​This week’s Team Building tip is “What’s your best work?”. As you think about everything you have accomplished in the last few months (or the last year or two), what is your best work?

• What are the things that you are really proud of?
• In your work, what can you to do cultivate, or ask for, more work opportunities like this?
• How did this task use your skills?
• What did it do to accelerate your learning and growth?
• What made it so fulfilling?
• Are there elements of that project which can be isolated and magnified in future projects?
• Helping people and teams connect with their best work, boosts engagement and commitment to task. This helps foster a culture of growth and higher levels of trust.
• What can you do to facilitate experiences so that people can bring their best self to work?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

As a writer and author I never know where my work is going to find it's feet. Recently I was awarded the title of Project Management Influencer by Fit Small Business. They award to those who have “shown excellence in their field”. You can read their press release here.
My writing in the areas of Group and Team Coaching has rippled out the world since late 2009. Last year with the publication of Effective Virtual Conversations, an increasing number of professionals, organizations and teams are finding themselves working remote and virtually. If you join me for any of my speaking engagements you’ll hear me usually pull in a focus around the virtual and remote space, given my own background in remote and virtual leadership as a program manager and entrepreneur for two and a half decades now (how time flies!).
My own involvement in the project management sector started with my first office job in the early 1990s. Whether it was engaging in project development and planning, or writing proposals, supporting implementation, to undertaking Monitoring and Evaluation, projects are the backbone of so many industries.
It’s a privilege to reach so many professionals today through my written word. What are the books which have influenced you this year? What social media sites have supported you through useful content and insights?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
Jennifer

​As I’ve been leading different types of conversations in the last few weeks through small group coaching, leadership training and keynotes, I have noticed that the conversation and focus is changing for many team members and leaders right now. In addition to thinking about what needs to get done, I’m also hearing a lot of leaders (and their teams) starting to look at opportunities for the new year.
 
Given that every week I am talking across a range of leadership and teamwork topics, I hear a wide variety of different areas, and key themes.
If I had to identify five that I have been hearing a lot of opportunities  around for the new year it would be:
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Getting better at hosting meetings. Think about how much time you have spent in meetings this week? This month? How many were face to face? How many were virtual? How effective were they? What would have made them more effective? Spending time getting better at meetings?
Building in more time for strategic thinking and action. With technology has helped us get better at so many things, and does make it easier, distraction and focus are key elements for business success in an ever-changing environment.
Scheduling in time for what’s important – Making sure we have the important items in our calendar and can get them done when we have energy. Daniel Pink’s book WHEN takes us into the realm of WHEN it is important to get things done. Circadian rhythms have been researched for many decades now, and many of us may be aware of what time of day is really best to get certain tasks done in. With the shift to mobile and remote work, many of us now have more flexibility in terms of how we operate and when we schedule our tasks.
Getting better at knowing our strengths and styles – Some of my favorite days are spent with teams who are learning more about their strengths and styles, interfacing this with helping them understand more about team effectiveness. I am pleased to continue to be able to offer support for teams, groups and individuals around strengths and styles. Whether we are exploring the DiSC together or StrengthsFinder, these are powerful frameworks which help to support individuals “lean into” what they naturally do well during times of change and uncertainty.  Change and uncertainty is the new norm for so many workplaces today.
 
Where do you want to put attention around for 2019? I hope that you will grab 15 minutes right now to make some notes for yourself and/or to schedule it in for focus. As Drucker wrote “What doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done”.
 
With best wishes,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

Today’s Sunday video takes us back to one that I posted this time last year, entitled “Six Ingredients for Teams in Today’s VUCA World”.
Recently I attended a conference here in Toronto for business leaders and educators. While I’ve been talking about VUCA for many years, I was surprized that this is not a term everyone is aware of. If you haven’t heard of VUCA, it was originally a term that was coined by the military to describe the context.
Think about these four words for a minute and how they are showing up in your work right now:
Volatility
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ambiguity
These factors require that we really embrace new ways of leadership, teamwork and conversation. While we still need planning, we also need to track what’s working and what’s not. Past successes may not guarantee the same results a second time. Working in ambiguity calls for new skills for leaders and teams such as being able to see the patterns across a range of data. Working in complexity means that we want to also consider simplification and synthesis.
What are the things you want to be focusing on as a leader? What skills do you want to be building in your team during 2019?
Here’s a link to the video I did last year in Teams365 #1188.
 
What’s important for you to note about VUCA right now?
What’s important for your team to note about VUCA?
​
Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

An increasing number of leaders are now supporting virtual and remote teams. While many organizations feel that a step into remote leadership is just like managing people in the bull pen or down the hall, virtual team leadership requires super-strong skills in relationship management, influence and working across differences.
Creating alignment across a virtual team can be a big challenge. Goals often create the anchors for team members who may be assigned to different projects, be managed in matrix fashion, as well as have a different context in which they operate.
 
Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip comes from page 350 of the book, which poses several questions for virtual team leaders to consider when working with teams virtually. These are all questions a leader can pose in individual one-on-one conversations with a team member, or during an entire team meeting.
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Consider these question to help create clarity, alignment and accountability around goals:

1. How do our team’s and department goals fit into this? This question helps team members understand the bigger picture and connection amongst goals.

2. Do people understand how their individual effort impacts the organizational goals? This question also helps people connect their individual contribution to the bigger picture. It helps to reduce a sense of operating in a vacuum, and lower motivation when virtual team members do not see where they efforts make an impact.

3. Do individuals on the team understand how their work interfaces and supports others, leading into other goals focused on by other team members?Even is a team does not connect physically, helping team members understand how their work connects with others, helps not only with motivation but also in getting things done. If I know that Sujit’s work is contingent on a specific piece of work I need to complete, I may prioritize things more and/or be sure to get things done on time, or in a certain fashion.

4. How do we measure goals and is there clarity around it? Understanding what success looks like it critical for success, and this needs to be shared across a team. Is there clarity around what success looks like and how it is measured? This may include indicators of success, timelines and other factors.
 
As you think about your team and their goals for the rest of the year, what’s important to explore?
​
More on this in the last few chapters of Effective Virtual Conversations where I take a deeper dive into virtual team leadership and virtual teamwork. 
 
Best wishes,
Jennifer

Virtual meetings can be a drag! As I write in Effective Virtual Conversations, they don’t have to involve “Death by Conference Call”.

Four to five times a year I offer the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program, geared to provide leaders, trainers, facilitators and other professionals with tools to jazz up their virtual conversations – meetings, webinars and other virtual conversations.

It’s really important in virtual sessions to make things as visual, and visible, as possible. That’s why slides and photographs can be a great thing. While design and photography was probably not on your list of development activities as a leader, think about how photos and visuals shape:

• The stories of the team
• The memories of what you have achieved
• The emotions created
• Team identity
• What photos, images and visuals are you using in your team communication? Is there an opportunity to do more, or incorporate more in these areas?

 
I wanted to share a quick framework you might consider using and adapting for your next team meeting.
One of the things which is important for leaders of all kinds, virtual leaders especially, is to check for understanding in terms of what people are “taking away” from a call. Team meetings are usually our only live touchpoint as virtual and remote teams. Leveraging these opportunities for feedback and learning are key.
As part of my work as a presenter, I often incorporate a slide that looks like this, at the end of the presentation:
 
The icons represent our focus and takeaways.
I always like to build in time to hear from each person around:

1. What are you next steps? (The feet icon)
2. What has your learning been? (The scissors)
   
3. What do you want to keep your eyes on (The magnifying glass)
4. What will you take forward (the briefcase)

 
It’s highly unlikely that we get to hear from everyone, however, I can share this on the screen and have everyone use “annotation” and include their name to indicate what their responses are. We can then take a screen grab and circulate it as key learning from the meeting.

Once people get into the practice of this, it only takes a few minutes, yet it serves as a very powerful reminder of what we covered, and also accountability tool that peers and leaders can follow up on.

How might you use something like this in your work and/or virtual conversations?
​
Enjoy,
Jennifer

It's the last official weekend of summer - how did you spend it?

I wanted to take this opportunity to look back at some of the topics I've covered over the last few months including:

Saturday weekly journaling prompts - As some of you may know, last month I released the first of a series of workbooks and planners. The first one, entitled, The Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, is geared for coaches. Other editions are planned for remote professionals and team leaders.
A valuable process for learning and reflection is journaling, and if you haven't taken note of my weekly journaling prompts, you can start at any time. Take a look at them here. We are at #15 in the series.

I've also just passed the #200 mark of the Team Building Questions and Tips, which come out on Thursdays - Catch up on any you haven't read here.

Also, the Monday series on Effective Virtual Conversations tips has also continued. We are over #60 in the series. View them here.

Over the last few months I've also covered a series of posts including

10 Things to Do with  Your Team This Fall - Read them here

I look forward to stepping into fall with you in a few days. Don't forget that I'll be hosting a half day business planning virtual retreat this Thursday from 1 - 5 pm Eastern, geared to give you time and space for planning AND for taking action on key areas in your work. It's fully virtual and you can join from anywhere. Cost: $97. Email me to reserve your spot.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

This week’s weekly journaling prompt gets you to consider the question “What’s your secret sauce?”. What’s the one thing that sets your apart – as a leader? A team?

If you are just joining us for these weekly journaling prompts, check out the others here.

My intention in sharing these weekly journaling prompts is to provide you with a space to pause and reflect on what’s going on.

In my decade plus of work as a global professional as a leader with the United Nations and other international aid organizations I kept a journal religiously. While they are tucked away in a safe place, I look forward to going back and re-reading these as a later date. They not only will serve as an important memoir for me, but at the time, writing was a wonderful way to capture what was going on, connect the dots of my work and life, make sense of the experiences I was having (commonly referred to as “sense-making today”, clarify priorities and also have an outlet.

If journaling is not something you have considered before, here are two articles which point to why journaling can be important:

Nancy J. Adler’s Harvard Business Review Article – Want to Be an Outstanding Leader: Keep a Journal.
LifeHack’s article “Journal Writing: Five Smart Reasons Why You Should Start Doing it Today”.

Have a great weekend!
Jennifer

When I started the journey with blog post #1 of the Teams365 blog back on January 1st 2014, I didn’t really know where it would take me. Two more books later, and more than 1700 blog posts, I think about the hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of conversations with teams and leaders these posts have also infused.

Just recently, perhaps due to blog size, or other, the search function on the site has changed. It means that you can’t go back and search posts earlier than this year. While you can still find them through tags and dates, it may mean that it’s harder to find older content. That makes these Friday posts even more important where I reach back, and share, an older blog post.
 
Today I am reaching back to one from September 2014, entitled “What’s the WIIFM” . It was Teams365 blog post 265 and here’s what I wrote:

#Teams365 #265: What's the WIIFM?
9/22/2014
0 Comments
 
The WIIFM, or the What's In It For Me, is an essential leadership concept to keep in  mind.

WIIFM has connections with employee engagement, developing and delivering stellar presentations, recognition and motivation.

Let's first look at motivation. Psychology posits that we get motivated through our internal drive, or externally. As leaders, helping our team members connect around What's in it for me when faced with a new project or task, helps increase the internal motivation. It also may provide us with some cues as to what we can do to provide external support for those individuals, given what they find motivating.

In developing presentations or public speaking, helping your audience connect with their WIIFM (What's in it for me) creates a richer learning experience. We should always be trying to design presentations (content, approaches, flow) from their perspective as well.

Employee engagement and recognition continue to be hot button topics. WIIFM is central to engagement and puts our team members in the heart of being part of the driving force of what creates an engaged workforce. Create a habit of asking people to consider their WIIFM and contribution with new initiatives, and as change processes happen.

Finally, in recognition (something we don't often get enough of), lead from individuals WIIFM. 

Where else could you get people you work with to consider the WIIFM?


Enjoy your weekend!
Jennifer

​This summer I was committed to tackling the growing pile of books I had purchased earlier this year, but not cracked the spine on. The growing pile actually felt like a weight on me. While I love to read, the volume was dragging me down.
Supported by no TV, and a slower than normal internet connection, I was able to reshift some of my usual screen time (which today is pretty much streaming based) to turning in earlier and reading regularly. It helped me not only “get through” but enjoy reading a number of books this summer. It was a pretty eclectic range but I wanted to share some of them with you:
The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity  by Kory Kogon, Adam Merrill and Leena Rinne –  I’ve written quite a bit bout the influence of Stephen Covey’s Training on my time management and productivity almost twenty years ago. I had picked up the Covey team’s latest book before hopping on a red eye flight from Vancouver to Toronto in June. Edits for my new book, the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, superseded reading it then, but I got to it just this last week.
For those looking for a quick, and integrated approach to time, this is a terrific resource. Their approach is grounded in Covey’s Urgent/Important Matrix, but also incorporates today’s focus on values and roles. A great read!
The Fire Starter Sessions – Danielle LaPorte – Loaded with short stories, quotes, the Fire Starter Sessions is a great book to dip into over time, with topics touching on time, money.
The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin – I continue to enjoy Gretchen Rubin’s weekly Podcast – Happier – and almost heard her voice speaking The Four Tendencies. This book takes us into the dynamic, and important, area of styles, and Gretchen’s framework around Questioners, Upholders Obligers, and Rebels. A must-read for team leaders and team members, this book will support you in thinking deeper about how you approach work, decisions and relationships, and what matters for those you work and live with! Check out what she has to say at her own blog post from 2015 here.
Build an A Team – Whitney Johnson – A terrific read for leaders and coaches and anyone who takes a strengths-based approach to work. With chapters focusing in on supporting new hires, as well as “masters” on  your team, this is a great read to get you thinking about what type of support people will benefit from, and how Johnson writes you can “support them up the learning curve”.
And on a lighter note, I also enjoyed the Agatha Christie-ish mystery – Woman in Cabin Ten. Given that this book was sitting for almost a year on my bedside table it was a relief to dip into this quick read – a solid one for anyone who likes mysteries!

What books did you enjoy reading this summer? What is sticking and transforming the way you work, and/or live?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326