It’s Thursday and time for a Team Building Tip. It’s number 218 in the series. Today’s question is “Our pacesetter is…”

In today’s world of complexity and ongoing change, one area we still have control over is our pace. A great question to consider is “Who is our pacesetter?” OR “Our pacesetter is….”.

As you consider the landscape of your work, who is setting the bar?

• What are the practices or examples you can learn from, or aspire to…?
• Who on your team is going to set the pace and get things moving?
• Who are the people on the team who can keep moving you forward?
• There may be people on the team who are inclined to keep going?

 
Best wishes,
Jennifer

As we step into the new year, what’s your intention? What do you want to achieve in this last year of the decade?
365 days from now what are you looking forward to:

• Doing every day (or at least several times a week)?
• Investing in?
• Financing?
• Spending time with?

If you haven’t done so already, I hope you’ll take a few minutes today to capture your goals and intentions for the year.
​
Goal setting is just one part of the equation of success. Ongoing action and accountability are two other important elements for success.
What are you doing to build in time in your schedule for an ongoing focus on planning, and action?

As I write in PlanDoTrack, a reminder of what Peter Drucker wrote - “what doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done”.
​
What time have you built into your schedule for ongoing focus on larger projects and tasks?

If you haven’t got it in your schedule already, block it out right now! Productivity experts often point to 90 minute to 3 hour blocks being good amounts of time to get things done. Can you schedule in 2 x 90 minute blocks right now into your schedule on a weekly basis?

As we move into 2019, I am pleased to step into the sixth year of daily posts for the Teams365 blog. Topics we’ll be exploring this year are:

• January - Last year, we started the 19 for 2019 – a series included on Tuesday and Wednesday for December and January which will provide you with tips and ideas for boosting your personal and professional productivity.
• February – Relationships and Collaboration
• March - Building Your Team

Beyond these we will also look at topics including Virtual Team work, Mentoring, Feedback, Virtual Facilitation, Creating powerful learning environments, planning and project management.

If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to pick up a copy of the new PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals. It’s an analog desk-sized planner you can start using at any time – packed with annual, quarterly, and monthly tools, PLUS resources to support you with your content creation and also creative planning! Pick up a copy here.

For now, we’re circling back to the 19 for 2019. Let’s get started with January’s posts – 19 for 2019.  We’ll be heading back to Tip 7 tomorrow.

Check out the past Teams365 19 for 2019 Productivity Tips here. 

I’ll be back with our next one #7 in the series tomorrow!

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

​This week’s Weekly Journaling Prompt shifts your attention to the workplace and business context. Even if we are solopreneurs, where we work alone, we do need to rely on others to help us in getting things done. Maybe we go to an accountant or reach out to an assistant to help you in peak periods.
This week’s journaling prompt is  “Other teams we can learn from are….”
Many of today’s business requirements take us into new terrain regularly. What models do you have which you can learn from? Which teams may have already chartered the course?
This week I hope you will spend a few minutes looking at others you can learn from as you seek to maximize your current opportunities, or leap above your current challenges.

With best wishes,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

Getting Things Done Across Borders: 3 Ways Technology Boosts Remote Team Productivity
 
By 2020, more than 50% of employees will work remotely.
 
The mantra “work is something you do, not a place you go to” rings truer today and even more in the coming years. A physical office is no longer a prerequisite to running a successful business, which is especially beneficial for startups and small businesses unable to afford an office lease.
 
However, there are issues about working remotely that are characteristic of going this route. One of the biggest challenges distributed teams need to address is productivity. Many companies have retracted their telecommuting benefit due to this reason.
 
One of the most infamous — Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo!, recalled it’s work from home benefit. A memo sent to employees stated: “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.” It added: “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”
 
The reality is this: Productivity is a challenge faced by all businesses, whether its employees are co-located in a single office or scattered worldwide. It is not necessarily a function of being physically together. If it is, how can you explain the success of 100% remote companies such as WordPress, Zapier, and Buffer?
 
The common denominator among productive remote companies is their strategic and well thought out use of technology. It bridges the physical distance between remote team members. Apps and tools make it possible for remote companies to achieve a high level of productivity notwithstanding location differences and time zone.
 
If you have a remote team and they are experiencing a productivity slump, here’s how you can use technology to improve it:
 
1. Create a Virtual HQ
 
Even though you’re not co-located, distributed teams need a place to come together, a virtual headquarters of sorts. “Virtual corridors” and “virtual water coolers” can be created in order for employees to brainstorm ideas and even have non-work-related discussions.
 
These avenues are important in fostering camaraderie, strengthening employee engagement, and building a remote team culture — intangible things that significantly contribute to productivity.
 
Technology provides an easy way to do this via group chat platforms. There are several options to choose from — from free to premium — depending on the size of your team and unique communication needs.
 
2. Improve Project Management and Collaboration
 
When working with a remote team, it is difficult to trust they will remember all their tasks. Likewise, as a remote team manager, you should not assume that you will remember all the tasks and projects that you assign to virtual employees.
 
All successful remote teams use project management tools to maintain productivity, if not improve it. It is also useful to track project status, and collaborate. Many remote teams take these project management tools seriously. If a project is not on their project management board, it’s not getting done.
 
Additionally, establish a strict policy that no file should be saved in the local storage of your employees’ devices. Provide cloud file storage that you own and control. This provides better collaboration for your team, as well as safeguarding your files.
 
3. Understand How Team Members Are Spending Their Time
 
Remote work experts often say that working remotely is all about productivity, not availability. With team members working in different time zones, being available all the time and at the same time should not be the focus. Rather, it’s having an agreed time every day to get together and being able to meet deadlines.
 
That said, remote team leaders should know how their team members are spending their time. This is especially important for businesses in the client servicing industry. You should be able to assess the number of hours your employees are putting into meeting your clients’ requirements and properly factor this into your service charges.
 
Time tracking also allows you to provide coaching to remote employees. If they are spending too much time on non-core tasks, you can coach them on how to better spend their time. Additionally, if they are spending too much time on a specific core task, review your processes and look for ways to do things more efficiently.
 
Technology Brings Remote Workers Together
 
The advantages of building a remote business are well documented, from reduced operating costs to happier employees. 100% remote companies that are successful and profitable are living proof that running a successful business powered by a remote workforce is possible.
 
That said, using technology and implementing the right tools to increase productivity should be a core pillar in your company. This ensures your team is on the same page, even though you’re not in the same place.
 
Looking at successful remote companies, each one has its own processes and systems, but the strategic and appropriate use of technology is a common denominator. Technology determines the quality of communication and collaboration, and the level of productivity that your team will achieve.
 
To some extent, your remote team is only as good as the tools that you use.
 
Author Bio
 
Dean Mathews is the founder and CEO of OnTheClock, an online employee time tracking app that helps over 8,000 companies all around the world track time.
 
Dean has over 20 years of experience designing and developing business apps. He views software development as a form of art. If the artist creates a masterpiece, many peoples lives are touched and changed for the better.
 
When he is not perfecting time tracking, Dean enjoys expanding his faith, spending time with family, friends and finding ways to make the world just a little better. You can find Dean on LinkedIn.
 

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

This week’s team skill is in the area of Emotional Intelligence. For years, leaders at all levels have been exposed to developing more skills. In today’s remote work place, the skill sets encapsulated within the EI framework of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social management are key to employees of all types.
Emotional Intelligence skills incorporate skills such as:

• Collaboration
• Influence
• Working through relationships

Given that remote workers do not work within their  own bubbles, and do need to reach out with others, developing more skills in these areas can be important. Be sure to check out some of these resources:

• The EQ Leader – Steven J. Stein 
• Emotional Intelligence 2.0  - this is a useful self-assessment which individuals can complete
• The EQ Edge – Steven J. Stein

As you consider the skills which make up the bundle of EI skills, what do you notice? What are the things that enable you to do your best work?

Best,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

​This week’s FlashbackFriday post takes us to the territory of two past posts which explored the teamwork skills of Listening and Working Across Differences. If I had to categorize the different areas teams prioritize as wanting to get better in, or develop, it’s often in these two areas.
​
Let us take a look back at two posts I’ve written – one on Listening, and one on Working Across Differences.
 
First, here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1103  on Listening. Read it here or below.

“Exceptional teams don't usually emerge as exceptional. They develop over time skills in different areas.

​The first area we are going to look at is Listening. In a team context listening is of utmost importance - it's listening on multiple levels. Listening to what the other team member is saying, and also listening for how it connects with your work. Listening is also hearing the emotional and requests behind the words. When teams are in conflict, there is usually a request behind each complaint that exists.

​In listening we want to listen on multiple levels:

​1. To the words that are being shared. This in fact only comprises about 8% of the message.
​2. To the tone, pace and pitch of the statement - what do you notice about the energy and impact of how the words are being spoken? This comprises more than 30% of the message.
​3. To the body language. What do you notice about the person's gestures? How they are standing? What does their body language say about how open or closed they are? Body language comprises about 55% of the message when we are in face to face settings.

​One of the challenges with team communication today is that so much is done by instant messaging or text in which we have no tone or body language to help make sense of what the words really mean. The impact of this means that words and the way they are interpreted are heavily influenced by the levels of trust and connection that exist within the team. You may be interested in checking out these two posts for boosting trust and connection in your virtual teams:

​Teams365 #258: Create Connection within Your Virtual Team. Read it here.

​Teams365 #610: Four Ways to Build trust in your team.

​There are some past posts I've written on listening, which is also a paramount skill in coaching. Take a look at these past posts related to listening:

​Teams365 #914: The Foundations of TeamWork - Listening - Read it here

​Teams365 #192: Listening And Coaching as A Leader. Read it here”
 
Working across differences is another challenging area for many teams today. The differences which exist on a team are often the greatest strength. However, how do we become more effective at working across differences? Consider what I wrote in this post – Teams365 #1110 – Working Across Differences.
 
“Today's teamwork skill in focus is the ability to work across differences. In today's world of ongoing collaboration and teamwork, this skill set is essential.

​Some tips for working across differences include:
​
​* Knowing each member's unique strengths and what they bring to the table. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a wonderful tool to help people understand more about their unique strengths. Click here to read what I have written in the past about the benefits of leading from strengths, and supporting the team in understanding their strengths.

* Creating an environment where differences are celebrated and encouraged

​* Understanding the different styles which exist on a team. I usually use the Everything DiSC with the clients I work with. This helps to provide insights around people's natural working style, to support individuals in learning more about their "go to" approaches, especially when under stress. Understanding this also helps to adapt their style for working with others.

​What other ways do you want to support individuals on the team in working across differences?”

As you step into the weekend, what’s one concrete thing you can do to support your team in enhancing their skills in either listening or working across differences this month?

Best,
​Jennifer

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” – Theodore Roosevelt
​
The skills of collaboration, partnering and relationship management are all critical for success in today’ workplace. Whether we work in-person or virtually, being able to build solid relationships with other members of our team, others inside the organization, and potentially external partners and customers/clients is critical for success.

It’s important to be able to build relationships:

• Upwards with our boss and other leaders in the organization.
• Across with peers in the organization – in other teams and departments
• Downwards with anyone we manage or lead.

Whether we have a formal title of leadership or not, partnering, collaboration and relationship management are all critical skill sets.

One of the biggest adjustments remote team leaders and members face is how to build relationships, and work through others in the virtual space.

Consider you work and what it may look like as a professional in today’s context. Who do you relate with on a regular basis? What value are you providing in the interactions you have? What type of support do they need from you.
​
We often bandy the term “collaboration” around in today’s workplace thinking that all tasks and projects need collaboration. As I have written several times collaboration may be overused at times, employed when individual effort may be best, and under-utilized when a collaborative approach would be best.
Questions to consider when you collaborate or partner with others:

• What are the outcomes we are looking for? How will we know we’ve been successful?
• Do we need to collaborate, cooperate, collaborate or co-create?

Each one of these requires different risk, input and levels of relationship. To what level do you need to be involved?

• What’s important to acknowledge about the impact of collaboration?
• When we do collaborate how can I be relied upon? What do others need from me? What do I need from them?
• What check ins will we have along the way to identify what’s working, what adjustments are needed, and what learning we are having?

Best wishes
Jennifer

In the first FlashbackFriday of the month I wanted to take you to back to the month of April 2017 when I last did a series on teamwork skills. I hope that you will check out the posts from that month as you go through this month’s series.
I wanted to link us back to Teams365 #1211 where I spotlighted 10 different team development activities. Several of these are useful in building capacity in the different teamwork areas we’ll be exploring this month – trust, emotional intelligence, collaboration, relationship building etc.
 
Here’s what I wrote in that post:
​
Whether it's an offsite team retreat, or a strategic planning session, or a one day team building session, teams benefit from  focused time together, time spent in getting to know each other and also focusing in on goals and results.

​The following list includes ten areas you may want to explore together as a team during your upcoming team development sessions:

​1. What's your vision? As we've seen in other posts, having a shared vision is critical in creating alignment and supporting team members to work more autonomously. As Seneca wrote, "If one does not know to which port is sailing, no wind is favorable."
​What's your vision as a team?

​2. What do you have going for you? Doing work around strengths can be a powerful way to help team members get to know each other, and understand what they uniquely bring to the team. Whether you explore StrengthsFinder 2.0 or undertake an Everything DiSC profile, learning more about ourselves helps us understand our natural inclinations as well as where we tend to go when under stress or pressure (which can be a daily reality for some teams today!).

​3. Fun initiative tasks - It's important to have fun and websites like Wilderdom.com provide you with dozens (if not hundreds of fun ideas of things to do).

​4. Tower Building - There are many iterations of tower building. in essence it's about providing micro-teams or smaller groups with asset of materials to build the tallest tower they can in the time provided. It's a great activity to bring out new learning around roles, planning and communication!

​5. Moving from point a to b - My roots in the late 1980s in experiential education come out when I get to incorporate the "old school" initiative tasks of getting people to "Cross the divide" and move from point a to b with the resources provided. This can be a great activity to reinforce innovation and practice.

​6. Scavenger Hunts - Although these take some time to plan, scavenger hunts in a "bounded" area can be extremely fun and great for those that like to compete!

​7. Work with Visual Cards - sparking conversations is a huge part of the work I do with teams, and photographs and other visual cards are a different way to invite exploration around topics like perspectives, innovation and strategy. Check out our Conversation Sparker Cards for more info.

​8. Team Bingo - It's always good to return to the basics and even if you have worked together for a while, it's likely that you don't know everything about each other. the organizer can ask each team member to submit one or two interesting factoids about themselves and these statements can be put in a bingo format (5 x 5 layout). The first person to capture all the right signatures wins! A fun way to learn a little more about your team.

​9. Team Storyboard - using scrapbooking materials, photos and other materials, have the team create a storyboard of your greatest adventures!

​10.  Team Model - using aluminum foil, have the team create a model which represents who you are. It's always interesting to see just what can be created out of tinfoil.

​What do you think you might try at your next meeting? I hope that it has sparked some new ideas and possibilities for you.
Here's a link to that original post.
 
What do you want to make sure you schedule and incorporate for your team this fall?

Best,
​Jennifer

It’s the start of a new month, and  time for a new focus here at the Teams365 blog. This month we are going to focus on teamwork skills. Whether you work as an intact team, a project team or a remote team, teamwork skills are cross-cutting and help professionals at all stages of their careers do better work.
The context of teamwork has changed. In the past, teams were together for longer windows, with much more stability. Today most teams experience ongoing change and team composition. Researcher Amy Edmonston terms this “Teaming” and writes, “actively building and developing teams even as a project is in process, while realizing that a team's composition may change at any given moment.” (Teaming, Edmonston 2013)
She flags four behaviors as essential in the teaming context:

• Speaking Up
• Collaboration
• Experimentation
• Reflection

What are you doing to foster these areas?
The teamwork skills we are going to explore this month are:

• Trust
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Working Across Differences
• Relationship Management
• Conflict Management
• Emotional Intelligence
• Change Management
• Influence

For each of the areas we’ll explore what the skill is about, why it’s important. What some of the differences are in the different types of teams today. I’ll also point you back to some of the many posts I’ve already written on these topics.
Looking forward to starting this journey with you this month.

Best,
Jennifer

Last week I hosted a gearing up for fall planning hack, during which time I led the group through a series of real-time planning activities over the course of a 45 minute window. With the launch of my latest resource the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, I’ll be hosting more of these real-time virtual planning sessions for coaches and other planners. (On a side note, I’ll be releasing another edition of the Workbook and Planner later this year/early 2019 for Remote professionals and Leaders). I hope you may join me for one of the many upcoming virtual planning sessions.
For today’s post I thought it would be fitting to provide you with some planning prompts to think about the fall and all that you want to create. Here are some questions to guide you:

• As you look to fall, what is the environment you want to create in your work?
• What are the core goals and priorities?
• As you look to you main goals for fall,, how do they fit together?
• How do they interlink with others work?
• What do you need in order to be successful with these goals?
• Who can help you?
• What’s going to help you further grow as a professional?
• What stretch opportunities do you have to expand your thinking, and skills?
• What projects will help you grow?
• What collaborative conversations do you want to foster this fall? (Consider peer groups, mentors, time with your boss and team, other…)

I read an interesting article recently from the MIT Sloan Review by Linda Gratton on the Challenge of Scaling Soft Skills You can read it here. In it she mentions four skills which will be important for professionals of all kinds as the workplace continues to change - empathy, context sensing, collaboration, and creative thinking. What are you doing to enhance and grow in these areas?
Throughout my career, and in the work that I continue to do, I work regularly in support of fostering skills in empathy, collaboration and creative thinking. These will be needed by team members of all kinds. Some of the skills we learn in training, but many we learn by doing. What can you do to foster opportunities for team members to grow and expand in these areas?

Enjoy your Tuesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326