Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

#teams365 #3095 Week in Review

6/26/2022

This week we took a look at a wide-variety of core areas for teams and leaders today – if you missed any of them, let’s look back:

Monday: Empathy and Building Trust in Teams – Hybrid Style
Tuesday: Start of Summer (or Winter) Planning
Wednesday: Remote Pathways, Routines and Rhythm
Thursday: Team Building Tip: Something you should know about my work is...
Friday: Flashback Friday – Teamwork in Uncertainty – Comfort in the Unknown
Saturday: Weekly Journaling Prompt – What values anchor my world?

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3094 Weekly Journaling Prompt – What values anchor my world?

6/25/2022

Yesterday we explored Teamwork In Uncertainty and what is important when working in the unknown. One of these areas is values. To deepen that understanding, today’s blog post gets you to reflect on the Weekly Journaling Prompt of “What values anchor my world?”.
Enjoy the reflection!

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3093 Flashback Friday – Teamwork in Uncertainty – Comfort in the Unknown

6/24/2022

While many elements are more stable than they were a year ago, teamwork in itself can be an ongoing adventure. I thought it would be valuable to take a look at #TEAMS365 #1969 – Teamwork in Uncertainty – Comfort With The Unknown - POTENTIALS REALIZED
Today’s blog post gets us thinking about values. Values serve as anchors or a compass, leading the way or anchoring us when we need to make decisions, prioritize and focus.

In an uncertain context, being clear about our behaviors as a team is critical. As we go to explore our values, we may first want to consider what our values are individually. To do this, we might explore the following questions:

What is important to me?
What are the things I will take a stand for?
What’s absolutely essential to have in my work/life?
What makes me angry/happy/at ease?

All of these questions will usually point to a value which is important.

Underneath the words of a value are the behaviors. What do the values look like in action? If I were to take my phone into the workplace and record behaviors, what would I see?

As a team, and especially a remote team, having a focus on values can help during periods of uncertainty. Even though the context may change, hopefully our values are not changing in the arena.

As a team, this week consider what your top 3 operating values are this year. What are you committed to, no matter what? Behaviorally, what do these values look like in action?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3092 Team Building Tip: Something you should know about my work is…

6/23/2022

It is Thursday and time for another team building tip - #11 in the series. This week take some time to discuss the question "Something you should know about my work is....".

Many teams are not aware of what each other does. Taking time to strengthen knowledge and information in these areas whelps to clarify roles, see overlap and share information about priorities.

What other questions would be useful to have some discussion around?

Take a look at other Getting to Know our Team questions here.

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3091 Remote Pathways, Routines and Rhythms

6/22/2022

As part of our shift into the summer season I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at some of the many posts I’ve written in this 3100 adventure! Here’s a post from last year which will be of interest to those who are considering their hybrid work rhythms and practices. This post was originally published as: Routine Check – Remote Working Rhythms - PlanDoTrack
My Remote Pathways podcast co-host (link to RemotePathways.com/podcast) has a great phrase – Remote working rhythms – which I had to borrow for this week’s blog post. This week we pause to check in around your routines with remote work. What are the routines you have established in your work?
Questions to consider:

Do you start work every day at a consistent time?
End work at a consistent time?
Get out (outside or out of the office) to fit some workouts or exercises?
What do you do to expand your remote work rhythms?
Possible remote working routines you could undertake:
Having a fixed start and end time
Participating in a regular co-working session with other professionals (similar to what I did with the 21 for 21 Virtual Co-working Sprints. Returning again in Q2.
Tackling certain tasks at a specific time or day
Earmarking a specific window for a certain task

Routines are important as they start to build out habits. As I have shared in past posts, habits can become automatic in terms of acting like a switch to get things done.
What are the routines or habits you want to undertake?

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3090 Start of Summer (or Winter) Planning

6/21/2022

It’s the summer solstice for us here in Canada and I always like to earmark this day as an opportunity to do take a pause and do some planning, as well as aspiration setting. Take a look at what I shared a few years ago on this same day:
Today marks the official start of summer. With a new season kicking into gear, it's a great time to take a pause to think about your programming for the next quarter, as well as consider some special project work.

Here are some questions you may want to think about as you step into summer:

1. The greatest opportunity facing me right now is....
2. The greatest opportunity facing the team right now is...
3. By the end of summer I/we will have accomplished....
4. The one habit I want to cultivate is...
5. The one task/thing I need to say no to it...
6. Consistent action around _______ (fill in the blank) will lead to ______ this summer.
7. Lessons learned i can apply going forward are.....

What projects are you going to take on board this summer? Some possible project ideas for team leaders could include:

Holding more regular one-on-ones with team members
Working on that special project that you have flagged, but haven't taken action on
Reviewing roles with the team to see what is working, and what needs a tweak
Considering what reporting mechanisms are going to support better goal setting - for example - a one page plan
Creating a guide/playbook in your area of expertise (ie. on-boarding, project management, meeting management)

Take a few minutes to make a list of the different special projects you might consider focusing on this summer.

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3089 Empathy and Building Trust in Teams – Hybrid Style

6/20/2022

Team trust is still a core issue for teams today, as is boosting the skill of empathy. This is particularly important as we explore things in the hybrid space. I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at #Teams365 #1533: Empathy and Building Connection in Virtual Teams
Where we explored the topic of empathy and building connection
One of the skills which is important to develop in the virtual world today is empathy. One of the challenges is that we don't get to see beyond the screen. What are some ways we can be building more empathy and understanding with other virtual team members?

What comes to mind in terms of ways you can boost more connection and understanding amongst team members?

Empathy is a skill set critical for teamwork and leadership. In fact I probably coud do a series of post on this topic. In today's post I want to zoom into the question of "what are some practical ways to build more empathy across virtual teams, while also boosting connection".

There have been some great writings by others on the topic of empathy. Consider these articles - Empathy in Leadership - 10 Reasons Why It Matters by Tanveer Naseer. Read it here.
Matthew Taylor's Empathy in Leadership: Coaching Leaders to Manage Their Stories. Read it here.
Center for Creative Leadership: Empathy in the Workplace. Find this here.

As virtual teams, what are some ways we can build our skills in empathy while building connection:

1. Provide opportunities for team members to get to know each other - online and offline. While some virtual teams will never meet, building in time for "getting to know" each other is critical. This could entail dedicating some time to sharing "What's outside your window" or"on your desk" as I describe in Chapter 7 of my new book Effective Virtual Conversations.

2. Create formal learning partnerships with others on the team. Many virtual teams benefit from having peer partners to meet with on a regular basis. This helps us to learn more about each other, what projects we are working on. As we listen and learn more trust, connection and understanding is created.

3. Be present, and listen. We continue to see how important the ability to focus on virtual conversations is. Nothing will destroy trust and connection faster than hearing other person on the end of the phone or streaming typing away -doing an email while you are speaking together. What will it take to be present, focus, and deeply listen in your virtual conversations?

4. Listen for the deeper layers - typically in listening we may be staying at the surface. Hearing with one ear, and thinking about what we are going to say back to the other person. In the deeper listening needed by virtual teams today, listen to what the person is saying. Notice the pace, pitch of the conversation. Notice what is the emotion behind the words? What is being said?

5. Take time to share more about your world, your work, your priorities. An important part of empathy is understanding. It's a two way street - being open to share, and being receptive to listening. how much are you sharing about your world, your work and your priorities?

There are multiple ways be can be focusing on the skills of empathy as we build connection on teams. What are some approaches you as a team want to focus on?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3088 Week in Review

6/19/2022

What are the key elements which are going to help you do your best work? That was one of our themes this week. Be sure to take a look at some of the core areas we explored including Tuesday’s post which reached back to the PlanDoTrack blog and six core areas for productivity. This week we also reached back to other posts around Emotional Intelligence.
Be sure to take a look at this week’s posts:

Monday: Focus Areas For Hybrid Productivity
Tuesday: Brain Tip - Emotional Contagion
Wednesday: IN Focus: Emotional Intelligence - Relationship Building
Thursday: Relationship Management in Focus, Again and Informal Learning Approaches
Friday: Influence in Focus: Relationship Management
Saturday: Weekly Journaling Prompt - What’s Exceptional?

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3087 Weekly Journaling Prompt – What’s Exceptional?

6/18/2022

Earlier this week I shared a 2021 PlanDoTrack blog post entitled Setting the Stage For Exceptional Virtual and Remote Results in 2021 – 5 things to Do

What does exceptional mean for you?
How does it show up in your work? In your approaches?
What’s important about exceptional work?

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3086 Influence in Focus: Relationship Management

6/17/2022

Over the past few days we have been exploring the Emotional Intelligence focus on Relationship Management, and the competency of Developing Others.

Today, I wanted to turn my attention to the skill of influence. Influence is a key skill set for team leaders given your liaison role between your team and your own leader. Future posts will focus on the skill of managing up, and influencing your boss.

Key considerations with the skill of influence include :

Being a great listener and knowing what is important to others (team members, stakeholders, your boss, etc)
Knowing your people and their preferences
Being sensitive to others' "What's In It for Me" (WIIFM)
Skills in tactful communication - being able to diplomatically and sensitively communicate alternative points of view.
The ability to build trust and rapport quickly. Without this foundation of trust, the skill of influence is moot.
Understanding political currents and the nuances of groups/teams/organizations

What else do you see as key with respect to the skill of influence?

Activity:
Where is the skill of influence important to you?
As you reflect on some of the items above, how strong are you in each of these? Which ones could use further development?

As we consider the Triad of Trust, Safety and Connection in Reconnecting Workspaces (link to Amazon) notice that they are surrounded by Respect and Influence. Influence is a critical skillset for the hybrid workspace as we are needing to work through others for success. What are you doing to consider this area in your work, and relationships right now?

Enjoy the conversation.
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.