​This week’s Flashback Friday takes us back to a spring 2018 on 19 questions to be asking during one-on-ones, project debriefs, and I thought it would be useful to share in light of recent posts about listening and questioning.

Here’s what I wrote in Teams #1562 

Today's post focuses on questions to spark discussion around three key spring start up activities. In these three areas mentioned in yesterday’s blog post - one on ones, planning and project debriefs.

Today’s post dives into a series of questions you’ll want to ask yourself, and your team, in three key spring areas. Whether you are a team leader, member or even business owner, this may be one of those posts that you want to highlight and return back to.
 
One on Ones:
One on ones with your team are critical on a regular basis. Unfortunately, they are also the things that usually get left at the bottom of the to-do-list. While each team leader will have their own frequency of holding these with team members, you do want to make them regularly consistent. Some of the questions you may want to incorporate into your upcoming one on ones are:

1. What are your key priorities this quarter?
2. What support do you need in order to be successful? (From me, from others on the team)?
3. How frequently would you like us to connect?
4. What’s going to help you stretch as a professional? What’s going to be the challenge for you this?
5. What are the partnerships or relationships which are going to help you be successful?
6. What check ins will be useful (time, frequency, type) to see how things are going?
 
Project Debriefs:
​Projects large and small deserve a bit of post-mortem or debrief. Here is a selection of questions you may want to incorporate into your next project debrief.

1. What worked well with that project?
2. What were the three critical success factors (i.e. things that mad the project a success)
3. What key lessons were learned?
4. Which projects do they need to be carried forward into? Who else could benefit from hearing about these lessons learned?
5. What needs to be avoided at all costs in future projects?
6. What systems helped with teamwork, roles, tasks and resources?
 
Planning:
​If you haven't had the chance to undertake some planning, grab a pen and work through these questions. They are also ones you may want to share with your team:

1. What are the top 3 -5 priorities this month?
2. Who (or what relationships) is/are needed in order to make this a success?
3. What’s the one habit that will help these projects?
4. What might get in the way?
5. Where are you getting the bulk of your results right now? How can you do more of this? What do you need to say no to?
6. What can get delegated or deferred?
7. What tasks are not adding value and need to be dumped?

​Enjoy the questions. Share your favorite here in the comments!

​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.

​This week’s flashback Friday takes us to preparing for the feedback conversation. When feedback is unplanned or unscheduled things can go awry. Even taking a few minutes on a regular basis to review your team members performance, can be a useful habit to get into. Providing feedback on a regular basis is a best practice of leadership today.

Check out Teams365 1252 Preparing for the Feedback Conversation. This is useful for both the person giving and the person receiving the feedback.

Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1252:
Today's post takes us to the realm of feedback, an area I often find myself working with teams around. The performance conversation should not be a one-off conversation. In fact, it should be an on-going dialogue (two-way) between staff and their leader. 

​Taking time to prepare for the feedback conversation is an essential step in the process, and it is often one that is overlooked. It's important to take some time to think about the performance conversation, rather than just winging it.

​Some things to do when you are starting to prepare for any feedback conversation is:

​Make sure that you have solid items to talk about. What are the facts? What is hearsay? What have you seen yourself? If you realize that you don't have a lot to share, this is a flag to make some changes so that next time you do.

​What are the key goals which are important to discuss? Another challenge in the feedback conversation is that the team leader may be focusing on different things than the employee. What are the key goals which are important to discuss? Are these aligned?

How have you set the employee up for success in scheduling this meeting? Performance conversations should be a two-way process. What have you done to set the employee up for success? Have you asked them to consider any questions prior to meeting? Have you invited them to do a self-assessment? When was the last time the two of you sat down to explore performance issues? Nothing raised in an annual review should be a surprize.

​Dedicate time and space for the performance conversation and preparation. Even though many of us feel we need to run from task to task, feedback and performance conversations should not be left as a low item priority. Make sure you are dedicating time and space for not only holding the performance conversation, but also preparing for it.
​
​What other tips do you have for preparing for the performance conversation?

Enjoy the conversations!
​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.

​This month’s theme is about teamwork in complexity. One of the more complex areas can be the virtual and remote space. Let’s look at mistakes made by new and experienced virtual and remote team leaders.
​
I also thought it would be interesting to reach back to a skill-based post as well. Here’s what I wrote about virtual and remote leadership skills:

Today we reach the W in the A-Z of Virtual and Remote Team Leadership. As virtual and remote team leaders, having a wealth of skills and experiences to draw on can be invaluable.  Given the need to lead across distance and ever-changing contexts it can be useful to have a broad base of skills to draw up on. Many of us are Jacks or Jills of all trades. The ability to lead confidently in uncertainty and across issues we are often unfamiliar with is key. Our ability to empower our team members to take the lead and advise on issues is also critical.

​Questions to Consider:

• ​When you think of your skill base as a team leader, what broad skills do you bring really help you lead effectively?
• What new skills would you like to add to the table?
• ​What experiences add to your mix?
• ​What new leadership experiences would help you round out your style?

https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-850-virtual-and-remote-team-leadership-w-is-for

I also wanted to remind you of some of the more common mistakes new and experienced virtual and remote team leaders make:

Today’s post explores common mistakes virtual and remote team leaders can make. In this post we are going to look at five different ones.

1. Not enough 1-1's – As I have said many times, being out of sight is not the same as being out of mind. Not spending enough time in one-on-ones can be detrimental to the levels of trust team members feel, the connection they feel with others, which will have an impact on levels of engagement. What is an appropriate frequency of meeting time with team members? What does it look like – phone calls, video streaming, onsite visits, or bringing staff into the office regularly?
2. Not learning on your feet – Part of being an effective virtual and remote team leader is your ability to be shifting, learning and adapting. Given that there is much less levels of control and greater span, the ability to learn on your feet and expecting this rather than feeling you will have all the answers, can make a big difference with team members.
3. Not being clear with goals – Goals can be a little different with virtual and remote teams. Whether people are matrixed and reporting into different areas, or whether goals can become competitive, providing opportunities to be clear with goals is important.
4. Not helping people connect with the bigger picture – Because virtual and remote team members are working with different levels of autonomy and independently, helping team members connect with the bigger picture is essential. This could include helping them understand more about corporate and departmental goals, giving them more access to strategic or corporate plans, and making goals and achievements more visible. Making goals more visible might include making the reporting structures more shared and visually appealing, or mapping out team goals on a weekly basis or other.
5. Not providing team members with the necessary responsibility and authority – A final mistake virtual and remote team leaders can make is not providing the necessary responsibility and authority to their team members so they can make the decisions they need to autonomously.

https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-1177-common-mistakes-made-by-virtual-and-remote-team-leaders

What can you do to avoid these common mistakes?

Pick up a copy of the entire A-Z series at the Potentials Realized Store here. It’s a downloadable ebook format for $19 US.

All the best,
Jennifer

​This month’s posts are geared to Teamwork in Uncertainty. This is a close cousin to last May’s posts on Teamwork in Complexity. I thought it would be useful to take us back to that post on Teamwork Skills in Complexity – Experimentation from May 2018. Here’s what I wrote:

This month we are exploring the skills required in teamwork, including listening and curiosity. Today I wanted to take a dive into a third skill area, that being the area of experimentation.

Experimentation is key for business leaders and teams today. Many times, the context is changing so quickly that we don’t have time to complete an entire roll-out before having to make a final decision. That can lead to a mindset of experimentation, where it is encouraged to try things out, see what works and what doesn’t.

In supporting experimentation in our team we want to:

• Encourage and reward trial and error
• Create safety around not getting “things right”
• Provide team members with time and resources to experiment, beyond their every day team responsibilities
• Facilitate an evaluation of projects or “Experiments” that are completed or are even at the midpoint

 
Questions we may ask at project reviews include:

• What’s working?
• What’s not?
• What are the things that need to be abandoned or tweaked?
• What additional resources do we need?
• What unknown obstacles have become visible?
• What is the big learning we are taking?
• What is the one thing/ or the many things we are going to do differently going forward?
• Who else can we learn from (including our own past projects?

​Read the original post here.

What else is important for you to note around experimentation?

If you haven’t read the blog posts I did earlier this week on Teamwork in Uncertainty around experimentation and cultivating more curiosity, be sure to check them out.

Wishing you 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 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.

With our focus this month on teamwork in uncertainty, my guess is that many of you are thinking about the questions “Practically, what are some things that I can do to support my team through uncertainty?” OR “What can we do to address these topics?”
​
This week’s FlashbackFriday post takes us back to Teams365 #1657 when I hosted a series around the A- Z of Team Development Activities. As leaders (and team members) it is important to have a variety of ideas and tools available to facilitate the conversations needed for teams to excel.
You can read the original post here.
​
Here’s what I wrote:
​
“This month’s focus is on team development. The summer months may be one of the only times when people have an opportunity to focus in on what’s needed for their team. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing a quick A through Z of possibilities for team development activities, whether you are supporting a virtual team, intact team or project team. Over the last five years I’ve written about a lot of these different areas and I’ll include links to the original posts for you to check out:

A – Assumptions, Acknowledgements, Action and Accountability
 
Take a step back to one of the first A through Z series I did back in 2014 on Leadership. Read the Leadership A – Z around A for Action and Accountability here.
 
B – Barriers, Beliefs, Behaviors, Boundaries, Brevity,  Bottom lining, Beauty, Better, and Best

Check out Teams365 #427 where I explore 6 Leadership Questions for B here. 
 
Check out Teams365 #309 for additional focus areas around B – Check it out here.
 
C – Culture, Communication, Conversation, Change, Collaboration

Check out these six leadership questions around C here.
 
Virtual and Remote Leadership – C is for Communication. Read it here.
 
Check out the Leadership Myth – Change is Easy here.
 
 
D – Delegation, Decisions, Direct, Difficult Conversations
 
Check out Teams365 #315 on D is for Delegation. Read it here.
 
Check out Teams365 #431  - Six Leadership Questions a day - read it here.
 
And finally: Virtual and Remote Team Leadership - read it here.
 
As you consider the A-D of your team right now, what are focus areas the team could work around? Highlight 4-5 key areas you’d like to have conversation or a focus around in the coming weeks.”
​
Consider what type of conversations you want to have.
 
With 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 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.

This week our Flashback Friday post takes us over to the sister blog, PlanDoTrack. Earlier this year, I launched a second workbook planner, this one geared for virtual and remote professionals and teams. As some of you may know, last summer I launched the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, an analog planner and business development resource for professional coaches.
​
Based on requests from the virtual and remote teams I work with, I customized the PDT planner for the world of the virtual and remote worker – entrepreneur, team leader or team member.  As I bring awareness to this new resource, I will be highlighting some of the companion PlanDoTrack blog posts. Do be sure to check them out there.

Here’s a recent one which will be of interest to all virtual and remote workers on Building Peer Support across your virtual team. You can read it here. 

Part of successful work in a context which is uncertain and highly volatile is being able to leverage relationships. We don’t know what skills and connections we might need. That’s where peer connection can become as important, if not more important, than your relationship with your direct supervisor.

Here’s what I wrote about different ways we can be fostering more peer support across our teams:

It’s likely that your virtual and remote team may not get the support they need. As I often write “Out of sight should not equal out of mind”.
​
In a virtual and remote team, it can be very useful to provide peer support across the team. This might include things such as:

Mentoring pairs – If there are certain skills people want to develop, is there a way to create mentoring pairs across the team?

Peer partners - A valuable activity can be assigning peer partners across the team on an annual basis. Whether formal, or informal, having a partner people can meet with and ask questions to, can be valuable in sharing learning.

Job shadowing – Another interesting, and valuable, experience can be job shadowing virtually, where a more junior person is paired with a more senior team member. They may shadow meetings virtually and learn more about the behind the scenes work experience by co-working virtually. Consider how you might create a “take me to work day”.

Formal coffee break/meal sharing time – We learn a lot from each other informally. What are the informal pauses you can create for the team? This might involve coffee breaks where people can drop in for a chat once a week or every few weeks, or a lunch time potluck.

Co-working experiences - Where people bring projects they are working on and work together real time on a virtual platform like zoom, checking in at the top of each hour and working for several hour bursts. A session held like this once a month or more frequently can be incredibly valuable in terms of “getting things done” and also supporting learning across the team.

What are the different ways you can build in more virtual connection time across the team? This is critical for building your team culture.

I hope that you will take a few minutes to check out the PlanDoTrack blog and the related resources at the site for virtual and remote professionals.

Best,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

​This week’s Flashback Friday brings us back to the topic of roles in a team. One area that doesn’t always get explored but can create a number of challenges is team roles.
​
Here’s what I wrote about Team Roles in Teams365 #1527: 

“An important part of the team building process is exploring and clarifying team roles. There are several great frameworks by researchers around the different roles team members play. For example, you may want to explore the writings and frameworks of Belbin.

In my work as a team coach I like to build on the knowledge of the team itself, getting them to generate their own framework, and naming the different roles they play in their team. It’s common to hear terms like: Project Coordinator, Social Conveyor, Initiator, Implementer, Fact Checker, Devil’s Advocate. Each role serves a valuable purpose.

What are the roles which exist in your team?
​
Why is this topic important?

Exploring team roles is important for a variety of reasons. First, conflict often emerges when teams do not have clarity on their roles as a team.

Next, role overlap may lead to duplication, and role division may lead to huge gaps that exist.
​
Another layer which is extremely important as a team is to ensure that others understand what roles you inhabit, and what is enjoyable or not. It’s also important to remember that members of a group can get into “role fatigue” when they have to inhabit that role for a long time. The writing of Marita Fridjohn and Ann Rod explores this topic, along with other many useful team topics.
 
Here are some questions to prompt a discussion you can undertake as a team:

• What are the roles which exist within the team?
• Who inhabits the different roles?
• What is the greatest value that role serves for this team?
• How might that role get over-magnified or over-inhabited?
• What roles need to be clarified for the team?
• What roles are missing? What’s needed?
• Which roles are overlapping? What impact does this have?"

​I hope that you will spend some time this week exploring these questions as a team, along with the questions of:

• What role fatigue is happening?
• What roles are no longer serving others?

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

This month’s focus at the blog is Team Springboards. Teams are the engines of many businesses today and being in top shape is important. Team culture is also important, given the context of virtual and remote work where matrix teams are an inevitable part of the equation. When working in matrix environments, it can be really important to strengthen your team culture and clarify how things are done in your culture. Again, team culture is about HOW WE DO THINGS. It’s our processes, our practices, and what’s acceptable and what’s not.

I thought it would be useful to take us back to a past post on Team Culture which you may want to explore as you go to define the different team cultures you are part of. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1526:
​
“Team Culture: The Every Manager’s Desktop Reference defines organizational culture as “a set of shared values, goals, practices, and management styles that characterize an organization and are expected to be reflected in its public face and member behaviors” (pp 414, Every Manager’s Desktop Reference).

Today’s VUCA business context, characterized by ongoing change and flux, has pointed many teams to the importance of team culture. Our team culture may be different, or aligned with, our organizational culture. Simply put, team culture is “HOW WE DO THINGS”. It is the behaviors, practices and values which shape our every day interaction. Think about a team who has as part of it’s culture “customer service”. Actions and activities around providing exceptional service will be prioritized over ones that value quality and/or time, unless they are linked to customer service.

What are the adjectives that describe your culture?

Team Culture doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, and HR writers like Susan Heathfield reminds us “team members understand that 20% of the problems that they will experience as a team will fall within the context of the task or mission the team is assigned to accomplish. The other 80% of the problems they experience will relate to their team culture and the processes team members establish and commit to for interacting with each other as team members.” Here's a link to her great article Team Culture and Clear Expectations at The Balance.com.

There are many different models of what comprises team culture:

Culture includes our behavioral norms and agreements - How do we do things here? What is acceptable and not acceptable.

It also includes team identity – How do I connect with others, how do we see ourselves?
​
What we value: Culture is shaped by our values, beliefs and actions. It also includes our mindset. Consider what some of the mindsets are for you as a team. This might include: “We are able to flow with the changes that come our way” OR “We go above and beyond or “We rise to the challenge every time”.
When cultures are strong new members and external people can sense what our team is like. It’s almost a visible layer to others. This is especially true when we have a culture of collaboration, having each other’s back, or helping each other.

​What's important for you to note and be in dialogue around as a team with respect to team culture?”

Here's the original post.
​
What’s important to note about the cultures you are part of right now?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

This week at the blog we’ve been exploring the topics of trust and connection. As part of this week’s Flashback Friday, let’s reach back to Teams365 #610 where I explored Four Ways to Boost Trust. Here’s what I wrote:

As we explored earlier this week, trust is a key issue for teams today. Today’s blog post looks at four ways to build trust in your team:

1. Connection - We feel supported when we feel valued, known and heard. Connection is a critical factor for high performing teams. Teams who feel connected with each other have often invested time in getting to know one another, and schedule time for regular connections. Perhaps a 2 pm daily meeting is the norm, or a Monday morning huddle kicks off your week. Consider what will boost connection amongst your team members.

2. Clarity - Clarity is key in creating trust. When we know what is expected of us, it is easier to follow-through and know how we are doing. Creating shared, and clear expectations of each other is important, as is having clarity around roles.

3. Communication - Communication is the foundation of connection and clarity. Consider how the team wants to communicate with each other, and what in fact is most effective.

4. Knowledge/Competence - Many trust models talk about the importance of skills and knowledge, or what they call competence, in building trust. If we know that others have the skills and knowledge to have our backs, we can rest easier that things will get done.

What else do you see as other factors building trust?

As you think about your work and team practices right now, what are you doing to boost:

1. Connection
2. Clarity
3. Communication
4. Knowledge and Competence

Let us know and share your comments below!

​Enjoy your weekend,
Jennifer

It’s Friday and time for another FlashbackFriday. I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at April 5th, 2016 to see what I was writing about then.  In March and April of 2016, I was undertaking a series I called the A-Z of Virtual and Remote Team Leadership. On April 5th of 2016, we had arrived at M – which I earmarked as M for MAVERICK. What connotation does Maverick have in your organization today? Is it a good, or a bad thing? Regardless, here’s what I wrote, pointing to the Oxford Dictionary’s definition. How can a dash of “maverick” support innovation in your context right now?

Here’s the post – Teams365 #826:

Today we are at the M in the Virtual and Remote Leadership Series.  One of the most important characteristics I think virtual and remote team leaders can have is that of a maverick. The Oxford Dictionary defines maverick as:
​
Maverick: An unorthodox or independent-minded person - Oxford Dictionary
As virtual team leaders our ability to be unorthodox with our thinking, solutions and approaches can be very important, especially if our organization is just starting to embrace virtual teams.

It is likely that developing out of the box solutions will be common place, as is supporting our team members to do similar types of thinking on their own.

As virtual and remote team leaders we are often having to innovate in new areas, and come up with practices and processes that have not existed before. Being a maverick means innovating, AND it also means being respectful in our disruption.

I always think of my last virtual team leadership role where I instituted an annual face-to-face two-day retreat for team members. When I started my role, I asked the office about how often the team got together. The team was based across ten countries, and prior to my start had never met physically in almost 30 years. The lost cost of sharing of experience across these countries, and innovation was apparent. Hobbling together funding from different sources the first year of my leadership, and a lot of flexibility and good will on the part of the team,  I was able to bring people together for three days. The output was immediately recognizable by not only my team but our superiors, and became an easy selling point for the following years' budgets.

Questions to consider:

• What does maverick mean to you? Your organization? Your context?
• What's important about being a maverick?
• What maverick role models do you have?
• What actions would be in service to the team? The organization?

Enjoy your week,
Jennifer