​It’s the final day of October and time to take stock of the month that was.
Take note of these questions:

• As you reflect on October, what have been your successes and accomplishments?
• As you reflect on the last quarter, what have been your successes and accomplishments?
• What are you most proud of?
• What successes this month do you want to duplicate?
• What top 3 learning have you head that you want to carry forward?
• What key relationships have helped you so far this year? Which ones need more attention?
• What has helped your successes?
• What has hindered or gotten in the way?
• What does your team need to be acknowledged for?
  
  As you look to November, consider these questions:
• What are your key priorities for November?
• What are the key goals?
• What are the major priorities?
• What will you need to place attention on?
• What changes do you want to make in November or this quarter?
• What habits do you want to leverage?
• When will you check in to explore your progress, and make changes?
• What resources do you want to tap into?
• Who can help you be successful this month?

Enjoy your reflections,
Jennifer

The final team skill we are going to explore is the skill of influence. This is a core skill for remote professionals of all kinds today. Given that we are working across a web of relationships – upwards, downwards, and sideways – team members will need to develop skills in this area.
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When thinking about the skill of influence, it can be useful to consider:

• What are the relationships I am in that require I use the skill of influence? (This may be where you do not have a direct reporting relationship – think peers, other technical experts, other team members)
• What is the end result I am aiming for around the specific project/initiative?
• What is the common ground you are exploring?
• What is important about the end result for the other person?
• What could a win-win look like?
• What are the key areas you are considering?
• The skill of influence is critical for remote workers today. What would help you acquire further skills in this area?

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Best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip focuses at Shared Behavioral Norms. Research continues to show that teams with shared behavioral norms have greater clarity around agreements, helping with alignment, behavior and results.
If you are working in a virtual or remote team context you will want to explore the following questions as a team:

• What is acceptable in terms of our behavior and how we operate?
• What is important?
• What does it look like for us in practice?

For example, if a team indicates that one of the important things is respect, it’s important for the team to define what that looks like. Does that mean a certain way of communicating? Does it mean that team members respond to clients in a certain way? If you were to bring a camera into the workplace, what are the behaviors associated with that activity?
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Activity:
As a team spend time making a list of the behavioral practices you want to employ. Consider how you will “enshrine” them to make them visible as a reminder. Different practices teams have used on this include plaques, statutes, photos etc.

Best, 
​Jennifer

Getting Things Done Across Borders: 3 Ways Technology Boosts Remote Team Productivity
 
By 2020, more than 50% of employees will work remotely.
 
The mantra “work is something you do, not a place you go to” rings truer today and even more in the coming years. A physical office is no longer a prerequisite to running a successful business, which is especially beneficial for startups and small businesses unable to afford an office lease.
 
However, there are issues about working remotely that are characteristic of going this route. One of the biggest challenges distributed teams need to address is productivity. Many companies have retracted their telecommuting benefit due to this reason.
 
One of the most infamous — Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo!, recalled it’s work from home benefit. A memo sent to employees stated: “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.” It added: “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”
 
The reality is this: Productivity is a challenge faced by all businesses, whether its employees are co-located in a single office or scattered worldwide. It is not necessarily a function of being physically together. If it is, how can you explain the success of 100% remote companies such as WordPress, Zapier, and Buffer?
 
The common denominator among productive remote companies is their strategic and well thought out use of technology. It bridges the physical distance between remote team members. Apps and tools make it possible for remote companies to achieve a high level of productivity notwithstanding location differences and time zone.
 
If you have a remote team and they are experiencing a productivity slump, here’s how you can use technology to improve it:
 
1. Create a Virtual HQ
 
Even though you’re not co-located, distributed teams need a place to come together, a virtual headquarters of sorts. “Virtual corridors” and “virtual water coolers” can be created in order for employees to brainstorm ideas and even have non-work-related discussions.
 
These avenues are important in fostering camaraderie, strengthening employee engagement, and building a remote team culture — intangible things that significantly contribute to productivity.
 
Technology provides an easy way to do this via group chat platforms. There are several options to choose from — from free to premium — depending on the size of your team and unique communication needs.
 
2. Improve Project Management and Collaboration
 
When working with a remote team, it is difficult to trust they will remember all their tasks. Likewise, as a remote team manager, you should not assume that you will remember all the tasks and projects that you assign to virtual employees.
 
All successful remote teams use project management tools to maintain productivity, if not improve it. It is also useful to track project status, and collaborate. Many remote teams take these project management tools seriously. If a project is not on their project management board, it’s not getting done.
 
Additionally, establish a strict policy that no file should be saved in the local storage of your employees’ devices. Provide cloud file storage that you own and control. This provides better collaboration for your team, as well as safeguarding your files.
 
3. Understand How Team Members Are Spending Their Time
 
Remote work experts often say that working remotely is all about productivity, not availability. With team members working in different time zones, being available all the time and at the same time should not be the focus. Rather, it’s having an agreed time every day to get together and being able to meet deadlines.
 
That said, remote team leaders should know how their team members are spending their time. This is especially important for businesses in the client servicing industry. You should be able to assess the number of hours your employees are putting into meeting your clients’ requirements and properly factor this into your service charges.
 
Time tracking also allows you to provide coaching to remote employees. If they are spending too much time on non-core tasks, you can coach them on how to better spend their time. Additionally, if they are spending too much time on a specific core task, review your processes and look for ways to do things more efficiently.
 
Technology Brings Remote Workers Together
 
The advantages of building a remote business are well documented, from reduced operating costs to happier employees. 100% remote companies that are successful and profitable are living proof that running a successful business powered by a remote workforce is possible.
 
That said, using technology and implementing the right tools to increase productivity should be a core pillar in your company. This ensures your team is on the same page, even though you’re not in the same place.
 
Looking at successful remote companies, each one has its own processes and systems, but the strategic and appropriate use of technology is a common denominator. Technology determines the quality of communication and collaboration, and the level of productivity that your team will achieve.
 
To some extent, your remote team is only as good as the tools that you use.
 
Author Bio
 
Dean Mathews is the founder and CEO of OnTheClock, an online employee time tracking app that helps over 8,000 companies all around the world track time.
 
Dean has over 20 years of experience designing and developing business apps. He views software development as a form of art. If the artist creates a masterpiece, many peoples lives are touched and changed for the better.
 
When he is not perfecting time tracking, Dean enjoys expanding his faith, spending time with family, friends and finding ways to make the world just a little better. You can find Dean on LinkedIn.
 

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

​This week’s journaling prompt is “our greatest opportunity is….”. Focusing on the positive and the opportunities is not always a key focus in organizations today. We are often quick to focus in on what doesn’t work. By focusing on what’s possible or opportunities, it has been shown that we activate a different part of the brain, “opening up” possibilities.
Given that we are now months into the weekly journaling prompts, it can be very useful to revisit and review what you have written already.
As you review your blog posts, what do you notice?
What are some of the core themes across posts?
What are some of the common elements or threads you are noticing?
If you haven’t been following along with the weekly journaling prompts, perhaps today is the day to start writing and capturing your ideas.
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Enjoy!
Jennifer

What is everyone on the team committed to?
This week’s team building tip is the question “What is everyone on the team committed to?”. What are the things that teams will “go to bat” for. What are the non-negotiables?
Commitment across a team is essential for getting results. Teams are often as strong as their weakest link. What can you do to explore what commitments means for you on your team?

​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 including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

This week’s team skill is in the area of Emotional Intelligence. For years, leaders at all levels have been exposed to developing more skills. In today’s remote work place, the skill sets encapsulated within the EI framework of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social management are key to employees of all types.
Emotional Intelligence skills incorporate skills such as:

• Collaboration
• Influence
• Working through relationships

Given that remote workers do not work within their  own bubbles, and do need to reach out with others, developing more skills in these areas can be important. Be sure to check out some of these resources:

• The EQ Leader – Steven J. Stein 
• Emotional Intelligence 2.0  - this is a useful self-assessment which individuals can complete
• The EQ Edge – Steven J. Stein

As you consider the skills which make up the bundle of EI skills, what do you notice? What are the things that enable you to do your best work?

Best,
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 including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

​This month we have been exploring teamwork skills, taking a look at a range of them. One skillset which is critical for remote teams is that of change management. In supporting team members through ongoing change, it can be very stressful. It may be useful as a team, and as individuals, to explore questions such as:

• What is your natural tendency to approach change?
• How quickly do you approach change?
• What do you find problematic, or challenging, as it relates to change?

We often think it’s enough to think about and speak about the changes required. In fact, what is important is also to consider what changes are required as you move forward and sustain the changes over time. This might involve new rewards, new habits and  new accountability structures. What are the things that will support the changes you are going through as a team? What are the requirements you have to evolve?

For more on the topic of change management check out these past Teams365 posts. 

Best wishes,
Jennifer

An increasing number of leaders are now supporting virtual and remote teams. While many organizations feel that a step into remote leadership is just like managing people in the bull pen or down the hall, virtual team leadership requires super-strong skills in relationship management, influence and working across differences.
Creating alignment across a virtual team can be a big challenge. Goals often create the anchors for team members who may be assigned to different projects, be managed in matrix fashion, as well as have a different context in which they operate.
 
Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip comes from page 350 of the book, which poses several questions for virtual team leaders to consider when working with teams virtually. These are all questions a leader can pose in individual one-on-one conversations with a team member, or during an entire team meeting.
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Consider these question to help create clarity, alignment and accountability around goals:

1. How do our team’s and department goals fit into this? This question helps team members understand the bigger picture and connection amongst goals.

2. Do people understand how their individual effort impacts the organizational goals? This question also helps people connect their individual contribution to the bigger picture. It helps to reduce a sense of operating in a vacuum, and lower motivation when virtual team members do not see where they efforts make an impact.

3. Do individuals on the team understand how their work interfaces and supports others, leading into other goals focused on by other team members?Even is a team does not connect physically, helping team members understand how their work connects with others, helps not only with motivation but also in getting things done. If I know that Sujit’s work is contingent on a specific piece of work I need to complete, I may prioritize things more and/or be sure to get things done on time, or in a certain fashion.

4. How do we measure goals and is there clarity around it? Understanding what success looks like it critical for success, and this needs to be shared across a team. Is there clarity around what success looks like and how it is measured? This may include indicators of success, timelines and other factors.
 
As you think about your team and their goals for the rest of the year, what’s important to explore?
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More on this in the last few chapters of Effective Virtual Conversations where I take a deeper dive into virtual team leadership and virtual teamwork. 
 
Best wishes,
Jennifer