Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

#Teams365 #935: New Team LEAder Weekly Tips in Review

7/23/2016

It's Saturday and time for the New Team Leader Tips in review for the week.

In case you missed any:
Monday – Teams365 #930 – New Tea Leader Tip #6 – identify a mentor. Read it here.
Tuesday – Teams365 #931: New Team Leader Tip #8 – Moving From buddy to Boss
Wednesdays – teams365 #932: New Team Leader Tip #7 – What skills and experiences do you want to focus on - read it here.
Friday – Teams365 Team Leader Tip #9 – What’s the Lay of the Land?

It's also been an exciting week as we launched our new online Learning Portal for those wishing to undertake some self-paced on demand learning. The first of our video based courses to launch is the Teams365 Teamwork Foundations Program. This seven module self-paced video program explores what is a team, what makes teams excel, how to work with different team members, and ten core teamwork skills. Registration includes the video modules, module notes and ongoing access to the course is $97 US. Learn more and register here. You can also add on an option to join me for 2 group coaching calls a month at the Coaching Gym for and additional $97/month or $297 for the quarter. Check it out and I hope you will join us!

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

Teams365 #934: New Team #Leader Foundations #9

7/22/2016

Today’s New Team Leader Tip #9 gets you to think about what’s the lay of the land? What do you notice? It can be very tempting as a new leader to jump right in and make changes, as well as make a lot of assumptions. Be careful! Take time to get to know your surroundings, the history, the culture. Remember in getting to know a new organizational culture there is what we see "above the waterline" and there are many things below the waterline which we can't see. Just as in a lake, what is below the waterline can get us into trouble.

Some questions to ask yourself right now are:
What do you notice as you look around at your surroundings?
What stands out?
What's going to help you?
What might hinder you?
What's is visible "above the water line"?
What is below the waterline and influences what you see, the team and organizational culture?
Who are major stakeholders?
What are the key priorities for you? For your stakeholders?
What else is important to note?
What would your predecessor say is important to note?
Your boss?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #933: Team Building tip #93

7/21/2016

This week's team building tip 93 gets you and your conversation around the topic of FOCUS. What is the team focusing on right now? How is that having impact? What's not getting attention at the moment?

There's an old adeage - what we focus on expands. How is your focus helping or hindering?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #932: New Team Leader Tip #7:

7/20/2016

We're back tracking today to New Team Leader Foundations tip #7 - Take stock of your skills and knowledge. What else do you need to learn right now. Earlier this week I talked about the importance of the role of a mentor. He or she can also provide valuable insights around what skills are needed.

The shift to team leadership from team member or individual contributor is often seen as the largest shift in leadership given that for many it is the first leadership role they have undertaken.

Much of the training work, and coaching work, we do at Potentials Realized supports new and experienced leaders in the realm of leadership development. Some of the key skill areas for leaders are:

Self-leadership skills - knowledge of self, presence, self-management

Relationship building skills including influence, working with others, relationship building, managing up etc

Technical leadership skills -these are the areas many of us are already good with

Team Leadership Skills - Communication, Delegation, Motivation, Coaching etc.

If you've been following the Teams365 blog for a while, chances are you've developed an affinity for some of our series covering many of these skills. Please check the tags listing on the right.

What are the skills you want to be focusing on developing the rest of this year?

Best
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #931: NEw Team LEader Tip #8

7/19/2016

The move in leadership from peer to leader can be a tricky one, especially the first time we encounter it. Here’s where the role of relationships, clear communication and trust come into play.

It can be important to have a conversation with your peers who you are going to lead, discussing what differences there may need to be around your relationship, particularly:

What will shift as you move into your role?
What do they see will shift?
What expectations do they have of your relationship? What expectations do you have?
What information you will and will not be able to share with others as you move into the leadership role
Regardless of title, what will remain the same?

This conversation will be influenced by your style, the quality of the relationship you have, how long the leadership role will be etc

What else do you want to keep in mind as you move into your new leadership role? Any tips for others?

Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #930: New Team Leader Tip #6

7/18/2016

One of the most important things a new team leader can do is identify a mentor who can support them not only through the initial on boarding process, but be a resource as they move forward. Mentors provide to valuable relationship for both new and experienced leaders.

Mentors can:

Share their own stories, experiences of what’s worked and what hasn’t in their role
Provide strategic, tactical insights about how work is really done in an organization
Provide useful tips
Help to expand insights on the work and political networks in an organization
Expand networks
Providing useful insights around priorities, networks, resources etc.

Mentors do not always need to have held the same role. In a lot of work that I undertake mentees/proteges are paired with other professionals in an organization.

Questions to consider:

What role would you want a mentor to play?
What insights are you looking for?
Does your organization offer formal or informal mentoring opportunities?
Who might be a potential mentor?

I've done a variety of posts on Mentoring over the years, as this is a major area I focus on in my work, especially through the Mentor Road Map Series of programming. Read past posts on mentoring here.

Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #929: Sunday Round-up

7/17/2016

This week I've started taking a look at tips for new leaders, an area which many new leaders feel they don't get enough support in. I hope that you've enjoyed the tips. For the next few weeks I'll be focusing on this topic.

If you missed this weeks tips and the related questions for you to reflect on or take action around, here they are again in this Sunday Round-up:

Monday - Teams365 #923 - Tip #1 - Take Time to Get to Know Your Team. Check it out here.

Tuesday - Teams365 #924 - Observe. Check it out here.

Wednesday - Teams #365 #925 - Identify Key Relationships . Check it out here.

Friday - Teams365 #927: Create Shared Expectations

Saturday - Teams365 #928: Create Shared Team Practices

Thursday's post of course was our weekly Team Building Tip,

Enjoy your Sunday and hope you get a great rest!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #928: New Leader Tips in Review

7/16/2016

Earlier this week we started exploring tips for new team leaders. Today we are at tip #5 - Create Shared Team Practices. Research continues to show that teams which excel usually have a number of shared team practices which are essential for communication as well as connection.

Shared team practices could include:
* a 2 pm team meeting to discuss where order fulfillment is for the day so that team members can pitch in and make changes
* A Monday morning team huddle to plan for the week, share priorities and update everyone
* a Thursday after-work hangout to debrief the week's events
* a virtual team bi-weekly streamed call where everyone can see each other (think Skype or Zoom)

Key to shared team practices is that everyone can participate in. Also impotant is that there is a focus on boosting team communication (across all members of the team) and that each member finds it useful.

Red flags for team meetings occur when people no longer find the meeting useful or productive. That may be a signal to do a tweak or make a change such as shorten the meeting time, have someone else facilitate it or change the format.

What shared team practices do you have? What is valuable about them? What changes do you need to or want to make to them?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

#Teams365 #926: New Team Leader Foundations Tip #4

7/15/2016

#Teams365 #926: Team Building Tip #92

7/14/2016