It's time for another Flashback Friday and today's focus in on the importance of vision. A couple of years ago I did a series on Leadership Myths, of which one post was the myth that vision is not important. Take a look at what I wrote, and a short audio post you can listen to, on vision:


Today's Leadership Myth brings us to V - Vision is not important. Throughout the last few years I have been pointing us to what team effectiveness research points to as the six factors of high performing teams. One of those six factors is having a shared vision by all team members.

Having a  shared vision is important because it:

• Provides an end point for everyone to aim towards. Even with different roles and perspectives having the shared end point is critical
• Helps everyone row in the same direction, even if they are rowing in different ways
• Allows for the opportunity to identify and notice where you are on the path of moving towards your vision.
• Helps the team focus on possibilities. Research has shown that working around vision (personally or organizationally) supports people move into a mindset of possibilities neurologically helps people move into a more Positive Emotional Attractors (PEA) which makes them more open, more open to behavioral change, more altruistic and makes better decisions.

You can check out what I have said about vision in past posts here.

Working with your team to create a shared vision is key. Don't just think of your vision for the next year, but also 3 or 5 years down the road (depending on typical lifecycles of teams at your organization)

You can listen into a past recording I have done on vision and questions you may want to dialogue around here. (This link will  take you to the Inner Biz Leader On-Demand course - a seven hour virtual retreat you can complete at your pace. IT covers many of the topics we look at here at the blog around your "inner leadership" including strengths, values, and vision. You can access a free audio on vision as you scroll down to the bottom of the page. Look for the lecture entitled "Your Vision - Audio. Enjoy!)

Have a great Friday,
Jennifer

A little over a month ago we started this latest a-z series on leadership myths. Today's blog post brings us to the final of our leadership myths  Leadership Myth Z - What's the value of zooming in?

AS team leaders it is important that we learn to look at issues strategically, being aware of both the big picture and the micro-environment. There is a tendency for some new team leaders to find it difficult to "Stop doing the work" they always did as a team member and start spending time on the bigger picture.

It's important that we don't get too distanced from everyday detail, nor too engrossed in it. We don't want to micro-manage, rather "micro-monitor". I it is important to be aware of details and zoom in on things like:
 
* Budget and how expenses are going, and during budget planning time, what you really need to excel the following year. Developing or  understanding Budget justifications (understanding what budget line each entails) is a core skill for team leader.
* How projects are really moving along - including the more minute details. Spending time with team member outside of project status updates can be useful to hear of bottlenecks etc
* It is also important to zoom in on performance issues - to address these through one on one dialogue with team members sooner rather than later so it becomes a course correction of a few degrees rather than something more significant.

Where else is it important to "zoom in" in your work right now?

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Authorized Everything DiSC partner and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team
Email: info(at) potentialsrealized (dot) com
(416)996-8326

Today's Leadership Myth brings us to X on our journey to the close. Many teams think that they con't have what they need in order to excel, when in fact, helping your team achieve their best does not always require fancy programs, days away at offsets, or a huge investment. Over a short time, teams can start putting into place the structures and processes team effectiveness research points to as being foundational. Developing habits in these six areas help to integrate these team practices.

AS I've written about numerous times in the last two years, the Six Factors of High Performing Teams, create the foundation and initial culture for team excellence. These, along with strong skills including communication, teamwork and leadership, help to accelerate team performance.

A reminder that the six factors are:

. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)
What is your purpose? Your mission? Why you exist? Does everyone hold the same understanding? What does this mean practically for your work? What priorities does your purpose or mission naturally create?

2. Shared behavioral norms
How you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team? What behaviors and habits exist? Which ones are supportive of exceptional performance? Which ones aren't?

3. Shared commitment
What are team members committed to? What will you get done, no matter what? Is there anything that needs to be dropped off the list?

4. Shared performance goals
What are key goals for the team this year? What are key individual goals? How do your goals align? Overlap? What does success look like for each member? For the entire team? Does everyone have an understanding of the key goals of others on the team and how they feed into them?

5. Shared team practices
Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event. What practices support your relationships?

6. Clear Roles
(How our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities?

Spending some time as a team in dialogue around each of these areas, even using these questions to spark the dialogue.

Have a great start to your week/

Jennifer

 Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Authorized Everything DiSC partner and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team
Email: info(at) potentialsrealized (dot) com
(416)996-8326

Today's Leadership Myth brings us to W - We can't create a win/win. While competition is still important in many business contexts today, collaboration continues to become even more important. In collaboration we want to create a win-win for each party, recognizing that there are benefits to doing so. Now, collaboration is not always the appropriate strategy but it may be so when:
1. The relationship is important
2. The outcome is important

Benefits to creating a win-win includes:
Strengthened relationships
Possibly a better outcome due to collaboration
Potentially more engagement and buy-in by both parties

As Stepen Covey wrote:

"A person or organization that approaches conflicts with a win-win attitude possesses three vital character traits:

1. Integrity: sticking with your true feelings, values, and commitments
2. Maturity: expressing your ideas and feelings with courage and consideration for the ideas and feelings of others
3. Abundance Mentality: believing there is plenty for everyone

What do you see as the benefits of a win-win for you?

Best
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Everything DiSC® Authorized Partner
Contact us and let us know how we can support you in helping your team reach its' full potential: (416)996-TEAM (8326)

Today's Leadership Myth brings us to V - Vision is not important. Throughout the last few years I have been pointing us to what team effectiveness research points to as the six factors of high performing teams. One of those six factors is having a shared vision by all team members.

Having a  shared vision is important because it:

• Provides an end point for everyone to aim towards. Even with different roles and perspectives having the shared end point is critical
  
• Helps everyone row in the same direction, even if they are rowing in different ways
• Allows for the opportunity to identify and notice where you are on the path of moving towards your vision.
• Helps the team focus on possibilities. Research has shown that working around vision (personally or organizationally) supports people move into a mindset of possibilities neurologically helps people move into a more Positive Emotional Attractors (PEA) which makes them more open, more open to behavioral change, more altruistic and makes better decisions.
  

You can check out what I have said about vision in past posts here.

Working with your team to create a shared vision is key. Don't just think of your vision for the next year, but also 3 or 5 years down the road (depending on typical lifecycles of teams at your organization)

You can listen into a past recording I have done on vision and questions you may want to dialogue around here. (This link will  take you to the Inner Biz Leader On-Demand course - a seven hour virtual retreat you can complete at your pace. IT covers many of the topics we look at here at the blog around your "inner leadership" including strengths, values, and vision. You can access a free audio on vision as you scroll down to the bottom of the page. Look for the lecture entitled "Your Vision - Audio. Enjoy!)

AS you start to prepare for the new year you may want to revisit the questions I I posed at the start of the year about your vision for 2015. You can listen to it back here (Teams365 #369 - Your 2015 Goals)

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Everything DiSC® Authorized Partner
Contact us and let us know how we can support you in helping your team reach its' full potential: (416)996-TEAM (8326)

Today we are at U of the Team Leadership Myths. one of h biggest myths I have heard over the years in working with new and experienced team leaders is that "my team needs are uniform". In fact, one of the most interesting, and challenging things about supporting  a team is that each person is different, with unique needs, preferences and talents.

It is likely that your team has different work style preferences in the areas of:
Communication preferences - some may like face-to=face communication, others may prefer email and some may even prefer a text
Meeting preferences - just like communication you my find a variety of meeting preferences - shot and sweet, vs long and frequent
Support needs - Some team leaders may want to work s independently and autonomously as possible, while others may want more ongoing support and closer touch points.
Level of detail - We all are different in terms of our level  of detail needs. Consider those team members who work best when provided a high level overview with broad-strokes information versus detailed, step by step information

If you are unsure, and team members are unsure, how they best can be supported, you may want to consider providing everyone with a DiSC style profile and report. It's done online and can provide some valuable insights into the diverse preferences of your team in tmers of communication, decision making. Profiles can also be provided s part of a training, retreat or coaching process. Contact me fo more information about needs for you, and your team.

Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Everything DiSC® Authorized Partner
Contact us and let us know how we can support you in helping your team reach its' full potential: (416)996-TEAM (8326)

Today's #Leadership Myth brings us to T - It takes time! In today's time- crunched world it's easy to say that the core functions take too much time - coaching, reporting, quick updates - and actually it's often these things that help us with being more proactive, able to be agile, and with our finger on the pulse of the team.

If we are looking to gain some time consider taming some of these distractors:
* Email - From Notable.ca's indication that professionals are spending 13 hours a week on email, to the Daily Mail stats that we are spending 50% of our time with email and other technology, email is a time consumer. Whether we look to color code our emails, encourage smarter use of subject lines, or encourage people to think twice about how email is used, this is a key area of lost productivity.
* Meetings - Attentiv.com has done a great job of breaking down meeting stats for the US. Note that almost 34 % of those surveyed found that it was unproductive. What can you do this week to make your meetings more effective?
* Managing Interruptions - It's not only the interruptions that hurt us, but also the time it takes to get back on course, estimated at about 23 minutes.

A plus side of some virtual work arrangements is that there are fewer interruptions from people dropping in etc.

If you were able to glean  a little more time somewhere n the day - where would you find it have the greatest impact - in more one-on-ones, reporting, planning?

Have a great 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 coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Today we are at the leadership myth of S for which I've chosen "That's too simplistic!". We operate in a context today where bigger is often seen as better, when in fact, simpler and more simplistic may be better. We operate in a context of complexity, and most of us are on overwhelm. Consider this, how many messages have you been bombarded with since you turned on your device today? How many different messages have you received from your boss? Your colleagues?

Simplifying does not mean making things too simple. In fact, weeding out the non-essentials can help us with focus and productivity. Neuroresearch continues to show that the brain is unable to process multiple tasks at once in an efficient manner. Just because we can do it, or think we can do it, doesn't mean it works.

Consider these ideas in terms of simplification:

1. This week, focus messaging with the team on the top 2-3 items which really need attention, and need to get wrapped up. Strategically, when should other messaging happen?

2. Think about upcoming presentations you have scheduled. Review one of them with an eye to asking yourself, what's essential? What's over-doing it? What could be put aside without losing impact overall.

3. Simplifying your workspace - As we move into the holiday time and year end it can be a really good time to clear your workspace. Take a a look around. What has gone beyond it's shelf-life? What needs to be moved, thrown out, passed on to create more space for focus and/or newness.

4. If you have any reports due, take an eye to simplifying the core message, and recommendations. Does your report have an Executive Summary section? A recommendations section? Inclusion of these can help others quickly cut to the core of the report.

5. Simplifying meetings - Meetings continue to be a huge "timesucker" for many organizations. This week consider what "Simplifying meetings" might look like for you? Consider implementing this in the next month and notice what happens to your time.

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Supporting Team Leaders to do their best work, one conversation at a time
Coaching Skills Training | Teamwork | Leadership
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-TEAM (8326)
The Teams365 Team Leader Cards are now available - put some jazz in your 201 meetings with better questions

theToday's Leadership Myth brings us to Q - and the myth many team leaders hold which is that they have to have all the answers themselves. Socratic, coaching questions are one of the most powerful tools in team leader's toolkit. Many of us are socialized to ask questions which are either leading to a specific result or are solely geared to problem solve. What we know from research is that many times we need to explore issues more widely before we come to the best solution. Likewise, many times our staff members themselves have the best answer so it is about helping them come up with their own solution.

In developing a  mini-toolbox of powerful questions we will want to look at asking questions which are:

• Short and concise - if our questions are too long, the receiver may be lost
• Open-ended and either invite exploration, new perspectives, or action
• Starting with What? We often say that What questions help to open the space for exploration and action.

Some powerful questions you may want to start using in your conversations include:
What's important about x?
What possible solutions are there?
What else?
What's another perspective around x?
What support do you need to be successful?
What's the flip side?
What might get in the way?
Where can you synergize (or collaborate)
Who else can help?
If you knew you would not fail, what would you try?

What other questions do you like to ask?

Over the last fourteen months each Thursday I have been providing you with a team building tip or question. These are now available as a set of 52 pocket-sized cards called the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck. Designed for team leaders to bring into their team meetings, coaching conversations or other dialogues, you can use the cards as preparation or by selecting one in the moment to spark dialogue. The Teams365 Sparker Deck make a great stocking stuffer for new and experienced leaders and teams at $29 plus shipping. Click here to learn more and order a set or two!

Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer


Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized | Teams365
Growing Team Leaders One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Check out our new Teams365 Team Sparker Deck
(416)996-8326

Today's leadership myth is that one-on-ones take too much time. Throughout the last two years, I've dedicated multiple posts to the importance of one-on-ones as a coaching tool and also performance approach. In fact, several organizations that I know of are now moving to regular one-on-ones in place of a formalized once a year performance review process.

One on ones are an important tool to build rapport with your team, empowering them while also providing a feedback loop. That feedback loop can be in support of a refinement/nudge around corrective performance measures, or a feedback loop to you as the leader in terms of what ther person needds in order to be successful with their activity (whether it's needing more resources, a connection, etc).

As I have stressed through the blog, one-on-ones should be regular *i.e.. several times  a week or more regularly), and don't need to take a lot of time when done regularly.

One of my most popular posts from this past year on one-on-ones has been about questions you might incorporate into your one-on-ones. Here they are again from #Teams365 #188 (7/7/14)

What have your successes been this week?

What have you been focusing on?

What’s your number one priority?

What’s working well?

What’s not?

What type of support do you need from me (as your leader)?

What do you need from others?

What’s going to support you in being successful?

What do you want to celebrate with others?

You may also want to listen back to one of my Sunday audios - 10 Questions to be asking as a team leader - Teams365 #376

Enjoy your one-on-ones this week!

Best wishes
Jennifer

,Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized - Leadership | Teamwork | Coaching Skills Training for Leaders
Supporting Team Leaders One Conversation at a Time(TM)
(416)996-8326