Month end reflections and planning for the month ahead.

Earlier today I hosted one of my monthly virtual month end planning hacks. These one hour sessions take professionals through a series of reflective prompts, using the tools I have developed for my newest planner, called the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner. It’s been so well embraced that I am working on editions for other professionals – remote workers, and leaders. Check out the Coaching Business Building Workbook and Planner here.

If you’ve been following the Teams365 blog for any time, you know that I include month end reflection questions and planning prompts for the month ahead. Here are yours for this month:

1. As you reflect on August, what have been your successes and accomplishments?
2. As you reflect on the summer, what have been your successes and accomplishments?
3. What are you most proud of?
4. What successes this month do you want to duplicate?
5. What top 3 learning have you head that you want to carry forward?
6. What key relationships have helped you so far this year? Which ones need more attention?
7. What has helped your successes?
8. What has hindered or gotten in the way?
9. What does your team need to be acknowledged for?
   
   As you look to September, consider these questions:
10. What are your key priorities for September?
    
11. What are the key goals?
12. What are the major priorities?
13. What will you need to place attention on?
14. What changes do you want to make in September?
15. What habits do you want to leverage
16. When will you check in to explore your progress, and make changes?
17. What resources do you want to tap into?
18. Who can help you be successful this month?

I hope that you do take 10-15 minutes to grab a pen, and your journal to undertake this activity. If you have a copy of the Coaching Business Builder,  you will want to use the monthly planning pages to capture your ideas. Also take a look at your trackers and metrics. What do you notice?
​
Enjoy!
Jennifer

Welcome back to another Teams365 Team Building Question - #198 in the series. This week you are encouraged to discuss the question:
If you were able to bring on one new team member, who would that be?
Take a few minutes as a team (or business owner) to think about who could help you  -

• Achieve the results you are looking for by the end off the year?
• Expand what you are doing?
• Elevate your work?
• Round out, or balance, your team?
• Or other?

Each week I take a look at a different question to get you in dialogue as a team. I’ve combined 52 of these questions (one for each week) in the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck. Each time you meet, you can pick a different card to “spark” discussion and dialogue.
We’re working on another deck which will be released later this year for those leaders who have been using the Teams Sparker cards. Stay tuned!

Enjoy,
Jennifer

PS – Don’t forget – Given that tomorrow is the last day of the month I will be hosting the virtual month end reflection and new month planning session I am going to host as one of my monthly Virtual Hacks from 9-10am ET. This is a 60 minute virtual planning session I host on zoom, using many of the templates I have created for the Coaching Business Builder. If you don’t have a copy of the book, pick up one. I also provide group members with digital copies of the relevant tools from the book. This one-hour session, and materials, costs $39 US
Click here to register and reserve your spot.

As some readers may know, earlier this month I released a workbook and planner called the Coaching Business Builder: Workbook and Planner. Part planner, part self-guided reflection journey, it’s geared to support coaches in exploring their own unique ecosystem, potentials and plans for their business. Plans are in the works for additional editions down the road for remote professionals and leaders.

In the workbook section, I touch on a variety of productivity tools, or hacks, to consider. These are things that I have seen transform the work of business owners and leaders I have both coached, and worked with over the years. As we gear up for back to work next week, I thought it would be useful to share with you four productivity hacks and frameworks I think might be useful for you. These include:
 
1. Schedule in time for your regular planning. Whether it’s daytime or night, the act of scheduling time to identify, note and focus on your own tasks which are upcoming can save a lot of time. An old project management adage has said that for every 10 minutes of planning you save 60 minutes  of unfocused effort.  Think about how having a list every day can help you navigate the changing waters of tasks and priorities, as they shift.When do you want to schedule in planning? Daily planning? Medium term planning? Long term planning?

2. Consider what time of day works well. One of the key learnings which still stands out for me almost 30 years after being an undergrad science student at McGill University, is the importance of our circadian rhythms. Research continues to show how we each have a different internal clock, helping, and hindering us to get things done at different times of the day. This concept has been revisited and revived recently with books such as Daniel Pink’s When, where he explores the concepts of larks and owls.
When are you are your peak (morning/night/another time)? What can you do to tweak your schedule to leverage those windows?

3. Build  in pockets to get things done without interruptions. Interruptions are everywhere in today’s working world – from the bings of emails, to phone calls, to people dropping in. Research by Gloria Marks and her team have discovered how every interruption has an extended impact. She has found that after an interruption it can take upwards of 25 minutes to get back on task. 23 minutes and 15 minutes to be exact.  Look at her research here. What can you be doing to build in pocket to get things done? Minimize interruptions?
Check out this article from Inc entitled “Six Tips to Maximize Productivity on Remote Working Days” from Inc here.

4. Finally, consider what the priorities are – yours, your bosses and/or your teams. Schedule in time for this in your calendar and get it done! Covey’s Urgent/Important Matrix constitutes to be a valuable framework to help us all take into account what is truly important and urgent. Check out a past blog post I have done on this here. What would you like to focus on this fall? Which one area would make the biggest impact on your work?

Enjoy,
Jennifer

PS – Looking for some time to plan? Consider joining me this Friday for the month end reflection and new month planning session I am going to host as one of my monthly Virtual Hacks. This is a 60 minute virtual planning session I host on zoom, using many of the templates I have created for the Coaching Business Builder. If you don’t have a copy of the book, pick up one. I also provide group members with digital copies of the relevant tools from the book. This one-hour session, and materials, costs $39 US
Click here to register and reserve your spot.

Wow! With about a week to go before Labor Day, we are into the homestretch for many. What has this season been like for you? What’s still on your summer bucket list?

It’s an opportunity to take a look back at your summer bucket list and think about what items are still there. What are the things you want to get done before summer comes to a close? What do you want to make sure you get done for fall?

Did you create a bucket list for yourself this summer?

Here’s a link to a great article by Elizabeth Scott entitled The Benefits of a Bucket List - https://www.verywellmind.com/benefits-of-a-bucket-list-3144998
Take a read through and consider what would be useful about creating a bucket list for fall or the longer term.

From speaking with many this month during the Planning Hacks I have been facilitating, I know many have added, and are taking action on their lists.
You’ll see a shot of some of my own summer 2018 bucket list items from the start of summer. Happy to report that many of them were checked off the list!
 
PS – Looking for some time to plan? Consider joining me this Friday for the month end reflection and new month planning session I am going to host as one of my monthly Virtual Hacks. This is a 60 minute virtual planning session I host on zoom, using many of the templates I have created for the Coaching Business Builder. If you don’t have a copy of the book, pick up one. I also provide group members with digital copies of the relevant tools from the book. This one-hour session, and materials, costs $39 US

Click here to register and reserve your spot.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​It’s time to mark another watershed in the Teams365 blog history – 1700 posts. When I started this project of blogging daily on January 1, 2014 I didn't know what was in store!  From goal setting, to difficult conversations, coaching to performance management, virtual team building tips, to work-life issues, I've covered a wide range of topics relevant to today's teams.

I've been encouraged by the many emails I have received and discussion with team leaders who are not only reading these posts, but also sharing them with their team members. That's what I had envisioned.

As a writer, the regular habit of planning, writing and researching these posts have made the writing of my latest two books - Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), and the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) flow more easily. Stay tuned for a couple of new 2019 resources for team leaders and team members, which will also grow out of what I've created here at the TEams365 blog.

Over the last 100 posts I’ve explored our most recent gearing-up for fall, along with the focus on team development approaches. These posts have joined some of the more regular weekly columns:
Monday’s Effective Virtual  Conversations Tips
Thursday’s Team Building Questions
Friday’s FlashbackFriday posts which take a look back at past Teams365 pots
Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompts – questions to get you thinking and writing each week
Sunday’s Videos which bring to life many of the hundreds of posts here at the Teams365 blog.
Looking ahead, I’ll be continuing daily posts throughout 2018, with upcoming focus areas on:

• Personal Productivity for the Remote Professional
• Remote Work tips and Hacks
• Planning for 2019
• More on team development

I hope that you will continue to join us for these posts!
 
And now, onto Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip #59:
In Effective Virtual Conversations I wrote “The first few minutes sets the tone. What do you want to create?”.
In conversations of all kinds – team meetings, performance conversations, one-on-ones, difficult conversations, the first few minutes are critical. Are you considering:

• The environment you are hosting your conversation in?
• What end result you would like to achieve?
• What’s important for the other person?
• What’s important for you to create?
• What’s going to help the conversation be successful?
• What expectations do you have?
• What expectations do they have?

Which posts have you enjoyed the most here at the Teams365 blog - let us know by commenting below! Please also take a moment today to share this blog resource with someone you know who would benefit.
 
Thanks,
Jennifer

It’s Sunday and time for a new Teams365 video. This one brings to life one of the back to work videos – Teams365 #960. Take note of these four things as you get back to work this fall. Grab your planner, and enjoy!

​What’s going to help you be at the top of your game this fall?

Best,
Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Journaling Prompt gets you to consider the question “For me to thrive….”.

• What are the things that will help you flourish?
• As you look back, what’s worked?
• As you look ahead, what are you yearning for?
• Where is it important for you to thrive, not only survive?

I hope that you enjoy this week’s journaling prompt and that it inspires you to carve out 5- 10 minutes to reflect on this question. This is number twelve in the series. If you have missed others, view them here.

If you have been journaling since the start  - fantastic! What do you notice about your posts over the last 3 months?

If you are just starting with these weekly journaling prompts, what do you notice?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

​​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

For this week’s Flashback Friday I am reaching back to a guest article I wrote for the Coaching Tools Company a few years ago entitled “ Dive Back Into Work and School with these Five Goal Setting Elements” . You can find the original article here.
 
Here’s what I wrote:
“As the summer draws to a close for those of us in the northern hemisphere, people are gearing up for back to school and work. It's a great time to be working with our clients on goals - and whether you are an individual, team or group coach, goal-setting is a foundational piece of our work with coaching clients. This article explores five key elements of goal-setting.

1. Which Goal-Setting Framework?
Many of us work with our clients around setting SMART Goals, goals which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant or Resonant and Time-bound. SMART goals allow clients to articulate goals which are more detailed, and therefore easier to track progress on.
There are several other goal-setting frameworks out there including what John Whitmore describes in his seminal book, Coaching for Performance, as PURE goals which are Positively stated, Understood, Relevant  and Ethical. For some, goals may be enshrined in a one page action plan, or in organizations as part of a development plan that is shared with the client's consent.
Consider with your clients which goal-setting frameworks will support them best. Their own style will have an influence on the type of goal framework they may wish to adopt.
Motivation is essential: Regardless of goal-setting framework it is important to explore with clients the issue of motivation. We can be motivated by things that are internal, or external. What's the "driver" for achieving this goal? Supporting our clients to connect with the motivational factor of the goal, or what I call SMART-E - the excitement, supports clients as they move through the peaks and valleys and when they hit the slump. When goal-setting, work with clients to connect their goals with their values and the importance of achieving them in the bigger picture.

2. Goal Timelines
What's the timeline on this? Goals can change dramatically based on the timeframe provided. Is this a short term goal, medium or long-term? When goal-setting, it can be seductive to always work on short term goals that create quick wins, but many times these become a rote check-box activity. Supporting clients to link their goals to their values and the WHY behind it, is important. For medium and long term goals, what will be motivational for the client over time? It is also important to work with clients on updating their goals as their context changes and key goals are achieved. You may want to build in goal checkpoints throughout the coaching process.

3. Goal Visibility
Make goals visible. Keeping goals visible can help to remind our clients of what they have identified as important. What is the structure which will keep their goals visible in a way that works best? Is it a post-it note on their computer screen, is it a photo on their phone or tablet, or is it something else? When you're goal-setting, inquire with your client about what structure will keep this visible and top of mind for them.

4. Accountability and Support
In the book, The Oz Factor, authors write, "Accountability is the guiding principle that defines how we make commitments to one another, how we measure and report our progress how we interact when things go wrong, and how much ownership we take to get things done. It is, in essence, the nerve center that runs throughout every part of the organization and through every working relationship to every member of every team."  The Oz Principle
Who will the person be accountable to - you? Others? In achieving this goal what do people need to say yes to? No to? How does the person want to be supported? Do they want their feet held to the fire, or do they want a high five? Building accountability into goal-setting is a key part of the coaching process.

5. Celebration and Recognition
Celebration and recognition of goal achievement is important, especially for large goals. In today's busy work world, we may not stop and pause and recognize our accomplishments. It is very common for teams and leaders to check off the box, and move onto the next goal without really taking the time to capture new learning, and what can be applied to future projects. In addition to supporting learning, recognizing and celebrating achievements helps us to connect with the WHY of each goal and its' importance.
Your Pondering Question: How can these five elements - Goal-Setting Frameworks, Goal Timelines, Goal Visibility, Accountability and Support, and Celebration and Recognition amp up your next coaching conversation - and results for your clients?”
 
Enjoy your last week of summer scheduling!
​
Best wishes,
Jennifer
 

​Today's post marks Team Building Tip #197 which means that in the last three plus years I have included more than 196 different questions for you and your team to consider, on a weekly basis. How many of these have you brought in to your team building conversations?

This week pick out one of the many past questions, and bring it into your next team meeting.

With skills such as empathy, and collaboration being increasingly important in today’s workplace, the ability for a team to have a good discussion, know each other, be able to leverage their strengths and styles, in order to be work done easier and more efficiently, becomes critical. My intent in starting this Thursday series several years ago was to get team members with their leaders IN DIALOGUE with each other.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at a number of different posts and questions, to tap into some of the great conversation opportunities you may not have had. Here are a few questions I’ve posed along the way on Thursdays since the first question  which debuted as Teams365 #268 on September 24, 2015. Read it at www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-268-teams365-team-building-tip-1

In that post, the statement was "What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done. Schedule in time for planning and team meetings". What have you scheduled into your calendar this fall?

Some of my other favorite posts include:
What habits can the team benefit from? (Teams 365 #429 -
What are the key networks you want to foster (Teams365 #1150)
Getting to Know The Team: I need ____ from you (Teams365 #1262)
What else? Team building tip #69 as posted in Teams365 #744

If you liked these, a reminder that 50 of the questions have been combined to make up the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck, which you can purchase here.
 
Enjoy!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books include the summer 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

Last week I hosted a gearing up for fall planning hack, during which time I led the group through a series of real-time planning activities over the course of a 45 minute window. With the launch of my latest resource the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, I’ll be hosting more of these real-time virtual planning sessions for coaches and other planners. (On a side note, I’ll be releasing another edition of the Workbook and Planner later this year/early 2019 for Remote professionals and Leaders). I hope you may join me for one of the many upcoming virtual planning sessions.
For today’s post I thought it would be fitting to provide you with some planning prompts to think about the fall and all that you want to create. Here are some questions to guide you:

• As you look to fall, what is the environment you want to create in your work?
• What are the core goals and priorities?
• As you look to you main goals for fall,, how do they fit together?
• How do they interlink with others work?
• What do you need in order to be successful with these goals?
• Who can help you?
• What’s going to help you further grow as a professional?
• What stretch opportunities do you have to expand your thinking, and skills?
• What projects will help you grow?
• What collaborative conversations do you want to foster this fall? (Consider peer groups, mentors, time with your boss and team, other…)

I read an interesting article recently from the MIT Sloan Review by Linda Gratton on the Challenge of Scaling Soft Skills You can read it here. In it she mentions four skills which will be important for professionals of all kinds as the workplace continues to change - empathy, context sensing, collaboration, and creative thinking. What are you doing to enhance and grow in these areas?
Throughout my career, and in the work that I continue to do, I work regularly in support of fostering skills in empathy, collaboration and creative thinking. These will be needed by team members of all kinds. Some of the skills we learn in training, but many we learn by doing. What can you do to foster opportunities for team members to grow and expand in these areas?

Enjoy your Tuesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326