During this final week of 2015 most posts here at the blog have focused on winddown of 2015 and looking forward into 2016.
Monday we looked at Prepping for the Year Ahead
Tuesday focused on 2015 Themes we have covered here at the Teams365 blog
Wednesday focused on Setting your 2016 Intentions and 4 ways to be more successful with them

In our final post of 2015 I wanted to take a moment to say thanks for a wonderful year. In fact, it was our best year of business to date, which is a lot to say when you are moving into your 12th year of business, in an economic climate which has had a lot of ups and downs.

I've had the chance to work with some incredible leaders around the world this year through the individual executive (team leader) coaching I do. I also was privileged to work with more than 130 leaders in health care this year through the design and development of a two day Coaching and Mentoring Skills Training program. What I loved about that project was how the conversations continue on, across different parts of the organization, months after the training. Thank you to all of these wonderful leaders!

Thanks to all of you who read and interact here at the blog. I love receiving emails from new, aspiring and seasoned leaders who write to tell me how they have put these ideas into practice. I look forward to your continued feedback and utilization!

I look forward to continuing to be in service to all of you as team leaders. Whether we connect through this blog, or I get a chance to work with you and/or your team, I look forward to helping you make 2016 a incredible year!

Have a great last day of 2015, wonderful celebrations with loved ones tonight and a great start to the new year!

Best
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Join us in January for a Teams365 Coaching Group
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365

Earlier this week, on Monday, my post provided you with several questions to start thinking about your 2015 accomplishments and your vision for 2016. If you haven't taken some time to do that yet, click on over and read that post.

As you have been thinking about your 2016 plans, I'm sure a few new resolutions have cropped up. Some common ones I've heard from team leaders in recent years have included:

* Spending more one-on-one time with team members
* Making meetings more efficient
* Getting a handle on email management and/or other office organizing issues
* Creating more defined boundaries with time on and time off of work
* Creating more defined boundaries around technology
*Becoming more efficient with time
* Getting more exercise (especially at lunch time to create  a break and thinking time!)

What are your new year's resolutions? Take a look at the statistics around new years resolutions which StatisticsBrain.com have shared here.

They note that 45% of American adults create new years resolutions with 8% being successful. That's a pretty low percentage. I've recently had dialogue with a number of team leaders I coach and support around thinkgs they may want to do to raise that amount and be more successful.

Here are four things you might want to consider in making your resolutions stick into 2016:

1. Be clear in articulating them. The StatisticsBrain.com article  notes that those who are explicit in making new years resolutions are 10x more successful in achieving their goal.

2. Write them down and make them visible. Many of us, myself included, set resolutions but don't make them visible. Post its, or a reminder on your phone can help to
What will help keep your goals visible?

3. Share them and create some accountability partners around them - Share your goals with others and create some accountability partners who can cheer you on, or hold your feet to the fire (whatever is needed by you in that moment!). We know from lots of studies how important having an accountability partner really is
Who do you want to share your resolutions with? Who can be a support or accountability partner to you?

4. Be selective in the number of resolutions you choose. It's very easy to create a long laundry list of things you want to do AND the more we add to the list, the harder it may be to remember, or the more diffuse our efforts become. You may have one or two major goals in different areas of your life, OR a small handful across areas (such as finances, relationships, career/business, family, health etc)
Ultimately, what are the resolutions you want to focus on?

I hope that you enjoy your planning and envisioning success for 2016? Any resolutions you want to share here?

Have a great day,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Join us in January for a Teams365 Coaching Group
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

As we move to the close of a second year of daily blogging here at the Teams365 blog, it's an opportune time to reflect on the various topics and theme areas we've explored. More than 700 posts creates a solid foundation for team leaders to tap into and I'm excited that we will be continuing to expand our offerings for Team Leaders in 2016 beyond our current Teams365 Coaching Groups, customized in person programs, and virtual learning events! Stay tuned.

This year some of the most popular posts focused on:
Coaching Skills Training for Team Leaders
Our weekly Team Building Tips (with more than 60 published on Thursdays this column will continue into 2016)
The Six Leadership Questions a day series which offers up six questions for you,and your team, to reflect on and/or be in dialogue around. I've covered topics including onboarding, rewards and recognition, motivation etc\
Posts of virtual team leadership issues
Global Team Leadership issues
Tips for Virtual Facilitation

and many, many more.

I'd love to hear from you regarding what columns and topic areas you have enjoyed in 2015 and what you'd like to see covered in 2016. Please comment below or drop me an email!

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Join us in January for a Teams365 Coaching Group
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365

 
This week can be much quieter in the business world, whether we are working at work, or checking in from home. As we look towards the end of the year and the start of the new year, consider these questions:

• What are your top 5 goals for the new year – individually? Collectively?  Organizationally?
  
• What is going to help you create momentum in the new year?
• What activities are core to the success of your team in 2016?
• What do you want the theme of the year to be?
• What systems will be important for you to put in place or refine?
• What will help accelerate results?
• What will be key relationships to foster or focus on in 2016?
• What pauses do you want to build in for reflection and capturing lessons learned. Schedule these in your calendar now!   `
• When you look back on December 31, 2016 what do you hope the year will have brought to you?
  

I hope that this week you'll be able to find a few minutes to find time to create your vision for 2016, and reflect on your 2015 successes and lessons learned. If you haven't done so, you can listen into a ten minute audio I've posted on vision which is part of the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Business Planning Retreat. You can access it here - scroll down until you see the preview for the Vision Audio. Enjoy!

Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Join us in January for a Teams365 Coaching Group
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
 
2016 habits…

As we look towards the new year, it is a time when many of us set intentions and new goals. One area that many get stuck in is how to move forward with those really big projects that have the tendency to bog us down or overwhelm us.

Today's  quote comes from Mark Twain who wrote:
"The Secret of getting ahead is getting start3ed. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then start on the first one"

What do you want to get started with?

Have a great Sunday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Authorized Everything DiSC partner and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team
Email: info(at) potentialsrealized (dot) com
(416)996-8326

A reminder today of a great quote from Katzenbach and Smith and their book, The Wisdom of Teams.

What is the intensive collaborative work that has drawn your team together this year?

Enjoy your Boxing Day!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized - Developing Team Leaders One Conversation At A Time(TM)
Check out the January 2016 Teams365 Coaching Group due to start on January 15th.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365

AS many of us celebrate Christmas today a warm Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! I hope that you are enjoying the warmth, magic and spirit of the season. For those that celebrate other holidays I hope that too you will enjoy this one slower day of the year

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Teams365
Follow us on Twitter @teams365

The holidays is a time of relationships and community. Highly effective teams are  not only focused on their goals and performance, but they have strong relationships too.

As we post the last Team Building Tip of 2015 think about your team relationships this year. What does it mean to have each others' backs? What activities, behaviors and practices do you have so that everyone feels supported?

Enjoy this time as we all wind down for  a few days!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Email: info(at) potentialsrealized (dot) com
(416)996-8326
Follow at our new Twitter page @teams365

andAt this time of year Top 10 Lists become very popular. While it's not scientifically, or statistically, validated, here is a synthesis of the top 10 leadership learnings I have heard team leaders mention this year in the thousands of hours of training, coaching and facilitation work I have done since January.

These are in no order but key activities I have heard this year for team leaders to undertake are:
Team meetings (effective ones that are usually more concise and action oriented!)
One-on-one time with team members
Special committee time
Regular performance feedback (positive and constructive)
Reporting
Mentoring others (formally and informally - within and outside of the team)
Coaching Team members
Personal and professional development so they can be at their best
Conflict resolution
Budgeting
Collaborating with other teams
and time with boss and stakeholders
(and of course... more meetings!)

So it's a little more than 10 AND we all know how a team leaders role is never always within nice neat boundaries.

What activities would you put in your top 10 list of key activities from 2015? Which ones gave you the most impact this year? Which ones would you like to do more of in 2016? Less of?

Enjoy these next few days of quieter time!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365\
(416)996-8326

What esel

AS team leaders our continued growth and development can be critical for success and it is often the one thing that gets pushed to the bottom of the list. There are a variety of strategies we can utilize to develop ourselves including both formal and informal learning opportunities:

Coaching – Coaching not only supports you in moving towards your goals and developing awareness, it can provide an important accountability framework. Working with an individual or group coach to support you in your development around awareness, leadership style or presentation confidence. Email me to set up a complimentary coaching conversation. In addition to individual coaching for team leaders, and team coaching for the entire team, wE offer the Teams365 Coaching Groups which meet virtually and provide the benefit of peer learning and collaboration. Click here to learn more about our winter 2016 Teams365 Coaching Groups.

Training –Explore the formal training opportunities which are open internally such as Leadership Academies, or training programs. You may also want to consider informal learning opportunities which exist within your organization such as Lunch and Learns.

MOOCs –Massive open enrollment online courses – Coursera offers a number of great individual courses and even certificate programs including: Inspirational Leadership, Positive Psychology, Introduction to Project Management. Most issue a certificate and some even offer credits for continuing education.

Online coursers from other providers – Local and virtual programs are frequently offered to the public such as our Virtual Facilitation Skills Training which will be offered again starting on February 4th or our team leadership program foundations.

Other development opportunities may be from:
Job rotation –moving to another team or project development
Managing Special projects
Mentoring –being formally mentored by someone else in the organization or your industry

As you think about 2016, what activities do you want to undertake for your own professional development? What skills do you want to develop? What experiences do you want to leave room for?

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
(416)996-8326
TWitter: @Teams365