As we move into the 73rd Effective Virtual Conversations tip, we’re looking at another success factor for high performing teams. This week brings us to number two of six in the ingredients which make up high performance – Shared Performance Goals.
In a virtual team it is really important to be clear on what the performance goals are, so everyone knows what they are aiming for, how things fit together, and what success looks like.
The danger in a virtual team when these things are not clear are:

• Lack of alignment
• Lack of understanding of how one goal fits with another
• Competing Priorities
• Differences in terms of quality of output, if end results are not clear
• Spending time clarifying goals, and what success measures are, are critical when team members do not see each other, and may be reporting to multiple matrix teams at any given time.

Goals are the heart of any team, and it is important to spend time with the team in discussion around this. You may want to dedicate an upcoming team meeting to this and have discussion around:

• What are your key goals?
• How do goals fit together?
• What does success look like around each one?
• What are the standards for work on this team?
• What are the minimums in terms of response time?
• What needs to be communicated, when?
• What are the best channels/appropriate ways to keep everyone updated with respect to their goals?

Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

In our Effective Virtual Conversations tip this week we return to the focus area of High Performing Teams and the six factors that make them excel. Where team alignment often begins is with factor #1 – Share vision, mission or purpose. This is also the one that may take more time to achieve and get clear on through multiple series of dialogue.
As a virtual team, having a shared vision is critical for alignment, especially when people are widely geographically dispersed.
Some questions team members may want to ask themselves to gain clarity and alignment are:

• Where does the team see itself at the end of the year?
• Three years from now?
• Does everyone have the same vision?
• To get clearer on purpose and  mission you will also want to explore:
• Why do we exist? What’s important in our work?
• What is the one thing we always want to do?

As a reminder, and focus for everyone, how do you want to capture your vision? Is there a plaque or photo you can create to “enshrine” these items?

Enjoy the conversations,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
Join Jennifer for a year-end virtual planning retreat in the PlanDoTrack Series!
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
YouTube – Teams365 Leadership Channel
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

​This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip takes us to Factor #6 of High Performing Teams. We know that teams which excel are committed. They are committed to:

• Each other
• The values they are grounded in
• Demonstrating behaviors that are consistent with their behaviors
• The agreements they create about how they operate and what’s important in their work.
• That work outputs are similar in terms of quality and measurement.
• The mission and people they serve/support

 
Commitment takes on a whole new lens when we move to the virtual and remote space. Given that we can’t see each other, spending time building trust and connection, as well as sharing commitments and expectations are critical.  It’s important to spend time in discussion and focus around this, particularly for teams who don’t see each other regularly. Having a consistent experience with team member in location A is just as important as having the same experience with team member in location B.
At the team level, it can be useful to facilitate discussion around:
What is the state of commitment in your team right now?
How is that mirrored in the organization?
How is commitment working for you?
If there isn’t a lot of commitment, what are you seeing?
(Britton, 2017, page 353)
​
Read more in Chapter 10 – In Focus: Virtual Team Development of Effective Virtual Conversations 
 
Enjoy the start to your week!
Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip focuses on a key factor which helps teams excel. In both the virtual  and in-person team space helping teams understanding their ROLES on the team, is a key activity. This becomes even more important when teams are remote and people may not have a sense of how their work fits together. This can lead to duplication, or impact when things are not done to time or scope, and have a domino effect.
Facilitating the conversation with your team about roles could be part of an upcoming team meeting.
Today’s post includes a short excerpt from Effective Virtual Conversations on page 353, As I write in the book, you might consider exploring questions such as:

• What are our roles?
• Where is there overlap?
• How do our roles leverage people’s strengths?
• In our work, what do we need to do?
• How are our roles supporting the performance goals, supporting our practices and supporting our WHY?
• What else is important for us to notice around our roles?
• What else is important for you to notice about roles?

Enjoy the start to your week,
Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip focuses at Shared Behavioral Norms. Research continues to show that teams with shared behavioral norms have greater clarity around agreements, helping with alignment, behavior and results.
If you are working in a virtual or remote team context you will want to explore the following questions as a team:

• What is acceptable in terms of our behavior and how we operate?
• What is important?
• What does it look like for us in practice?

For example, if a team indicates that one of the important things is respect, it’s important for the team to define what that looks like. Does that mean a certain way of communicating? Does it mean that team members respond to clients in a certain way? If you were to bring a camera into the workplace, what are the behaviors associated with that activity?
​
Activity:
As a team spend time making a list of the behavioral practices you want to employ. Consider how you will “enshrine” them to make them visible as a reminder. Different practices teams have used on this include plaques, statutes, photos etc.

Best, 
​Jennifer

An increasing number of leaders are now supporting virtual and remote teams. While many organizations feel that a step into remote leadership is just like managing people in the bull pen or down the hall, virtual team leadership requires super-strong skills in relationship management, influence and working across differences.
Creating alignment across a virtual team can be a big challenge. Goals often create the anchors for team members who may be assigned to different projects, be managed in matrix fashion, as well as have a different context in which they operate.
 
Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip comes from page 350 of the book, which poses several questions for virtual team leaders to consider when working with teams virtually. These are all questions a leader can pose in individual one-on-one conversations with a team member, or during an entire team meeting.
​
Consider these question to help create clarity, alignment and accountability around goals:

1. How do our team’s and department goals fit into this? This question helps team members understand the bigger picture and connection amongst goals.

2. Do people understand how their individual effort impacts the organizational goals? This question also helps people connect their individual contribution to the bigger picture. It helps to reduce a sense of operating in a vacuum, and lower motivation when virtual team members do not see where they efforts make an impact.

3. Do individuals on the team understand how their work interfaces and supports others, leading into other goals focused on by other team members?Even is a team does not connect physically, helping team members understand how their work connects with others, helps not only with motivation but also in getting things done. If I know that Sujit’s work is contingent on a specific piece of work I need to complete, I may prioritize things more and/or be sure to get things done on time, or in a certain fashion.

4. How do we measure goals and is there clarity around it? Understanding what success looks like it critical for success, and this needs to be shared across a team. Is there clarity around what success looks like and how it is measured? This may include indicators of success, timelines and other factors.
 
As you think about your team and their goals for the rest of the year, what’s important to explore?
​
More on this in the last few chapters of Effective Virtual Conversations where I take a deeper dive into virtual team leadership and virtual teamwork. 
 
Best wishes,
Jennifer

​This week’s Effective Virtual Conversation’s tip #66 brings us to tip #3 in the series of Virtual Team Success. This week’s tip gets you thinking about how you want to keep in touch. In today’s virtual space there are several vehicles teams can leverage for keeping in touch, as well as facilitating meetings and planning.
Let’s take a look at three of them:

Zoom – Great for streaming and meetings on the go, zoom provides multiple benefits – from the  ability to screen share to the ability to activate breakouts in meeting space. With the teams that I work with, many professionals like the flexibility of being able to call in via phone, connect via their desk top or lap top, as well as use the mobile app to connect via phone.

Skype – Skype for business is being leveraged by many organizations today. With the benefits of streaming and visuals, it provides a great option for meetings and presentations.

The final platform I wanted to mention today was that of Slack. Slack is a common go-to platform for real-time communication. 

When working with smaller teams around planning and projects you may also want to check out platforms including Trello and Asana.

What are some of your favorite virtual platforms? What do you use for meetings? Presentations? Project Management? Communication?

​Let us know by sharing in the comments.

Thanks!
Jennifer

It is Monday and time for Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #65. We are on part two of the three part core essentials for virtual team success, which comes from page 343 of my book, Effective Virtual Conversations.

With virtual teams becoming more the norm, becoming more proficient at the support of a diverse team is critical. Team leaders, and also team members will want to think about the following as it relates to support for each team member.

What is the preference of each team member in these different areas:

• Email, text, phone call, in person communication
• Short and to the point, or long and conversational?
• Big picture thinker or small-details valued?

Also consider:

• What support needs do they have already from the local environment?
• What unique to their context?
• What time of day is going to work best? (especially if you are managing a global team)
• What supports do they need from you? Others?

As you review the posts this month around teamwork, consider how you can be building supports ACROSS the team, from peer to peer. These peer connections are invaluable, formally and informally with virtual and remote working situations.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Welcome to October. As we start moving towards the end of the year, we are shifting our attention here at the Teams365 blog to Teamwork, an essential ingredient for success.
The first Monday Effective Virtual Conversations Tip of the month brings us to #64. View the past Effective Virtual Conversation tips here.
For the next three weeks I will be taking us into core essentials of Virtual Team Success. Today we are going to explore #1 of 3 – that of Knowing Your People.
Relationships play a key role in virtual teams, and it’s important to note that “out of sight should not mean out of mind”. Being proactive in building relationships with each team member, and between all team members is important for building overall team capacity.
As I wrote in Effective Virtual Conversations (page 343), when growing your team, consider:

1. What are the unique needs of each team member?
2. What do they need from you? What do you need from them? What do they need from each other?
3. What activities (in-person or virtual) will facilitate getting to know each other, connection and understanding the business of the team?

 
 
What are the activities you have planned this year for team development? A 2016 study from Culture Wizard found that only 22% of virtual teams had benefited from any team development.
 
For some ideas of what you might do with your team, take a look at the September Series on 10 Things to Do with Your Team.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Welcome back to Monday’s EVC Tip - #63 in the series.

This week’s tip is all about getting you to think about matrix management. In the virtual space it is likely that your team members are part of multiple teams and may be reporting to several different leaders.

Remote team members may have a local leader or supervisor they see on a regular basis, and also a more remote team leader who actually works more closely with them on the macro level.

For example, maybe a person is part of a continent wide marketing team. This team is continent wide in focus, and because they are based in a more remote location, they report into a local office regularly. They are expected to work with both the local and regional leaders. Each team has different ways of working and different cultures. The regional marketing team is more laid back and creative, while the local team is detail oriented and fast paced. It can be a  challenge for the employee to navigate both sets of working relationships, work cultures and leadership styles.

Key to this process is being intentional, and proactive, in discussing many of the issues that may emerge. If three-way meetings are possible – between the employee, the local leader and the regional subject leader, it can be useful to talk through how as a partnership you can be most effective in supporting the employee in getting the results needed for the organization.

Some key issues you will want to clarify early on in your communications within matrix relationships include:

• Clarifying roles, responsibilities and reporting structures
• Identifying overlaps and gaps
• Clarifying goals and priorities (especially if there are different priorities)
• Identifying resources available

You can read more about this on page 334 of Effective Virtual Conversations.

Enjoy!
​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