Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

#Teams365 #455: March WRap Up

3/31/2015

It is time for another month end review. This month ask yourself what have been your biggest achievements durng march? What are you most pleased with accomplishing?

My Sunday audio post a few weeks ago goes into many more questions you can consider as you wrap up the first quarter of the year. Click here to listen to that 12 minute audio.

As you look to April:
What is your most important priority this moth?
what resources do you need in order to be successful?
What do you need to delegate?
What key relationships need attention?
What will success look like for you in April?

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)

Today is the last day to save 50% on the Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Business Retreat - a self-paced online video course I have developed, designed to support you in developing a plan as well as identifying your core strengths and what is important to you. Save 50% today.

#Teams365 #454: 6 #Leadership Questions a Day - P is for Priorities

3/30/2015

We are at p in our journey of alphabetical six leadership questions a day. P stands for priorities, pulse and plan, performance, praise and pivot.

Priorities – Most of us operate in an environment where time is a challenge, and prioritization is key. I’ve written past blog posts which include some tips on prioritizing your time. You can access an "oldy-but-a-goodie" post from my older BizToolkit blog on Four Tools for Prioritization here.

March 22nd Sunday audio post also addresses the topic of priorities. Listen into the Teams365 call which is dedicated to giving you 12 minutes to pause and reflect on your achievements from Q1 this year.

Questions to consider:
What are your top three priorities right now? What resources do you need in order to be successful? What is going to support you in keeping these in focus? What might you/do you need to say no to in order to be successful with these priorities?

Pulse – Every team has a pulse point. Some are fast, some are slow. Sometimes pulses are erratic. They are signals for us as team leaders. Taking the pulse of the team regularly is critical

Questions to consider: What is important for them collectively at the moment? Individually? One on ones play a key role in taking the pulse regularly – If you had to characterize the pulse of the team, what would it be?

Plan – As I said earlier this week in giving a presentation on time management and personal productivity, 10 minutes of planning can save up to an hour of unfocused effort. Planing as a daily practice is key as a leader and shouldn't just be left to ourselves.

Questions to consider: What is your plan over the next quarter How are you measuring them? What does the longer term strategic plan say? Considering these longer term plans, how does it link to your strategic priorities?

Praise - One of the most common challenges I hear from new and experienced leaders is around how to praise people. Positive recognition is key for morale, engagement and performance.

Five quick tips around praise:
1. Make it specific - be specific with your examples of what you are providing positive feedback around
2. Make it regular - Don't wait for performance review time. Provide positive (and constructive) feedback regularly.
3. As several leading businesses say today "Catch People Doing it Right!"Don't always be looking to find people doing it wrong. Notice when people are doing things right. This ties into our focus on strengths.
4. Be authentic and real in your feedback - Authenticity is key. We can probably all think of times when false praise has been given.
5. Look to build a culture where it's not just the leader giving positive feedback, but peers are giving each other feedback as well. A quick and easy practice is to spend 5 minutes at your regular team meetings on acknowledging positive events/actions that week - whether it is done collectively or individually

Question to consider: What can you do around praise this week?

Performance - At the end of the day we are measured on performance. I continue to hear leaders who step into the training room with me that the relationship stuff is "nice" BUT!
At the end of the day, we need to make sure everything we are doing - wether it's planning, or getting to know each other, providing feedback, or measurement, connects into performance.

Questions to consider: What does exceptional performance look like for each one of your team members? Would they define it the same? Are they achieving it? If not, what's getting the way?

Finally, the word pivot. Pivot is defined as: "A person or thing that plays a central part in a situation or enterprise" in the Oxford Dictionary OR as the point at which there is a turn?
Where might you need to pivot this week? Who is the person who is playing the central pivot role in your most important project?

Have a great start to the week,
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)
Have your spring flowers started to spring? I'm hoping they will do so here anytime soon. Spring is a great time to do some business planning and personal development. Join me for the Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Retreat which you can complete at your own pace. More than six hours of structured activities for you to complete. Save 50% until the end of the month on the program.

#Teams365 #453: Conversation Sparker Card

3/29/2015

This week we are skipping the Sunday audio. Instead I am pleased to bring you one of the cards from my Conversation Sparker(TM) deck.

What's the flip side of the most important issue you are facing right now? What does that shift in perspective offer to you?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Conversation Sparker Cards
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in getting your best results through coaching, training or a retreat program
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

A quick reminder you have a few more days to save 50% on the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Retreat program, which you can access on demand 24 hours a day. Looking to learn more about your strengths? Do some planning. The program is geared to support you in developing a plan in your work (for the next quarter, or year), as well as provide you with insight around your own inner leadership (strengths and values).

#TEams365 #452: Most Popular 6 #Leadership Questions a day so Far

3/28/2015

The 6 Leadership Questions a day series has been ongoing for a few weeks now, and on Wednesday we just covered the letter O. The inspiration behind this series was to spark leaders (and other professionals) with several questions and areas to consider every day.

So, what's been most widely read. Here they are as the top five most popular posts so far:
6 Leadership Questions - Teams365 #445 - L is for : Read it here
Teams365 #442: K is for : Read it here
Teams365 %435: G is for Goals, Grit, Global - Read it here
Teams365 #441: I is for - Read it here
Teams365 $449: M is for Measurement - Read it here

If you have not read them yet, I hope you will use today as an opportunity to read through them and perhaps select one or two to focus on in this coming week, and new month, ahead.

Have a great Saturday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in getting your best results through coaching, training or a retreat program
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

#TEams365 #451: Check It Off Tip - Color Code It

3/27/2015

Today's Check it off tip is a reminder which may appeal to those who are more visually inclined, which some researchers say is about 60% of the adult population.

The use of color to help organize email groups/contacts, files as well as key events on your calendar are helpful in ordering a lot of information. These colors can help to sort and make it easier to get to information quickly. In an environment where we swim in data most days, anything we can do to get a handle of mass is usually good. Consider your email box. How much email do you get every day? What would happen if you color coded certain key corresponders? How might that help these stand out. Certainly as someone who gets more than a hundred emails most days, color helps me in knowing what needs follow-up and when.

Consider in your world, where color can support you in organizing, and getting more done in less time.

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in getting your best results through coaching, training or a retreat program
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

A quick reminder you have a few more days to save 50% on the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Retreat program, which you can access on demand 24 hours a day. Looking to learn more about your strengths? Do some planning. The program is geared to support you in developing a plan in your work (for the next quarter, or year), as well as provide you with insight around your own inner leadership (strengths and values).

#Teams365 #450: Team Building Tip #39: Communication Preferences

3/26/2015

We are the 29th tip in the Teams365 Team Building tips. Today's tip is a reminder that we all communicate in different ways. How do the different team members prefer to communicate? Do they prefer face-to-face communication? Email? Text? Are they are big picture or detail oriented person?

As leaders it is important that we are aware of our own biases and preferences, and adapt our style to meet the needs of different team members. These small tweaks can have a big impact!

A reminder that I'm looking for another three team leaders to beta-test one of our latest products - the Teams365 Team Sparker Cards. I am looking for a couple more teams to try these out (at no charge) to so we can develop more examples and case studies of how team leaders are using it with their team. If you are interested in being one of these three teams to complete the pilot, please email me. There's no cost to receive the cards - my only request is that you would provide some feedback, stories and photos of the cards in use with our team. I will be looking to get the feedback in a month - by April 22nd. Please email me with subject - Teams365 Team Sparker Deck Please - and I will get them off to you for use. Thanks in advance! I hope that you will take advantage of this offer. They will be available for sale in a month. Please stay tuned!

What have been your favorite team building tips in the series?

Have a great Thursday!

Best wishes,
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)
Have your spring flowers started to spring? I'm hoping they will do so here anytime soon. Spring is a great time to do some business planning and personal development. Join me for the Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Retreat which you can complete at your own pace. More than six hours of structured activities for you to complete. Save 50% until the end of the month on the program.

#Teams365 #449: 6 Leadership Questions a Day - O is for options, Opportunities...

3/25/2015

Today we are O in the 6 Leadership Questions a day. O stands for opportunities, options, opposite, optimism, organized and open-minded.

Leading, and running businesses, in today's word requires us to look for opportunities regularly. In most industries today it is unusual to lead by "business as usual" every day. What are the new opportunities you see on the horizon? What will be possible for your team?

Options, and helping our team members explore options, is a key part of the coaching process. John Whitmore's GROW model encourages coachees or clients (those being coached) to explore different options for what they can do in moving from where they are to where they want to be, in the third "O" stage, or options stage of the GROW model. as leaders we can play an important role in generating options with our team members, as the first solution possibility is not always the best. Other tools such as the Five Why's is another great tool for unlayering possibilities.
Question to consider: Keeping in mind your biggest business or leadership challenge right now, what options are available to you for a solution?

Optimism is one of the leadership competencies identified in the Emotional Intelligence framework. Here's a great link to a podcast on Fostering Optimism and Confidence from UC Berkley's Greater Good Science Center. Questions to consider: How is optimism important to you? Your team?

Opposites can be very important in our work. Complimentary skills benefit a team. How can opposites provide value in your work?

Organized- keeping things organized, in focused and prioritized is important when juggling different things. While it's not always our first preference what systems will benefit your work . Consider systems you use with email, accessing information or notes, etc. What could be more organized for you?

Open-minded: In environments where team members are empowered. maintaining an open mind in listening is critical. Especially in virtual teams, we can't know everything as leaders. How open minded are you to learning? To alternative perspectives? How do we invite dialogue which may be in contrast or conflict sometimes to our perspectives? Remember, innovation requires some of this conflict!

Have a great Wednesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in getting your best results through coaching, training or a retreat program
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

#teams365 #445: 6 Leadership Questions N is for

3/24/2015

Today we are at N in the 6 Leadership Questions a day. N stands for networking, norms, nimble, noteworthy, next and new.

Networking – Developing our professional network and having a robust series of relationships internal and external to our organization is important in today’s business environment. What is the strength of your network? Where could it expand? Who can you turn to for advice and mentoring on key trends in your industry? Marketplace?

Norms - Norms are how we doe things. It is the things that are acceptable and unacceptable. What are the norms within your team? As we have seen, high performing teams are clear on their shared norms.

Nimble – Nimble is a word we don’t hear too much in todays environment, although it is akin to agile. Being nimble allows us to adjust quickly, and move. What are your strengths in being able to adapt quickly. If you are not nimble enough, what can you do to address this?

Noteworthy – Being noteworthy is part of our brand and reputation as a professional and leader. What are you known for?

Next – What’s next in your own development as a leader? What’s next for your team? If you were to add something new for yourself or your team this year, what would it be?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Leadership, Teamwork, Coaching Skills for Leaders
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

#teams365 #447: 6 #Leadership Questions a Day - M is for Maximize

3/23/2015

Today we are at the m in our leadership questions a day, M stands for measure, mastery, multiply, metaphor, memorable, materials.

Working backwards today, consider What are the materials you need to be successful with your current projects? Materials may be human resources, financial resources, material, IT etc? What will help you be successful?

Memorable - Unfortunately many of us are bombarded with information and things that require our attention, which often distracts us from things that really are important. Ensuring that things are memorable are even more of a challenge for some today, than a decade ago. Consider these questions: What is going to make your leadership and work memorable? What will stand out? To your team? Your peers? Your stakeholders? The people you mentor or coach?

Metaphor is a vehicle in making complex ideas more real. Whether we talk about team roles in terms of who is captain, first mate, or we look at putting a visual to a metaphor, metaphors bring ideas to life. I’ve included in today’s post some of the cards which make up my Conversation Sparker deck. Since it’s launch last spring dozens of team shave used it to identify complex issues. Just recently I have launched the Team Sparker deck – 52 cards, each which includes a question, for you to address. or to in corporate into your team meetings. You can learn more about the deck here.

Great leaders multiply impact. What can you do to multiply your successes and strengths??

Mastery – They often say it takes 10,000 hours of consistent action to create excellence or mastery. What areas of work would you identify as areas of mastery for yourself? What would others say about your areas of mastery?

Measurement is critical in building a business case and demonstrating impact. What are your currently measuring in terms of your results? What would be more important to measure? We operate in what some are calling the era of big data. What does this mean for you and your team?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
(416)996-8326
The start to spring is a great time to revisit your vision for what you want to create this year. Save 50% off the Inner Biz Leader (TM) Virtual Business Planning Retreat - 7 hours of structured activities you can undertake at a pace that works for you, accompanied by more than 3.5 hours of video. Leave the process with a plan in place, and more knowledge about your strengths, values and priorities as a leader.

#Teams365 #446: Sunday Audio - planning and Reflection Questions for the Start of Spring (or Fall)

3/22/2015

We are just a day or so into the start of spring, which provides us with a great opportunity to stop and pause and take stock of the successes and learning of the first quarter of the year. It's also a chance to look at priorities for
the coming season. This week's Teams365 Sunday Audio focuses on providing you with a twelve minute "pause" to note your successes and learning so far, as well as do some planning for the upcoming quarter. I hope you enjoy! Listen in here:

As you will hear in the audio, we have a new product just about to launch next month. The Teams365 Team Sparker Cards(TM), 52 questions for team leaders to engage in dialogue and focus with their team.

I have five sets of the "beta" or pilot decks still available and we are looking for a couple of more examples and case studies of how team leaders are using it with their team. If you are interested in being one of these five teams to complete the pilot, please email me. There's no cost to receive the cards - my only request is that you would provide some feedback, stories and photos of the cards in use with our team. I will be looking to get the feedback in a month - by April 22nd. Please email me with subject - Teams365 Team Sparker Deck Please - and I will get them off to you for use. Thanks in advance! I hope that you will take advantage of this offer. They will be available for sale in a month. Please stay tuned!

I hope that you are having a great start to spring.

Best wishes,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized - Leadership | Teamwork | Coaching Skills Training
(416)996-8326

If you enjoyed these questions today, you will enjoy the Inner Biz Leader(TM) retreat - which places a focus on planning, and learning about some of your "inner leadership" - strengths, values and opportunities. Save 50% off the Inner Biz Leader (TM) Virtual Business Planning Retreat until March 31st. This on-demand video based program includes 7 hours of structured activities you can undertake at a pace that works for you, accompanied by more than 3.5 hours of video. Leave the process with a plan in place, and more knowledge about your strengths, values and priorities as a leader. You can complete it in bite sized chunks when you have time, or in one sitting. It's up to you