​An increasing number of teams have been moving their work to the remote space in recent weeks. Focus and relationships are core to success. I thought it would be useful to reach back to a post from October on different ways you can connect your remote team. Take a look:
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This week we turn our attention to a post from last October around your Remote Team Toolkit:

TEAMS365 #2130 Remote Team Toolbox: Helping teams connect, get to know each other and focus

In yesterday’s post I covered a range of different team development tools which professionals in the remote space may want to build or further develop. This could include tools in the areas of supporting the team to connect with each other, get to know each other and focus in on the work and results you want.

Area A: Activities/Resources to help the team to get to know each other
What’s outside your window? – As I wrote in Effective Virtual Conversations, we often only see people in their screen but aren’t able to see what’s beyond the screen. Have people share what’s outside their window or call in from a different location so you can learn more about their context.

Earmark 3-5 minutes to a fun opener/icebreaker in your next team meeting so people can get to know each other better.

Area B: Tools to help with focus
Minimizing the impact of digital distraction is a key issue for teams today. See what I had to say about reducing digital distractions a short while ago here at the Teams365 blog. 

Several different tools which help team members focus in the virtual space include the:

• Urgent/Important Matrix
• Strategic Issues Mapping (link to past Teams365 posts)
• SWOT: The trusty strategic planning tool (link to past Teams365 post)

Area C: Helping teams connect
Helping teams connect with who is who and who is working on what is of critical importance to a remote team. It’s an area we often don’t think about on the surface, sometimes given the diversity of roles and locations. It can be very useful in the medium- and long-term to facilitate regular conversations with the team around who is doing what, and to also earmark time for the team to regularly connect and get to know each other. Discussion in this area might include:

• Undertaking inventory of projects people are working on so that lessons learned can be shared.
• Identifying key strengths and experience bases which exist in the team – there may even be a “go to” team resource person around different areas – i.e. technology questions, resource around different themes/focus areas you work on etc.
• Short team openers and closers such as BINGO. (where team members asked to find someone who – insert different categories like: “has visited 3 different continents, speaks multiple languages, is a twin” etc.)

For more on this topic check out the 20 Focus Areas for Virtual and Remote Team Development ebook which is available at the Potentials Realized site and provides you with facilitated instructions of 20 different activities you can facilitate with your team. Pick up a copy here.

If you have a copy of the Effective Virtual Conversations book, check out chapter 7 on Tools and Resources.

Wishing you all the best,
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!
​

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip reminds you to “Catch people doing things right”. A challenge in remote work is that we don’t always see people in their natural work setting. Feedback, in general, may be missing when we work remote and sometimes it can feel like we are operating in a vacuum.

In order to help team members excel, feedback is needed. Both positive feedback and constructive feedback when things aren’t going well.

So how do we provide feedback when we don’t see others in action?

Build in review reflection touchpoints. This might include mid-project or end of project reviews. These can involve sharing works in progress (or completion) where there’s a specific focus on sharing and receiving feedback.
​
Build in co-working opportunities where it is live and virtual. This can provide a sense of everyone’s different working style. What might a co-working opportunity look like? It could be undertaking a 4-hour block of work together with the group coming together at the top of every hour. I facilitate these as part of the different remote coaching services I offer to group members who join me for an annual basis. With benefits of both ongoing accountability and getting things done quicker, it can be really interesting to have people share a snapshot of their work, real-time. It’s not only inspirational for us but can be a validating factor for those sharing the work. It also opens the door for informal feedback like – “Have you thought about….” OR “Have you considered looking at…..”. While we may operate in isolation, it can be important to benefit from peer wisdom and sharing.

Job shadow virtually, where feasible. Can more junior team members shadow another team member? Be an active observer so they can learn from others?

What else might you do to encourage job shadowing?

Finally, are you building in a culture with your remote team of having people share accomplishments and successes at team meetings? There might be a Star of the Week, or the Month. While this may not motivate everyone, it can build a great practice of building in a pause, so people note what they have done.

Enjoy your focus on thinking about feedback in the remote space and catching people doing it right.
 
Have a great week!
Jennifer

This month we’re looking at building relationships in the workspace. Whether it’s meeting colleagues half a world away or getting to know new team members who you can’t see every day, today’s post gets you thinking about, and using, five conversation starters in the remote space. These can be useful to combine together if you are creating more of a focus for team members to meet with each other and learn about each other’s work. As I write “Remote does not mean disconnected!”. Remote team members are often surprized to see just how connected their work really is.


Tell me a little more about your role and what you focus on? (another reframe may be – Tell me a little more about your work?)

It’s likely that this question will take you in the broad landscape of what someone does. It can be useful to hear what they do, where they are based, what they are responsible for. Are they part of a local office that you can’t see, or do they work from home? Are they part of just your team or multiple matrix teams? What are the major items they are responsible for?

Tell me a little more about your priorities right now?

This question helps get at what their priorities are. In the remote space, it’s easy to think that everyone is working on the same projects that we are, when in fact, they may have two or three other priorities ahead of ours.

How do you see our roles fitting together?

This question may be a “door opener” to your peer asking you questions about your work and what you do. It may also help to clarify the intersection points of your work. The value of having regular conversations and talking about what you do is that you may start seeing even more connections together than you did in isolation.

What type of communication is going to work for you?

This question helps to create a proactive approach to teamwork. The support needed, and valued, by each team member may be different.

Asking how you can support others in their work can surface a discussion around strengths, preferences, and how each team member is unique. If you know that someone puts an emphasis on brevity and timeliness, your response can adapt. It may mean short bullet form emails, specific to the task, rather than long winded emails which ask questions about how people are doing as in the case of another team member who values relationships, inquiry and a slower pace.

Beyond this, you will likely hear about the varying channel preferences people have and the frequency people will value.

What should I know about your work context and preferences?

In the remote space our team may be “on” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7). Understanding how people work, where they work and what their context is critical for communication, workflow and also prioritization. If you know that someone is only in the office two days a week you can prioritize accordingly. If you understand that a colleague’s work hours don’t intersect with yours, you will be able to adjust WHEN you send info – i.e. at the end of your day so they can work on it during their work day and have it back to you by the time you get back online the next morning.

How can I support your work?
​
Even if you aren’t seeing each other every day, or working physically side-by-side, collaboration and reciprocity still exists. Find out what you each can do for each other. Maybe they have specialized skills and experience you can learn from, maybe there are process tools they are really good at. What supports can you offer each other?

I hope that you will start to incorporate some of these questions as you move forward with your conversations and relationship building. What time are you earmarking for conversations this week?

Warm wishes, 
Jennifer

As we move into 2020, it’s easy to get swept up into the “doing” of work right away. Before the year gets further ahead, take a few minutes to be sure that you get these items scheduled in…

#1 – Team Meetings – Make them consistent and regular. It’s likely that you won’t be able to have everyone at the table (or the screen). Make sure that you create shared team agreements of what team members need to do if they are not present for meetings.

#2 – Meetings with Your Boss – Have you scheduled in time with your direct line manager? Keeping visible and being in regular communication is essential in today’s workplace. Corporate priorities can change quickly as can your boss’ priorities. How often are the two of you meeting? What format are you using? What’s important for them to know?

#3 – One-on-ones with The Team – While group and team meetings are great, team members still need some 1-1 time. Be sure to schedule in some time with your team on a regular basis. Are you aiming for monthly 1-1 conversations? Quarterly deeper dives? Daily touchpoints? As a team talk about expectations and make agreements about who is responsible for scheduling and follow up.

#4 – Team Development Time – As I shared in yesterday’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip, team development time is critical and is often overlooked for virtual teams. Teams don’t just excel by osmosis! They need time to get to know each other, clarify how they are operating and focus in on what’s important.

#5 – Strategic Thinking Time — Are you leaving yourself enough time for reflection and thinking? Be sure to leave in enough time for strategic thinking. This can include creating, or revisiting your VISION, MISSION and MANDATE. Taking time to think strategically is important so that you have a clear big picture with a longer-term horizon. With things changing rapidly, the strategic horizon of 1, 3 or 5 years down the road can be invaluable in helping us keep moving, and not getting too set back by the small changes which can feel frenetic.

#6 — Time to Get Things Done — With meetings, communication and email taking a lot of time, what time are you leaving for yourself to get things done? For some professionals, it means coming into the office early to tackle key tasks for 30-60 minutes before others arrive. For others, it means booking a conference room and closing the door. Notice when you are most productive and when it’s important to get things done.

# 7 – Learning Time – What are your learning and development goals this year? Embracing ongoing learning has never been more important. What are the skills, processes and approaches which are going to help you do your best work? Note that learning can take many forms: including in-person programming, virtual learning as well as on-demand learning. Finally, peer learning (see #9) is another set of approaches.

#8 – Feedback Time – What feedback touchpoints are you building in throughout the year? Feedback in many organizations has moved to an ongoing cycle, and it can be important to make sure that it is happening regularly. Block off time in your schedule to get it done.

#9 – Peer Learning Time/Mentoring Time — What is the peer learning you want to undertake this year? Is it possible to do some job shadowing or pair with a peer partner throughout the year to compare notes, share resources and learn from each other?

In addition to peer learning, what about identifying a mentor in your organization or industry who can share their experience in order to help you understand “what’s below the waterline”?

#10 – Time Within Your Industry or Outside Your Regular Scope of Work — Finally, industry connections are key. Keeping current in your area of work may be as important, or more important, in the medium- and longer-term. What connection into professional associations are going to support you this year?

As you think about this year, what is going to support you best?

Best wishes, 
​Jennifer

Conversations are at the heart of business success in any context or industry. Whether communication is happening face-to-face, by instant message, text or email, clarity in our communication is key. Checking assumptions and looping back to ensure that our message has been received as it was intended are also critical for success.

Two types of conversations which can be important for professionals of all kinds today – leaders, individual contributors and entrepreneurs – is having conversations with a coach and a mentor. Coaching and mentoring are in fact different modalities and each brings a different focus. Sometimes, the same person can wear the hat of coach and mentor, but often they are two different relationships we enter into.

Mentors play a critical role in helping us navigate the complexities and undercurrents of an industry, an organization or a role. Mentors help us understand the nuances of an industry/organization, often by sharing their experience. Typically, more seasoned that the person being mentored, they become a go-to for questions you may not be able to take to your boss. Research over the last decade and a half has shown that similar to team effectiveness, coaching and other relationships that trust and connection are key.

You might partner with a mentor to support your development in:

• Understanding what is needed to succeed in your role
• Understanding the undercurrents and politics of an organization or industry
• Getting a better sense of one person’s career transition
• Connecting in with important people, organizations and resources related to your work
• Expanding your network

Mentors typically will bring experience in your industry or with the role you are exploring. Their stories and experience serve as a springboard for your conversations.

Coaching is a separate modality and helps individuals gain clarity and awareness around their own capabilities. A coach in today’s business context is usually there to ask questions and prompt new insights via the questions and approaches they use. Coaching conversations are underpinned by the goals a person is working on, and usually focus on expanding awareness and action towards those key goals. While a coach may “once in a while” take off their coaching hat to slip on a “mentoring” or “training” hat in terms of suggesting a reading list, the role of the coach is a neutral one. The coach is invested in your own development and goals.

You might partner with a coach to help you:

• Gain further awareness of strengths, challenges and blind spots
• Create accountability around your most important goals
• Develop clarity around goals and next steps
• Understand the mindsets, belief systems, assumptions, and patterns you are embracing
• Have a regular pause point to stop, focus and strategize on what’s important in terms of your next steps

​As you consider your goals for the next year, what are the most important conversations to be undertaking? Is now the time to find a mentor, or a coach, or both?

Curious about either coaching or mentoring? We offer training and support in both areas. Reach out and set up a conversation today. 

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Writing 
Phone (416)996-8326
 
As we step into the end of the year, get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.

Episode 2 of the Remote Pathways Podcast is now live! Join us as we exploer the pathways of those new to working remote, as well as the pathway of virtual team leaders. Listen in on your favorite podcast player or directly here.

With an increasing number of professionals leveraging the power of virtual conversations and meetings, I thought it would be a good idea to include a post this month focusing on five ways you’ll want to jazz up your virtual conversations. Still too often virtual calls are plagued by poor connection, multi-tasking, being “talked at” rather than being engaged in discussion. It’s what I call the Death by Conference call mindset in my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at 5 ways to break the habits of bad conversations:

1. Get everyone on the same platform – We’ve all been there. Too often. In a call where some people are in a room together (physically) with a few outliers who are in the virtual space. The boomerang connection does not mix. Can we either:
   1. Bring everyone onto the same platform by moving the conversation completely into the remote space where everyone has their own window.
   2. Use a technology which will give a clear, 360 view of the room. I just heard about OWL Labs technology and WOW – what a game changer! (And no, this is not a paid endorsement for them.)
2. Get people co-designing and co-creating together – using annotation. Given the fact that we are often “Alone with our thoughts” many days, and don’t have the collaborative stimulation of a lunchroom or water cooler, would it be possible to dedicate some time for the group/team to create some learning together. Perhaps it’s doing some visual brainstorming work, or having people identify what they want to explore together. Use annotation throughout your calls and get people to see how co-creating visually may be of benefit beyond your calls. 
3. Use breakouts – Most remote workers are hungry for connection, and to be heard, given the isolated nature of work. What can you do to connect group members with each other for deeper levels of dialogue? Incorporating the use of breakouts, where people can be paired with one or two others for a few minutes to discuss a question or topic of interest, can leave a memorable impression. Check out this 2017 call I did on Breakouts. 
4. Make sure it’s the right type of meeting for the conversation. Also be discerning with whether a large group meeting is the right type of conversation. Does everyone need to be there? Could you connect people in different ways?
5. Signal it will be different – and make sure it will! Most important, be sure to grab people’s attention at the start of the call. What can you do to signal from the start that it’s NOT going to be Death By Conference call? You may be amazed at how quickly you develop a reputation for a MEH call, or an engaging call.

What type of environment do you want to create? What is important for you to note?

Best, 
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Writing 
Phone (416)996-8326
 
As we step into the end of the year, get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.

Working with strengths is another powerful antidote for teams operating in today’s VUCA context. Helping people bring their strengths to work everyday boosts engagement and can be a powerful motivational factor which we know is a key component for virtual teams today.

In this week’s Flashback Friday I wanted to link back to Teams365 #1240. 

Here’s what I wrote about different ways to support a focus on strengths with your team:

Gallup has studied the realm of strengths for many years now and research shows that helping employees and team members leverage their strengths every day leads to significant gains. The Gallup Strengths Center mentions these as some of the benefits of strengths-based management practices in December 2016. 90% of organizations which incorporated strengths-based management practices found:

• 10% to 19% increase in sales
• 14% to 29% increase in profit
• 3% to 7% higher customer engagement
• 6% to 16% lower turnover (in low-turnover organizations)
• 26% to 72% lower turnover (in high-turnover organizations)
• 9% to 15% increase in engaged employees
• 22% to 59% fewer safety incidents

​Read Gallup's article here.

​So what are some practical and tactical ways team leaders can support their team members in bringing their strengths to work every day?

​#1 - Help you team understand what their strengths are - Knowing our strengths is not an intuitive process for many of us. Helping team members understand what their strengths are is an important part of the process. There are several ways to explore strengths including the VIA Character Strengths Survey, and StrengthsFinder. Helping team members consider the question "When are you at your best?" also helps team members become more aware of their strengths.

​#2 - Get team members sharing more about their strengths - What they are and how they use them every day at work. This can be a great team meeting conversation touch point. Whether you make it part of a regular team meeting, or a special event, conversations like these lay the foundation for effective team building.

​#3 - Pair people with different strengths - Teams which excel usually have complimentary strengths. Pair people on the team together who may have complimentary strengths.

​#4 - Pair people who have similar strengths - You may also want to pair people who have similar strengths so they can compare notes and get inspired from each other about how they leverage their strengths.

#5 - Find ways to utilize your strengths more regularly. When we are able to use our strengths more readily engagement goes up as does our satisfaction levels. If using your strengths is not part of your everyday work, have some dialogue with your boss about how you could take on special projects which would leverage your strengths, and/or explore other development opportunities. I can think back to how my participation in many special projects and committees allow myself to bring my best to work, while further building my own skill set and opening up new opportunities where over my career progression I could use my strengths more on a regular basis.

​What other ways do you see as possible for people on the team to leverage more of their strengths?
 
For those interested in learning more about this topic, do check out an excellent article by Courtney Ackerman. 

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.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources. ​

​This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations post takes us to #105 in the series. The focus this week is on the skill set of Accountability. It’s much harder to track things in the virtual space, given that our time windows of synchronous moments when we are together can be limited. At the same time, our work may still be interdependent.

With this in mind, it is important to discuss what accountability can look like on your team, and how you want to support it.
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Consider these ideas for supporting virtual or remote accountability:

• Make it visible – Keeping things visible allows us to keep things top of mind. If there are key goals are there dashboards or visible measurement items, you can create and share in your intranet or team portal?
• Create peer accountability partners – In the virtual space, relationships are essential, and we may not take time getting to know our peers. Creating peer accountability partners where everyone has one or two buddies, helps with information flow across a team, and also can boost the needle on accountability.
• Help people see the bigger picture and connections – Many times team members don’t realize how interconnected things are, and that their work may directly impact another team members. Help teams members see the bigger picture of tools and also how their work flows into another's.
• Build in time to check in – What doesn’t get tracked, doesn’t get done. What time are you building in for tracking and check in? This might be 5 minutes in a weekly team meeting, or via one-on-one calls.
• Model accountability – If leaders are not following through it’s hard to ask team members to follow through. Model accountability and walk your talk!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Another part of successful teamwork in uncertainty is giving people the space to experiment and try things out. This goes hand-in-hand with cultivating curiosity.

Experimentation is not just a strategy for small business and start ups, in fact, encouraging intrapreneurism has been a part of larger organizations for many decades now, including organizations like 3M.

Experimentation and trying things out can be a key business strategy when things are changing. Part of the success of this business strategy is that we also track.

When fostering an environment of experimentation, consider these questions:

• Before you start an experiment, where are you? 📍
• What do the metrics say? 📊
• What do you want to measure?📏
• How long and at what frequency will the experiment last?⏳
• What is your hypothesis? I.e. What do you think will happen?📈 

Recently I posted the daily business prompt as part of the #90Days Plan Do Track series over on Instagram at CoachingBizBuilder. 

Ways we can encourage more experimentation:

• Provide people with stretch zones
• Work with real business challenges. Encourage a peer exploration of different options and perspectives around key business issues. It might be that you are looking for different ways to get services or products out to market or how to magnify sales.
• Explore opportunities for cross-departmental sharing with a view to learning from other’s best practices and ways of working. This cross-pollination of ideas may lead to new ways of working in your department.

What else might you do to encourage more experimentation? 

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 an digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

We turn our attention to teamwork in uncertainty in today’s post, as well as tomorrow’s. One of the most important foundations for teams moving through change, uncertainty and volatility is TRUST.

Trust is an essential precursor to effective team work. It doesn’t just form. We need to be intentional in creating it.

As I write in my book Effective Virtual Conversations, there are many things we can do to build trust and connection in the virtual space including:

1. One on One Time: Having regular calls with your team members to check in around how things are going, as well as what their needs are from you, and from the team.
2. Group or Team Agreements (Ways of Working): Creating shared agreements around HOW you will operate as a team. This helps to create safety, an essential precursor to trust and connection.
3. Create shared expectations: What does everyone expect from each other? What are your expectations of how you will operate as a team?
4. Breakouts: Using breakouts regularly in team meetings can help people get to know each other better. Breakouts enable people to connect with one or two others for short periods of time around key discussion areas.
5. Paired partners: Assigning partners across the team. In my former work we called these peer partners and we rotated it on a regular basis – i.e. every 6 months. The role of the peer partner was to connect on a bi-weekly or monthly basis with another team members to chat and connect, sharing a little more about key projects and tasks they were working on, and focusing in on learning more about their partner. Brainstorming around key opportunities and challenges also ensued, as did some formal and informal mentoring.
6. Being clear about process and what to expect: Trust is also built on virtual calls by letting people know what to expect about process and key items.
7. Connect people early on with their WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?): Connecting people around their What’s In It For Me at the start of the call, helps to connect people with the relevance and importance of the topic in their world. Without this, it is unlikely that we will listen.

What will help to build trust and connection for your team members?

Another key element to helping teams thrive in uncertain environments is connection. Knowing other members of your team – who they are, what they do, who they are connected with, and what strengths they bring – is crucial in contexts which are changing regularly.

No person is an island, and our relationships are even more important.

To boost connection on a virtual team we will want to:

• Build in moments for teams to learn more about each other – who they are, what they do, what they can be counted on to accomplish.
• Help people articulate their role, and how they operate. This might include a one pager with a focus on “Here’s what you should know about me”.

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 an digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.