It’s Monday and time for another Effective Virtual Conversations tip - #57 in the series! This week we are at number four of the five virtual facilitation faux-pas – not rotating meeting times. When teams are stretched across time zones ensuring that you rotate meeting times can be an important step in building trust and connection. If one team member is always the one who has to call in late at night or early in the morning, it can have an impact on trust and connection.

Within reason, what can you do to ensure meeting times have a variable impact on the team, and that it’s not always the “one team member” who is adversely impacted?

​Be sure to check out other effective virtual conversations tips here, published every Monday.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

One of the areas I have been very active in over the last few decades, as a leader myself, and also as an external support to organizations is in the area of global teams and global leadership. As someone who lead outside of my own country, and led multi-cultural teams, for more than a decade, I continue to be interested in this topic area. It is in part what led me to write my newest book, Effective Virtual Conversations, which has more relevance to remote and virtual leaders than those that are managing face to face.

Two summers/years ago I did a series of posts on global leadership and I thought it would be interesting to reach back to some of those posts. One in particular stood out as being a great fit to being translated over to a short video - Teams365 #587: Global Leadership Competencies. In it, I cover a handful of core skills required for global leaders. Some might argue that these are needed by leaders of all kinds today, and I would heartily agree. Of course, these are in addition to many of the foundational team leadership skills I touch on in other posts - skills such as communication, influence, EI etc.

Here's the 1.5 minute video - Enjoy!

Jennifer

One of our March themes is going to be tips around leading remote teams. We've done series in the past around global teams and virtual teams.I will be continuing the focus on remote teams in  next week's series.

Today's Six #Leadership Questions gets you thinking about leading your virtual teams and support needs that they have:
1. When was the last time you held a 1-1 with each of your team members?
2. What are the current support needs you have for your remote team members?
3. When are your next face-to-face meetings scheduled?
4. What type of support does each team member value?
5.  Does everyone have the tools they need in order to do their most effective work?
6. Shared vision is critical for success, especially in a remote team. On a scale of 1-10 how clear and shared would everyone say the vision is?

Have a great Friday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009)
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

Matrix Management is a common part of global leadership reporting arrangements. Whether it is a local supervisor also supporting your global team members, leading in the matrix can also require some fine-tuning on your leadership. Today's post explores four keys for making matrix management work:

1. Creating Shared Expectations- given that your staff member will be managed by two or more sets of people, creating shared expectations among the three (or more) of you is key. Who do you report to on what? What does success look like to all the parties involved? What are everyone's various expectations and priorities? How do these align? Conflict?

2. Clarity - Clarity around roles and responsibilities, reporting relationships, goals and who does what is key in successful matrix management. Taking time to be extremely clear is key to success. Having a plan and process in place to address lack of clarity issues can also be important.

3. Checking assumptions - Given that matrix management relationships often occur at a distance, it is important to check the various assumptions. Assumptions about priorities, flow, pace, quality may be a starting point for discussion on a regular basis.

4 - Frequent touch points and adjustments - Regular and frequent touch point amongst the three parties can be very useful, along with an understanding that regular adjustments will need to be made. In my former world of work, I usually tried to aim for quarterly or semi-annual three way meetings (both supervisors and employee). While this took some planning time, it was often identified as a critical success factor.

What other tips do you have for others around matrix management?

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss support (training, coaching, retreats) for you or your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Today's six leadership questions focuses on the global leadership domain. here are six you may be wanting to share with your team to provoke conversation::

1. What do we each uniquely bring to the team?

2. What support will be most valuable to you - frequency/type?

3. Is need ...... from you as  my leader. I need.....from others (on the team, in my regional office, etc)

4. My role  focuses on ..... My priority this quarter are......

5. My strengths are.....

6. What's interesting about my work/office/country is....


Supporting team members to get to know each other is a key to success when supporting global teams so they feel connected and as part of the team.

Have a great Saturday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

About Jennifer: Jenn is the founder of Potentials Realized a Canadian based performance improvement company. We provide customized training and coaching supports for leaders and their teams in the areas of teamwork, coaching and mentoring skills, and leadership development. Jennifer is the author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and has helped develop leaders and teams globally since the early 1990s, first as a team leader herself, then as Program Director and internal consultant, and for the last 11 years through Potentials Realized as a trainer, consultant and coach. Jennifer offers both public programs for team leaders (The Teams365 Coaching Groups and Teams365 Leadership Foundations programs) and also works with organizations to build their own internal programs

This week we have been focusing on the topic of global leadership. My own leadership roots are firmly grounded in this area. I hope that you have enjoyed the posts this week on the topic - more to come next week!

Here are five resources you may be interested in tapping into if you are a global leader or supporting global leaders in being as effective as they can be:

Jack Zenger – 6 Competencies Global Leaders Need to Succeed: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2014/06/26/the-6-competencies-global-leaders-need-to-succeed/

Jackie Vilet’s Five Critical Skills for Effective Global Leadership – OC Tanner: http://blog.octanner.com/leadership/5-critical-skills-for-effective-global-leadership

Eleven Key Characteristics of Global Business Leaders from Darden - https://ideas.darden.virginia.edu/2014/01/11-key-characteristics-of-a-global-business-leader/

HBS Developing the Global Leader Julia Hanna   http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6967.html''

and finally Nelely's Global Team Leaders Must Deliberately Create Moments - from HBR - https://hbr.org/2012/03/global-team-leaders-must-delib

What resources would you recommend to other team leaders in the global domain?


With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders 
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

About Jennifer: Jenn is the founder of Potentials Realized a Canadian based performance improvement company. We provide customized training and coaching supports for leaders and their teams in the areas of teamwork, coaching and mentoring skills, and leadership development. Jennifer is the author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and has helped develop leaders and teams globally since the early 1990s, first as a team leader herself, then as Program Director and internal consultant, and for the last 11 years through Potentials Realized as a trainer, consultant and coach. Jennifer offers both public programs for team leaders (The Teams365 Coaching Groups and Teams365 Leadership Foundations programs) and also works with organizations to build their own internal programs

Inheriting a global team is an exciting endeavor. In addition to the mainstream first 90 day regular on-boarding tasks, new global team leaders can also expect to want to spend time:

Getting to know your global team as a team – What is their history? What have been their past successes? What accomplishments are they most proud of? What geographic span do they cover?

Getting to know your global team as individuals. Consider the following:

Meeting each individual team member – who are they, how long have they been on the team, what do they see as their contribution? How would they like to be supported? What should you know about their work style preferences? This might include working hours, best way to be contacted, type of support they prefer, communication channels.

Location:  Where are they located? What offices are they connected to? What are regional priorities? What are regional opportunities? What type of office is it that they are connected to (Large/small, rural/urban, other)

Team member other supports:
Many global teams have matrix management structures. Who are the other supervisors/leaders this person connects into? What are their priorities?

Team member individual roles:
What are their roles? How does their work connect with others on the team you are leading? How is it different? What history do they bring? What is unique about their role?

The global cultural element:  Understanding the distinct cultures of each of the locations your team members operate, along with their cultural background is a key area to learn more about.

Projects:
What major projects are they involved with? Globally/nationally. How are they connected to team goals?

These are some initial areas global team leaders should consider familiarizing themselves with, in addition to the more standard areas of on-boarding during the first 90 days. You can read other posts I've written on the first 90 days here.

Have a great Wednesday,
Jennifer


Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

About Jennifer: Jenn is the founder of Potentials Realized a Canadian based performance improvement company. We provide customized training and coaching supports for leaders and their teams in the areas of teamwork, coaching and mentoring skills, and leadership development. Jennifer is the author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and has helped develop leaders and teams globally since the early 1990s, first as a team leader herself, then as Program Director and internal consultant, and for the last 11 years through Potentials Realized as a trainer, consultant and coach. Jennifer offers both public programs for team leaders (The Teams365 Coaching Groups and Teams365 Leadership Foundations programs) and also works with organizations to build their own internal programs

Leading teams in the global domain requires that team leaders build strong connection with, and amongst, team members. Today's post looks at key activities you can undertake to build trust and connection. some of the activities we can undertake are:

* Regular virtual team meetings - focused and rotating at times that work for the entire team, regular communication amongst team members is key to creating a sense of connection

* Where feasible face to face meetings, even once or twice a year. Replacing the face to face contact is hard to do, even with skype and facetime. If it's feasible, try to bring people together every year or two. Focus of this time together can be on helping team members understand each others' roles, regional focus and priorities, as well as connect the team as a team. Supporting the team to understand what are key strategic priorities for the team are also important.

* Regular one on ones with team members continue to be important. While your team members may be half a world away, knowing your team, their priorities, and supporting them with trouble-shooting, and listening is key.  What may be different with a global team is the matrix relationship of management. Knowing your team member and their other "bosses" and supports are key.

* Knowing each individual team member\s preferences and styles continue to be important with virtual teams.  How does each team member want to be supported? What frequency? What type of support do they value?

What other activities can you focus on to build connection amongst your global team.

Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

About Jennifer: Jenn is the founder of Potentials Realized a Canadian based performance improvement company. We provide customized training and coaching supports for leaders and their teams in the areas of teamwork, coaching and mentoring skills, and leadership development. Jennifer is the author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and has helped develop leaders and teams globally since the early 1990s, first as a team leader herself, then as Program Director and internal consultant, and for the last 11 years through Potentials Realized as a trainer, consultant and coach. Jennifer offers both public programs for team leaders (The Teams365 Coaching Groups and Teams365 Leadership Foundations programs) and also works with organizations to build their own internal programs

For the first thirteen years of my career my role entailed global leadership - leading multinational teams at a time when the internet was just emerging on the scene. As much as we think team leadership skills are team leadership skills, global team leaders can benefit from additional skill sets Today's post focuses on key competencies for global leaders, a role much more common place today. This is an area I now am brought in  to do work around with organizations who are looking to build the capacity of their global team leadership.

Some of the additional skills, beyond the core team leadership characteristics and competencies are:
* The ability to build connection and relationships quickly, and to connect others, especially if you are leading a multi-national team

* Flexibility and adaptability - when working globally everyone may be working on a different timeframe. Our a-z list may become a cubed to c.

* Openness to not knowing -the comfort with ambiguity is something many global leaders embrace as the norm rather than the blip. Whether it's not exactly knowing how things are done, or how things operate, being ok with not knowing or getting it right is key to success

* Awareness of your own biases and strengths and how this can serve you, and sometimes get in the way. We each bring our own sub-set of baggage built from the experiences and socialization we have had.

* Humility and an appreciation of the multitude of layers of culture which can exist

* The ability to see connections and patterns amongst what might seen disparate

* The ability to work and excel across differences and help others do the same

This week we'll be taking a deeper look at resources for global leaders and other topics of interest. Please stay tuned!

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

About Jennifer: Jenn is the founder of Potentials Realized a Canadian based performance improvement company. We provide customized training and coaching supports for leaders and their teams in the areas of teamwork, coaching and mentoring skills, and leadership development. Jennifer is the author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and has helped develop leaders and teams globally since the early 1990s, first as a team leader herself, then as Program Director and internal consultant, and for the last 11 years through Potentials Realized as a trainer, consultant and coach. Jennifer offers both public programs for team leaders (The Teams365 Coaching Groups and Teams365 Leadership Foundations programs) and also works with organizations to build their own internal programs