Teams365 Blog - Potentials Realized

#TEAMS365 #1997: Summer Project Ideas

6/19/2019

For those that are in the northern hemisphere, we are just about to the longest days of the year. It’s also the time that we start to take down the pace a bit. With team members going on holidays in the next few months, it can be an opportune time to engage in some of those projects you haven’t had time for.

Instead of typing today’s post, I thought it would be fun to record a short video for you to watch. Listen in as I zoom into 8 key areas you will want to explore this summer, when (and if) the pace slows down. The video runs for 8 minutes. Please comment below and let us know what areas you aim to focus on:
INSERT Video

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 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.

#TEAMS365 #1995: Effective Virtual Conversations #99

6/17/2019

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip asks you to consider the question: “What opportunities are you not seizing?”.

Remote work and virtual conversations are becoming increasingly important in today’s workplace. Whether disruption is occurring because of impact on travel (consider things like the wild weather events of the last few months which has impacted not only air travel but location sites), or due to opportunities emerging, what opportunities are you not seizing?

Consider these ideas:

Experimenting with remote workdays. What happens with productivity when people move to one or more remote workdays? What do you
Declaring meeting free days or time windows. With meetings becoming an immense time sucker for so many professionals today, what would it be like to declare meeting free time. Time when people could focus on getting work completed, rather than meeting on work for the next day. Some organizations might consider with earmarking an entire day meeting free, while others might note that they meet in the afternoon only, keeping the morning free for high impact work. There may be times of the day which could naturally be better for collaborative work such as mid-afternoon, rather than times of day when deep thinking is required – which brain science is showing could be in quieter windows, and when the brain is more fresh.
There may be opportunities to use different platforms. Consider shifting to a streaming service (where you can see everyone) rather than doing a phone only. The visual cues of being seen may shift focus and attention, and also dissuade some team members from doing more than one thing at a time.
Incorporate more interaction. Rather than simply having a report back, consider how to involve insights from the team regularly using annotation (sharing ideas on a white board) or using chat as a way to focus on

Enjoy!
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.

#TEAMS365 #1993: Weekly Journaling Prompt 54

6/15/2019

As we arc into another Weekly Journaling Prompt, this week’s question gets you to consider the question “My favorite experience this year has been…..”.

Taking time to stop and pause along the way can be invaluable.

What are the key highlights of your year so far?
What would you put in your top 10 list?
What have you crossed off your bucket list?
What still remains?
What are the things you have learned from?

Draw out a roadmap of the key journeys and highlights you have had from the year.

Enjoy the reflection!
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.

#TEAMS365 #1989 – Mentoring

6/12/2019

At all stages of our careers, mentoring can be an invaluable approach. Learning from the wisdom and experience of others is priceless.

Mentors play a key role including:

Providing an alternative view of our industry/role/profession from what others might see, based on their own experience.
Acting as a sounding board as we work through different ideas.
Helping us understand and navigate the undercurrents of an organization and/or industry.

Formal mentors are usually different than our own bosses, which provides the advantage of an unbiased confidant.

What are the mentoring opportunities available to you?

When considering a mentor ask yourself:

What is the role I want the mentor to play?
What type of support am I looking for? (Sounding board, understanding undercurrents)
What are my goals for the mentoring experience?
What role(s) do I want the mentor to play?

Many formal mentoring programs will have application processes and sharing your responses around these areas can help not only with pairing you with a good fit, but also getting the most out of the limited time you have together.

Wishing you 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 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.

#TEAMS365 #1986 - Weekly Journaling Prompt #53

6/8/2019

It’s hard to believe but this weekly Saturday series on Weekly Journaling prompts started a year ago. This week invites you to take a moment to pause and take stock of what you notice about your journaling. Whether you have been following the Teams365 Weekly Jounraling Prompts since June of 2018, or this is the first one, take a few minutes today to review any journaling or writing you’ve done.. It’s not often that we stop for a few minutes to pause and see how things are going.

As you flip through what you have created, notice:

What are the highlights?
What key themes are included in your journal?
What are the patterns you notice?
What key accomplishments stand out?
What hasn’t been captured in your journaling?
What surprises you?
What do you want to make sure you lock in to your memory?

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the first year of these posts. A quick reminder that you can pick up a self-guided journaling printable notebook at the Potentials Realized store. I’ve pulled together the first 12 weeks of the WJP into one downloadable booklet for $7. Click on over to the Potentials Realized store and pick up a copy. Volume 2 of Weeks 13 – 24 will be released soon and will also be available at the Potentials Realized store.

Have a great Saturday!
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.

#TEAMS365 #1984 - Team Building Tip #239:What's Taboo?

6/6/2019

This week’s Team Building Tip gets your team to consider the question – “What is taboo?”.

Once teams feel safe to put issues on the table, and that they will not face any retribution for speaking their mind, getting the team to identify what is TABOO or off-limits can be key to moving a team forward. It is important to look into the dusty corners, and shine the light on the things that don’t want to be seen or discussed. This is particularly important when the pace of business speeds up, and things become more urgent. It’s the things that are taboo that can grow in size or come out of nowhere, taking a team down.

What are the things that are TABOO for you and your team to:

Discuss
Do
Put into Practice

Is it time for a change?

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.

#TEAMS365 #1980 – Weekly Journaling Prompt #52: AT your Best....

6/2/2019

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

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.

#TEAMS365 #1977 – Team Building Tip #238 – Perspectives

5/30/2019

Welcome back to another Thursday Teams365 blog post. This week’s question to explore is “What’s another way of looking at that?”

In today’s world of doing more with less, and ongoing change, it can be invaluable to reframe and adjust perspectives around our biggest challenges, and opportunities.

As you and your team consider what your biggest challenge is right now, ask the question – "What’s another way of looking at that?”. To get your ideas flowing around reframing consider these areas which might shift things:

Resourcing
Supports
Collaboration
What would you do if you knew you would not fail?
What is the flip side of this issue?
What would saying NO to ____ look like?
If we added ____ what would happen?

Exploring multiple perspectives around a challenge, or opportunity, often generates new ideas and insights.

Enjoy the conversation!
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.

#TEAMS365 #1974 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 95: Integrate Annotation

5/27/2019

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip gets you thinking about creating more interactivity in your next virtual program. This week’s EVC tip gets you thinking about using the tools of annotation.

Most virtual platforms will have the option of enabling annotation, where people can write on the screen.

Annotation might involve getting people to:

Circle things they are in agreement around
Check things off on a list
Write things on a blank white screen/PowerPoint
Create a logo which represents what people are bringing to the call

Annotation is a great supplement to using chat, and it will also provide more hands-on interaction. When requested to write something on the screen or circle something we are less likely to multi-task or be doing something completely different.

This week consider how you could incorporate more annotation and interaction into your virtual conversations.

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.

#TEAMS365 #1972 – Weekly Journaling Prompt 51

5/25/2019

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

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.