Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

#Teams365 #689 - Four Tips for Your Year End REtreat

11/20/2015

It's that time of year again as many teams start planning for their annual year end retreat. Today's post covers four key areas you will want to consider as you go about planning for your team or organizational retreat:
1. Make sure you have a focus on the top three things you want to get out of, or have the team experience during the retreat. This should be the anchor of what gets selected throughout the course of the day.

2. Consider a focus on both results and relationships. Many times retreats are heavy on the team bonding experience. That's great and what we know is that high performing teams have both strong professional bonds, AND they have a clear line of sight on the business results they want to achieve. A year end retreat can have a focus on both goals, action planning and relationship development.

3. Take if offsite - A lot of teams find it hard to justify a day out of the office AND it is critical to have everyone there 100% throughout the day. Even though it is well intentioned, it is easy for team members to get pulled out much easier when they are at the office for urgent issues. Time away (even a few blocks away) can create more of a buffer and "focus" for everyone.

4. Be crystal clear on follow- up action steps, who is responsible, and when you are going to check back in. It's all too common for action plans to get developed at a retreat and no loop back is created. It's critical to know what the next steps are, and who is going to be responsible. Take time to schedule in (and calendar in)your next series of follow up meetings. Retreats should not just be a "one and done". They should be part of your regular planning and communication process.

Retreats are a terrific investment for a team. Well designed they can help the team shore up their foundation for success.

Please download a complimentary retreat planning checklist here, or contact us to see how we can support you in either designing or running your next team organizational retreat.

With 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

#Teams365 #688: Team Building Tip #62: Catch People Doing Things Right

11/19/2015

(416)99Today's team building tip is a reminder to catch people doing tings RIGHT, and to provide positive feedback and recognition when people are doing a great job!

We often are quick to provide constructive feedback and when did you last provide positive feedback to members of your team.

Consider these questions

Think about each team member. When did you "catch them doing things right?"
What feedback do you want to provide?
When will you provide the feedback?

Best wishes,
jennifer

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

#TeaMs365 #687: Leadership Myth o - One=on-Ones Take Too Much Time

11/18/2015

Today's leadership myth is that one-on-ones take too much time. Throughout the last two years, I've dedicated multiple posts to the importance of one-on-ones as a coaching tool and also performance approach. In fact, several organizations that I know of are now moving to regular one-on-ones in place of a formalized once a year performance review process.

One on ones are an important tool to build rapport with your team, empowering them while also providing a feedback loop. That feedback loop can be in support of a refinement/nudge around corrective performance measures, or a feedback loop to you as the leader in terms of what ther person needds in order to be successful with their activity (whether it's needing more resources, a connection, etc).

As I have stressed through the blog, one-on-ones should be regular *i.e.. several times a week or more regularly), and don't need to take a lot of time when done regularly.

One of my most popular posts from this past year on one-on-ones has been about questions you might incorporate into your one-on-ones. Here they are again from #Teams365 #188 (7/7/14)

What have your successes been this week?

What have you been focusing on?

What’s your number one priority?

What’s working well?

What’s not?

What type of support do you need from me (as your leader)?

What do you need from others?

What’s going to support you in being successful?

What do you want to celebrate with others?

You may also want to listen back to one of my Sunday audios - 10 Questions to be asking as a team leader - Teams365 #376

Enjoy your one-on-ones this week!

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

#TEams365 #686: Leadership Myth -N - norms ARen't Important

11/17/2015

One of the six factors of high performing teams is having in place shared expectations about behaviors. This is often referred to as team norms, what is acceptable, and what is not. Whether it's called a Team Charter, Rules of the Road or Team Agreements, creating a shared framework of the way you want to behaviorally operate is key.

Team Agreements help to encourage positive behaviors, and help bring things back in when things go off the rails.

If you are planning a year end retreat this is an excellent activity to undertake. When you have completed your Team Agreements make sure you think of how you want to remember them. I've had teams enshrine them in a poster, others created a statute and others made it part of their screensaver.

Common team agreements might be:
To start and end work on time (be specific around what it means to start and end on time)
To go the extra mile for customer support/satisfaction
To be respectful (again define what respect looks like in your work

Some prompting questions to get at your team norms can include:
What are the behaviors which allow us to be at our best?
What are the behaviors which help us excel?
What behaviors become a line in the sand, no matter what?

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

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

#Teams365 #685: #Leadership Myth #Meetings ALways work

11/16/2015

As we start a new week and continue our journey through the Leadership Myths, today we are at M with the Leadership myth that Meetings always work. Years ago, Patrick Lencioni wrote Death by Meeting.

Today we see this exponentially whether it's Death by Meeting or Death by Conference call. Effective Meetings.com pose some interesting stats from the late 1990s of people attending up to 60plus meetings a month, with 50% of that time being wasted.

Think about it for yourself -
how many meetings have you attended so far this month?
How much more time do you see yourself in meetings?
What is the "quality" of these meetings?
How have they supported you in getting your work done or moving your mission forward?

The Muse has a great infographic which updates meeting status for 2015 - you can view the article and infographic here.
Fascinating facts are quoted:
Mid level managers spend up to 35% of their time in meeting, higher level execs up to 50%, at a cost of $37 Billion a year, with 25 Million meetings being held every day!

In meetings you will want to avoid these meeting management faux-paus I mentioned in Teams365 #211. To make your meetings - virtual or not more effective, consider these
- Have a plan for the meeting and circulate it before so people come prepared, know that they need to be there, and can also indicate who should be there.
- Keep to time.
- Make sure you do follow-through on responsibilities and next steps. Avoid the pitfall of spending all your time looping back on this.
- Consider what roles will help the meeting keep moving - chair, time keeper, note taker etc.
- Always ask yourself:
1. Who needs to be here?
2. How much time do we need?
3. What is the outcome and next steps?

Have a great start to your week! Let us know if you have been able to integrate these questions into your work this week. Also enjoy a reminder of one of our earlier cartoons - Keeping Meetings on Track (originally published on August 7, 2014 - Teams365 #219)

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

#Teams365 #684: Sunday Teamwork Quote

11/15/2015

Today's teamwork quote comes from Peter Senge who writes extensively on Systems Thinking. Team leaders will find his writing of interest as you think about your team as an entire entity or system. Consider how something that impacts one member, has a ripple effect with others.

How is your team learning? How is that team learning feeding into the rest of the organization?

Enjoy your Sunday!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

#Teams365 #683: 6 Leadership Questions a Day - Teamwork

11/14/2015

Today's Six Leadership Questions a day focus on teamwork, and questions you may want to ask to facilitate diallgue. In addition to these you may also want to refer to the more than 60 Thursday team building tips I've posted in the last year.

Here are six more questions you may want to be asking:

1. When are we at our best as a team?

2. What strengths can we leverage in our work and projects?

3. How do we have each others' backs?

4. How will we hold each other accountable for our results?

5. If we were to tweak/change one thing about how we work as a team that would be.....

6. I'm excited about _______ in the next few months.

Enjoy these questions and the conversations they provoke.

Best wishes,
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 the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team

#Teams365 #682: Leadership Toolbox - Teamwork

11/13/2015

Throughout the last two years I have been focusing on team leader skills and teamwork as a skill set and practice, here at the Teams365 blog. This month, November, is also the NaBizWriMo - the National Business writing Month. I am in the process of writing a new book for team leaders, in support of further building your skill set.

Today I wanted to share five current books which you might be interested in checking out as a team leader for enhancing your skills:

Managers Guide to Virtual Teams - Kindall Fisher, Mareen Fisher
Primal Teams - Jackie Barretta
Super Teams - Paul L, Marciano and Clinton Wingrove
The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork - John Maxwell
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni

What are your favorite teamwork books?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

#TEams365 #681: Team Building Tip #61: What are the Micro-moments for Coaching?

11/12/2015

What are the micro-moments when you could find coaching opportunities with your team? In today's busy world, sitting down for a coaching conversation for 30 minutes may not be possible. However, we can have effective conversations in more micro-moments.

In past posts on coaching, I've pointed leaders to the GROW Coaching model originally co-created by John Whitmore and others. The GROW Model is an excellent framework for using when having focused coaching conversations in these shorter moments.

The G of the model focuses in on the goal of the conversation and the specific goal of the person being coached. Is this conversation about enhancing customer service, making more sales or creating a plan for an upcoming project. Having a key goal is key in coaching.

The R of the GROW model focuses in on where are you now around the issue, and where do you want to be. This too helps to quickly frame the coaching conversation, lasering it in.

The 0 of the GROW model gets us to explore options on what's going to help you move from a to b.

Finally, the W of the GROW model gets us to look at a key part of coaching which is accountability. What are you going to do, by when, and how will I (or others) know when you have completed it?

Questions to consider:
When do you have these small windows of time for focused coaching conversations?
What wi9ll help you frame the focus with the person being coached?
What coaching conversations do you want to have this week?

Have a great Thursday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

#Teams365 #680 - Leadership myth L - Learning only Needs to TAke place in the Classroom

11/11/2015

Today's Leadership myth brings us to L - Learning only needs to take place in the classroom. For employees of all levels ongoing learning can be an important part of development, capacity building and also employee engagement.

There is a myth that we need to send "people out for training". As someone who has spent significant time in the last few decades supporting formal and informal educational initiatives, interally and extreenaly in organizations, this is myth.

Today there are so many options we can provide for employees to help them learn and grow. Consider these:

Job Shadowing with another peer or someone in a different department. Cross-training can be an important process with strengthening culture and also building a more agile workforce.

Special projects - Special projects can also provide an opportunity for employees who may not be able to move horizontally to continue to expand their skill set. In my former world of work, special projects I was tasked with continued to sharpen my skills and expand my comfort zone. I attribute the experience on some of these special projects as key experiences in helping me run a successful learning business today.

Mentoring - Mentoring continues to be an overlooked development opportunity to build capacity across organizations. In recent conversations I have had with mentors and proteges I support through designing mentoring training with their organization, I continue to hear what an important learning process it is and "why didn't we start earlier"? Contact me to explore what mentoring might look like in your organization for 2016. Mentoring can also happen virtually and doesn't need to be face-to-fa e.

E-Learning - E-Learning can be a great tool for on-demand and self-paced learning, especially when your organization needs learning now, and in smaller batches. E-Learning is not just about PowerPoint and in fact can be very interactive This year we developed a Coaching and Mentoring E-Learning Program which is now being rolled out in health care. Contact me for more information on this training package.

Coaching - Bringing small groups together to explore topics related to strengths, styles, is another way to build capacity and foster learning (and relationships!) within organizations. Some of the projects i have been involved with in supporting this year around group coaching include design and development of new group coaching programs for leaders, and train-the-trainers for internal staff in group coaching skills.

What learning opportunities would you and your team benefit from this year?

Have a great Wednesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in the areas of team development, mentoring, coaching or even e-learning.