This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip asks you to consider the area of Goal Setting. Providing space for people to set and share their goals in the virtual space can be an important connector in the virtual space.

If group members are meeting over an extended time, it may be useful to have people share their progress using a:

• One Page Plan
• A Dashboard

Tracking goals can be a motivating process. To avoid it becoming a “check box activity” or goal fatigue, provide opportunities for people to connect into what’s important about the goal, or the overarching WHY.

In exploring the why you might ask questions like “What’s possible?”, “Three years from now, where do you want to be?”

Questions to consider:

• What are the key goals you are focusing on this month?
• How is progress towards these goals coming?
• What is the WHY behind the goal? What would you like to make sure you experience?
•  What do you want to do to keep your goals visible?
  

​Best wishes,
Jennifer

It’s time for another weekly journaling prompt. These are geared to get you to build in a pause point every week and think about what is important to you.

This week the question is “at my best I am….”

In past posts I've shared the benefits of journaling. You can read that post here.

One of the activities I take a lot of teams through is this reflectin of who they are when they are at their best. Reconnecting with what's worked, and who we are when we are leveraging our skills and strengths can create a strong pivot.

Today I hope you will find some time to create a few minutes to capture reflections of times when you were at your best.

Enjoy your writing!
​Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Journaling Prompt gets you thinking about the question “Something I won’t forget….”

Our memories can easily fade and transmute with time. Writing things out provides us with a clearer indication of what did happen.

As you consider the events from the last few months, what are the things you want to remember? What are the things you don’t want to forget next time….?

A quick reminder that I have pulled the Weekly Journaling Prompts together in a quarterly format. You can pick up and download the first 12 weeks of the series in a new downloadable booklet format at the Potentials Realized store. Here are a few shots of Volume 1 – the first 12 weeks in action.

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

​Today’s blog post gets us thinking about values. Values serve as anchors or a compass, leading the way or anchoring us when we need to make decisions, prioritize and focus.
​
In an uncertain context, being clear about our behaviors as a team is critical. As we go to explore our values, we may first want to consider what our values are individually. To do this, we might explore the following questions:

• What is important to me?
• What are the things I will take a stand for?
• What’s absolutely essential to have in my work/life?
• What makes me angry/happy/at ease?

 
All of these questions will usually point to a value which is important.
​
Underneath the words of a value are the behaviors. What do the values look like in action? If I were to take my phone into the workplace and record behaviors, what would I see?

As a team, and especially a remote team, having a focus on values can help during periods of uncertainty. Even though the context may change, hopefully our values are not changing in the arena.

As a team, this week consider what your top 3 operating values are this year. What are you committed to, no matter what? Behaviorally, what do these values look like in action?

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.

This week’s Weekly Journaling prompt gets you to reflect on the question “What I want to say a big NO TO is….”

Whether it is getting a handle on time, or clutter, or something else, saying NO can just be as powerful as saying YES.

This week I hope that you will enjoy journaling around the question: “What I want to say a big NO TO is…”

Kind 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.

​It’s Sunday which means that it is time for another Video Montage from PlanDoTrack. Take a look at this week’s video montage.

In bringing this work out into the world, one of my favorite program offerings at the moment is the four-hour PlanDoTrack Virtual Retreat.  Check it out here.

The program is geared for business owners and professionals who are looking to reconnect or create their vision OR take action on a creative project. We meet throughout the four-hour retreat every hour as a group, leaving you ample time in between our group touch-points to engage in structured activities to help you PLAN, take action (DO) and TRACK your results.

Here’s what two participants from the April session wrote about their experience:

"The PlanDoTrack session was everything I hoped for and more! These 4 hours were a super useful and productive pause to work on my business vision and goals for the year. It was a hands-on approach, very much helped by the worksheets in the Coaching Business Builder and also Jennifer's guidance.
I would certainly do at least one more session!”
- Rute Silva - Organizational Development Consultant/Executive Coach - PCC 

"Jennifer - thank you for creating a space to allow me to focus on the deep work that I am committed to getting out into the world.  On a normal day, the whirlwind of life would have prevented me from putting pen to paper and designing a problem that could have easily been put off until "someday". Today I prioritized the important over the urgent and I feel so accomplished to have created content that will make a difference. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you are committed to creating a program, a business plan, content, or whatever is meaningful to you and your clients, but you do not have the space or time to focus, this program is a game changer. Block the time. You will be thrilled with the outcome and the support along the way.” 
- Jacyln M. Bradley

The next one will be held on Thursday May 30th from 10 am – 2 pm Eastern/Toronto.

I hope that you will join us. The cost is $129 US and includes a virtual retreat workbook, structured exercises to work on during the afternoon and access to me during the 4 hours for some individual coaching.

You need to bring a copy of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner, OR the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, an idea of what you want to focus on, and four-hours of dedicated space.

Reserve your spot at the next PlanDoTrack Virtual Retreat – Thursday May 30th here.

Look forward to connecting!
​Jennifer

Welcome back to another weekly journaling prompt.  This week’s post gets you to fill in the blanks around:
 
“When I ______ I will ______.”

Did you know that I have now pulled together the first quarter (12 weeks) of the Weekly Journaling Prompts into their own standalone digital resource? You can pick up a copy of them at our Potentials Realized store.

Enjoy your writing & reflections!
​Jennifer

Welcome back to the Thursday Team Building Tip series. This week’s question gets you to consider the question “What will 10X our results?”.

This question gets you consider what will magnify your results as a team.

10X thinking gets you to think not only bigger, but also bolder.

This is a great question to bring into your next team meeting, or offsite. Get everyone to share the first thing that comes to mind for them? What would 10X thinking look like for the team? 10X results?

Working backwards, what would you need to get there?

Google has used the premise of 10X thinking for many years. It can be attributed to:

10X thinking can also be called “moonshot thinking”.

Rather than just growing by 100%, or doubling, what would 10X growth look like?

A resource you might want to explore is:
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

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’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

As we move into the last week of the month of April, many teams are staring to kick it into high gear. With summer vacations starting in a few weeks or months, now is the time teams really need to get results. What are the core things teams want to keep an eye on this year?

Efficient meetings. We know that teams need updates and meetings abound. Are they the most effective? I have shared my top 8 Essential Meeting Questions from Effective Virtual Conversations several times, and they warrant inclusion again. Meetings are a huge time expenditure and getting them right is so important.

How to have conflict, constructively and respectfully. Being able to have conflict and work across differences constructively and respectfully is really important. Teams thrive when there is a difference of opinion and different insights; however, not every team is encouraged to, or can, work through differences.

Harnessing strengths and styles. One of the greatest challenges in teams is finding the balance between individualism and collective alignment. This is going to be different for each team, with some teams on the end of the spectrum where there “is no I in team” and it’s all about the collective system, and there will be other team experiences (especially remote and virtual teams) where it is more about the individual person.

Open feedback loops. Regular and frequent feedback and communication is imperative in a business context which is changing rapidly. How is information shared across the team? Open communication and feedback loops are critical for success. What are the mechanisms people have to offer feedback? Where is feedback not getting through? Where is genuine feedback NOT being offered? Why? What’s the cost of this – short term and long term?

What are the core issues you are noticing in your teams right now?

What focus and conversations are needed?

Wishing you the 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.