Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2462 - Weekly Journaling Prompt 118

9/26/2020

Welcome to another Saturday journaling prompt. This week’s prompt is the question “My focus is….”.

“The direction of your focus is the direction your life will move. Let yourself move toward what is good, valuable, strong and true.” – Ralph Marston

You may want to consider these questions this week as part of your journaling:

Where is your attention right now?
What are you focusing on?
What are you not paying attention to?
What’s the benefit of having such a strong focus?
What’s the downside to your focus?

Enjoy your reflections!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2461 – #FlashbackFriday Five Key Relationships for Professionals

9/25/2020

I thought that it would be interesting to reach back to what I had written five years ago here at the Teams365 blog – here’s the post from that day – Five Key Relationships – still as relevant (and maybe even more so in today’s virtual context”.

Whether you are back to work or starting a new role, relationships are key in today's business context. As team leaders, we navigate a wide network for relationships, which you may need to call on at any given time. Five key relationships for team leaders to be aware of are:

1. Your team - What is the strength of these relationships right now? What conversations are important to have? What does your team rely on you for? What do you need from them? What preferences to do they have in terms of support, communication, connection etc.?

2. Your boss - When was your last quality meeting with your boss? What support do they need from you? What support do you need from them? What are their priorities this month/quarter? How can you help them be even more successful?

3. Your customers, client’s other key stakeholders are also key players in your network. What conversations and touch points do you have planned or want to have?

4, Key project relationships - Consider other key relationships you have. What requires attention? Where can you lean into for support?

5. Your peers - As team leaders we also benefit tremendously from fostering a network of peers around us. Is it time to connect with some specific people within your network? What could you share about your current successes that would help others? What do you need from them?

To wrap up with one of my favorite business authors on the topic of relationships, here's what Keith Ferrazzi says:

“Connecting. It’s a constant process of giving and receiving—of asking for and offering help. By putting people in contact with one another, by giving your time and expertise and sharing them freely, the pie gets bigger for everyone. This karma-tinged vision of how things work may sound naïve to those who have grown cynical of the business world. But while the power of generosity is not yet fully appreciated, or applied, in the halls of corporate America, its value in the world of networks is proven.”
― Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

Enjoy your weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2460 – Team Building Tip 264

9/24/2020

Last winter I published a white paper entitled the “Remote Working Whitepaper”. It’s been downloaded hundreds of times that I can track. You can pick up a copy here.

In it, I share what I term the 7 C’s or Remote Enablers to Work. The first one is expectations – what are the agreements you are creating as a team? This might include:

Quality of work.
Communication – how much, in what channels, how regularly?
How often you meet.
The process and structure of how you meet.
What is applicable and appropriate to raise at meetings, and what should be funneled elsewhere?

Clarity around expectations creates alignment around goals. What are the conversations you want to have?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2459 - Collaborating Virtually

9/23/2020

Virtual Collaboration is a core topic for all types of remote professionals. Whether we have to build something within our team, or expand our network, it’s key to build capacity to collaborate across distance and time. I address this topic in Chapter 12 of Effective Virtual Conversations. In a very practical way, you will want to consider the following areas for exploration:

#1 – Why are we collaborating? Many writers assert that it’s important not to collaborate just to collaborate. In fact, it’s key that we are clear on why we are collaborating. Is it because our skills are better when we fuse them together? It is because we bring a different insight into a core topic? Be clear on why you are collaborating.

#2 – What’s your core stance and common ground around the topic? What is the common stance you hold around the topic? Perhaps you are both passionate about educating around a topic. Perhaps you want to create a new approach to looking at an issue. Being clear on where you both align, and where you are different, is important.

#3 – What’s different between your work? Consider where your work is not only the same, but complimentary. Partnerships can get weakened if both partners are too similar. Consider exploring not only what’s the same, but also what’s different.

#4 – Consider what your end result is. Results in the remote space need to be specific? Clear? Focused? What are your end results? What are you looking to achieve?

#5 – Provide feedback. Feedback is critical to any partnership and collaborative experience. Be clear on what’s working. What’s not. What changes are needed and how things can proceed.

How often are you meeting? What type of feedback are you both providing and receiving?

Collaboration will continue to be a “pain point” for many professionals. What’s going to help your partnerships flourish in the remote space?

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2458 – 5 Tips to Better Video Meetings

9/22/2020

#1 – Start with the end in mind. As Stephen Covey wrote years ago “start with the end in mind”. Being clear on what you want people to LEAVE the meeting with, is core to identifying topics which need to be covered, what those topics will focus on, as well as what’s critical for success.

#2 – Have shared agreements about being on-camera and using (or not using) mute. There are several different types of meetings we may host and being clear on what the level of interaction is, is key. Because one Zoom room (or Teams room) looks like another, clarify what people can expect.

#3 – Consider activating video backgrounds. If people’s systems are fast enough, consider the video backgrounds which will work to block out extraneous backgrounds. While green screens can ensure that the background doesn’t make you lose your fingers, or that the glasses on the top of your head don’t fade out, you can also get small portable green screens which fit on the back of your chair.

#4 – Use all the tools available. If you have to determine the focus of your conversation, consider how a poll or annotation might support you. If you have a large group, use breakouts to move into smaller discussion pods.

#5 – Track agreements as you go. Whether one person acts as a rapporteur (note taker) OR you capture things on the screen, capture agreements as you go. Note also that there are now several apps which integrate into the virtual space for transcription – such as the Otter.ai integration with Zoom and other elements.

Finally, as a bonus, consider your lighting. Being able to be seen automatically builds trust. Make sure that your lighting source is in front of you – windows work well.

What is going to help your next video meeting stand out?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2457 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 168: Follow Up

9/21/2020

It’s Monday and time for another Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s tip is about follow-up. While virtual learning is often seen as a one-off event, reinforcing the learning with follow-up can support integration of knowledge to become learning.

Follow-up in the virtual space can take many forms including:

Focus
Framing
Exponential growth

Are you taking the time to follow up? How has this impacted your learning?

All the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2456 – Sunday in Review

9/20/2020

This week’s blog posts have explored:

Have a great weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2455 – Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt 117

9/19/2020

This week’s Thursday Team Building Tip got you to explore the question “What’s getting in the way”. Today’s Weekly Journaling Prompt is all about the question “Another way to look at this is….”.

Reframing and shifting perspectives are key to success in turbulent and ever-changing environments.

Consider your biggest challenge right now – What’s another way to look at it?
To get inspiration around different ways to work with perspectives, consider adopting a methodology like DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats. You can read more about this process here.

What’s possible by shifting your perspective?

Enjoy your reflections!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2454 – Flashback Friday #1577 – Rapid Change and Teams

9/18/2020

I thought it would be fitting to reach back to a post I had written several years ago about how teams can respond to rapid change, given that this has been the theme for 2020. Here’s what I wrote back in Teams365 1577:

Change is everywhere in many industries and our ability to stay grounded in order to make decisions is key. Today's Thursday team building question get you to think about the question "What is going to help you be successful within a context of rapid change"?

Teams explore different approaches to rapid change including:
Embracing ongoing learning - in a context of rapid change ongoing learning becomes critical. Figuring out what "good enough" looks like rather than mastery may be an important mindset shift if this is possible in your work.

Becoming more curious - When change is ongoing the context may be changing and what we "know to be true" may also be changing. Being curious and open become key skills to foster.

Shortening cycles - Think about what needs to happen in terms of communication and feedback cycles as things speed up. What about work cycles? If you are now seeing change every quarter, rather than once a year, what implications does that have for how you share information, provide feedback and change processes.

Simplify - Process is key in rapid change, AND older ways of working and processes may be cumbersome. Is it time to simplify different processes? Is it time to simplify other components. What does simplify mean for you as a team?

Empower - Empowering your team and providing them with the responsibility and authority to do certain tasks is likely to be critical. Everyone's eyes and talents may be required. Helping the team bring their best skills and use them is also key to success.

Create peer sharing opportunities- Going hand in hand with empowerment is making sure that you build in opportunities for peer sharing. Whether it is formal job shadowing and mentoring or peer partners who meet informally throughout the month, part of rapid change often means a reduction of the silos and barriers which can exist in teams and in our work.

What changes are needed for you as a team in becoming more fluid in light of rapid change?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2453 – Team Building Tip #263

9/17/2020

This week’s Team Building Question is “what’s getting in the way?”. Success in today’s business context is about ongoing evaluation of what’s working and what’s not. What worked this time last year may not be the thing that works right now.

As you consider the question “What’s getting in the way?” consider what this might be as it relates to process, teamwork, communication, meetings, projects etc.

Taking a hard look regularly at what works, and what doesn’t will help you as a team keep moving and adapting.

As an old mentor of mine once said “In times of disruption, there can be no sacred cows”. This was a mantra I led by for many years, being involved in post-disaster rehabilitation and regrowth along with many other key programming areas including educational reform and environmental initiatives.

What’s getting in the way of your success right now?
What are the roadblocks you are facing?

What can help you get over (or around those roadblocks)?

What resources do you need – people? Technology? Change of process? New information? Different skills or expertise?

What’s needed to make a change?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326