Stepping into the final day of 2017 I want to say a big thank you. Thank you for joining me here at the Teams365 blog, and/or through our Potentials Realized program. It's been another abundant year of business and we couldn't do that without your support and/or referrals. I look forward to continuing the conversation as we step into our fifth year of the blog, and our next year of business.

As we look back to 2017, it's been another full year here at the Teams365 blog. As the fourth year of the blog comes to a close, I thought it would be fitting to take a look back at the range of different topics I covered. Most of these were inspired by real-time coaching, training and consulting work happening with teams. Which topics were most relevant for you and your team? Which ones were you able to put into practice?

​In addition to our weekly team building tips (Thursdays), Effective Virtual Conversations tips (Monday), weekend videos, and FlashbackFridaysHere's what we covered this year. I hope that you'll take a look back at them again:

​January -  Goal Setting, Team Development Activities. Read them here.
February - Collaboration, Building Virtual Relationships, Trust. Read them here.
March - Virtual Teams, Global Teams, Coaching and conversations. Read them here.
April - Teamwork Skills. Read these posts here.
May - Virtual Teams, Virtual Meetings, Virtual Teamwork. Read these posts here.
​June - One-on-ones. Read these posts here.
​July - Leadership Practices (Llistening, Mentoring, Questions, Delegation) - Read them here.
​August - Leadership Practices. Read them here.
September - Back to Work Routines, Habits, Peer Coaching. Read them here.
​October - the 20 Activities for Your Virtual and Remote Teams. Read them here.
​November - More 20 Activities for Your Virtual and Remote Teams. Read them here.
December - Year end reflections and the wrap up of the 20 Activities for Virtual and Remote teams. Read them here.

​I hope that you've enjoyed the blog posts as much as I have enjoyed sharing them this year. Stay tuned for the 2018 Kickstart Your Year - 8 Days of Posts around Planning and Reflection which will start tomorrow. We'll then launch back into posts around Goals, Trust, Teamwork, Leadership, Virtual Conversations and more. Enjoy!

​With best wishes,
​Jennifer

What's your plan for 2018? It's not too late to take a few minutes to make a note of your 2018 planning. For the last several years here at the Teams365 blog I have shared several questions to help you take stock of the year that was (see Teams365 #1458 on Thursday of this week for these questions), and questions to help you plan for the year ahead. Each time I add on a few more.

Here are some to get your juices, and plans, flowing:

• What are your top 5 goals for the new year – individually? Collectively?  Organizationally?
• What successes from 2017 can you build on?
  
• What is going to help you create momentum in the new year?
  
• Who can help you move your plans forward?
  
• What activities are core to the success of you and/or your team in 2018?
  
• What do you want the theme of the new 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 2018?
  
• 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, 2018 what do you hope the year will have brought to you?
  

For those that enjoy an audio version, check out the 2014 recording I did as part of the Inner Biz Virtual Retreat. You can listen in, and follow along, with this 10 minute recording. Enjoy!

Tomorrow I'll be taking a look back at some of the themes we covered this year at the Teams365 blog, and of course, on Monday we step into the new year! We'll start celebrating our 5th year of blogging here at the Teams365 blog. I can't wait. How about you?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

As part of the Flashback Friday series, where I take a look back at some of the almost 1500 past blog posts, I'm pulling out one of the first Teams365 #Flashback Friday posts from last December. I thought it would be appropriate given many of our focus this week on planning for the new year.

How are your plans coming? If you haven't seen yesterday's post, take a look at Teams365 #1458 - Questions to Take Stock of 2017, and stay tuned for Teams365 #1460 tomorrow when I share more than a dozen questions you can use to create, or refine, your 2018 plans.

Here's what I shared last December about planning and resolutions....take heed.

"Today's post includes some of the questions I posed to you last year at this time as you got to thinking about your new year's resolutions and how to be more successful with them.

Here's what I wrote last year in Teams365 #729 (view the original post here)

"What are your new year's resolutions? 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 goals 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?

What's it going to take for you to be successful in moving the most important goal of yours forward for the new year? Who can support you with this?"

Have a wonderful last weekend of the year,
Jennifer

With the first part of the holidays behind us, it's now time to turn our attention to the end of the year. One of my favorite part of my work as a coach is creating a "pause" with the leaders and professionals I work with, to take a look back at what they have accomplished, and take a look at the year ahead. Today's focus is going to take us to looking back at the past year, and later this week we'll focus on looking ahead.
I hope that you will grab 15 minutes today or this week to reflect on these questions to take stock of the past year.

Grab a pen, a journal and one of your favorite snacks; Here are several questions to support you in taking a look back at the last year:
1. What's been your biggest success this year?
2. What are you most proud of accomplishing?
3. What were your greatest results?
4. What habits have most supported you this year? What new habits did you develop?
5. What three adjectives sum up the year for you?
6. What were the key relationships instrumental to your success and experience this year?
7. What were the key resources which helped you this year?
8. What has been your biggest, and most important, learning this year?
8. If you were to give this year a book title, or the name of a song, what would it be?
9. What do you want to make sure you keep doing in the new year? What do you want to stop doing?
10. What do you want to acknowledge yourself for?
11. What and how will you celebrate the successes of 2017? With whom?

Stay tuned for some more questions coming your way on Saturday, to take a look ahead at what you want to create.

Enjoy your 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) and Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in getting your best results through coaching, training or a retreat program
​Looking for more cool things to do with your team? Check out our Potentials Realized store for books, emanuals, and the Conversation Sparker Cards.
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

 With the rise of virtual and remote teams, skill bases are changing. No longer do team leaders only need skills, all team members can benefit from enhanced skill sets in influence, decision making, prioritization etc. Given that team members in a virtual and remote team are usually more self-directed in daily operations, supporting team members with these three skills can be very important.

Prioritization – In a business context where it’s feasible to work 24/7 if you are connected into a global network, learning to prioritize means the difference between thriving or surviving. Does everyone on the team know what the priorities are – for you? For the team? For additional stakeholders they work with? For different matrix leaders and teams they interface with? One of the more common frameworks many of us return to time and time again is that of Steven Covey’s urgent/important matrix. Read about it here in this Business Insider article , or Teams365 #121 (https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams-365-121-what-is-your-priority-this-month)  for a very abridged version.

Relationship management – In my book, Effective Virtual Conversations, I remind people that “no person is an island”. The skills of relationship management and networking take on an even greater importance in the virtual space as work still continues to be done through others. What is the state of your virtual networks? Who do you connect with regularly? Who could you benefit from building more relationships with?

Going hand in hand with relationship management is the skill set of influence. When working remote and/or virtually we are constantly working through others we can only influence and likely have no line responsibility with. Check out Teams365 #495 about Emotional Intelligence and the skill of influence. Read it here: https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-498-emotional-intelligence-influence

Systematization and automation – learning to systematize and/or automate can also help in navigating the uncertainty and variability of today’s work place. Systematization involves developing systems which help you with efficiency and productivity. For example, if you work remote, what systems do you have in place to allow you to:

• Easily access main files and information you use. This could entail having files in the cloud, on a VPN or via an Intranet
• Seamlessly update file versions and editions you are working on
• Easily access your contact details – phone numbers and email addresses – which synch across appropriate devices

 
Automation can mean many different things to team members including:

• Distributing and updating meeting requests, agendas and notes
• Filing receipts
  

On a personal level, Livewire notes these 10 areas professionals can benefit from getting automated in. Read their July 2017 article here. What could use a tweak in your world?

As you consider your team focus in the upcoming year, what do you know about the skills which will be required?

Have a great Wednesday.
Jennifer

I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at some of lst  year's year-end posts. As we go to wrap up the end of the year, it's a great time to take a look back at a range of posts for teams and their leaders. Here's Teams365 #1092 - 10 things to do with your team in the new year - enjoy1
t Potentials Realized, one of our main focus areas is working with teams We work wtih teams of all kinds - project teams, intact teams, virtual teams as well as groups that are being called a team but are really a group.

Teams usually don't naturally excel - like most living things they benefit from some care and attention. Teams also benefit from structured time focused on helping them get to know each other, their roles, styles and strenghts.

This year we've had a variety of posts focusing on team development as well as virtual facilitation.

Here are links to 10 of my favorite posts on things you can do with your team - from questions to actual activities:

Strengths: Check out this recent post on working with strengths

E is for Exceptional: Check out this short video post I did as part of the Team Development Activity a - z series.

Strategic Issues Mapping - Going way back to year 1 of our daily blog posts, check out #Teams365 #85 on bringing strategic issues mapping into your work.

Working with Priorities - Take a look at #Teams365 #981 to explore different ways to work with your team around priorities.

Check out this 2015 Sunday audio post on three problem solving tools you could bring into your upcoming team work teams365-488-sunday-audio-3-problem-solving-tools.html

​Teams365 #1056: More Year End Team Building Activities, and a link to an earlier post on Team Building Prompts. One of our most popular 2016 posts. Read it here.

Teams365 #705: Creative Problem Solving - What' you'll need are some index cards, sharpie markers and a problem which needs solving. Click here to read.

Teams365 #554: Team Building - Project Close Out - Click here to read five key areas you will want to explore in undertake an end of project close out.

Teams365 #1064: Team Development Activity A - Z - B is for boundaries. Click here to review a quick activity to support the team in idenfiying what they want to, and need to focus on, and boundaries they want to create in their work. Click here to read more.

​What have been your favorite activities featured here? What other sources do you go to for ideas around team development?

​Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer

​

This is the one day of the year when things really do slow down. I hope that today you will be enjoying some rest, and good times with loved ones. Thank you for joining me throughout the year at the Teams365 blog here at Potentials Realized.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season!

​With best wishes,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations
Teams365 Blog - Potentials Realized
​(416)996-8326

On Friday I pulled together 17 of my favorite Thursday Team Building Tips and Questions.

For this week's Sunday Video I thought I'd pull some of them together in a short narrated video. As you listen and watch, what's the one question you want to note to ask your team next time you meet.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and next few days of holiday celebrations for those who are celebrating.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

It's Saturday and time for another weekend quote around leadership and teamwork. Today I'm pulling into a quote from one of the many books that have sat on a bookshelf of mine, but weren't touched for years. AS part of my year-end clean-up I've been going through and donating a number of books that I hope others will enjoy in their home.

​Today's quote comes from Kurt Lewin who wrote "People support what they create". The last decade has had a lot of focus on engagement of team members. An important strategy to get people involved is by providing space, and authority, to create. Think about your context right now and think about what initiatives are really supported and have full buy-in. My guess is that these initiatives at some level have been shaped, and created, by the team.

​As you move into the new year, what can you do to involve team members more in the creation of your products, services and processes?

​Have a great weekend and a great start to the holiday season,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

​You can grab a copy of my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, at Amazon. You can also purchase an autographed copy direct from our site

Looking to schedule some team development next year? Contact me to discuss whether the Everything DiSC or the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team as a starting point.

 (This week's Flashback Friday takes us back to the realm of 17 of the questions I covered in our Thursday Teams365 Team Building Questions. Every Thursday for the past few years I've posted a different team building question for you as a team to consider. I have had emails throughout the  year from team leaders who have indicated that they enjoy sharing these with their own team. So, if you haven't brought them into a team meeting yet, it's never too late!

Check out the images listed above for the original post link as several of them (not all) have additional links and content around them.

Here we go - 17 of my own personal favorite Team Sparker Questions and tips  from 2017:

What is the one thing that would accelerate our results? (Teams365 #1276)
Getting To Know Each Other: Where does our work intersect? (Teams365 #1234)
What will give us greater impact? (Teams365 #1402)
What are the three words we would use to describe ourselves?
Getting to Know Each Other: What's the one thing I should know about you? (Teams365 #1220)
Trust and Connection are essential to virtual team success. What are you doing to boost these right now? (Teams365 #1179)
It doesn't have to be death by conference call! (Teams365 #1325)
Create Connections Amongst Pairs
Matrix Manager Tips (Teams365 #1115)
What's Your Most important priority right now? (TEams365 #1171)
Presentation Tips (Teams365 #1276)
Getting To Know Each Other: What's on your desk right now?
What do we each bring that is unique?
What are we most proud of accomplishing? (Teams365 #1437)
What would make your meetings more efficient (Teams365 1423)
As a team, what are you really passionate about? (Teams365 #1143)


What questions do you want to bring forward to 2018 in sparking dialogue with your team?

Have a great holiday season,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

​You can grab a copy of my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, at Amazon. You can also purchase an autographed copy direct from our site

Looking to schedule some team development next year? Contact me to discuss whether the Everything DiSC or the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team as a starting point.