Teams365 Blog - Potentials Realized

#TEAMS365 #1935 – Team Building Tip 232

4/18/2019

This week’s Thursday Team Building Tip gets you as a team to consider the question: "_____ is strengthening our results."

As you consider your results so far this year, what has helped you. Consider:

Resourcing – Human Resources/People, Materials, Budget
Processes
Practices - coming together for meetings which have been made more efficient with the 8 Meeting Questions
Alignment

What else?

Given these items, what can you be doing to leverage them more?

Enjoy your conversation,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

#TEAMS365 #1934 – Team Springboard: 20 Things that Help Teams

4/17/2019

This month’s focus is on Team Springboards, things that help teams. Let’s take a look at a laundry list of things that help teams excel. Individually they are quite straightforward, collectively they are powerful. As you review this list you might consider giving yourself a rating on a 1-10, with 1 being low and 10 being high.

Clarity around goals
Strong team culture
Knowledge of each other
Connection with other team members
Understanding what people do on the team
Knowing who to go to for _____________ (insert issue)
Clarity around roles on the team
Clarity about how to surface issues
Confidence that issues raised will be heard
Confidence that issues raised will be addressed/considered/responded to
Clarity around how performance is measured
Resources needed to do the work
Mechanisms to flag resources needed
Feedback channels
Acknowledgement for work well done
A clear vision of what the team is aiming for in terms of this year’s/quarter’s goals
Effective Team Meetings on a regular basis
Clear channels for communication
Opportunities for development
Opportunities to have fun and connect with others

What else?

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

#TEAMS365 #1933 – Digital Distractions

4/16/2019

From open office spaces to a focus on collaboration, there can also be a pendulum swing in organizations where sometimes things go too far.

As I mentioned over the weekend, there are a number of studies exploring this topic of distraction including Udemy In Depth’s 2018 Workplace Distraction Survey. You can read it here.

The report asserts that distractions have an impact on productivity. Some of the distractions noted in that study are talkative co-workers, email and others.
Many of the distractions I hear of in the work of my clients are:

Unscheduled meetings
Co-workers dropping by to chat
Email
Social media which takes you “down the rabbit hole”
Materials and information which are not readily accessible and have not been stored in the locations you thought they would be in

What are you doing to minimize the distractions? What do you find distracting?

What conversations are important to have?

Here are some other articles of interest:

Check out this article from Financial Times – “Digital Distractions are Making Us Dumb and Twitchy” which also includes some great tips from Professor Cal Newport.

Suresh Subamdam’s article on Is Your Work's Communication Channel Turning Your Team Into a Bunch of 'Slack'-ers?

Take a look at Digital Responsibility’s website and ideas on Digital Distraction.

Wishing you all the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

#TEAMS365 #1920: Team Development: Revisiting the Six Factors

4/3/2019

This month's theme here at the Teams365 blog is Team Springboards. Where do you start the conversation about how the team is doing?

One of the frameworks I continue to share with teams is what I call the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. These are six things that teams need in order to excel. The ingredients come from the research of professionals including: Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams), Hackman and Wageman (A Theory of Team Coaching) and others.

As you step into the new month, as a team you’ll take the pulse of where you are on a scale of 1- 10 in each of these six areas:

1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)
What is your purpose? Your mission? Why do 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 do 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 do our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities?
___________________________________________________
If you are interested in learning more or sharing different resources with your team, check out this past Team Leader Café Call I did on the topic of the six factors.

Check out this short video about the six factors.

If you have a copy of my book, Effective Virtual Conversations, check out chapter 11 (Virtual Team Development).

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) 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)

#TEAMS365 #1849 – Productivity Tip #12: Build In Regular Time for Review

1/22/2019

Tip #12 – Build in regular time for review

"Big thinking precedes great achievement."
— Wilferd Peterson

Part of productivity is about building in pause points to reflect and think about what’s working and what’s not.
Building in time for regular review helps to:

Identify where we are getting our results
Observe the patterns that are occurring
Think about where we want to go
Identify what is important to be able to move forward

Some of the pitfalls we may experience in review is number one we don't have the data our memories are not good at remembering and capturing where we were at different points in time.

With this in mind, I've included in number of monthly daily trackers in the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack. They get you to regularly track and capture your key metrics. Perhaps you want to track sales. When did sales and revenue come in for the month? Was it on a Friday or was it on Monday?

Another metric you might want to be tracking is social media. How many followers did you have on July 1st? November 1st?

Building in time for regular review helps us to identify what's working and what's not that then gives us the opportunity to make a change.

Activity

Identify the metrics you want to track in your business. Make note of these and start tracking them. Consider using colors to highlight. As you review them consider these questions

What do you notice about your metrics?
Where are you spending a lot of time?
What is giving you impact? What is not?
What changes do you want to make?

Conversation Sparkers

“What we focus on expands”. What do you want to focus on more?
What does the data say?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
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
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon

#TEAMS365 #1801 - Productivity Hack #2

12/5/2018

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!

#TEAMS365 1799 - Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 73

12/3/2018

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

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
Join Jennifer for a year-end virtual planning retreat in the PlanDoTrack Series!
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
YouTube – Teams365 Leadership Channel
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326
Pre-order a copy of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals on Amazon (Available December 14). Check it out here.

#TEAMS365 #1774 Team Building Tip 209: What Needs to Get Completed by Year End?

11/8/2018

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:

Reporting
Financials
Projects
Planning for new projects
Meeting with stakeholders (internal and external)
Communication planning for next year
Team development
Performance Reviews
Coaching Conversations
Learning for 2018
Learning for 2019 (individual and team level)
Peer Meetings
Meeting with our bosses
Meeting with other key internal partners

What else would you add to the list?

Enjoy!
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

#TEAMS365 #1738 - Team Building Tip #204

10/4/2018

#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

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

#TEAMS365 #1723 – Tip 10 of 10 Things to Do with Your Team This Fall

9/19/2018

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

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