​Welcome back to the 2nd of 19 posts entitled 19 Productivity Hacks
Yesterday’s Productivity Hack #1 was to have a clear vision. Going hand in hand with this is knowing where you are getting your results. Since launching the Coaching Business builder workbook and planner in August, I’ve been hosting a series of month end reflection and planning sessions in a one-hour format. They are turning out to be a popular and focused way to create a pause real-time OR on-demand in a tight process. Learn more about these programs here (and join me for the end of December month end reflection session).

Productivity Hack #2 is about knowing clear of where you are getting your results.

This week it could be useful to do some stock taking of your year. Consider these questions:

• What were your key successes this year?
• What key learning did you undertake?
• What were key relationships which helped you to do your work?
• What accomplishments do you want to note?
• What helped you with your work?
• What metrics do you want to note?

Today I would invite you to grab a pen and notebook and take stock of your ideas. If you prefer to use a device, go ahead, AND note that things are retained differently when done by pen, rather than digitally. Put your reflections in a safe space so you can refer back to them at a future date.

Best, 
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Coming December 14, 2018 – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Pre-order a copy today on Amazon
Join us for a year-end virtual planning retreat!

As we move into the 73rd Effective Virtual Conversations tip, we’re looking at another success factor for high performing teams. This week brings us to number two of six in the ingredients which make up high performance – Shared Performance Goals.
In a virtual team it is really important to be clear on what the performance goals are, so everyone knows what they are aiming for, how things fit together, and what success looks like.
The danger in a virtual team when these things are not clear are:

• Lack of alignment
• Lack of understanding of how one goal fits with another
• Competing Priorities
• Differences in terms of quality of output, if end results are not clear
• Spending time clarifying goals, and what success measures are, are critical when team members do not see each other, and may be reporting to multiple matrix teams at any given time.

Goals are the heart of any team, and it is important to spend time with the team in discussion around this. You may want to dedicate an upcoming team meeting to this and have discussion around:

• What are your key goals?
• How do goals fit together?
• What does success look like around each one?
• What are the standards for work on this team?
• What are the minimums in terms of response time?
• What needs to be communicated, when?
• What are the best channels/appropriate ways to keep everyone updated with respect to their goals?

Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

This week’s Team Building Tip brings us to #209 of the series. Aligned with our shift to a focus on year-end, this week’s question to surface with the team is the question:
What needs to get completed by year end?
As you think about year end, here are 14 common year-end activities you will want to budget time and space for:

1. Reporting
2. Financials
3. Projects
4. Planning for new projects
5. Meeting with stakeholders (internal and external)
6. Communication planning for next year
7. Team development
8. Performance Reviews
9. Coaching Conversations
10. Learning for 2018
11. Learning for 2019 (individual and team level)
12. Peer Meetings
13. Meeting with our bosses
14. Meeting with other key internal partners

What else would you add to the list?
​
Enjoy!
Jennifer

#204 – Is everyone clear what exceptional team performance looks like?
Today we are at Team Building Tip #204, getting you as a team to explore the question “Is everyone clear what exceptional team performance looks like?”.
In today’s team context, where virtual teams sound, and people may not have the luxury of operating together, and seeing work outputs visually, spending time as a team to clearly define what “Exceptional Team performance” and results looks like is key.

One of the tools I share in my latest book, the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, is that of the IS/IS NOT Table.  When assigning tasks, or talking about performance, are we getting really specific and granular about what the end results IS and IS NOT? Making a list of these two in contrast, can help to tease out some of the unspoken expectations.

Another great way to prompt this conversation about what exceptional team performance looks like is by having some discussion around your “PEAK EXPERIENCE”. Have your team discuss and share times when you were at your best, and have done your best work. Share details about WHAT you did (Behaviors), HOW you did it (Practices), and the Characteristics of the Work and Your Relationships.
​
Revisiting these questions regularly can help with alignment and propelling the team through the murky waters of performance.
Let us know what you as a team have done to ensure that everyone is clear about what exceptional team performance looks like.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​Today we get to a 10th team tool you may want to bring into your conversations this fall. As I’ve written in the past four posts, teams which excel are great at both Relationships and Results.
On the performance front the work of Robert Mager and his performance tree can be invaluable in helping to shape our conversations:
​
Tool#10- Performance Tree - Mager
One of most powerful frameworks I have shared with leaders and their teams around performance is Mager’s Performance Tree.
Mager created the Performance Tree as a way to get to the root cause of performance issues. This is a valuable tool, and conversation prompt, for team members and their team leaders, particularly in a virtual setting.
Mager’s Performance Tree takes us step by step through a series of questions around the performance issue. Many times we are quick to jump to “Training” as the solution, when in fact a performance challenge may be due to resourcing, work flow or the environment.
What are you doing as a team to get to the root cause of performance issues?
 
I hope that you have enjoyed the Ten Things to Do With your Team this Fall series of posts. In case you missed them, do check out these other four posts: (insert urls for all)
1707 – Wednesday September 4 – Tips 1 - 3
1715 – Tuesday September 11 – 10  Things to Do with Your Team  part 2 – 4 and 5 – Mapping out key work flows, and role clarity.
1716 – Wednesday September 12 – 10 things to do with your team #3, Tips 6 and 7 which looked at connections and vision.
Also be sure to take a look at Tuesday's post on Creative Thinking and Working Around Decisions (Tips 8 and 9)
​
What do you want to incorporate into your team meetings this fall?
 
Enjoy,
Jennifer

​It’s back to work for many teams and some team leaders may be curious about what to do to move their team forward. In the next few series of posts, I’ll be covering 10 different ideas you might want to incorporate with your team.
As I have written in past posts, teams which excel usually have made sure they are aligned around the following six elements:

• Shared vision
• Shared Goals
• Clear Roles
• Clear performance measures
• Shared Team Practices
• Shared commitment

 
While at an initial glance, many of the activities I’ll be sharing this month appear to fit under the shared team practices umbrella, many also move the needle on the other six elements. Given that teams which excel are good at both results as well as relationships, consider how you can provide a focus on both in your work.

Covering the 10 ideas is going to take a few posts, so let’s get started!

Idea #1 for Back to Work focus with Team – Schedule time in everyone’s calendars for regular, and effective team meetings. As I write in Effective Virtual Conversations, asking 8 questions before every team meeting can help to make them more effective:

1. What’s the purpose?
2. What takeaways do we want?
3. Who needs to be on the call (in the room)?
4. What preparation is needed for us to be most effective?
5. What pace do we want to keep it engaging?
6. What will help keep the focus?
7. What is absolutely essential for us to cover
8. What follow-up might be required?

(Effective Virtual Conversations, Copyright Britton, 2017)
 
Idea #2 – Map out the major team goals and activities in the next 1-2 quarters (or longer). Provide everyone with a  visual mapping of:

• Key activities
• Key priorities
• How activities connect with one another
• Who is responsible for what

While there are many ways to do this, the more visual the better! Taking time to share this across the team also supports the team in keeping focused and aligned.
 
Idea #3 – Revisit, or visit, your vision as a team. Fill in the blanks,
It’s December 31, 2019 and we are looking back to take stock of the past 16 months. ____
Consider filling in the blanks around questions like:
Our major accomplishments have been _____________.
We are most proud of_______________.

Enjoy the conversation!
Have a great Wednesday,
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

It’s likely that this month your team is coming back together after months where not everyone may not have been around. September is an important time to get back to routines and habits, as well as creating new ones that may work better. Consider what you are doing (as a team, and as a professional) around these key areas:
Meetings – with meetings taking upwards of 40% of professionals times, what are the ESSENTIAL meetings to schedule this month? What can be deferred? Which ones do you need to negotiate your presence at? Where do you need to be, where you are not already? What’s going to make your meetings more effective?
Coaching Conversations – “Coaching is a conversation with intent” is what I wrote back in 2013 in my book “From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching”. What are the focused conversations you want to have an on a REGULAR basis this fall? What needs, and warrants, attention? What type of conversations are going to support different team members?
Email and Communication – What’s working with communication right now? What’s not? What can be streamlined (think email)? What are people’s preferences?
FOCUS – What are the interruptions that are pulling you off course? As you think about the last few months, what’s helped with your focus? What’s hindered? In today’s workspace focus is at a premium. What are the pockets where you can create more focus to get the important things done?
Renewal – The field of high performance sport shows that renewal is just as important as running. What are you doing to build in times for FOCUS and Renewal?
 
Best
Jennifer

​It’s time to mark another watershed in the Teams365 blog history – 1700 posts. When I started this project of blogging daily on January 1, 2014 I didn't know what was in store!  From goal setting, to difficult conversations, coaching to performance management, virtual team building tips, to work-life issues, I've covered a wide range of topics relevant to today's teams.

I've been encouraged by the many emails I have received and discussion with team leaders who are not only reading these posts, but also sharing them with their team members. That's what I had envisioned.

As a writer, the regular habit of planning, writing and researching these posts have made the writing of my latest two books - Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), and the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) flow more easily. Stay tuned for a couple of new 2019 resources for team leaders and team members, which will also grow out of what I've created here at the TEams365 blog.

Over the last 100 posts I’ve explored our most recent gearing-up for fall, along with the focus on team development approaches. These posts have joined some of the more regular weekly columns:
Monday’s Effective Virtual  Conversations Tips
Thursday’s Team Building Questions
Friday’s FlashbackFriday posts which take a look back at past Teams365 pots
Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompts – questions to get you thinking and writing each week
Sunday’s Videos which bring to life many of the hundreds of posts here at the Teams365 blog.
Looking ahead, I’ll be continuing daily posts throughout 2018, with upcoming focus areas on:

• Personal Productivity for the Remote Professional
• Remote Work tips and Hacks
• Planning for 2019
• More on team development

I hope that you will continue to join us for these posts!
 
And now, onto Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip #59:
In Effective Virtual Conversations I wrote “The first few minutes sets the tone. What do you want to create?”.
In conversations of all kinds – team meetings, performance conversations, one-on-ones, difficult conversations, the first few minutes are critical. Are you considering:

• The environment you are hosting your conversation in?
• What end result you would like to achieve?
• What’s important for the other person?
• What’s important for you to create?
• What’s going to help the conversation be successful?
• What expectations do you have?
• What expectations do they have?

Which posts have you enjoyed the most here at the Teams365 blog - let us know by commenting below! Please also take a moment today to share this blog resource with someone you know who would benefit.
 
Thanks,
Jennifer

M is for motivation, malaise, meaning, momentum.
Check out this Teams365 post #337 on Motivation and other M ways to focus on team development here.
 
N is for new hire orientation:
Check out this post suggested areas to include in new hire orientation here. 
 
Check out these six leadership questions on nimble, networking, norms and new here.

Check out What’s Your Nature – where I discuss more about styles and strengths, and the impact of this here.

O is for opportunities, optimism:
​Read more about this here.

Reflect on 6 leadership questions a day around opportunities and options here.

Continue the thought process around Remote and Virtual Team Leadership here. 

P is for performance, process, priorities:
Check out the blog here. 

Leadership Myth – Priorities change all the time:
​Read more here.
 
Enjoy today’s selection of looking back at some of the many varied posts I’ve covered here at the Teams365 blog.
 
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 Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

20 Focus Areas for Remote and Virtual Team Leadership – Goals

This month we are bringing our attention back to virtual and remote team leadership issues. I thought it would be fitting to reach back to Teams365 #1408 - https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-1408-virtual-and-remote-team-development-13-goals, where I focused in on goals for virtual and remote teams. Here’s what I wrote about this topic about a year ago:
 
When we go to think about performance management it’s likely that the first thing that comes to mind is feedback and formal performance reviews. From being involved in performance improvement for many years I know that there can be a myriad of reasons of why we don’t see the performance we want in a team. It can be due to factors such as:

• Lack of clarity around goals
• Lack of specificity around what success will look like;
• Unclear expectations
• Lack of measurement or checkpoints to see how progress is coming

 
In this blog post today I wanted to zoom into an area that is often overlooked by leaders and team members – getting really clear on goals. While many organizations are familiar with SMART goal frameworks, not everyone is. Let’s take a look at what SMART-E goals are (note my addition of the E).

We want to make sure our goals are:
S - Specific - What specifically do you want to achieve? What will it look like?
M - Measurable - How can you track progress?
A - Achievable - With some stretch are these achievable?
R - Realistic - Again, with stretch are these in range?
T - Timebound - What's the timeframe on this - next week, end of June, early 2015?
E - And most of all, are these goals Exciting? If they are not exciting, chances are they might got get done, or may get done only to get them checked off.
 
Let’s take an example of producing a report. If we sit down to discuss the production of a report with a virtual team member, we will want to get much more specific than saying “I’d like you to produce a report”.
We first want to look at:
S – Specifics: What is the report on? Key successes this year for the team? Implementation of activities due to the funding received for the project?
How long is it? What should it include? – Photos/Videos/Case Studies?
Will it be print and hard copy?
Once we get granular around the details we also then want to be specific around M – Measurable.
M – Measurable: What are the measurements which will frame this activity or goal?
Well we know that it’s got to be 60 pages – no more due to page size, no less because that would leave blank spots in the booklet
A – Achievable: Is this possible?
At this point we want to confirm that this is possible, given time, skills, resources. Who else might need to be brought into the project for support? What responsibility or authority might be needed so the staff can complete the task?
R – Realistic and/or Relevant – In further refining this goal it is important to discuss the relevance of this project or the WHY? Why is it important for the project to look the way it will? Why is is important to have 60 pages, vs 59 or 61? What is important about capturing success stories (the staff member may now understand that these stories will be beneficial for future funders, as well as staff themselves).
T – Timebound: In looking at one of our last categories, timebound, we want to provide benchmarks so that we can check in around progress. While we don’t want to micro-manage projects, setting checkpoints for quick reviews and updates can provide a space to make sure things are progressing as planned, any resources needed are identified, and questions are answered as needed. It is often easier to set a time at the end of your meeting so you don’t have to do a back and forth on email.

Finally, you will want to check in around the E – Exciting. How is this project/task/goal exciting? This speaks to motivation and what will help the staff continue to move through the ups and downs of the project. Perhaps the staff member has always wanted to focus on publishing, or writing, or maybe this is a way they see that they can leverage their past experience as a yearbook editor. Ask the team member why the project is important and how they find it exciting.

The SMART-E framework allows us to break down the goals we are working on into more manageable chunks, and helps us connect with the bigger picture of why goals are important as we look at adding an E (Excitement).

While I have used an example with just one person's goals here, you can use this same framework for breaking down team-based goals as well.

Let us know how you are using the SMART framework in your virtual team.
 
Enjoy your weekend!
 
Best wishes,
Jennifer