Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

#Teams365 #699: #leadership Myth - That's Too Simplistic!

11/30/2015

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

#Teams365 #693: Leadership Myth Q - Questions

11/24/2015

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

#TeaMs365 #687: Leadership Myth o - One=on-Ones Take Too Much Time

11/18/2015

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

#TEams365 #686: Leadership Myth -N - norms ARen't Important

11/17/2015

One of the six factors of high performing teams is having in place shared expectations about behaviors. This is often referred to as team norms, what is acceptable, and what is not. Whether it's called a Team Charter, Rules of the Road or Team Agreements, creating a shared framework of the way you want to behaviorally operate is key.

Team Agreements help to encourage positive behaviors, and help bring things back in when things go off the rails.

If you are planning a year end retreat this is an excellent activity to undertake. When you have completed your Team Agreements make sure you think of how you want to remember them. I've had teams enshrine them in a poster, others created a statute and others made it part of their screensaver.

Common team agreements might be:
To start and end work on time (be specific around what it means to start and end on time)
To go the extra mile for customer support/satisfaction
To be respectful (again define what respect looks like in your work

Some prompting questions to get at your team norms can include:
What are the behaviors which allow us to be at our best?
What are the behaviors which help us excel?
What behaviors become a line in the sand, no matter what?

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

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

#Teams365 #685: #Leadership Myth #Meetings ALways work

11/16/2015

As we start a new week and continue our journey through the Leadership Myths, today we are at M with the Leadership myth that Meetings always work. Years ago, Patrick Lencioni wrote Death by Meeting.

Today we see this exponentially whether it's Death by Meeting or Death by Conference call. Effective Meetings.com pose some interesting stats from the late 1990s of people attending up to 60plus meetings a month, with 50% of that time being wasted.

Think about it for yourself -
how many meetings have you attended so far this month?
How much more time do you see yourself in meetings?
What is the "quality" of these meetings?
How have they supported you in getting your work done or moving your mission forward?

The Muse has a great infographic which updates meeting status for 2015 - you can view the article and infographic here.
Fascinating facts are quoted:
Mid level managers spend up to 35% of their time in meeting, higher level execs up to 50%, at a cost of $37 Billion a year, with 25 Million meetings being held every day!

In meetings you will want to avoid these meeting management faux-paus I mentioned in Teams365 #211. To make your meetings - virtual or not more effective, consider these
- Have a plan for the meeting and circulate it before so people come prepared, know that they need to be there, and can also indicate who should be there.
- Keep to time.
- Make sure you do follow-through on responsibilities and next steps. Avoid the pitfall of spending all your time looping back on this.
- Consider what roles will help the meeting keep moving - chair, time keeper, note taker etc.
- Always ask yourself:
1. Who needs to be here?
2. How much time do we need?
3. What is the outcome and next steps?

Have a great start to your week! Let us know if you have been able to integrate these questions into your work this week. Also enjoy a reminder of one of our earlier cartoons - Keeping Meetings on Track (originally published on August 7, 2014 - Teams365 #219)

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

#Teams365 #680 - Leadership myth L - Learning only Needs to TAke place in the Classroom

11/11/2015

Today's Leadership myth brings us to L - Learning only needs to take place in the classroom. For employees of all levels ongoing learning can be an important part of development, capacity building and also employee engagement.

There is a myth that we need to send "people out for training". As someone who has spent significant time in the last few decades supporting formal and informal educational initiatives, interally and extreenaly in organizations, this is myth.

Today there are so many options we can provide for employees to help them learn and grow. Consider these:

Job Shadowing with another peer or someone in a different department. Cross-training can be an important process with strengthening culture and also building a more agile workforce.

Special projects - Special projects can also provide an opportunity for employees who may not be able to move horizontally to continue to expand their skill set. In my former world of work, special projects I was tasked with continued to sharpen my skills and expand my comfort zone. I attribute the experience on some of these special projects as key experiences in helping me run a successful learning business today.

Mentoring - Mentoring continues to be an overlooked development opportunity to build capacity across organizations. In recent conversations I have had with mentors and proteges I support through designing mentoring training with their organization, I continue to hear what an important learning process it is and "why didn't we start earlier"? Contact me to explore what mentoring might look like in your organization for 2016. Mentoring can also happen virtually and doesn't need to be face-to-fa e.

E-Learning - E-Learning can be a great tool for on-demand and self-paced learning, especially when your organization needs learning now, and in smaller batches. E-Learning is not just about PowerPoint and in fact can be very interactive This year we developed a Coaching and Mentoring E-Learning Program which is now being rolled out in health care. Contact me for more information on this training package.

Coaching - Bringing small groups together to explore topics related to strengths, styles, is another way to build capacity and foster learning (and relationships!) within organizations. Some of the projects i have been involved with in supporting this year around group coaching include design and development of new group coaching programs for leaders, and train-the-trainers for internal staff in group coaching skills.

What learning opportunities would you and your team benefit from this year?

Have a great Wednesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in the areas of team development, mentoring, coaching or even e-learning.

Leadership Myth #679: I don't need to Know - The Importance of One-On-Ones

11/10/2015

Today's leadership myth brings us to K - for "I don't need to know". This leadership myth is a fallacy. While we don't want to be a micro-manager, it is important to know what is going on across the team, how people are managing and what support needs they have.

Throughout the last two years i have written about the importance of regular one-on-ones with your staff team. Done regularly, these become short "Touch base" meeting, keeping you abreast of how things are going. notice that ti's is about keeping you updated, but not in the thick of it.

Wondering what you will want to discuss in a one on one? Click here to read Teams365 Post #188: 9 Questions to Bring Into Your One-on-ones.

One-on-ones are key for building autonomy within the team, increasingly essential for so many roles today. Accountability for results is another core foundation of high performing teams, and knowing where performance and results are, along with what support is needed is key.

#Teams365 #678: Leadership Myth - Joking is Good

11/9/2015

Many leadership struggle with the role of humor int he workplace, and with good reason. Humor in today's workplace can be a very tricky subject, especially given that humor doesn't always translate across language, culture and other differences.

Several years ago as changes to Bill 168 on Workplace Violence was being rolled in here in Ontario, Canada I delivered numerous sessions to trainers and other professionals around what's appropriate and what's not. Humor was a big topic and to most attendees it was felt that it was an area that raised more red flags than not.

Take note of how humor is showing up in your workplace. It is inclusive? Does it offend any one on the team? As leaders we have a responsibility to ensure that everyone does feel safe and welcomed. Joking and humor can sometimes stretch the line on this, and as leaders team members will be looking for us to step in and address issues when the boundaries have been stretched too far.

Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

#TEams365 #673: Leadership Myth I - Innovation is for someone else

11/4/2015

Most of us don't operate in a time of "business as usual". In fact, change is the norm for many leaders today. What once worked may not work so well now. That calls on us to become more innovative and entrepreneurial at time. Years ago, organizations such as 3M coined the term intrapreneuring, to describe a more innovative and entrepreneurial spirit (characterized by risk taking, innovation, out of the box thinking) in corporations.

Today fostering more intrapreneuring and innovation in teams can mean the difference between merely surviving versus thriving. innovation is no longer the land of only R and D (Research and development).

AS you get yourself and your team thinking about innovation it may be useful to contextualize it for yourselves. Consider having some dialogue around these questions:

1. What does innovation mean for us as a team?
2. Why is innovation important?
3. What examples do we have of innovation around us?
4. What is needed for us to be more innovative (encouraging and fostering more risk taking, culture change, more autonomy for each individual)

Innovation is not a topic we have explored much here at the Teams365 blog, and my guess is that many of you are being challenged and asked to be more innovative. We'll dedicate some future posts to this, including this week's Leadership Toolkit.

What are your next steps around innovation?

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)

#Teams365 #672: Leadership Myth H - Happiness isn't Important to My Team

11/3/2015

Happiness as it relates to the workplace is often seen as being too soft or "Woo-woo", yet we continue to see through research that not only productivity is key for success, so is positivity.

Research continue to show that positivity factors also help accelerate performance. Positivity factors in the team include factors such as having trust, feeling connected, having camaraderie. I think we can all think of a time when our work environment was less than happy. Consider what happens to your productivity and mindset if you work in a toxic environment. We could do a whole monthly series on toxic workplaces -here are some interesting articles you might want to check out - 7 Signs Your Workplace is Toxic; Kusy and Halloway's seminal book on Toxic Workplaces)

Researchers at the University of Warwick found that we work harder when we are happy. They found that happiness made people 12$% more productive - click http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/new_study_shows/ for link to their research.

Emotional Contagion is the term used to describe the ripple effect emotions can have, and in fact numerous studies have seen how a leader’s mood has the same ripple effect on his or her team. When we are upbeat, our teams are more apt to be upbeat. When we bring our problems into the workplace and our mood sours, those that work around us also tend to sour. Here's a link to a past article on this topic in Psychology Today which looks at how fast emotional contagion actually happens.

What do you notice about happiness, toxicity and productivity in your team right now? What activities are supporting productivity? how sustainable is this over time?

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)