This year marked the fifth year of daily blog posts for me here at the Teams365 blog which is geared for professionals interested in leadership and teamwork issues. Writing regularly has become a large part of my professional routine.

There’s no doubt that you may not have caught all 365 of the daily posts this year. Here’s a high level overview of the monthly focus areas:
January - Kick off for 2018 – Read them here
February – Relationships, Trust and Connection – Read them here
March – Teams and Team Resources – Read them here
April – Styles in a Team, Productivity Tools – Read them here
May – Complexity, Productivity and Planning Tools – Read them there
June – Feedback and Performance Conversations – Read them here
July 2018 - Team Development in focus – Check out the July posts here
August 2018 – Gearing up for back to work - Read them here
September 2018 - Virtual Work, Things to do with your teams – Check out the posts 
October 2018 – Teamwork Skills in focus-  Read through October posts here
November 2018 – Turning our attention to year end with posts including 5 things to get in your calendar for 2019, right now!, Planning for Year End Activities for your Team, Bringing Projects to a close  – Read through November posts here
December 2018 – the start of the 19 Productivity Tips for 2019. Read through December posts here

These joined our regular series:
Monday – Effective Virtual Conversations Posts
Thursday – Team Building Tip Posts 
Weekend Journaling Prompts
And Friday Flashbacks

As I reflect back on the year that was, I am very thankful for the many milestones which included:

• The launch of two workbook and planners (Coaching Business Builder, and the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner) 
• The launch of both the Teams365 Leadership Lab and the Coaching Biz Growth Lab - two annual programs that joined the Learning Lab and Design Studio as year-long group coaching  and group learning programming options for professionals and their own virtual development.
• Training more than 300 coaches in the areas of Group and Team Coaching via the Group Coaching Essentials and Advanced Practicum programs. 
  
• Leading three sets of Virtual Learning Training for professionals to become more proficient and confident leading webinars, virtual coaching and virtual training and team development sessions via the five-week Virtual Facilitation Essentials (approved for 8.5 hours of CCEs).
  
• Supporting a wide variety of teams and leaders this year from health care, education, to financial services, to global leadership, in the areas of team effectiveness, virtual leadership
  
• Continued growth of readership here at the Teams365 blog. Page views most weeks surpassed 10,000 views a week.
  

I look forward to continuing the conversation with you in 2019!

Happy new year!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
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​As we wind down 2018, what a better way to start looking to the future than to ask ourselves to reflect on the question, “The Grand Adventure is….”
I invite you today to take some time to get creative with this prompt.
Do some dreaming.
Stretch.
Savor.
Continue enjoying this quieter time of year, and the time we have available to take stock, and spend doing the things we love with our loved ones.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Today’s Flashback Friday takes us back to December 2015 and my post entitled  “2016 Resolutions and Support To Make Them Happen”– you can read it here.

Here’s what I wrote:

"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 things 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?"


As we step into the new year of 2019, I hope that you’ll be able to incorporate some of these tips. What are your resolutions for the new year? What will help them stick?

Have a great day,
Jennifer

​216: A year from now, at the start of 2020, we will have ________________
As the final Team Building Tip of 2018, prompt #216 is “ A year from now, at the start of 2020, we will have ______”
For those that are working this week, my hope is that it’s a quieter week to get things in order and wind down projects for the year.
Here at the Teams365 blog we are wrapping up 5 years of daily blog posts. I’ve enjoyed bringing you Thursday Team Building Tips. 
 
Thanks for joining us for this journey.
Many of you have been enjoying the Team Sparker Cards so much that I am now offering the first 52 as a digital license. You can bring these into your team meetings, incorporate them into your next meeting slides, or use them at town halls. Click here to order a copy. You’ll receive the download link to the digital files which are housed in Dropbox.

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Coming December 14, 2018 – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner . Pre-order a copy today
Join us for a year-end virtual planning retreat!

​Today is Boxing Day here in Canada, and in the years before Black Friday also became common place in our shopping malls, Boxing Day was the day of the year to scoop up great savings. I was told as a child the reason for why it is called Boxing Day is because of the focus on filling the boxes with goodies for the end of the year. Regardless, for most of us, our attention is now turning to the end of the year and reflections on the year that was.
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In today’s post I wanted to provide you with several questions to support you with your year end planning. Today, we are going to start with taking a look back at the year that was, and in another few days we’ll look at planning for the year head. To get some inspiration (and leverage) I reached back and took a look at what I wrote a couple of years ago, on Boxing Day 2016. Read it here.  

Here are ten questions to support you in reflecting back on the last year:
1. What's been your biggest success this year?
2. What are you most proud of accomplishing? OR What were your greatest results?
3 What habits have most supported you this year?
4. What three adjectives sum up the year for you?
5. What were key relationships instrumental to your success and experience this year?
6. What has been your biggest, and most important, learning this year?
7. If you were to give this year a book title, what would it be?
8. What do you want to make sure you keep doing in the new year? What do you want to stop doing?
9. What do you want to acknowledge yourself for?
10. How and when will you celebrate the successes of 2018? With whom?
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Do make a point to take some time today to reflect AND WRITE these ideas down. If you have not created a journal for yourself for the new year, perhaps today is he day to grab a new book, or start a new file. As I wrote several weeks ago, there are many benefits of journaling, check them out here. 

Best,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now available– PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon

Season’s Greetings. Wishing you, and your loved ones, a wonderful holiday season!

Enjoy the day, however you are spending it!

Wishing you the best,
​Jennifer

For the last year and a half on Mondays I have included a weekly Effective Virtual Conversations Tip. Last July 2018, I published Effective Virtual Conversations, and it’s been well embraced around the world. Jammed with tips on making your virtual conversations more effective, and some resources around holding more effective virtual meetings, and leading virtual teams more effectively, EVC is a great bookshelf resource for those that are having most of their conversations in the virtual space.
 
Starting next week in 2019, I’ll be shifting my focus to PlanDoTrack Tips, to reflect my latest resource publication. Part workbook, part planner, it’s geared for virtual and remote team members, leaders and virtual businesses.

Best,
​Jennifer

It’s been a full year here at Potentials Realized. Two of the major projects I’ve been involved with are the two new workbook and planners I’ve created and launched. It’s interesting to think that at this time last year both were simply an idea in my mind, or a twinkle in my mind.

I’ve been fascinated with planners since I entered the workforce almost 3 decades ago. I love cracking open a new planning system. As I think back to what these planning systems have looked like over the years, it’s been varied. From my older days of a 20-pound Leather Bound Franklin Planner, to the days of my global travel with my handy Palm Pilot, to desk top planners, laptop and bullet journals. I’ve found that I need different types of planners with my business, beyond the every day scheduling. That’s where my two new workbooks and planners come in.
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They include:
Tools for Content Creation – Places to note blog posts and articles written, space for brainstorming, and also space for tracking results
Annual tools to capture projects each month, milestones over the year
Quarterly tools to keep goals top of mind and visual
Monthly tools to layout key tasks, goals, priorities and capture learning.
This fall you may have been following along on the Instagram series – Plan Do Track…check out some of the videos here

If you have been following along here at the Teams365 blog for a while, you will have seen some of the initial posts related to the 19 for 2019 Productivity Tips - keep following on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as we step into the new year!

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join us for a year-end virtual planning retreat!