Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2466 – Wrapping up Q3 and Stepping into Q4

9/30/2020

It’s the last day of Q3 and we’re just about to step into Q4. Who is ready to step forward? Before we go there, I’d like to invite you to take 10 minutes or more today to do a brief reflection on your experience. If you prefer to do the reflection by video, take a look at this Quarterly Review Video I recorded 18 months ago as we moved from Q1 to Q2 2019. The questions are evergreen and don’t expire.

Grab pen and paper and take a look at this…

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2465 – Virtual Co-Working

9/29/2020

2020 – the year of the bubble. Physical isolation has led to many to feeling more isolated than ever. Just last week we released episode 21 of the Remote Pathways podcast, where we touch on the topic of Virtual Co-Working. You can check it out on your favorite podcast player OR here.

One thing I really love as a podcaster is hosting our twice a month breakfast calls. It’s open to all and I hope you will drop in for one before the end of the year!

In the most recent Remote Pathways community call on September 17th, Michelle and I talked about the many different forms virtual co-working can take.

Here’s a quick overview of the different types we talked about. What’s interesting is that between us both of us support programming virtually all these different types of co-working. Which ones might work best for you?

Zoom Call - Working real time for short blocks of time on Zoom
Virtual Retreat - While Michelle focuses on virtual retreats for personal development in her Anchor Your Heart Retreats, I focus more on virtual business planning sessions.
Lunch and Learn - Professional development opportunities abound for many professionals and breakfasts, lunches and dinners are very common. As I share in the call, it’s not uncommon for me to speak to a group of 20 or even 200 virtually over lunch. Contact me if you are looking for a speaker for your lunch and learn.
Social Time - Quarantinis became a popular 5 pm activity in the early days of the pandemic. Today that’s morphed into many different formats. What are you doing to create more social time with colleagues and friends and family, virtually?
Design (Studio Time) - For many of the clients I work with, design or studio time is important. Getting together with others can create more focused work and impact. What are you wanting to design and how might some virtual studio time support you? Again, contact me for upcoming virtual studio days AND sprints.
Conversations - What are the conversations you want to have this month? Who have you not reached out to recently?
Get it Done! - Getting things done are critical for success. One of the favorite activities with the annual lab programs I run is the Get It Done Days. What could 4 hours of focused work get off your list?
Games/challenges - Challenges are one of my new favorite activities. I kicked off the Stand Out Virtually Challenge in August and more than a hundred joined me. I’ll be hosting my next challenge in October so stay tuned and join us at the Virtual and Remote Visionaries Hub to keep posted.
Team Time – Finally, what is the time you have earmarked for your team for team development?

What are the types of co-working experiences you want to engage with?

Be sure to check out the September 17th Breakfast Community Call for more on Virtual Co-Working – You can view the 30 minute call here.

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2464 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #169: Social Learning

9/28/2020

A key part of learning can occur when we learn with others. Consider the impact of peer learning in workshops, group coaching, masterminds and other collaborative learning experiences. Collaborative social learning experiences are something many are hungry for, especially in times of social distancing. What can that look like in your work, virtually?

One of the theories that have influenced social learning was Arthur Bandura’s Social Learning Theory. This has implications for how we design and lead learning conversations.

Bandura’s Social Learning theory is grounded in four main areas:

Observation (environmental) – Observing and learning from the context in which we operate?
Retention (cognitive) – How do I remember this?
Reproduction (cognitive) – How do I reproduce this? Use this?
And motivation (both cognitive and environmental) – Noticing what is motivational and not

(https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/social-learning-theory)

What can that look like when we are working with people virtually?

Environmental – When you are working with groups, what is the context the client is operating in? What is the culture the team is creating? What adjustments need to be made?

Linked to the discussions we’ve been having at the LLDS, this might include work around “Enshrining the team agreements and values” in something that is tangible.

A focus on retention gets us to focus in on the question of “HOW DO I REMEMBER THIS?” What are you doing to create different engagement touchpoints and adjust the pace?
This might include:

Breakouts so peers can connect together
Using annotation
Having group members verbally articulate “what I’ve learned and what I am going to do”
As well as writing it down
Selecting a card/image/icon around next steps

A focus on reproduction is HOW DO I DO THIS AGAIN? It may involve peer teaching and sharing as well as thinking about application in other areas.

Finally, a focus on MOTIVATION could lead to many conversations across the group or team, with a focus on intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for the team, group and/or individual members. Consider what are the motivating factors for each person.

What is important for you to take note on?

All the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2463 - Sunday Review

9/27/2020

How did your week go? What were the key focus areas for you? What was your key learning?

This week we’ve covered a wide range of topics during the week here including:

What was your favorite post this week?
Share with us below!

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2462 - Weekly Journaling Prompt 118

9/26/2020

Welcome to another Saturday journaling prompt. This week’s prompt is the question “My focus is….”.

“The direction of your focus is the direction your life will move. Let yourself move toward what is good, valuable, strong and true.” – Ralph Marston

You may want to consider these questions this week as part of your journaling:

Where is your attention right now?
What are you focusing on?
What are you not paying attention to?
What’s the benefit of having such a strong focus?
What’s the downside to your focus?

Enjoy your reflections!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2461 – #FlashbackFriday Five Key Relationships for Professionals

9/25/2020

I thought that it would be interesting to reach back to what I had written five years ago here at the Teams365 blog – here’s the post from that day – Five Key Relationships – still as relevant (and maybe even more so in today’s virtual context”.

Whether you are back to work or starting a new role, relationships are key in today's business context. As team leaders, we navigate a wide network for relationships, which you may need to call on at any given time. Five key relationships for team leaders to be aware of are:

1. Your team - What is the strength of these relationships right now? What conversations are important to have? What does your team rely on you for? What do you need from them? What preferences to do they have in terms of support, communication, connection etc.?

2. Your boss - When was your last quality meeting with your boss? What support do they need from you? What support do you need from them? What are their priorities this month/quarter? How can you help them be even more successful?

3. Your customers, client’s other key stakeholders are also key players in your network. What conversations and touch points do you have planned or want to have?

4, Key project relationships - Consider other key relationships you have. What requires attention? Where can you lean into for support?

5. Your peers - As team leaders we also benefit tremendously from fostering a network of peers around us. Is it time to connect with some specific people within your network? What could you share about your current successes that would help others? What do you need from them?

To wrap up with one of my favorite business authors on the topic of relationships, here's what Keith Ferrazzi says:

“Connecting. It’s a constant process of giving and receiving—of asking for and offering help. By putting people in contact with one another, by giving your time and expertise and sharing them freely, the pie gets bigger for everyone. This karma-tinged vision of how things work may sound naïve to those who have grown cynical of the business world. But while the power of generosity is not yet fully appreciated, or applied, in the halls of corporate America, its value in the world of networks is proven.”
― Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

Enjoy your weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2460 – Team Building Tip 264

9/24/2020

Last winter I published a white paper entitled the “Remote Working Whitepaper”. It’s been downloaded hundreds of times that I can track. You can pick up a copy here.

In it, I share what I term the 7 C’s or Remote Enablers to Work. The first one is expectations – what are the agreements you are creating as a team? This might include:

Quality of work.
Communication – how much, in what channels, how regularly?
How often you meet.
The process and structure of how you meet.
What is applicable and appropriate to raise at meetings, and what should be funneled elsewhere?

Clarity around expectations creates alignment around goals. What are the conversations you want to have?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2459 - Collaborating Virtually

9/23/2020

Virtual Collaboration is a core topic for all types of remote professionals. Whether we have to build something within our team, or expand our network, it’s key to build capacity to collaborate across distance and time. I address this topic in Chapter 12 of Effective Virtual Conversations. In a very practical way, you will want to consider the following areas for exploration:

#1 – Why are we collaborating? Many writers assert that it’s important not to collaborate just to collaborate. In fact, it’s key that we are clear on why we are collaborating. Is it because our skills are better when we fuse them together? It is because we bring a different insight into a core topic? Be clear on why you are collaborating.

#2 – What’s your core stance and common ground around the topic? What is the common stance you hold around the topic? Perhaps you are both passionate about educating around a topic. Perhaps you want to create a new approach to looking at an issue. Being clear on where you both align, and where you are different, is important.

#3 – What’s different between your work? Consider where your work is not only the same, but complimentary. Partnerships can get weakened if both partners are too similar. Consider exploring not only what’s the same, but also what’s different.

#4 – Consider what your end result is. Results in the remote space need to be specific? Clear? Focused? What are your end results? What are you looking to achieve?

#5 – Provide feedback. Feedback is critical to any partnership and collaborative experience. Be clear on what’s working. What’s not. What changes are needed and how things can proceed.

How often are you meeting? What type of feedback are you both providing and receiving?

Collaboration will continue to be a “pain point” for many professionals. What’s going to help your partnerships flourish in the remote space?

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2458 – 5 Tips to Better Video Meetings

9/22/2020

#1 – Start with the end in mind. As Stephen Covey wrote years ago “start with the end in mind”. Being clear on what you want people to LEAVE the meeting with, is core to identifying topics which need to be covered, what those topics will focus on, as well as what’s critical for success.

#2 – Have shared agreements about being on-camera and using (or not using) mute. There are several different types of meetings we may host and being clear on what the level of interaction is, is key. Because one Zoom room (or Teams room) looks like another, clarify what people can expect.

#3 – Consider activating video backgrounds. If people’s systems are fast enough, consider the video backgrounds which will work to block out extraneous backgrounds. While green screens can ensure that the background doesn’t make you lose your fingers, or that the glasses on the top of your head don’t fade out, you can also get small portable green screens which fit on the back of your chair.

#4 – Use all the tools available. If you have to determine the focus of your conversation, consider how a poll or annotation might support you. If you have a large group, use breakouts to move into smaller discussion pods.

#5 – Track agreements as you go. Whether one person acts as a rapporteur (note taker) OR you capture things on the screen, capture agreements as you go. Note also that there are now several apps which integrate into the virtual space for transcription – such as the Otter.ai integration with Zoom and other elements.

Finally, as a bonus, consider your lighting. Being able to be seen automatically builds trust. Make sure that your lighting source is in front of you – windows work well.

What is going to help your next video meeting stand out?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2457 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 168: Follow Up

9/21/2020

It’s Monday and time for another Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s tip is about follow-up. While virtual learning is often seen as a one-off event, reinforcing the learning with follow-up can support integration of knowledge to become learning.

Follow-up in the virtual space can take many forms including:

Focus
Framing
Exponential growth

Are you taking the time to follow up? How has this impacted your learning?

All the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!