This month’s focus is on Team Springboards, things that help teams. Let’s take a look at a laundry list of things that help teams excel. Individually they are quite straightforward, collectively they are powerful. As you review this list you might consider giving yourself a rating on a 1-10, with 1 being low and 10 being high.
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1. Clarity around goals
2. Strong team culture
3. Knowledge of each other
4. Connection with other team members
5. Understanding what people do on the team
6. Knowing who to go to for _____________ (insert issue)
7. Clarity around roles on the team
8. Clarity about how to surface issues
9. Confidence that issues raised will be heard
10. Confidence that issues raised will be addressed/considered/responded to
11. Clarity around how performance is measured
12. Resources needed to do the work
13. Mechanisms to flag resources needed
14. Feedback channels
15. Acknowledgement for work well done
16. A clear vision of what the team is aiming for in terms of this year’s/quarter’s goals
17. Effective Team Meetings on a regular basis
18. Clear channels for communication
19. Opportunities for development
20. Opportunities to have fun and connect with others

What else?

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (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 the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

​It’s hard to believe but Potentials Realized turns fifteen years old today. A big thank you to all of your support over the years in ensuring that the business is even more vibrant and popular today than it was 15 years ago when I metaphorically “opened the doors”.

Over the next 12 months I’ll be hosting a series of celebrations. Each month I’ll be dedicating a post or two to a different focus of the work provided, and also, I will share a different case study or example. There will also be some monthly events to celebrate 15 years.

Today I’m pleased to unveil the new 15 years logo. Back in late 2003 as I was preparing to move back to Canada and establish this business (which still didn’t have a name yet!) I was in a coaching conversation where I was being coached about my vision for the business. The image of a water drop clearly came into my mind, representing the ripple effect I wanted my work to continue to have. While it was only a vision in my mind, I imagined that my work would still allow me to connect with professionals all over the world, providing them with tools, insights and skills to help them ripple their own work out.

A big thanks to Eric for adding onto the logo for Potentials Realized – I’ll be using it for the next 12 months to signal this milestone.

My clients – the leaders, teams and business owners – continue to be at the heart of the success of the business. As the client base has grown, I have been thankful for many referrals (thank you!). I have also felt compelled to turn to an increasing amount of writing given that my books and writing travel much further than I can.

With the 10th anniversary of the release of Effective Group Coaching coming later this year, and thousands of the book sold, I am honored that I have been able to create a ripple effect in the area of group and team coaching, and in an emerging way a ripple in the realms of virtual conversations and remote teamwork.

This month I’ll be spotlighting this blog, given that this has become such a foundation of work and support to teams, leaders and professionals globally. What started as an experiment back in 2014 to see how to generate more traffic to the site, has become a favorite practice of mine where I dedicate a couple of hours a week to writing and curating content here.

Let us know about your favorite experience with Potentials Realized programming, or how you have been able to create your ripple effect by one of our programs or coaching.

Cheers to another 15 years…I look forward to our paths crossing!
Jennifer

It is the end of another month, and also a quarter. What are the key things you want to make sure you take note of, celebrate and review?

Here are several questions you will want to explore as you consider month and quarter end:

Reflecting on March and/ or the entire quarter:

• What have been your successes this month?
• What didn’t work? Why?
• What are the changes you would make in the future to that?
• What has been your biggest learning?
• What habits have supported you?
• What things have gotten in the way?
• Where have you been getting your results?
• What metrics do you want to note?

Looking ahead to the next quarter or the next month:

• What are the things you need to prioritize gong forward – next month? Next quarter?
• What do you need to say "no" to?
• What resources are going to help you be successful?
• What relationships are critical for success?
• What do you want to make sure you are communicating? To whom?
• What do you want to make sure you schedule time in for?
• Thinking about your metrics, what are the things that you want to track on a regular basis. What are the goals you hope to achieve or hit around these in the next period? 

Last week I enjoyed leading a session using a new Quarterly Review form. I made this supplementary form available to those who receive my PlanDoTrack newsletter. If you'd like to become a subscriber and receive this monthly newsletter related to planning, and virtual team issues, please sign up here.

I hope that you will find some time today to celebrate your learning and achievements for q1. Please pass this link on to others who could benefit from some reflection and planning time.

Enjoy your reflections,
Jennifer

Teams excel when they have a clear focus on results, and the resources and tools to accomplish them, and when they are also focused on relationships.
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This month I have been sharing different activities virtual and remote teams may consider integrating into their work. If you didn’t take a look at last week’s post on Creating Virtual Team Culture, take a look at it now.
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Today’s post invites you to consider integrating appreciations in your work as a virtual team. What are the pauses you have created so people can thank others and acknowledge them for their strengths?

Peer feedback is often found to be more valuable and impactful that feedback from a superior or other.

To facilitate this activity, make sure you have adequate time. It may take 15 minutes or more. If you have a larger team (8 or more) have people work in triads (use breakouts for this if you are virtual – which is likely).

One at a time, have someone in the “appreciation seat”. Their colleagues are asked to share:

1. What is an example when I have seen you at your best this week/this month/this quarter?
2. I see one of your strengths as….
3. I appreciate….

This should then be rotated so each person gets a chance to receive feedback.
This exercise can also be added onto by discussion around additional questions such as:

• One thing I wish you would do more of is….
• I can rely on you for…
• One request I have for you is….

This can provide space for more support and difficult conversations.

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

This week’s journaling prompt gets you to consider the question “I’m really pleased with:” What are the things that are going well in your work and projects that you are happy about right now?

Make a list of the top 10 things or 20 things you are pleased with?
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This can be a great daily practice, aligned with the gratitude practice of noting the top 3 things you enjoyed every day. Over time this practice has been shown to increase happiness.

Source – UC Berkely = Center for Greater Good "Three Good Things"

 

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (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 the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.
​

​It’s the end of the month and time for another Team Building tip. Today’s question is Let’s Celebrate. What do you have to celebrate from this month? What were your major milestones?

I hope that you will take a few minutes today to take stock of the month. Each month I host a month end review and month ahead planning session for one hour.  These calls are beneficial in that they provide a pause for reflection, learning and capturing your ideas. Check out the schedule of upcoming month end planning hacks here.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Connect on Instagram for the 90DaysPlanDoTrack Posts
Phone: (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.
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We are back at week 11 of the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series of video posts. These weekly montage videos are a compilation of the different weeks of the Instagram series I have hosted over at the CoachingBizBuilder feed.

Daily posts are geared to get you thinking about, and taking action on, your business. As I write in PlanDoTrack – Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum.

Take a look at this week’s compilation video and see what questions are important for you to note. What's important to take action on?

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

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

​This week’s Team Building tip is “What’s your best work?”. As you think about everything you have accomplished in the last few months (or the last year or two), what is your best work?

• What are the things that you are really proud of?
• In your work, what can you to do cultivate, or ask for, more work opportunities like this?
• How did this task use your skills?
• What did it do to accelerate your learning and growth?
• What made it so fulfilling?
• Are there elements of that project which can be isolated and magnified in future projects?
• Helping people and teams connect with their best work, boosts engagement and commitment to task. This helps foster a culture of growth and higher levels of trust.
• What can you do to facilitate experiences so that people can bring their best self to work?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​It may seem early to some, but before we know it, the end of the year will be here! If you are a business owner or team leader, already you may have your year-end celebrations well in place. If you don’t, it’s not too late! Here’s a post I wrote back in 2015 on 10 different things you might want to build in time for at year end. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #703.

Today's post gets you to think further about year end activities and possible retreat ideas for your team. While not everyone will be able to take a day away from the office, even spreading some of these activities over a couple of weeks, or the next month or two, gets you thinking about and in dialogue about important issues.

Here are ten things to be sparking focus and conversation around with your team:

1. Creating a Year in Summary - Using photos or words  how would you describe the highlights of the last year
2. Strengths based work using either StrengthsFinder or VIA Strengths
3. Goal setting for the new year - overall goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals. Looking at how individual, team and organizational goals overlap
4. Creating an action plan for the new year
5. Creating a Vision for the new year
6. Vision Modelling - using tin foil, plastercine or paper mache, coming up with a model for your vision that you as a team can look at regularly
7. Coming up with a theme for the year
8. Taking time to acknowledge each other
9. Celebrating your successes from the year -  a lunch out (or in) or a night out bowling or playing ping pong (yes teams can have fun together!)
10. Setting an intention for the year

What other activities might you undertake to wrap up the year together?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer