Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #3321: Ten Focus Areas for Teams and Leaders Right now: Part 1

2/6/2023

Over the last month I’ve had a lot of conversations with teams, leaders and organizations around the things they are excited about, and the things that are keeping them up at night. These will shape future focus areas for us here at the Teams365 blog:

Today I wanted to share five of the ten themes I am hearing A LOT about:

Teamwork in a changing team environment (especially when team composition changes due to layoffs, mergers and acquisitions, and ongoing change). Take a look at what I’ve shared in my posts around team coaching, Amy Edmondson’s writing around teaming and other posts)
Supporting leaders through burnout
Building resilience for leaders and team members
Exploring different styles (check out our Hybrid Work Styles Quiz to learn more about your sylste preferences)
Exploring our strengths as leaders and team members (which is our focus in our Team Days)

Take a look at what the Risely blog shared in October 2022 of the top ten leadership focus areas they saw then –

The Top 10 Latest Trends In Leadership In 2022
- The Top 10 Latest Trends In Leadership In 2022

Read their posts at The Top 10 Latest Trends In Leadership In 2022 - Risely

What do you see as some of the core areas? I’ll be back early next week with Part 2 on these!

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

TEAMS365 #3320: Week in Reflection

2/5/2023

This week we’ve taken a look at a number of additional posts on team culture, our current focus here at the blog.
In case you missed them, take a look at this week’s posts:

Saturday’s Weekly Jounraling Prompt on - Mash Up
Flashback Friday – Team Culture – Flashback to Teams365 #1526
Thursday - An Ode to GroundHog Day – What keeps repeating?
Wednesday - Welcome to February and Monthly Review and Planning
Tuesday - Team Culture Focus Area #3 What Is Important to Us?
Monday - Team Culture Focus Area #2 How we do things?

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

TEAMS365 #3319: Weekly Journaling Prompt – Mash Up

2/4/2023

I have been offering my Weekly Journaling Prompts here at the Teams365 blog on Saturday’s for many years now. I love receiving emails from readers who have indicated that they have provided a great opportunity to pause and focus.

The Teams365 blog posts have been so popular that I even created the Square Conversation Sparker Journaling Deck (link to https://www.potentialsrealized.com/store/p26/digitaljournalingcardsvol1.html) which includes 52 of them. They are ideal to bring into a weekly team meeting, to prompt discussion.

In today’s Weekly Journaling Prompt I want to share a mash up of 9 of my favorites in a collage I use a lot with teams and groups. I hope that you will take some time to zoom into some of your favorite ones and reflect on:

Enjoy the reflection!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

TEAMS365 #3318: Flashback Friday – Team Culture – Flashback to Teams365 #1526

2/3/2023

Today we are reaching back to share again Teams365 #1526 on Team Culture. I hope you have been enjoying the recent focus on team culture:
Team Culture: The Every Manager’s Desktop Reference defines organizational culture as “a set of shared values, goals, practices, and management styles that characterize an organization and are expected to be reflected in its public face and member behaviors” (pp 414, Every Manager’s Desktop Reference).

Today’s VUCA business context, characterized by ongoing change and flux, has pointed many teams to the importance of team culture. Our team culture may be different, or aligned with, our organizational culture. Simply put, team culture is “HOW WE DO THINGS”. It is the behaviors, practices and values which shape our every day interaction. Think about a team who has as part of it’s culture “customer service”. Actions and activities around providing exceptional service will be prioritized over ones that value quality and/or time, unless they are linked to customer service.

What are the adjectives that describe your culture?

Team Culture doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, and HR writers like Susan Heathfield reminds us “team members understand that 20% of the problems that they will experience as a team will fall within the context of the task or mission the team is assigned to accomplish. The other 80% of the problems they experience will relate to their team culture and the processes team members establish and commit to for interacting with each other as team members.” Link to her great article Team Culture and Clear Expectations at The Balance.com - https://www.thebalance.com/team-culture-and-clear-expectations-1919255

There are many different models of what comprises team culture:
Culture includes our behavioral norms and agreements - How do we do things here. What is acceptable and not acceptable.
It also includes team identity – How do I connect with others, how do we see ourselves
What we value: Culture is shaped by our values, beliefs and actions. It also includes our mindset. Consider what some of the mindsets are for you as a team. This might include: “We are able to flow with the changes that come our way” OR “We go above and beyond or “We rise to the challenge every time”.
When cultures are strong new members and external people can sense what our team is like. It’s almost a visible layer to others. This is especially true when we have a culture of collaboration, having each other’s back, or helping each other.

What's important for you to note and be in dialogue around as a team with respect to team culture?

Enjoy the focus!

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

TEAMS365 #3317: An Ode to GroundHog Day – What keeps repeating?

2/2/2023

Many readers are likely to be familiar with Groundhog Day – Where actor Bill Murray relives Groundhog Day time and time again. With today being Groundhog Day it’s an opportunity to step back and ask yourself about the PATTERNS you are noticing in your work, results and relationships.

Here are a selection of questions to ask yourself:

What are the patterns which are present in work right now?
What relationships are supporting results?
What relationship issues are surfacing regularly?
What are the elements which are leading to results? What is getting in the way of results?
Like Groundhog Day’s repeating patterns, what else is important to note?

Enjoy the reflection and what’s the ending you want to get to?

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

TEAMS365 #3316: Welcome to February and Monthly Review and Planning

2/1/2023

Happy Feb 1st! A new month and time to metaphorically turn the page. As I like to do each month, I’d invite you as you step into the new month to reflect on the following questions:

Here are some questions to consider:
1. As you reflect on January, what have been your successes and accomplishments?
2 What are you most proud of?
3. What successes this month do you want to duplicate? What has been some of your key learnings?
4. What key relationships have helped you so far this year? Which ones need more attention?
5 What has helped your successes? What has hindered?
6. What does your team need to be acknowledged for?

As you look to February, consider these questions:
1. What are your key priorities for February?
2. What are the key goals?
3. What are the major priorities?
4. What will you need to place attention on?
5. What changes do you want to make in February?
6. What resources do you want to tap into?
Be sure to update your trackers and other monthly goal items!

Enjoy.

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #3315: Team Culture Focus Area #3 - What is Important to Us?

1/31/2023

Over the last week we’ve had a number of posts taking us into the WHO, HOW and WHAT of Team Culture, the Three components which are foundational in shaping a distinct team culture.

Take a look at the WHO post here –
Take a look at the HOW post here -
Today we look at WHAT…Namely What is important to us.

For today’s post I am also pulling from the Day 35 of the 90-Day Guide For Success

What is important to us. Clarity around priorities and goals for the entire team helps with alignment, prioritization, and decision making. Spending time on a regular basis, discussing what is important to us, may also involve:

A list visible to the entire team (i.e., Think Intranet or other social network; have each team member post their
Top 5 Goals for the month
Top 5 Priorities for the week
Top 5 Priorities for the quarter
Enshrining your Team Agreements or Ways of Working into something that is visible. Some teams have enshrined this into a plaque or a screen saver, for example.

There are other what’s which are important to teams including:

Strategic Directions or Priorities
KPIs or OKRs

What else?

Enjoy the focus and I’ll be back with more posts on team culture later this week.
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #3314: Team culture focus area #2 - How we Do Things?

1/30/2023

Last week we started exploring 3 key areas of building a robust team and organizational culture- what I like to call the WHO, HOW and WHAT. These are at the heart of my latest TEDx talk.

Last Thursday we explored Culture Focus area #1 – WHO WE ARE. Take a look at it for some suggestions on what you might be able to explore together in your meetings.

Today, we are looking at culture focus area #2 – HOW We do THINGS. As I share in the 90-Day Guide for Success, HOW WE Do Things:

How we do things. Each team will have its own unique practices and ways of doing things. This will vary from team to team. Spending time discussing how you do things, and what the expectations are, creates clarity and builds trust, boosting both performance and results.

To explore this topic further consider:

Discussing “how we do things” (communicate, make decisions, work across differences, address conflict). It can be a series of different discussions and activities. It might include a Rules of the Road, which everyone has signed off on.
What makes you unique and distinct in terms of how you do things?
Another tool is to look at the Is/Is Not table.

Tomorrow we are going to explore area #3 – What is important to us. Stay tuned and I hope you’ll return back to take a look at it.

Enjoy the reflections,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #3313: Week in focus - Team Culture

1/29/2023

This week we have wrapped up the 23 for 23, 23 posts to kick off the year and get you started powerfully.

We have also started exploring one of our first thematic focus areas for the year – TEAM CULTURE. This year I hope to double down into about 23 focus areas. This will allow us to take a deeper dive into some fo the core areas shaping todays teams, leadership and organizations.

First up, TEAM CULTURE. Stay Tuned as we’ll be exploring this again next week.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #3312: Weekly Journaling Prompt - What is the culture we want to create?

1/28/2023

As we have been exploring this week, the topic of team culture is critical especially when things are changing and in flux.
.
With that in mind, today’s focus is What is the culture we want to create?
If you are not part of a team right now, another way to frame this is “What is the environment I want to create with my work?”.

Taking time to get clear on our values, and intentions are key. What do you want to create?

Enjoy the reflection!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.