Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2240 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #132: Matrix Tip

2/17/2020

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip is a matrix working tip, getting you as a team, or partnership to explore the question “What’s the priority?”.

With matrix work and membership of multiple teams become the norm in today’s workspace, it can be important to focus on WHAT’S the PRIORITY?

Are you taking time as a team to discuss what your priorities are?

Are you holding three-way meetings so that team members can learn more about the bigger picture and landscape of the multiple teams they are part of?

As a leader, are you communicating the WHY, or what’s important about the bigger picture of work?

Prioritization is a critical skill set for most remote workers. It may also involve some negotiation when multiple priorities show up on our desk (think – almost every day!).

The challenge is that balancing multiple priorities for two parties who don’t usually connect. This is where getting into the practice of holding quarterly or regular meetings with the matrix teams or leaders can be of benefit. Widening the understanding of what people are working on, can help sensitize thinking, as well as help with weighing in on priorities.

A reminder of the different prioritization tools we might leverage –

Covey’s Urgent/Important Matrix
To Do and Not To Do List
Strategic Issues Mapping

I’ve covered many of these tools in past Teams365 blog posts. Many of these tools can also be found in Section 4 of PlanDoTrack.

Enjoy!
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 #2236 – Team Building Tip 274: Calibration

2/13/2020

This week’s Team Building Tip gets you thinking about the notion of CALIBRATE.

The Oxford Dictionary defines calibrate as “adjust (experimental results) to take external factors into account or to allow comparison with other data.”

As you look across your team, work or processes right now, what are the things that might need to be calibrated or adjusted, given changes in the context?

What are the things you need to dial up and dial down?

Doing a regular scan of the context in which you operate is a key skill set. This is all part of strategic thinking, which is an important skill set for leaders today. As the University of Florida’s Training writes, “To think strategically means to see and understand the bigger picture of what the organization is, where it needs to go, and how it will get there. It means anticipating opportunities and challenges and utilizing that knowledge to guide the organization.” (http://training.hr.ufl.edu/resources/LeadershipToolkit/job_aids/strategic_thinking.pdf)

What is important about developing strategic thinking skills as a team?

What are the things you want to pay attention to as a team?

For more on the topic of strategic thinking, please check out these posts:

4 Ways to Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills
5 Areas CMOE Suggests You Focus On To Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills
Check out the questions you might use as part of the reflective cycle of strategic thinking in this article from Terina Allen here.

As you think strategically, you may start to notice those items you need to CALIBRATE. What needs an adjustment?

Have a great day!
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 #2143 – Creating Focus in The Last Mile of The Year

11/12/2019

From the time we get out of bed to the time we turn off the light, we are faced with a slew of decisions which need to be made every day.

Creating enhanced focus in the last six weeks of the year (what is often referred to as the “last mile”) can help a team, and organization, soar through the last part of the year, rather than frantically work to the end. This has been a focus of three of the annual coaching groups I host - The Learning Lab and Design Studio, the Coaching Biz Growth Lab, and the Teams365 Leadership Lab

Today’s post gets you thinking about several areas you may have some level of control over:

#1 – Decide and communicate what the key priorities are for the end of the year. What is an absolute MUST complete? What can be let go of (if anything) in order to make sure this can be completed.

#2 – Weed out the elements of work which are distractions and/or not adding value. This may be part of a wider discussion and review of your results for the year/decade. In the bigger picture, what could be let go of, in service to the work that really needs to get done?

#3 – Consider who is best tasked to do the work. There is often a fallacy that “everyone needs to be involved” or everyone needs to collaborate. We don’t want to collaborate for collaborations sake. Who is best suited to run with which tasks? Does everyone involved understand the timelines and contingencies (i.e. what needs to get completed first, next etc.?).

#4 – Consider questions around AMPLIFICATION and/or x ing your work (as in 10xing). What’s going to help to ensure success? What will that take?

#5 – Where has scope creep occurred? It’s inevitable that projects expand during their life cycle. Sometimes they expand too much. Where has scope creep occurred and what needs to be brought back into focus? Is there need for an extension or a part 2 of the projects you are working on?

#6 – Where can digital distractions be minimized? Recently, I shared a post on digital distractions – Teams365 #1933. Read it here. What are those distractions and where can these be minimized?

What’s going to help you thrive through the last part of the year?

Wishing you the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success focusing on the Remote Space
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources.
Coming soon - the Remote Pathways™ Podcast

#TEAMS365 #2103 – Team Building Tip 256: Grounding

10/3/2019

This week’s Team Building Tip gets you to think about the question “Where do you want to get more grounded?”. In today’s volatile, ever-changing environment, it can be very important to be grounded. Grounding ourselves helps us feel anchored, even if things are ever-changing. Our foundation usually consists of our values, beliefs and ways of working.

These foundations help us with decision making, prioritizing, and communicating what’s important, even if everything else is changing.

In PlanDoTrack, I provide several exercises for professionals to explore their values and belief systems. If you have a copy of the book, be sure to check out Section’s 1 and 4 exercises including the Iceberg, Values Ecosystem and some of the Values check list.

When we are able to work and lead from our values things become aligned, and usually flow more freely.

What are you noticing about your foundations and grounding?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources.

#TEAMS365 #2096 – Team Building Tip 255

9/26/2019

This week’s Team Building Tip gets you to discuss the question “What do you want to say NO TO?”. Discernment is critical in today’s business context. Take a look at this past post. If you work within a matrix environment, it can be very easy to get overloaded with new work and responsibilities. Taking a big picture of what’s going on and being clear on competing priorities can be essential. Saying NO or NOT RIGHT NOW as much as YES can be critical for productivity.

Saying NO needs to be done in a tactful way. In the remote space this may involve:

Helping people understand the context of your work. This might involve things like having everyone share a status update or adding a “priorities section” to your team meetings.
Problem solving together with the person you are having to say “no” to. Language might be along the lines of “If I focus on this task right now, then that task may not be completed until next week? What would you prefer me to focus on?” or “Is there anyone else who might be able to take on this task?”

Saying “no” is important so you can FOCUS in on what’s most important.

What are the things you want to be focusing on this month? This quarter?

All the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources.

#TEAMS365 #2082 – Team Building Tip 253: Discernment

9/12/2019

This week’s Thursday Team Building Tip gets you as a team to consider the question “What needs more discernment?”. One of the challenges in today’s workspace is running fast but being able to focus in on what’s important.

What are the things that need to be looked at more closely? What needs more discernment?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources.

#TEAMS365 #2046 – Teamwork Fundamentals: Minimizing Distractions

8/7/2019

One of the biggest challenges facing teams today are the distractions. From digital distractions of the ping of an email taking our focus off deeper work like writing, or an Instant Message and request pulling us off our task at hand, distractions have an impact in the digital space.

In the physical space, distractions can include co-workers dropping by our desk to chat, and meetings. Its often said that meeting length should be multiplied by three. It’s not just the time it takes to attend, but the time to prepare and the time to follow up.

Research by Gloria Marks has found that distractions can take upwards of 22 minutes to regain focus.

What implications does this have for us as professionals and team members?

We may not be getting the more strategic, proactive, thinking work completed (i.e. reports, planning, decision making).
Tasks are not getting completed in the time frame needed.
Lack of fulfillment on the part of team members, leading to lower levels of engagement.
Lower productivity and results.

What might we do to minimize distractions, especially if it is having an impact?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #2006 Flashback Friday: Tools for your Toolkit – Leaders and Business Owners

6/28/2019

This week as part of the Flashback Friday we are getting into the landscape of tools for business owners and leaders. Whether we lead a team, or run our own show, honing certain skills can help to accelerate our success.

I wanted to take us back to Teams365 #1540: Tools for Your Toolkit – Leaders and Business owners.

Here’s what I wrote:

Much of my work as a coach and consultant with leaders and teams revolves around support to leaders and business owners. One area we regularly return to is our toolbox or those resources we have at our disposal. Many of these we acquire from our own experiences, as well as the valuable networks of mentors and peers we belong to. This week we'll be focusing on several of the different tools which can be useful in our toolkit. Some of the tools you will want to make sure you have on hand are:

#1 - Tools for Virtual Conversations - Check out yesterday's Effective Virtual Conversations tip #36 (Teams365 #1539) where I mention five different tools you'll want to make sure you master for more engaged, memorable conversations in the virtual space.

#2 - Tools for Decision Making - Check out this audio post #Teams365 #495 where I cover two tools for decision making

#3 - Tools for Delegation - Delegation is one of the most challenging areas for team leaders and business owners. As our work evolves it can often feel difficult to pass projects off to others. Check out my past post #391 on The Dreaded D Word - Delegation, where I share with you a quick activity to undertake to identify some of the areas you could delegate

#4 - Problem Solving Tools - Check out this short audio posts on 3 tools for problem solving in Teams365 #488 here.

#5 - Planning Tools - Without a clear vision, and a plan to execute, our efforts may become unfocused. Drucker wrote "what doesn't get measured, doesn't get done". What are the planning tools you refer to regularly? Whether we are undertaking a SWOT, or a strategic Issues mapping activity, or building in regular pause points to take stock of where we are, planning is critical for success. Check out the multiple posts on planning here.

#6 - Conflict Resolution Tools - Conflict is inevitable in teams, especially given that most teams which excel are highly diverse. Learning to work across differences, and adjust our styles is part and parcel of collaboration and conflict resolution. Check out Teams365 #1196 for my post on Navigating Conflict in Teams.

#7 - Collaboration Tools - Going hand in hand with conflict is collaboration. Having a toolkit of resources to help you incorporate different ideas and perspectives, unearth assumptions, and leverage the best of a team is critical for teams and businesses today. I've written multiple posts on collaboration in the past, from partnering to ingredients for collaboration

#8 - Coaching Tools - The final tool-set I would add is that of coaching tools. Coaching encompasses listening, questioning and helping others create their own solutions. In today's ever changing VUCA world, coaching is playing an even more important role. This is a focus of the bulk of my work with clients. What can you do to boost your peer coaching skills, or developing these skills in your team? Check out past posts on coaching here.

I hope that you will take a few minutes today to take note of the tools you are already have in your toolkit, and those you want to develop this year. What are the skills which will help you take your business or your team to the next level?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1978 – May Month End Review: Teamwork in Uncertainty

5/31/2019

This month we explored the topic of Teamwork in Uncertainty. From looking at the statistics of readers, it seems like it was a very resonant topic for those who visited the Teams365 blog this month. If you haven’t taken a look at this month’s posts, please be sure to check out:

1968 – Tuesday May 21: Teamwork in Uncertainty – Pivot
1969 – Wednesday May 22: Teamwork in Uncertainty - Comfort with the Unknown
1974 –– Tuesday May 28: Teamwork in Uncertainty – Strengths and Go-Tos
1975 – Wednesday May 29: Teamwork in Uncertainty – Synergies

As we step into the end of May, I thought it would be useful to reach back to one of the posts from last May on Prioritization.

One of the most disruptive things about disruption is the impact on our focus. Prioritization becomes a key skill set to cultivate.

Here’s what I wrote last May about leading in complexity -

“Prioritization is a skill set we draw upon regularly in times of complexity. Prioritization allows all team members to regularly scan and manage their workload.

Key to prioritization is:

Having the tools to prioritize
Feeling empowered to make decisions and take responsibility for managing workload
Understanding what is most important – to the different players of the team, as well as the different time frames you are working on (short term, medium term)

In past Teams365 posts I’ve explored a range of prioritization skills including the Urgent/Important Matrix (we often attribute to Covey), as well as a Decision Matrix where we weigh what’s important in making our decisions.

For more on the topic of prioritization, check out these additional resources:
This excellent article from MindTools.com - which has an incredible amount of other resources team members and leaders will also want to check out.

LiquidPlanner.com's article on How to Prioritize Work When Everything Is #1 - Read it here."

For those that are looking at prioritization through the lens of product design, you'll want to take a look at this excellent article 20 Product Prioritization Techniques.

In my books PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder I share four prioritization tools I use regularly with my clients and teams including the Urgent/Important Matrix and Strategic Issues Mapping.

The issue of prioritization takes on increased importance when we are working as part of a matrix or remote team. In these instances, our priorities may be varied and not as visible to ourselves and others. What is important for you to note around prioritization?

Best
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1969 – Teamwork in Uncertainty – Comfort With The Unknown

5/22/2019

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
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in an digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.