Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2406 – July in Review and August Planning

8/1/2020

It’s the beginning of August which means that it’s time to stop and take a pause to check in around your plans and goals.

How did July go? What progress are you making on your Q3 goals? What’s your focus going to be this month?

What did you notice about your metrics last month?

My hope is that today you will take a few minutes to stop and pause and do some planning for the month of August and beyond, while also taking some time to reflect on July.

It’s been 2 years since I launched the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, and about 18 months since PlanDoTrack was released. Since that time, many of you have gone through one planner, moved to the other. Did you know that this spring I also made the planners available at our site for digital download? While they are intended for analog use (ie. hardcopy) you can now order a digital copy and print it off for personal use.

Pick up a copy of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner (for virtual and remote professionals) here at our Potentials Realized site here.

Pick up a copy of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner for coaches at our Potentials Realized site here.

If you have a copy of either one of these, you will want to explore:
#1 – The Month in Review
#2 – The Monthly Daily Trackers
#3 – One Line a Day

And for now, here are some reflection and planning questions (I’ve gone back to July 2019’s post for these!):

Looking back to the month of July:

What are you pleased with achieving?
What didn’t get completed but is going to be carried forward?
What strengths did you leverage this month?
What got in the way of your plans/achievements?
What helped to MAGNIFY or AMPLIFY things?
What helped you FOCUS?
What helped you SIMPLIFY?
What else is important to note about your month? (metrics, lessons learned, other…)
What did you do to renew?
What habits did you lean into?

Looking ahead to the month ahead:

What are your major goals?
What do you want to focus on?
What do you want to let go of?
What will help you simplify?
What will help you MAGNIFY or AMPLIFY?
What habits do you want to focus on?
What relationships do you want to pay attention to?
What actions/projects do you want to complete, not matter what?
What else is important to note?

Enjoy your planning!
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 #2403 – Stand Out Remotely

7/29/2020

One of the many challenges faced at the moment is standing out remotely. With back-to-back virtual meetings becoming the norm, one call can blend into another. Note, if you haven’t read yesterday’s Back to The Basics call on the Energy of the Call, check it out.

At the same time, many professionals are concerned that they are not as visible in the virtual space as they are in a face to face environment. This translates to concern around their visibility for career progression, taking on special projects etc.

Several things you will want to consider:

#1 – What does “standing out remotely” mean for you ? What’s important about this? Do you want to stand out more so that your message is remembered – which may mean more about presentation techniques? OR is it standing out as a professional? And perhaps someone who is known for great virtual calls which whiz by and are remembered. What’s your WHY around this?

#2 – Our personal brand can get translated through the screen through our slides, images, our background and also what we are wearing. What are the brand elements you want to keep in mind?

#3 – Be proactive. This might mean getting into the rhythm of connecting regularly with others. It might mean getting a mentor. It might mean focusing in on getting active in a professional association. What do you want to be known for?

Standing out remotely means many different things. I’ll be focusing more on the topic in August as it relates to leading more engaging and memorable virtual calls. Are you ready to Stand Out? Check out my 5 Day Challenge – Standing Out Virtually at (insert)

Have a great week and hope you will join us next week.

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

TEAMS365 #2385 – Weekly Journaling Prompt 108: TRACK

7/11/2020

This week’s Weekly Journaling Prompt is #108 in the series. The prompt is TRACK – What I notice is…

As some of you may know, my 2019 planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals is PlanDoTrack. As along time program manger and also entrepreneur, I’ve been fascinated by the importance of tracking metrics and results.

Tracking can be a key part of busines success, especially when things are not always clear. In fact, one of my favorite busines activities are the virtual planning sessions I host, as well as the VIP working sessions. Usually we get clear on the different areas people want to track in their work and/or marketing. Here’s a quick list of things you may want to track with different hats on –

For those that are entrepreneurs:

Revenue
Sales
New contacts
Social media numbers
Speaking engagements or presentation
What else?

As a remote worker you may want to track things like:

Time spent on projects
Time spent on emails
Time spent on administrative tasks (reporting, filing)
Time spent in networking
Time spent connecting with peers
Time spent learning
Best time to work on projects
Focused elements
What are the things that are going to help you as a remote worker?

As a leader you might track:

One on ones
Time spent in meetings
Time spent on administrative tasks
Time spent learning
What else?

You can pick up a digital copy of the first 52 of them over at the Potentials Realized Store. Take a look at them here at the website and pick up an immediate download.

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

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAMS365 #2375 –Mid Year Stock Taking: Happy Canada Day and Kicking off a New Month and the 2nd Half of the Year

7/1/2020

Welcome back and first of all, Happy Canada Day to other fellow Canadians. I hope that you are enjoying a day of rest and relaxation and maybe some good BBQ and sunshine.

As we kick off a new month, what’s important for you to keep an eye on?

What are your top 3-5 goals?

What are the most important habits and routines to consistently undertake?

Like we’ve done in past months, what do you want to ensure you focus on?

Once you are done that, earmark some time to focus in on your mid-year review.

Here are a number of questions to take stock of the first half of the year, and look ahead to July, as well as the second part of the year:

What have your successes been?
Who have you been working with?
I have PIVOTED BY…
Where has your focus been?
What have you taken a stand for?
What have you become known for?
Which goals are becoming new habits, or something you can check off?
What do you notice about your metrics?
Which goals need to be adjusted or let go of?
The thing that helped me be most successful this year has been __________
The thing that has helped me be happiest this year has been __________
What has helped me be most healthy has been __________
What I have noticed about my work/productivity/results and/or relationships is __________
What’s your focus for the rest of the year?
Looking ahead to the next six months, my top 3 – 5 priorities are:
My theme for the rest of the year is…
Success at the end of the end of the year includes:
I also need to think about __________

Aristotle wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do”. What are the habits and routines which shape your world?

Planning Support with Your Business
Looking for a mid-year Virtual Work Planning session for yourself or your business? Check out the half day, one day and multi-day VIP working day sessions. You can find out more here.

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

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAMS365 #2359 Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 150

6/15/2020

Welcome back to Teams365 #150 – TRACK IT!

As many have seen in recent months, digital retention is different than analog retention. What we remember about what’s on the screen, may be very different than what we remember from what we write down. Noticing patterns and seeing trends is also really important in today’s world of disruption and change. Our memory does not always remember things as they are.

With that in mind, today’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip (which is #150 in the series – where has time gone!?), is all about TRACK IT!

Questions to consider as you think about TRACKING:

What are the things you are tracking in your work?
What are the tools and systems you are using to track things? Are you using a tracker? A dashboard or other?
What are the elements which would be useful to track as an individual? On your team?

One of the tools I use consistently as a professional are the trackers I developed for my two workbook planners – PlanDoTrack (for virtual and remote professionals) and Coaching Business Builder (for coaches wanting to grow their businesses).

If you take a look at Section 5 check out these different trackers:

The 31 Day Challenge: Really useful if you are tracking 31 days of consistent action
The Monthly Content Journal: I usually use two of these each month. One to capture key activities from each day (looking back now in mid-June 2020 and having done this since January, I can see that in fact I have accomplished A LOT!). The second one I use to capture any new ideas I have during the day. This can include ideas around blog posts, program ideas, marketing and things to do with teams. What do you want to track?
Daily Tracker Around Categories: The final type of tracker you might want to consider is a daily tracker, like the multicolored one you see in the graphic. This is useful for tracking activities and tasks. Maybe you have a goal of writing every day, or marketing, or outreach. Each one of these could have be tracked on a daily basis.

What do you want to track?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2315 –Weekly Journaling Prompt #97 – Systems Check

5/2/2020

As a coach who works with entrepreneurs (Remotepreneurs) and remote teams, I spend a lot of time in dialogue around systems. As I write in PlanDoTrack, systems create consistency which is so critical in the remote space. Systems also allow us to scale which is so important in the remote space as well.

This week’s blog post is a systems check. It gets you to think about the systems you have in place, as well as which ones you might want to, or need to develop.

Consider these different areas:

Recruitment
Financial
Sales
Marketing
Client support
Communication
Reporting

What else?

Enjoy your reflection!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2299 Team Building Tip 283: Results Check

4/16/2020

Building onto yesterday’s mid-month touchpoint, today’s post is a results check. List out the top 10 things you have accomplished as a team – collectively? Individually?

Isolate what some of the common factors have been in getting you the results you’ve had.

If you haven’t received the results you wanted, what’s gotten in the way? What changes are needed? Where do you need to pivot?

What new skills are required?

Enjoy your conversations. You may also want to check out these additional blog posts –

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2284 – Celebrating 16 Years Here at Potentials Realized

4/1/2020

Happy April Fools Day! I always love April 1st as it marks the day I came back to live and re-establish myself in Canada. Back in 2004, I made the transition from my former world of global work with the United Nations and the international humanitarian sector and came back home. Six days later on April 7th, I registered my new business, Potentials Realized, and haven’t looked back.

A lot of people often ask me what led me to start this company. There were a number of factors which led me to establish Potentials Realized.

First, I had spent several years prior being asked by my employers to take on special projects and/or take on internal consulting roles. It validated at into the second decade of my career I was building a series of skills and areas of expertise that could be useful outside of my regular role.

A second major factor for me had also been the impact to my vision due to an eye infection I had sustained in 2003. That led to an effect on one of my eyes which still exists today. It’s one of the reasons why I established Potentials Realized as a virtual business – so I wouldn’t have to travel like I used to. Today so many of us are having to live and work virtually, especially with social isolation measures in place. I hope that you have been seeing some of the more creative ways we can continue to work and meet in the virtual space.

A final factor in terms of moving to being an entrepreneur was the belief that it was time to go out on my own and create the programming I had dreamed about. During the years I was flying around the world leading organizational retreats for groups large and small, I hoped that I would be able to create something similar under my own umbrella. One of the greatest things I have enjoyed is not having had to do the travel I used to – of how I can bring dozens of people together for great conversation and work in the remote space.

What is your beginning story?

As we step into the new month, what are your goals? What’s important to be focusing on?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

TEAMS365 #2260 – Week in Review

3/8/2020

This week’s posts focused primarily on remote work. It included posts on:

Monday’s post on 8 Essential Meeting Questions
Outreach and Building Relationships Virtually – Tuesday
Boundaries in Remote Work – Wednesday
Thursday’s post on Digital Detox
Friday’s post on 7 Focus Areas for Remote Team Leaders
Saturday’s post on LOVE

Enjoy your reading!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

TEAMS365 #2225 – Weekly Round up & the Teams365 Calendar of Posts

2/2/2020

Welcome to Sunday! It’s time for a weekly round-up and also sharing the February 2020 Calendar with you. Now that the Teams365 blog is in it’s seventh year (yes!) there’s a lot of content you may find invaluable. This year I wanted to provide a monthly calendar to showcase some of the more interesting posts from our history.

If you didn’t see January’s calendar access it here.

And now, drumroll please…. Here’s February’s calendar!

If you missed this last week of posts, here’s what there was:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and hope that you’ll enjoy looking through February’s calendar. This month we’re focusing on collaboration and relationships.

Don’t forget to download the calendar here!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!