​Our 78th Team Building tip gets you thinking about Inspiration. In the peaks and valleys of work today it can be very important to be aware of when you are at your best. Today's post invites to you think about a time when you were most inspired as a leader.
What was the situation?
What did you do when you were inspired?
How did it make you feel?
What results did you get?​
What other moments have you had when you have felt​​​​​ inspired?
What can you do to feel more inspiration, or bring more inspiration in, every day?​

Have a great Thursday,
Jennifer

​​​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

We are at J in the A-Z of Virtual and Remote Team Leadership J stands for just-in-time. When we don't see our staff every day it is important to lead as proactively as possible, through regular one-on-ones with our staff, planning and empowering our team members to take as much action as they can.

At the same time it is important to provide just-in-time support to our team members, through targeted coaching and mentoring conversations. It is likely that many of the issues that are brought to our attention need attention immediately and working with our team members to generate ideas and solutions is important.

The role of a virtual or remote team leader in terms of support of team members can look different. Our role many ties becomes one of sounding board, thought partner or idea generator. We are rarely there for implementation, so slipping into the role of coach may be much more appealing. I am a real proponent of the art of questions in order to stimulate idea generation. There are  couple of different questions we may wan to ask including:

• What are the different options you have available?
• What are the pros and cons of each?
• If you look at it from the 30,000 foot vantage point, what options?
• What is the low hanging fruit?
  

There are a variety of different idea generating techniques. In the Facilitation Skills training work that I do there are a number of idea generating approaches I teach including:
Star Bursting
MindMapping
Using Index Cards


Consider what just-in-time support individual team members can benefit from. What is the role of idea generation in each?

Have a great Wednesday
Jennifer


Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326
Learn more about the mentoring program support and training we offer through the Mentor RoadMap(TM)

More than a decade ago I worked as a part time business faculty member and taught a course on Business Fundamentals. one of the areas I loved exploring in that class was the concept of intrapreneurism. Companies like 3M and Google have promoted and encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit and set of approaches in their employees. When this happens in a large organization it's known as intrapreneurism.

Just as with entrepreneurism, intrapreneurism encourages more innovation, risk-taking and working outside of the box. These are all key characteristics for virtual and remote team leadership today. It does take a different approach to be a great leader virtually, and I think it affords us the option to work differently with our staff, and encourage our staff to work differently as well.

With business practices such as agile, and lean, becoming more embraced by organizations of all sizes, the openness for innovation and iterative process is so much more mainstream than it has been before. I see intrapreneurism as another key tenet for many virtual and remote teams today as well.

To learn more about intrapreneurism check out this post by Investopedia,

Questions to consider:
What does an intrapreneurial approach look like for the team?
What does an intrapreneurial approach look like for me as a leader?
What benefits would it bring?

Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326​​​​​​​​​

We are starting off the week at H in our Virtual and Remote TEam Leader a-z. H stands for hospitality and being humble.

Just as with Friday's posts on the importance of virtual and remote team leaders being genuine, being humble is another important characteristic of leading successfully in the global and dispersed arena. As virtual leaders it is important for us to be​ ok with not knowing and being open to often not having the right answer. Being humble is about knowing our boundaries, and when and where we are able to add value. Humility is key in the skills of listening, empathy and empowerment, three other essential characteristics for great virtual leadership.

Hospitality is another characteristic I see as being an invaluable trait of exceptional virtual team leaders. As building working relationships virtually can be different than​ building relationships with people you see each day, I think and important characteristic of virtual team leaders is that of host. Welcoming the team together and placing an emphasis on allowing people to bring themselves  (culture and all the uniqueness that we each bring) in a safe environment is key to maximizing results. We do know from High Performing Team Research that great teams are not only good at getting results but they also have strong working relationships. 

Questions to consider:

As a virtual team leader ​

• What do you do as a virtual or remote team leader to bring people together and make them feel welcomed, and working "at their best"?​
• As you think of  yourself in the hospitality light, what kind of host to you want to be?
• What does being humble mean for you as a virtual team leader?
  

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer
​
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326
​​

As leaders we may get so busy, or feel that we are so busy, that we neglect our own professional development and continuous learning. Today's quote gets you to think about how you ae expanding your models, and how you are getting exposed to, and challenged by, others. Who are your mentors? What's on your professional development plan this year?

​Enjoy your Easter Sunday,
Jennifer

Best wishes,
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326
Learn more about the mentoring program support and training we offer through the Mentor RoadMap(TM)

Over the last few weeks I've focused on a number of key areas important for virtual and team leaders. I thought it would be interesting in today's post to point  you to some resources for those that are interested in learning more about the various topics I've touched on so far:

​Virtual/Remote Leadership a - Agile, AdaptableAdaptable:
​Coaching Agile TEams - Lyssa Adkins

​Virtual/Remotes Leadership b - Boundaries
First Things First: Steven Covey and Merrill and Merrill

​Virtual/Remote Leadership C  - Communication
​Virtual Teams: Mastering Communication and Collaboration in the Digital age

Virtual/Remote Leadership d - Disiplined and Dedicated:

​Virtual/Remote Leaderrship e - Empathy and Emotional Intelligence
​The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success - Steven J. Stein and Howard E Book

​Virtual/Remote Leadership f - Frank and Feedback
Thanks for the Feedback - the Art and Science of Receiving Feedback - Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen

Virtual/Remote Leadership g - Genuine
​Authentic Leadership - Bill George


Enjoy your weekend,
Jennifer

Best wishes,
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

Being real, authentic or genuine is critical in virtual and team leadership success. Given that many times we are not able to see people regularly, or that we are building relationships virtually at specific touch points, it is important that we really bring our genuine, or authentic self to conversations. Virtual and remote staff teams do not want a leader who is perceived as "plastic" or removed. They want to know that they can be heard when needed, and also left alone to do their work.  Trust plays an even more critical role in virtual team relationships.

Much has been written in topics related to being genuine, including authentic leadership and also presence. Presence is our ability to be fully listening and focused on the person we are talking to. It's also about the confidence or "being" we bring to our business interactions and relationships.

Some resources you may want to check out in both of these areas are:
Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges - Amy Cuddy
or
Bill George's Authentic Leadership Book

This weekend take a few minutes to reflect on these questions:

• Who are you as a leader?
  
• What does being genuine or authentic mean?
• What presence do you bring as a leader?
• How are you present, and fully focused, when you connect with your remote/virtual team leaders?
  

Have a wonderful weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized - Leadership | Teamwork | Coaching Skills Training for Leaders
Supporting Team Leaders One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Email us to discuss your needs in leadership,  teamwork, coaching and facilitation skills training
(416)996-8326

As we continue on our Thursday Team Building Tip series, we've arrived at Team Building tiip #77. This week's tip gets you to think about fun. Great teams don't just work together, they usually have fun togethr. Consider wha fun looks like for you as a team?

Here are some of the "fun" ideas I've heard from teams and leaders recently:

Going to a hockey game
Volunteering together at the local food bank or soup kitchen\
Having a ping pong competition
Challenging another team to a scrabble match/video game/golf tournament
Having a scavenger hunt
Going out for dinner/breakfast lunch.

What does fun look like for your team? When are you going to make it happen?

Enjoy your Thursday,
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

As we continue along our journey with virtual team leadership a-z we come today to the letter f. It is important that virtual team leaders are perceived as fair and frank. Given that remote teams are spread across distances, be aware of how fair you are being perceived in terms of face time and  support to different team members. If you always visit certain team members without paying attention to others it can create feelings of lack of fairness.

It is also important to be frank with our feedback. Note that being frank is not the same for all people. Consider what direct feedback sounds like for each team member. It can be easy to not provide any feedback given the virtual nature of he work but this is important to do so. Just because behavior m be “out of sight” it should not be out of mind.  Checking in more regularly with each team member can be an important process given that when things go off the rails they can do so more quickly or significantly without a lot of touchpoints. Consider the value of positive and constructive feedback.

In terms of feedback make sure you are involving others in the local level as these people may see your team members in action more than you do.

Consider how to involve formal  and informal feedback with your staff. In my former work I hosted three way meetings with my remote team members along with their local peers and other supervisors. This paid off immensely in most cases.
 
Questions to consider:
What does frank conversation and/or feedback mean for each team member?
On a scale of 1-10 how fair are you being perceived by each team member?
What feedback would each team member benefit from right now?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized - Leadership | Teamwork | Coaching Skills Training for Leaders
Supporting Team Leaders One Conversation at a Time(TM)
(416)996-8326

We are continuing with our a-z of Virtual and Remote Team Leadership. If you missed the first few you can catch up here. As we think about core "Essentials" for Virtual and Remote Team Leaders when we get to E what jumped into mind for me were two critical sets of skills - Empathy, and the  larger area of Emotional Intelligence.

Empathy is a key skill for team leaders today, especially if we are working remote and may not be present every day. It is important to recognize that the touchpoints you have with each person may seem augmented/expanded as they do not see you every day.

To empathize is to listen, and to be present for your team members. Notice your own defaults in terms of how you are available to different team members in different locations. To empathize does not always mean to agree or to solve a problem. Many times remote team members want to know that leaders are their and can hear their concerns. Asking remote team members questions which probe into their needs (is it to listen? Problem solve together? Brainstorm? Come up with options) and their recommendations is important.
Sometimes team members just need to talk through issues. In moving to a culture where team members are empowered, virtual team leaders must hone their skills in listening and asking questions. Questions should not be geared to immediately problem solve (for the leaders part) but rather to help the employee who is on the ground problem solve This may be done by asking question which help to expand awareness, challenge assumptions, make connections or facilitate action.

Another series of skills which are critical to virtual team leader success is in the area of Emotional Intelligence. In general, EI consists of more than twenty skills in the areas of relationship awareness, relationship management, self-awareness, and self-management. These skills range from optimism, to team leadership etc. Take a look at past posts around Emotional Intelligence

Questions to consider:
How empathetic are you?
How empathetic do your staff perceive you to be?
In upcoming conversations notice how present you are and what questions you are using to help boost awareness, and action on the art of your team members.
Take a look at the area of Emotional Intelligence. What skills are you strong in? What could benefit from some attention?