Over the last three weeks we’ve taken a deeper dive into Reconnecting Workspaces, my latest book. Pick up a copy at

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0993791557

​Warm regards,
Jennifer
 
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

​This week’s Flashback Friday takes us back to Teams365 #1562 - https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-1562-key-leadership-questions-to-be-asking-this-spring-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 are 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!

Jennifer
 
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

This week I am reaching back to review Navigating Conflict in Teams. Conflict continues to be one of the most challenging topics teams face, especially given that things get magnified in the virtual space. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1196: ​https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-1196-navigating-conflict-in-teams

Conflict in teams is an everyday occurrence and it can be like an Achilles heel – the thing that brings a team down.

Conflict in teams can emerge for many reasons including:

• Competing demands
• Unclear roles
• Lack of clarity around where we are going – our vision, our goals

Regardless of the source of conflict, becoming more proficient and confident in navigating conflict is very important.
In navigating conflict, you will want to consider these questions:

What is more important here - the end result or the relationship? This will influence everything from our stance and approach to conflict. For example, if the end result is really, really important in the short term I may adopt a stance of competition where I do everything I can to “win” at the other’s expense. If the relationship is more important because I need to work with this person, or team, on a regular basis, then I may choose to collaborate. In collaborating, I may let the other party win or spend more time

What do I know about how I approach conflict? We each have our own unique approach to conflict which also shapes how we view conflict. Many team members may have been socialized that conflict is not a bad thing. In fact, part of the team development process is the storming stage where a team needs to figure out who they are, what is important, and how they want to operate. That stage is naturally conflict-ridden.
It can be important during the storming stage for team members to be aware of their natural approach. Are they more conflict-avoidant – i.e. preferring to sweep it under the rug, or are they more head-on with conflict – i.e. raising issues and placing them on the table to immediate exploration?

What is the common ground we share? A third essential area to consider when thinking about conflict in teams is What is the common ground we share. Helping people find that expanse where they do align is critical for conflict resolution. It may only be a small sliver, but helping people see the area in which they align is core.

Supporting teams through conflict. There are some specific things we can do when supporting teams through the choppy waters of conflict. Consider these next time you are working with a team:

Normalize it. A natural part of the formation of groups and teams is conflict and the recognition of differences. Helping teams understand that they are not alone can be useful in taking off some of the pressure of thinking that “they are all alone”.

Give time for the team to work through it. It takes time and space to have these conversations. Prioritize this as something which does need time.

Consider the resources which will support you as a team around this. Having a common framework and skills you can all use in navigating conflict supports the process of resolution. If people don’t know how to have a conversation around conflict it can be challenging. Consider investing resources in some skill development for the team, and/or bringing someone in who can help you with this.

Focus on supporting enhanced self-awareness in the team – In today’s teaming environment we all benefit from enhanced self-awareness. Awareness around how we naturally approach work, our styles, as well as our approach to conflict. Many times teams may be experiencing conflict due to differences in work styles. If you have some team members who are driving for results and working to get things done quickly, whereas others want to make sure things are done correctly, conflict is likely. Helping team members understand their natural style can be of great benefit and may reframe differences to simply differences, rather than something which is wrong or a problem.

Consider the end result. Sometimes it is very easy to get mired in our own perspectives, and what needs to happen. Helping team members reconnect with the end result is critical for success. Connecting with the bigger picture, also helps team members find those slivers, or 2%’s, where they do align.
 
What is important for your team to notice about conflict? What's the issue they need to work through?

Enjoy your reflections!
Jennifer
 
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

We all can use some support with having better conversations. What are the conversations you want to have? Back in Teams365 #1618, I explored the topic of different questions which can help frame out performance conversations. Let’s take a look at what I wrote in that post: www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-1618-questions-for-ongoing-performance-conversations

Performance conversations should be a two-way conversation between an employee and their leader. Often it becomes a one-way passage of information from the leader who for a variety of reasons – nerves, inexperience or urgency – with the leader reading off a bullet list of what the team member has done, and not done.
 
In moving to a culture of on-going feedback it can be important to create an environment where performance conversations are part of a dialogue, rather than an anxiety promoting one-off activity.

Part of this shift involves engaging the team members in their own assessment of how their performance is going. This can entail

Having them review their goals on a regular basis

Having them identify the key activities on a regular basis, connecting them with the goals

Having them self-assess what’s working, and what’s not.

With this pre-planning in mind, art of making this shift is having a variety of questions to stimulate the conversation. Here are a range you might want to use:

Looking at your goals this period (quarter/year/month) what progress have you made OR what achievements have you had?

• What’s been working well?
• What hasn’t been working well with each of these goals?
• What do you need to be more successful (this may lead to a discussion around resourcing – other people and support, or physical resources needed, or other resourcing)
• What’s the one change you want to make around your goals and actions in the next quarter, to accelerate your results (or ramp up your impact)?
• What will help you be more successful with your work?
• What key learning have you had around your work/career since we last met?
  
• What else is important to note?

Using some (and probably not all) of these questions, can hep to stimulate a two-way conversation. Don’t forget that the conversation is also an opportunity for you as a leader to get feedback on how things are going, so be sure to ask them what change could be made as well.

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326