Teams365 Blog - Potentials Realized

TEAMS365 #2167 – Flashback Friday: Expectations and CLarification

12/6/2019

This week I am reaching back to one of the original Teams365 blog posts.

Here’s what I wrote, which might be an interesting conversation starter as you go through your year-end discussions. Expectations are often at the heart of a high performing team.

Our final team building tip of the year gets you to think about the expectations which need to be clarified for the team. One of the biggest hindrances to exceptional team performance is lack of clarity around expectations.

Earmarking a focus around clarifying expectations in the new year can pay off in dividends.

Areas you may want to ensure you have clear, and shared, expectations around are:
- What does success look like? For us individually? Collectively as a team?
- What are our start and end times?
- What does quality mean?
- What does being an exceptional team mean?
- What are we committed to creating? What do we need to do in order to get there?
- What do you expect of me as leader this year? What do I expect from you this year?

What other expectations are important for your team to discuss as you get back to work in January?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

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

As we step into the end of the year, 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.

TEAMS365 #2162: Welcome to December & Week in Review

12/1/2019

Happy December 1st. Just a few weeks to go before the end of the year and end of the decade. What do you want to focus on in 2020?

This month our focus will be on taking a look back at some of the highlights of the year. I’ll include a focus on Top 10s, Review and Themes of the Year, along with a wrap up of remote items.

Let’s take a look back at this week first:

Yesterday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt 78. Read it here.
Friday’s Flashback Friday, getting projects over the finish line. Read it here.
Thursday’s Team Building Tip with the Remote Work Prompt. Read it here.
Wednesday’s focus on Saying Thanks! Read it here.
Tuesday’s focus on Preparing for your 2020 Vision. Read it here.
Monday’s focus on more tips for designing an engaging virtual conversation. Read it here.

Enjoy your weekend and hopefully time with family and loved ones!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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

As we step into the end of the year, 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.

TEAMS365 #2160 – Flashback Friday: Bringing Projects to A Close

11/29/2019

We’re just a few days away from the start of December and this is the time of year when EVERYTHING needs to get done. With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to take a look back at last year’s post about Bringing Projects to a close from Teams365 #1794. Here you go:

“At this time of year, the clock is ticking and it may now be GO TIME to get projects across the finish line. Where there was once time and leeway, now things need to get done and completed. What is it going to take to get the project completed before the end of the year?

To bring the project across the finish line consider:

What is it going to take to bring this project to a successful close?
What resources are needed? Do we need to pull new resources?
Are there any lessons learned from other projects that we can incorporate?
Are there any specialized, or talented, human resources we can bring in at this time to move the project quicker? Are there experts or seasoned team members who can complete tasks more quickly than others?
What elements can be completed consecutively? We often think that tasks are sequential (i.e. this has to be done before that), when in fact, we might be able to complete some tasks consecutively.
What does complete look like? Think about quality and scope. Are we still within the original scope of the project, or has there been scope creep?
Do we want to reconfirm project requirements, checking for any assumptions which may not be correct?
What can we do to minimize distractions and focus on what is really important? Are there some tasks which need to be devolved from those on the project team so they can focus 100 % on the task at hand?
What does project close out look like?
How can we capture the learning so we don’t repeat these cycles next time?
What’s going to help your projects move to completion phase quickly?”

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

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

As we step into the end of the year, 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.

TEAMS365 #2153 – FlashbackFriday: Team Wrap up – Six Questions

11/22/2019

Some teams will start winding down in the next while. Before it gets to be the last minute, it can be useful to schedule some time to do a formal team wrap-up. Here are several questions you may want to ask/discuss. They were originally shared in my earlier Teams365 blog post.

Here are six questions to be asking yourself and your team to finish off on a "high note":

1. What projects need to be completed prior to the end of the year? What will it take to wrap these up?
2. What, if anything, needs to wound down before the end of the year - processes, accounts, reports?
3. If we need more people power on a project before the end of the year, what do we let go of?
4. Before we disband for the holidays, what lessons learned and recommendations for next time do we need to capture?
5. What new habits do we need to develop as we get back to work in January?
6. What do we want to celebrate?

What else do you want to make sure you have dialogue about before the team starts to disband for the year?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

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

As we step into the end of the year, 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.

TEAMS365 #2139 Flashback Friday – Working With Strengths

11/8/2019

Working with strengths is another powerful antidote for teams operating in today’s VUCA context. Helping people bring their strengths to work everyday boosts engagement and can be a powerful motivational factor which we know is a key component for virtual teams today.

In this week’s Flashback Friday I wanted to link back to Teams365 #1240.

Here’s what I wrote about different ways to support a focus on strengths with your team:

Gallup has studied the realm of strengths for many years now and research shows that helping employees and team members leverage their strengths every day leads to significant gains. The Gallup Strengths Center mentions these as some of the benefits of strengths-based management practices in December 2016. 90% of organizations which incorporated strengths-based management practices found:

10% to 19% increase in sales
14% to 29% increase in profit
3% to 7% higher customer engagement
6% to 16% lower turnover (in low-turnover organizations)
26% to 72% lower turnover (in high-turnover organizations)
9% to 15% increase in engaged employees
22% to 59% fewer safety incidents

Read Gallup's article here.

So what are some practical and tactical ways team leaders can support their team members in bringing their strengths to work every day?

#1 - Help you team understand what their strengths are - Knowing our strengths is not an intuitive process for many of us. Helping team members understand what their strengths are is an important part of the process. There are several ways to explore strengths including the VIA Character Strengths Survey, and StrengthsFinder. Helping team members consider the question "When are you at your best?" also helps team members become more aware of their strengths.

#2 - Get team members sharing more about their strengths - What they are and how they use them every day at work. This can be a great team meeting conversation touch point. Whether you make it part of a regular team meeting, or a special event, conversations like these lay the foundation for effective team building.

#3 - Pair people with different strengths - Teams which excel usually have complimentary strengths. Pair people on the team together who may have complimentary strengths.

#4 - Pair people who have similar strengths - You may also want to pair people who have similar strengths so they can compare notes and get inspired from each other about how they leverage their strengths.

#5 - Find ways to utilize your strengths more regularly. When we are able to use our strengths more readily engagement goes up as does our satisfaction levels. If using your strengths is not part of your everyday work, have some dialogue with your boss about how you could take on special projects which would leverage your strengths, and/or explore other development opportunities. I can think back to how my participation in many special projects and committees allow myself to bring my best to work, while further building my own skill set and opening up new opportunities where over my career progression I could use my strengths more on a regular basis.

What other ways do you see as possible for people on the team to leverage more of their strengths?

For those interested in learning more about this topic, do check out an excellent article by Courtney Ackerman.

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.
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 #2125 – Flashback Friday – Year End Events for Teams

10/25/2019

As we move into the end of October, attention turns quickly to year-end events for teams. To give you some ideas, I thought I would dedicate this week’s Flashback Friday to a post I have shared before.

Here’s what I wrote in:

#Teams365 #1389: #FlashBackFriday: 4 Best Practices for Year-End Team Retreats

Here’s what I wrote as I shared a previous LinkedIn Pulse post entitled "4 Best Practices for Year-End Team Retreats". The post was geared to anyone who is starting to think about what your year-end retreat can look like.

“It’s that time of year for parties, year-end team retreats and other events. Are you maximizing the amount of time and impact of these team events?

Having supported year-end programming for teams and organizations for many years I thought it would be useful to share four focus areas you may want to consider as you start preparing, planning and perhaps facilitating your year-end processes.

Number One — What’s the purpose? If you had to distill down the top two or three takeaways from the retreat process or that off site, what is it? The purpose of our year-end function can impact the structure and activities undertaken in the program.

Is the purpose of your year-end event:

to build connection?
to share important information?
do some goal planning?
to build understanding across the silos, that may exist within your organization?

I’d encourage you to think about the top two or three purposes of the upcoming program and link to consideration #2.

Number Two — What is the connection to the business? Think about what is the connection to the business. It’s still very common in today’s world for people to just go through the motions of a traditional annual year end party and /or event.

Are you really maximizing that investment of bringing people together?

Could you build into that luncheon a half-day session before or after, to do some work with your staff teams to support their development, to help them look at their skills and strengths and styles and also to share with them, you know, and help them connect to the link with your business.

What opportunities do you have already formalized for bringing people together at year-end? What changes or additions do you want to make?

Number Three — Do you want to do it all alone? Many organizations today have a committee and amongst that committee membership, there may be some members who would be very comfortable in facilitating your year-end team or organizational process.

So, think about who might be best equipped to do the work? Is it you, members of that committee or maybe you are interested in bringing in an external facilitator?

One of the things we do, is either we come in and facilitate or develop activities which you can facilitate yourself.

Think about how you might be able to leverage the resources you have and or bring in some special guest speakers or external resources to contribute to the environment that you want to create.

Number Four — How are you going to take this forward? One of the biggest challenges that we see in learning and development today is this continued lack of transferability to the work place.

This was what drew me to focus more on the area of Coaching which places an ongoing emphasis on accountability and transferability to the workplace.

One the things I like to encourage organizations that I partner with to always thinking about is – How will you sustain the conversation? How will you take this forward into your work?

Hopefully any year-end retreat process or year-end meeting will have an action step and a very formalized action planning stage. Remember to build in time in the new year to revisit your commitments and accountabilities.

Here’s a quick recap:
Number One - Think about the purpose. What are the top three or four reasons or things that you want people to take away?
Number Two - What’s the link of the year-end program to the business? Is it just to have fun or something else?
Number Three - As your approaching your year-end processes, is this something you want to do or do you want to bring in a facilitator? A third option perhaps is to have something designed for you, so you can facilitate it yourself.
And finally, Number Four. What are the takeaways? How will people sustain the conversation? When will you check in on your actions and commitments?”

Have a great weekend!
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 #2118 #Flashback Friday – Remote Work Landscape in 2015

10/18/2019

This week’s Flashback Friday takes us into some of the past posts I’ve included around working remote. As someone who supported teams more than 25 years ago in pretty extreme remote environments, helping teams thrive in the remote space has been a key passion and focus for me. This week’s post takes us back to some of the stats around remote work we started seeing back in 2015. Remote work is not new, rather, it is becoming more common place for employees of all types.

I like to look at the landscape of remote work and some of my current writing is expanding on this. Let’s take a look at where we were in 2015, only 4 years ago, around the landscape of remote work. Here’s what I shared back in Teams365 post #994:

Recently I’ve done a series of posts on virtual and remote team leadership. Learning how to be an effective virtual leader is one part of the equation of moving to a more mobile and engaged workforce. Another key part is creating an enabling environment for virtual and remote work, which may include ensuring there are adequate resources, policies and expectations around virtual work.

Here’s some research around the drivers for developing a more remote workforce. Softchoice’s study the “Death of the Desk Job” found through their survey that:

62% of employees believe they are more productive working outside the office
61% of employees prefer working the equivalent of an eight hour workday broken up over a longer day, rather than in a single 9-5 block
57% of employees work on personal and/or sick days, and 44% of employees worked on their last vacation
24% or organizations have set clear policies and expectations around appropriate work activities after business hours
74% of North American employees would quit their job for one that allow them to work remotely more often
70% would quite in favour of a position that offers increased flexibility

Reference: http://www.softchoice.com/about/press/2015/177 as quoted in HRD Issue 4.3, pp 48 in the article "Is your organization ready to be flexible?"

What you do know and notice about the appetite for remote work at your organization?

(You will find the original post here)

As you think about your world of work, industry and geography – what has changed? How have things shifted in the last 4-5 years? What trends are you seeing – let us know by commenting below.

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 #2111 – FlashbackFriday: Remote Team Mistakes

10/11/2019

This week’s Flashback Friday post takes us back to a post from 2017 on Remote Team Mistakes. Our focus these last few months has been on remote team mistakes. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1163:

This month's focus here at the Teams365 blog has been on virtual and remote teamwork and leadership. Check out our March 2017 posts if you haven't been along on the journey so far.

Today's post covers a range of virtual team faux-pas or mistakes. Things that when overlooked, can lead to missed opportunities, and sometimes a reduction of trust and connection. Consider how you might as a team be able to avoid these and what solutions make most sense for you:

* Not trying to meet regularly - Regular meetings are important in the virtual domain AND an important corollary is that meetings should meet the needs of the group in terms of efficiency. What can be shared before or after the meeting rather than during the meeting. "Out of sight does not always equal out of mind."
* Not thinking that different team members need support - Being on a virtual team can be isolating. While many of us love the autonomy this provides, it does not mean that we don't need support. Be clear with support needs across the team. Regular 1-1s can be important in the virtual/remote world.
* Not considering what type of support different team members need - Given that teams are diverse and complimentary, it is likely that team members will need different types of support. Spend time this week inquiring what type of support is most useful if you don't know.
* Duplication of effort - Watch for how much duplication of effort occurs. This can be a signal that some changes are required around roles and responsibilities, priorities and/or communication.
* Priorities that become competitive - Having a line of sight across the team and priorities can be important in avoiding or minimizing this mistake
* Not having consistent measurement across the team - What does success look like from each team member's perspective around their current priorities and initiatives. Be careful to note what consistent measurement means and looks like.

What other faux-pas are you aware of or want to take note of for your team?

Enjoy your weekend,
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 #2104 – Flashback Friday – Empathy and Connection in Remote Teams

10/4/2019

This week’s Flashback Friday takes us back to a 2015 post I entitled “Empathy and Connection in Virtual Teams”. Emotional Intelligence skills such as relationship building, influence and fostering trust and connection become even more important in today’s remote and virtual teams. I thought it would be useful to revisit this post to get you thinking about what you are doing and what you could expand upon.

Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1533:

One of the skills which is important to develop in the virtual world today is empathy. One of the challenges is that we don't get to see beyond the screen. What are some ways we can be building more empathy and understanding with other virtual team members?

What comes to mind in terms of ways you can boost more connection and understanding amongst team members?

Empathy is a skill set critical for teamwork and leadership. In fact, I probably could do a series of posts on this topic. In today's post, I want to zoom into the question of "what are some practical ways to build more empathy across virtual teams, while also boosting connection?".

There have been some great writings by others on the topic of empathy. Consider these articles -

Empathy in Leadership - 10 Reasons Why It Matters by Tanveer Naseer. Read it here.

Matthew Taylor's Empathy in Leadership: Coaching Leaders to Manage Their Stories. Read it here.

Center for Creative Leadership: Empathy in the Workplace. Find this here.

As virtual teams, here are some ways we can build our skills in empathy while building connection:

1. Provide opportunities for team members to get to know each other - online and offline. While some virtual teams will never meet, building in time for "getting to know" each other is critical. This could entail dedicating some time to sharing "what's outside your window" or “on your desk" as I describe in Chapter 7 of my new book Effective Virtual Conversations.

2. Create formal learning partnerships with others on the team. Many virtual teams benefit from having peer partners to meet with on a regular basis. This helps us to learn more about each other, what projects we are working on. As we listen and learn more trust, connection and understanding is created.

3. Be present and listen. We continue to see how important the ability to focus on virtual conversations is. Nothing will destroy trust and connection faster than hearing another person on the end of the phone or typing away at an email while you are speaking together. What will it take to be present, focus, and deeply listen in your virtual conversations?

4. Listen for the deeper layers - typically in listening we may be staying at the surface. Hearing with one ear and thinking about what we are going to say back to the other person. In the deeper listening needed by virtual teams today, listen to what the person is saying. Notice the pace, pitch of the conversation. Notice what is the emotion behind the words? What is being said?

5. Take time to share more about your world, your work, your priorities. An important part of empathy is understanding. It's a two-way street - being open to share, and being receptive to listening. how much are you sharing about your world, your work and your priorities?

There are multiple ways be can be focusing on the skills of empathy as we build connection on teams. What are some approaches you as a team want to focus on?

You can read the original post here.

Enjoy your weekend,
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 #2097 – #FlashbackFriday – Remote Work – Team Builder

9/27/2019

This week’s Flashback Friday takes us back to a post which kicked off a series on remote team or virtual team builders. With an increasing number of teams moving to the remote space, there is likely to be the need for more support and resourcing in these areas. I hope that you will consider turning to our services here at Potentials Realized, given our experience and grounding in these areas.

Let’s look at #TEAMS365 #1892 – Virtual Team Builders #1 – Creating Connection – Part 1 – Through Images

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing a variety of Virtual Team Builders to support you with quick activities that are going to support virtual and remote teams in focusing in on results and/or relationships.

Virtual teams benefit from time spent in getting to know each other – who is who, who does what, and what priorities they are working on. Virtual team building activities don’t need to take a lot of time.

Something most teams will want to build in across time are quick warm-up exercises to create connection.

The first exercise I wanted to share (which will be followed next week by 2 more), is by creating connection through Icons.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, creating trust and connection across a group is critical. If it’s a virtual and remote team you are working with, you might be working across geographic locations. You may have a team member calling in from Asia, one from Australia, one from Africa, one from New York, one from Europe.

Part of creating connection and team success is ensuring that people get comfortable and feel confident on the call, especially if they might be using a working language that is not their first language.

In my work over the last several decades, I’ve liked to incorporate photos and icons as “door openers” and metaphors for conversation.

Before I started Potentials Realized, one of my last roles was as a sub- regional manager. I had staff in 10 countries and, out of our team of about 30 at one point, there were 20+ different nationalities.

In creating connection across a virtual team, we want to give the team an opportunity to:

Get to know each other,
Understand who we are as a team,
Explore what's important to us,
And understand how we are similar and how we are different.

These questions and the exploration of these questions is a really critical component of the virtual team leader's role.

Back to the Icon exercise, using your access to stock photography find a photo that offers a selection of icons. Have each person select an icon that they connect with, which represents what they bring to the team.

As you go around the table, this is a fun way to share a little bit about yourself in a way that hopefully is not too threatening. Select a graphic that has enough icons which provide enough variety to invite people into the conversation.

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.
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.