: Six Barriers to Collaboration. Click here to read the post.

#TEams365 #1137: Flashback Friday - Skills for Collaboration. Click here to visit this post.

If you haven't taken a read of these posts, or listened to them, I hope you will! I have one more audio post coming up later this week that will focus on collaboration so please stay tuned to our weekend audio.

As we go to wrap up this month's focus on collaboration, here are six questions to consider:

1. Where will enhanced collaboration help you get the results you are looking for?
2. What areas are there where collaboration is not working? What changes are needed?
3. What benefits do you see to enhanced collaboration?
4. What is important for you to share about your priorities, values, and "stake" with partners you collaborate with?
5. What additional resources will help you collaborate?
6. How do you have your co-leaders/co-facilitators "backs"? How do they have  yours?


Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer

Today's Sunday quote is one that I have lead by most of my life - either as a team leader, Program Director, Business Owner or Group and Team Coach: "Keep it simple. The complexity is in the group or team".

The strength of groups and teams is often its' diversity. In working with groups and teams it is important to remember to keep things simple - things like process, meetings, discussions, presentations. We often have a tendency to over-complicate and over-deliver.

This weekend consider the questions:
What do you need to keep simple?
Where is the complexity in your work right now?
How could the group or team you work with benefit from simplification?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

It's the weekend and time for another short leadership audio. This month I've been speaking to a couple of different audiences on making collaboration work. Whether we look at collaboration from the lens of the team, or from the perspective of partnering more effectively with our team, there are several elements or factors which support more effective collaboration. These include: Trust, Complimentary Skills, Planning,  being Intentional and Leveraging Strengths. Listen in to this short 5 min audio on five factors for making collaboration work.

It is time for another Flashback Friday and this week we are heading into the realm of running better virtual calls - conference calls, team meetings, project meetings. As some of you know, my third book will be published this spring and is going to be focusing on the art of a better virtual conversation - tips, tools and best practices. Stay tuned!

For now, I wanted to share an older post - Teams365 #566 - 7 Keys for Powerful Virtual Facilitation. Keep these in mind next time you are asked to lead a virtual call!

Here is what I wrote:
even Keys for Powerful Virtual Facilitation - Jennifer Britton

From Webinars, to virtual meetings  which bring together teams scattered across a country or the globe, virtual facilitation skills are increasingly becoming an important skill set for leaders and team members alike. Chances are you have recently participated as part of a virtual meeting that was less than optimal.

This article explores seven keys for powerful virtual meetings. These seven quick items used together can be very effective in amping up your next virtual event success.

1. Engagement is key - Helping group members connect regularly with the WIIFM (What's in it for me) and engaging them in the dialogue is almost more important than it is in the in-person realm.  Competition with emails and your desktop is often the reality. Keep pace moving, encourage reflection and dialogue and take the pulse regularly to see where people are at.

2. Connection is the foundation - While you might not be able to see each other feeling connected with others is an important foundation for virtual meeting success, particularly if these meetings will continue for some time.

3. Trust is Critical- Just as in the in-person environment, trust is critical. Given that we don't have the regular touchpoints where we can be "seen" building trust in the virtual environment can be even more pointed. Consider how you are building your reputation and ask what others think of you.

4. Good Design - Good design is especially important in the virtual domain. Consider what the overall blocks of the meeting or event are and how they fit together or are sequenced. More focus on process rater than less can be of benefit in the virtual domain. What are the design elements which will support the most effective virtual event? Consider  breakouts, polls, use of a whiteboards, keeping it simple if technology is going to be a hindrance.

5 - Leverage technology  - Use the technology you have available and which is accessible to all. I often go to the "lowest common denominator" so we are not creating any new divisions based on technology available. If you can use more interactive supports such as breakuts to engage everyone, use them. Consider what support will help you - for example, have a co-facilitator who can set up breakouts while you are facilitating. Don't try to do it all alone!

6 - Visuals are an important boost - Having a virtual anchor point, even on a phone call is important in the virtual realm. visuals can create a focus, and grounding point. If you are only meeting by phone consider sending out a one-pager prior to the call  for meeting participants to download, print and use. Make sure they are  provided this well enough n advance of the call.

7 - Be nimble as a facilitator - Being flexible as a facilitator in the virtual realm is essential. Expect technology to happen because it will. Have a number of "back ups" available which you can draw upon. Think through the various scenarios which may happen and how you will deal with them.

What other tips would you suggest to others who are starting out with virtual facilitator? Please feel free to comment below.

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

In many organizations today, work is done in collaboration with others. Part of successful collaboration involves having a variety of networks and relationships you can lean into for making projects happen. In today's Team Building Tip you are encouraged to think about the different networks you want to foster to help you move your work (and career) forward. Consider both internal and external networks with can be of support to you. You may also want to consider this from an individual level, and a team collective leve.

Activity:
Consider key projects for the year. Who are the top 5 internal/external resources you will want to/need to tap into for this project?
What new areas will this work take you into?
What new resources will help you bring the project to completion?

Click here for other past Teams365 posts on networking, including the Six Leadership Questions on Networking - Teams365 #766.

Have a great week,
Jennifer

This month a significant focus here at the Teams365 blog has been on enhancing relationships within the team. As a former team leader myself who led nationally and regionally as a leader, I was always amazed at the power and connections formed by peers. As a former virtual leader I also know the strength of the peer network, especially when your team may be based thousands of miles away - closer to each other, than to you. This in part what led me to discover coaching back in the early 2000s, before I made the move to establish Potentials Realized, and make coaching more of my every day work.

Today I wanted to share with you an article I wrote a few years ago on Peer Coaching. In my work across organizations as a coach, trainer and consultant, I often see peer processes not being harnessed to their full potential. I hope that this article gives you some food for thought around how you can equip members of your team to have better peer conversations.

Here's a copy of the article, which you can also download here:

Peer Coaching: An Untapped Resource
Jennifer Britton, October 2014. All Rights Reserved

The power of the peer process is often underestimated, for both good and bad. This article explores the concept of peer coaching and how it can be leveraged for learning and development within a team. The article also explores which peer coaching skills to share with your team members.
As a modality, coaching provides an opportunity for team members to expand their awareness and take action around issues facing themselves and the team. Coaching provides an opportunity to get clarity around future directions and the strengths that exist within a team. From research we know that exceptional teams, often known as high performing teams, are great at getting things done (referred to as productivity), and also have strong relationships (referred to as
positivity).
In recent years organizations have spent significant resources around having their senior leaders coached, by internal
and external professionals. As coaching cultures become more common place, and coaching moves beyond the C-Suite,
peer coaching provides an opportunity to expand the coaching conversation. Peers can play a key role in expanding the coaching conversation to a wider cross section of an organization.

Core Elements in Coaching
Core Elements in any coaching conversation include a focus on goals, expansion of awareness, support of action, and ongoing accountability towards goals. First, any coaching conversation (by leaders, within peers) needs to be grounded in specific goals. This should be the starting point of any coaching conversation - What is the focus? What will success look like? During our time, what would be useful to explore. For example, a new leader may want to explore how their style matches the needs of their team. Overall, their goal may be to become a better communicator. Coaching conversations are designed to expand awareness, and support people in movement towards those key goals. Coaching is rarely a one off conversation and provides the real benefit of accountability and checking in around the commitments
you have made in getting things done.

Peer Coaching - Expanding the Conversation
As a coaching culture becomes established in an organization, peer coaching may be a natural next step for expanding the capacity for great conversation, action and accountability. As an approach, peer coaching involves peers coaching peers. Peer coaching often “ups the ante” around accountability. As peers it may be even more important to follow through when making a commitment to a peer, rather than a boss or coach. As a peer, it may also be easier to call out colleagues who don’t follow-through with their own commitments.
Peer coaching can be leveraged in a number of ways. Many organizations start by developing peer coaching skills as part of a training process - for example, equipping new team leaders. This may be a way to sustain the conversation outside of the training room, in support of integration and application of learning. If team development activities or team coaching is being undertaken, peer coaching can keep a focus between the team touch points. Peer coaching may also be a standalone process, a way of supporting conversation, learning, growth and sharing with in an organization
Many organizations are looking to action learning coaching as a way to intersect real life issues and application. Inherent in this is the involvement and interaction with peers.
Another coaching opportunity which is leveraged by many organizations today is a team coaching process. Involving all members of a team, team coaching is a form of extended team development, supporting teams in developing awareness and capacity in the areas of enhanced relationships and expedited results. Key to the team coaching process is multiple touch points, which may be supported by peer coaching conversations in between.
Another approach which leverages peer coaching, is group coaching. Group Coaching brings together individuals from across an organization, for example, groups of new managers. Coaching Groups may meet weekly or bi-weekly, to
explore topics of interest, share best practices, boost movement towards goals and expand awareness around shared themes such as leadership strength, vision, or values. Group coaching processes are usually led by a group coach who is internal or external to the organization. Here peer coaching plays a key role during the session itself as breakouts occur, or in between group touch points when pairs meet for discussion and sharing.
Finally peer coaching is being integrated is through the coaching skills training of all members of their organization to build capacity. Regardless of approach, provide pause points for peer coaches to reflect on what they are learning about being peer coach, and best practices they are evolving.

Peer Coaching Skills to Develop
In creating a successful peer coaching program, it will be important to provide peer coaches with the opportunity to
develop key skills in the areas of communication, questioning, listening, goal setting and accountability. Some of these key peer coaching/communication skills include:
• Mirroring- Reflecting back what you have heard. In mirroring it is important to use the language as they person said, so sharing things verbatim. Mirroring often creates new insights for the speaker.
• Listening - In a coaching conversation it is important to listen at several different levels. What do you notice about the pace and pitch of the speaker? What is being said and what is not being said? What is being said between the lines? What do you notice about the words and also the tone?
• Questioning - In coaching we want to use questions that are open-ended, or are not inviting a yes/no response.
In any coaching conversation (peer coaching, team coaching, leader as coach) t is important to use questions that open up awareness, prompt a new perspective, invite discovery or support action
• Direct Communication - Use language that is consistent with and impactful for the person being coached
• Curiosity - in the coaching process, the person being coached is the expert. This can be a 180 from our typical process where we the leader are the expert. Fostering curiosity in the part of those who are doing the coaching
is useful.
• Assumption busting and perspective shifting - Throughout the coaching conversation it is likely that you will be exploring and “busting” assumptions as well as shifting perspectives.
• Support for goal setting and achievement - Coaching is grounded in core goals as set by the person. A starting place for any coaching process is to identify goals and the focus of the conversations. The peer coaching
conversation should provide an opportunity to move towards those goals, as well as identify blockages.
• Creating Accountability Supports - Creating support for accountability is essential. As John Whitmore wrote in his seminal “Coaching for Performance” accountability is about getting people to specify “What will you do? By
When? and How will I know?” Holding people accountable, including yourself as a leader is foundational to the coaching approach.
As coaching cultures mature, peer coaching will play an expanded role in expanding the conversation, and impact, of coaching. It is an untapped resource in many organizations today. How could peer coaching expand conversations?

References:
Britton, Jennifer. From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching, Jossey-Bass, 2013.
Whitmore, John. Coaching for Performance.
*******

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Honing our communication skills as team leaders and members helps to strengthen relationships and results. Many of us have the tendency to listen to our colleagues with part of our brain thinking about what we are going to ask next, rather than deeply listening for what they are going to say.
Another common pitfall is to ask questions for which we think we know the answer, or ask questions that are only yes/no.
In navigating the changing waters of the workforce today, it is important to get more in the habit of asking questions which invite discovery, clarity, and connection.

A recent article I wrote for the Coaching Tools Company includes 33 questions you might consider bringing into some of your one on ones or even team meetings. You will note that some of the questions are more geared for conversations which are focused on prioritizing, while some are focused on goals or connecting across a team. Take a look at the article here.

Some general rules of thumb when we think about questioning:

• Make the question as open ended as possible, avoiding ones that are yes/no
  
• The shorter the better - 5-6 words provides a crisp focus
• Notice what types of questions really connect with the person you are speaking with - some of us are more visually inclined and may connect more with a question such as "What would that look like?" rather than one which is "What would it feel like?"
  

Questions provide a valuable pause in today's workplace. What can you do to build this communication muscle?

Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer

It's a holiday Monday for many of us, which might mean you may have a bit more time to listen into a short audio today. Today's post is a short 7 min audio post on teamwork skills. Over the last seven weeks we've explored a variety of teamwork skills including Listening, Flexibility and Adaptability and Goals.

As you start your week, what teamwork skills could use a shift or attention?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

This week I've been speaking a lot about the importance of accountability within teams, especially in the context of virtual teams, where we usually need to make agreements more verbally explicit, to ensure that our assumptions are shared and aligned with others.

Accountability brings many connotations for different organizations. My Linked In post this week focuses on twelve things that help to boost, or shore up, accountability within teams, especially virtual ones.

Read my Linked IN post: 12 Keys to An Effective Accountability Strategy here.

What is working well within your team?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer