Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

Teams365 #3220: Flashback Friday– Powerful Questions for Leaders

10/28/2022

Today we are going to head back to Teams365 #195 post on powerful questions for leaders. Last week I delivered a number of speaking engagements to leaders, and we spent a lot of time in each conversation around what makes for a powerful conversation with teams.

In our conversation we wound up discussing several of the powerful questions people like to use to stimulate dialogue (from the Greek words dia + logos – or “through speech”). It is through conversation that many create meaning and make sense of the world.

With this in mind, it’s even more important in today’s ever changing world to create new meaning.

Take a look at what I wrote in Teams365 #195:

As leaders we are often trained to make decisions quickly, to advise and provide our interpretation. When we coach others, we want to elicit the insights and knowledge of those we are working with, helping them to make better decisions and take more effective action

“As I write in From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching- Questions form the backbone of any coaching conversation”.

Coaching questions are typically open-ended questions. As illustrated in this week’s Teams365 cartoon, questions may be useful to stimulate thinking, to support action and also to build onto what team members may already know. Questions can also prompt new perspectives around approaches and solutions.

Sometimes known as socratic questions, the best questions may often be:

- Short in length - sometimes only 5-6 words

- In language that is resonant to the person being coached. The language you use when coaching team member on the shop floor may be different than the language you use with your admin support person.

- Provocative - encouraging discovery, new perspectives, challenge

Think of one of the best coaches you have had in your career. How have they used questions? What are the questions they used which really had an impact?

Now think of your experience. Which questions have you asked your staff which had significant impact?

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

For a few more tips around powerful questions, check out this short YouTube Video I share on 20 of my favorite coaching questions.

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #3142: Friday Flashback – The triad of a powerful presentation – The Open, Body and Close!

8/12/2022

It’s Friday which means that it’s time for another Flashback Friday. This week’s Flashback Friday takes us back to Teams365 #644. Here’s what I wrote:

“Whether you are giving an in person presentation or you are leading a webinar, a few key items can help you structure your presentation for clarity and impact. In yesterday’s post, I shared three items to keep in mind – including people remember the start and end of things, less is more and make it about your audience.

In structuring your presentation it can be useful to keep in mind a simple structure – open, body, close.

The opening of any presentation should not only capture people’s attention, but also encourage people to connect with the topic. Helping your audience consider, “What’s in it for me?” or the connection point will engage people right away. In the opener, you will also want to highlight where you are going and possibly your main points.

The body of the presentation is the core. Consider the use of visuals to support what you have to say and make sure your points are crisp ad relevant. As I wrote yesterday, we often try to fit too much in. Less is more. What are the key main points? Stick to these, What graphics will support this?

The close of any presentation should summarize where you have been and once again, what the main pints are. Notice how people have now had the main points reinforced three times – during the open, throughout the body, and during the close. Remember, people will be more apt to remember the start and close, so end it with a punch! What is your call to action and what action do you want people to take?

In terms of how much time to spend on each one – consider the 10/80/10 rule, a max of 10% of your presentation time for the open and close (each) and the bulk in the body.

What changes can you make with your next presentation, based on this triad?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials

Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk - Virtual, Remote and Hybrid Checklist

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon

#Teams365 #3135: Flashback Friday – 5 tips and 5 questions to make your meetings more effective

8/5/2022

Keeping aligned with our focus on meetings, here’s a number of quick tips to focus on, originally shared in Teams365 #960.

Five quick tips, and questions to consider, for making meetings more effective include:

1. Be clear on the purpose of the meeting. Is a meeting the best way to handle this?

2. Be clear on who needs to be at the table. Does everyone need to be there for the full meeting? Who might be needed in order to provide information? Decisions? Authority? Make sure you know who will need to be there or else it may mean another meeting. Having everyone there all the time may actually slow the meeting down. At this point, you will want to start considering who needs to be there, when.

3. What is the outcome you desire? What are the 3-5 tangible takeaways you want from the meeting? This question will help to reinforce what the purpose is, and who really should be at the table.

4. What decisions have been made? What outcomes are expected, and what are the timelines. Who is responsible for doing this? Tracking it? Reporting on it? What will follow up look like? Being granular in this stage is a key to success. Many times it is glossed over. Be sure to leave sufficient time to summarize key decisions made, and implications of this.

5. Keep to time - Time management is an art form with effective meetings. Being too lax with time can lead to frustration and disengagement. If timing tends to fall off , assign someone a time keeper role, and put your stronger facilitator in the chair seat to keep the meeting moving. Tangents don't always benefit meetings.

Check out the recent Teams365 blog posts here for more on meetings, as well as Chapter 18 of my 2021 book, Reconnecting Workspaces: Pathways to Thrive in the Virtual, Remote and Hybrid World.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials

Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk - Virtual, Remote and Hybrid Checklist

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon

#Teams365 #3121: Flashback Friday- Minimizing Distractions

7/22/2022

Today we’re looking back at Teams365 #1470

Some initial ideas to minimize distractions may include:
Creating "focused work" periods. Whether it's 30 or 60 minutes a day, focused times, which have no immediate distraction allow us to get things done. Many studies find that our immediate productivity can be boosted by giving projects time windows and a time frame. The Pomodoro technique is one example of accelerating productivity. It posits that focused activity for 25 minutes can be followed by a 5 minute break. Read more about the Pomodoro Technique from its' creator here.

Become ruthless with meetings. Moving the needle on meetings may be a goal for many teams today. If you have not yet downloaded a copy of my bookmark for my newest book - Effective Virtual Conversations - on making virtual meetings more effective, download it here. It includes 8 Questions you will want to ask yourself before every meeting.

An initial question to ask yourself this year is "is a meeting the best way to communicate this information or is there a better way?

Closing email and other app windows at different parts of the day. While it may not always be possible to turn off email for extended periods, it is important to have blocks of time where we are able to focus solely on the task at hand. Providing small work areas for individual and/or groups to meet in for the important pieces of work are critical. It may take a few minutes to get into the flow of these projects, and scheduling in time on a regular basis to have focused work time, is useful in breaking the cycle of ongoing disruption.

Ask yourself if you need to interrupt someone before you immediately hit send on an email which could be delayed, or bundled with some of the other questions you have.

Where does your team get distracted at present? What small, but consistent changes would make a difference to the way you are working?

Stay tuned throughout the year for more productivity tips.

Enjoy your weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials

Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk - Virtual, Remote and Hybrid Checklist

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon

Teams365 #3014 - Flashback on Four Keys to Navigating Conflict

4/1/2022

As we explore the topic of conflict management this week I wanted to take us back to a blog post on the 4 Keys to Navigating Conflict from Teams365 #511 back in 2015. It’s is still as relevant today as it was then.

Here’s what I wrote back in 2015:
“We recently explored different approaches to conflict here at the Teams365 blog, namely accommodation, compromise, collaboration, avoiding and n completion when faced with conflict.

What else is possible? Today's post focuses on four things you can do every day when thinking and working around conflict.

Be proactive and address conflict early on – While easier said than done, many views navigating conflict as very challenging, in part because issues may have escalated even more than at the start.
Find the common ground – Finding similar vantage points or even “slivers” where you can see “eye to eye” is a starting point in navigating conflict. These mini-windows are opportunities to open dialogue and mutual problem solving, rather than raising walls.
Recognize that conflict can be a healthy thing when we have the tools to navigate it. Where cultures do not recognize that conflict is a normal and natural part of human relationships, it may be minimized and swept under the rug, or it can be seen as “abnormal” and “vilified” where something is wrong. What is the culture at your workplace around conflict?
Invest in your skills in navigating conflict. Conflict management is not always well modeled in our workplaces and families. If this has been your case it can be useful to invest in some professional development and/or mentoring so you have more phrases and even a model or process to follow. Where is conflict management well modeled? What tools and resources are people using?

Navigating differences is an important skill set for today’s global environment. What actions do you want to take towards building your skills and capacity?

Enjoy your reflections and have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #3000 - Flashback Friday – March 2021’s Blog post on Hybrid, The Next Iteration of the Workplace?

3/18/2022

As part of today’s Flashback Friday I am reaching back to a March 2021 blog post I entitled “Hybrid, the next interaction of the workplace?”. You can read the original here.

The remote work experience lasted longer for many than they would have liked, and many locations have moved, or are moving back to in-person work. Interestingly a recent survey done by Amazon here in Canada found that only 12% wanted to return to the office 5 days a week, and 2 in 5 Canadian Workers would look for another job is they had to go back to the office full time. You can read what the Toronto Star has written about that study here.

So let’s take a look at what I wrote last year:

As some locations start to get their populations vaccinated, workplaces may be reopening in the not so distant future. In some cases, some organizations will go back to work, in other cases they may become hybrid, with some people in the office, and others working from home.

The hybrid workspace can be even more challenging in terms of support, than the all in-person realm, or all remote workspace.

Having worked in the hybrid world for many years, here at Potentials Realized, we will be widening our program support for teams, as well as consulting services for organizations to more explicitly support hybrid working arrangements and teams. We feel that this is an important part of the next phase of work and economics.

Here are some interesting pieces of recent research about the hybrid workspace:

“Among the challenges of managing a hybrid workforce, 30% of business leaders are most concerned with maintaining corporate culture. Thirteen percent of respondents reported concern over creating parity between the remote and in-office experience; 13% also are concerned about providing a seamless employee experience.” – Gartner Study, June 2020 -

“Output driven metrics” along with “Regular meetings to touch base, say once a day at a set time can set the expectation and answer any questions that need answering. From there, it’s a matter of trusting your team to get the job done and making adjustments as necessary.”

A November 2020 study noted, “More than 20 percent of the workforce could work remotely three to five days a week as effectively as they could if working from an office. If remote work took hold at that level, that would mean three to four times as many people working from home than before the pandemic”. - https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/whats-next-for-remote-work-an-analysis-of-2000-tasks-800-jobs-and-nine-countries

Smartway2 study found that 92 percent of people surveyed in fall 2020 wanted to return to the office. They would prefer one of the following:

to work mostly from home with occasional office time (40%)
to share their time equally between home and office (31%)
to work mostly at the office with occasional time at home (21%) (Source

What’s next in your workspace? What’s important for you to note? What is important to start thinking about?

These questions and information is just as relevant today in March 2022 as it was last year in March 2021. Let us know what you are doing and focusing on!

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #2986 - Flashback – Review of the 3 Week Series Highlight

3/4/2022

Thanks for joining us for the last 3 weeks for the Chapter 12 highlight of Reconnecting Workspaces. I hope you have enjoyed reading the posts as much as I have enjoyed sharing them.

Over the last three weeks here at the blog we have been exploring the topic of team effectiveness through a variety of posts. Be sure to check out the many posts in the last three weeks including:

Relationships are a Critical Part of Remote Work Success

Principle: Set People Up For Success

Reconnecting the Workspace Tip: Onboarding

Quote: Determining The Right People

Myth Around Virtual, Remote and Hybrid Work – Will You Sink or Swim?

Brain Tip: Mental Models

Team Tool: 90-Day Checklist

Month End Planning

Flashback: Building Onto the Skills of New Virtual Team Members (from Effective Virtual Conversations)

Weekly Journaling Prompt 180: What’s Going to Help You Thrive?

Weekly Journaling Prompt 179: What’s Going To Help You Be Successful In Your Work Right Now?

Remote Pathways Podcast: Thriving Long Term with Remote Work

Mentoring as Part of Onboarding 90 Day Guide for Success Excerpt

Flashback – Six Leadership Questions a Day Onboarding

Productivity in the Remote Space – Six Key Areas to Explore from PlanDoTrack

What the Research Says: Getting Onboarding Right

Enjoy the reading!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #2979 - Flashback – Six Leadership Questions a Day Onboarding

2/25/2022

Back in the 2nd year of the Teams365 blog I did a regular series of 6 Leadership Questions a day. These in fact influenced the team questions you will find in Reconnecting Workspaces.

I thought it would be interesting to go back and see what I had written in the series around onboarding, and here’s what I found as some questions for leaders to consider with respect to onboarding:

This week's 6 Leadership Questions explores the topic on-boarding new team members. These are six potential questions you can use to spark dialogue and discussion.

1 What does the person need in order to get up to speed quickly?
2. Who are key members the person needs to meet?
3. What are the top 5 things they need to know?
4. What expectations do I need to clarify?
5. What are the key processes they need to master?
6. What are their top 3-5 goals (individual/organizational and team)?

What other questions do you want to make a practice of incorporating into some of the initial 1-1s with new staff members? For more on onboarding, Check out these past blog posts.

Check out that original Teams365 post from 2015 at https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-627-6-leadership-questions-onboarding-new-team-members

Enjoy,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #2972 - Flashback: Building Onto the Skills of New Virtual Team Members (from Effective Virtual Conversations)

2/18/2022

This Friday I wanted to take a look back to a post from 2017, #1406: Building onto the skills of virtual team members, as we look to this week’s topic of remote work success. A key part is the onboarding experience. So what’s needed in the first few weeks of a virtual team member's role?
Let’s take a look back to Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #20, originally published in 2017 when I wrote:

Today's tip comes from my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, page 331 where I write "In virtual teams, it is also imperative that we build capability in the skills of new team members".

While capacity development is critical in many teams today, it can be absolutely essential to high performance in virtual teams, given that people are working independently in many instances.

As a team leader, consider how you can be building capability within your team around:
Goal Setting
Reporting
Coaching Skills - particularly peer coaching skills
Feedback
Business Acumen (as appropriate to the work you do)
Difficult Conversations
Relationship Building
Emotional Intelligence
Conflict Management
Influence

For many remote team members, they are having to utilize these skills each and every day.

Just as onboarding of new team leaders is important, the onboarding of new team members can be just as critical. Some of the areas you will want to focus on in the onboarding process for new team members are:

Team culture - who you are
Who to Go to - Key resource people - other members of the team, internal resources, external stakeholders
Reporting requirements - budget, resources, status updates
Team meetings
Understanding your role
Key Goals, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and Corporate Priorities
Goal Setting (whether you use a one-page plan or other)
Feedback and Performance Management issues
Expectations around:
- Surfacing important issues
- Availability (when you are on and when you are off)
- Quality and completion of tasks
- Navigating Conflict
- Work-life (again boundaries around when you are on and off)
- Reporting
- Collaboration with others on the team
- Meeting focus

What other issues are important for you to brief new team members on? How do you want to undertake your onboarding? Do you spend a day together onsite and/or virtually? Do you spend a few hours together several times during the first week or month? Let us know what you do to onboard new team members using the comments below.

Enjoy your weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #2958 - Flashback – When Things are Complex, and Uncertain

2/4/2022

Welcome back to another Friday Flashback. This week I am reaching back to what I wrote four years ago on February 4th, 2018. I shared one of my favorite quotes about how collaboration is needed when things are complex and uncertain. Little did I know about how the pandemic would invite all of us to consider how to work more effectively in environments where are ambiguous, complex and uncertain.

As you read through what I shared in 2018 consider how relevant this is for you now. Think about how your work, and need for collaboration has shifted.

Looking forward to continued conversation with you!

Now over to that 2018 post: = https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/february-24th-2018

Today's quote comes from me - "When it's uncertain, complex and changing, collaboration is needed".

One of the themes I work with teams and leaders around is the ability to become more fluid in approaches to help them with the ongoing complexity and change of their work. What once was more isolated to the type of work I did with the UN - ongoing change, ambiguity, ever changing situations, is now becoming much more common-place to everyone in the work force. It requires a different way of working, and a culture shift, for many organizations. This is not easy, nor is it quick. The change may take years to really take hold and be "lived" at all levels of an organization.

For teams and leaders, learning how to collaborate more effectively and efficiently, can be part of the shift to a more fluid working style. It's more likely that you may not have all the information you need, or can access yourself. It's likely you don't have all the relationships needed to get something done. Being able to liaise with, and work through others, is a critical skill set for today's workforce. A leaders' role, particularly one who is supporting a virtual or remote team, often becomes one of liaison - connecting others to resources and people.

What type of collaboration is needed? What is the level of skill around collaboration in your leadership? Team? I hope that you will take some time looking at the posts I've written on collaboration this month and in my earlier years of the blog. Check out past posts on collaboration here. https://www.potentialsrealized.com/apps/search?q=collaboration

Enjoy the focus,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_britton_virtual_remote_and_hybrid_checklist_aug_2021

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.