It's time for Team Building Question #178 this Thursday and a prompt to ask your question "What pauses are we making to stop and reflect on what's working?".

​When was the last time y ou took stock of your accomplishments as a team, individually or collectively?

​This conversation could be part of your regular team meeting where you generate a team list, or everyone gets to share one success they have had. You can also do this by creating a shared chat board for the team, if you are using communication tools like Slack.

​If you are looking for even more prompting questions, check out yesterday's post which included 19 questions to bring into your one-on-ones, planning sessions and project debriefs this spring.

Enjoy!

​Jennifer

Today's posts focuses on questions to spark discussion around three key spring start up activities. I these three areas mentioned in yesterday’s blog post -  one on ones, planning and Project Debriefs.

Today’s post dives into a series of questions you’ll want to ask yourself, and your team, in three key spring  areas. Whether you are a team leader, member or even business owner, this may be one of those posts that you want to highlight, and return back to
 
One on Ones
One on ones with your team are critical on a regular basis. Unfortunately they are also the things that usually get left at the bottom of the to-do-list. While each team leader will have their own frequency of holding these with team members, you do want to make them regularly consistent. Some of the questions you may want to incorporate into your upcoming one-on-ones are:

1. What are your key priorities this quarter?
2. What support do you need in order to be successful? (From me, from others on the team)?
3. How frequently would you like us to connect?
4. What’s going to help you stretch as a professional? What’s going to be the challenge for you this ?
5. What are the partnerships or relationships which are going to help you be successful?
6. What check ins will be useful (time, frequency, type) to see how things are going?

 
Project Debriefs:
​Projects large and small deserve a bit of post-mortem or debrief. Here are a selection of questions you may want to incorporate into your next project debrief.

1. What worked well with that project?
2. What were the three critical success factors (i.e. things that mad the project a success)
3. What key lessons were learned?
4. Which projects do they need to be carried forward into? Who else could benefit from hearing about these lessons learned?
5. What needs to be avoided at all costs in future projects?
6. What systems helped with teamwork, roles, tasks and resources?

 
Planning:
​If you haven't had the chance to undertake some planning, grab a pen and work through these questions. They are also ones you may want to share with your team:

1. What are the top 3 -5 priorities this month?
2. Who (or what relationships) is/are needed in order to make this a success?
3. What’s the one habit that will help these projects?
4. What might get in the way?
5. Where are you getting the bulk of your results right now? How can you do more of this? What do you need to say no to?
6. What can get delegated or deferred?
7. What tasks are not adding value and need to be dumped?

​Enjoy the questions. Share your favorite here in the comments!

​Best wishes,
​Jennifer

It's the end of another month and today signals the end of the first quarter. Have you taken some time to reflect on your successes, accomplishments and learning? Today's post gives you that opportunity.

AS you think back to this past quarter (so the period of January until now):

What were my major achievements this quarter?
What do I want to celebrate?
As I consider my goals (and resolutions) I made at the start of the year, how am I doing with these on a scale of 1-10? Which ones are becoming new habits or something I can check off?
Which ones need to be let go of?
As a leader, what have I noticed about my team this quarter?
As a leader, what notes should I make about performance issues (if I haven't done it already!)
The thing that has helped me be most productive this quarter has been ______
The thing that has helped me be most successful this quarter has been ______
The thing that has helped me be happiest this quarter has been ________
The thing that has helped me be most healthy has been _______
What have I noticed about my work/productivity/results and/or relationships during the winter months (if you are in the northern hemisphere) or summer (if you are in the southern hemisphere)?

Take note of any key metrics which are important for you, and your work. For corporate leaders this may be progress on key KPIs (Key Performance indicators). For small business owners this may be key metrics around social media.

Looking ahead to Quarter 2:
My priorities are:
Our team priorities are:
My goals are
My teams goals are:
I want to......
I'll be really happy at the end of this quarter when....
I also need to think about:

Enjoy your reflections, and if you have not had time to undertake any quarterly planning before, I hope that you will grab a new notebook, and start this new practice.

If you did not know, I provide a series of Teams365 Planning tools for leaders I work with. You can download the quarterly planning worksheet as part of this month's download. Click here to access. If you'd like to receive more monthly tools, join our Teams365 planning list which gets a new email every month or two. You can join that list here.

Best
Jennifer

As we step into the first day of spring, it's time to take a pause and consider where you are at. It's also a great day to put a pause to do some planning and aspiration setting for the next season.

​If you missed my series at the start of the year - Kickstart your 2018 - now is a great time to revisit these posts around goal setting, planning and visioning. These are activities we can do throughout the year, not just at the start of the year. Taking time to pause and take stock through review and visioning is critical for leaders and entire teams. View the series here.

​For today's post, I wanted to provide you with a series of additional prompts, and if you are in the habit of journaling, this is a great opportunity to take stock of where you are at.

​Here are a number of questions to consider in today's spring planning:
What are your goals this season?
​Narrowing it down, what are your top 3- 5 priorities? (Think - by June 21st I hope to have achieved)
What new habits and practices do you want to put into place?
​What is one thing you could do on a daily basis each day of spring (which google says will be 92 days this year), to move your goals forward?
What relationships do you want to put attention around?
​What do you need to, and want to take action on?
​What needs clearing up?
What else is significant for you this season? 

Looking backwards to the last season:
What successes did you have over the last quarter?
​What major accomplishments did you have?
​What were key lessons learned?
​What habits or practices helped you?
What got in the way?
What do you want to make sure you don't carry forward into this season?

Finally...
​What pauses and renewal periods do you want to build in? Grab a calendar and do that now.
​What else will help you remain at your peak?

​Enjoy your planning and reflection!

With best wishes,
​Jennifer

It's the end of month two for 2018 and time to take stock of the month that was and take a few minutes to look ahead in setting plans and intentions for the next month. I hope that you will take 10-15 minutes today to do some planning for yourself, reflecting on these questions:

1. As you reflect on February, 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? 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 March, consider these questions:
1. What are your key priorities for March?
2. What do you want to make sure you complete by the end of the month? (which may be the end of the quarter)
2. What are the key goals for the month?
3.  What are the major priorities?
4. What will you need to place attention on?
5. What changes do you want to make in March to your habits and routines?
6. What resources do you want to tap into?
7. What relationships and partnerships do you want to leverage?

Enjoy your reflection!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

That’s a wrap! Here we are at the end of January. Another month whizzed by. I hope that you will take 10-15 minutes to reflect on, and write out, your responses to these questions:

Reflecting on the month of January:
What were my major achievements this month?
What do I want to celebrate?
As I consider my goals (and resolutions) I made at the start of the year, how am I doing with these on a scale of 1-10? Which ones are becoming new habits or something I can check off?
Which goals need to be let go of or changed?
What habits have supported me this month?
As a leader, what have I noticed about my team this month?
As a leader, what notes should I make about performance issues (if I haven't done it already!)
The thing that has helped me be most productive this month has been ______
The thing that has helped me be most successful this month has been ______
The thing that has helped me be happiest this month has been ________
The thing that has helped me be most healthy has been _______
What have I noticed about my work/productivity/results and/or relationships during the winter months (if you are in the northern hemisphere) or summer (if you are in the southern hemisphere)?
How I’m doing with my theme of the year (how I am living it, embodying it).

Looking ahead to February:
The project I want to get started
The project I most want to wrap up is...
I want to leave ______ in the month of January
My priorities are:
Our team priorities are:
My goals are
My teams goals are:
I want to......
I'll be really happy at the end of February when….
As a reminder, our themes this month at the Teams365 blog included:
The 2018 Kickstart – 8 Days of Focus on Goals for 2018
Goals and goal setting
Mindmapping
Be sure to check out our weekly quote and Sunday video!
As we step into February our attention here at the Teams365 blog is going to turn to Relationships, Collaboration and Trust. See you next month!

One of this week's most popular blog posts was Wednesday's post on another way to plan and goal set using MindMaps. Since I started my business back in 2004 I've been a raving fan of Mindmaps. I use them for project planning, content creation (i.e. planning blog posts), brainstorming, and even in designing one of our newest programs for leaders  - The Teams365 Leadership Lab.
Take a look at this week's short 2 minute video, bringing to life my writing this week on this alternative approach to goal setting and planning. Kudos to Tony Buzan who is credited to being the original creator of this great approach.

How might you use Mindmaps in your work? As a team?

Enjoy your Sunday,
Jennifer

A week ago Sunday I included a short video about SMART-E Goals, followed by a One-Page Plan framework. Not every team member will find that the SMART goal framework is going to work for them. Some team members may be bigger picture thinkers, or find the SMART goal framework to be too constricting. Another tool you might includes for support to goal setting and/or program design is the MindMap.

The MindMap concept was created by Tony Buzan, and invites a more creative and iterative process of capturing ideas. It is used in a wide variety of corporate settings from project planning, to goal setting, to writing. Individuals can create their own MindMaps and Teams can have their own as well.

MindMaps start out with putting a central hub and name for the topic you are looking at. Perhaps it’s 2018 Goals – see my handwritten example above, expanding on Program Ideas (see the other handwritten one for the upcoming Teams365 Leadership Lab) or maybe project planning for a new workshop (see my other computerized example).

First, write the topic you are goal setting or exploring. Extending out from the main hub are arms – almost like rays of the sun. Each arm houses ideas relating to a separate topic. These arms can also have offshoots as well.
There are a number of wonderful applications you can access and purchase through different app stores for different devices, including ones that I have used over the years – MindJet, and MindMeister.

There are a number of reasons I return to mindmapping, project after project:

1. It’s a quick way to get ideas on paper
   
2. It’s an easy way to start setting connections and themes
3. It keeps initial ideas in one place
4. It gets ideas out of your head
5. It can be added onto at any time
   

 
If you use MindMaps let us know how and why. Do you use any particular apps that you would recommend? As always, feel free to comment below.
 
Enjoy your Tuesday,
Jennifer