One of the themes I’ve been talking a lot about in recent months as we moved into year end, and now are in the start of the year is that Metrics Matter. On an individual level in our own planning, it can be very useful to note things like:

• Key achievements
• Time spent on different activities (work, meetings, troubleshooting, coaching, learning, etc.)
• The things you actually accomplish in any given day

On a team level, starting the year with a conversation around metrics, achievements and goals can be really important. As part of the start of year kick off you may want to:

• Note key metrics (where you are now, where you want to go by end of the year, and what your check in touchpoints are)
• Note key goals
• Identify aspirations and intentions – as I mentioned in an earlier blog post this year, aspirations and intentions are often wider in focus and help to anchor things.

What are the other items you want to note?

All the best, 
​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

This weekend’s Weekly Journaling Prompt gets you to think about the question – “I’d put the following in my time capsule”. Just the other day my son was talking about how it’s only 4 more years until he can open the time capsule he created back in grade 2…. he’s excited to see what he put in there and can’t remember all the items.

What are artifacts of your year this year? What would you want to bottle up and save away? What DO you want to capture so that you can remember?

This weekend’s WJP is a great one as we go to wind down the year. If you haven’t taken a few minutes to review your year, be sure to now – you can follow along a 30-minute reflection 2020 planning session I hosted last month. View it here.

Enjoy!
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.

Well another month has slipped by and it’s time to focus in on how this last month went. How did the “last mile” of November fare for you? What are you needing to carry forward to the new month?

In this month’s last post of the month, it’s an opportunity to focus in on what you did accomplish and earmark items for the final month of the year. What do you want to and need to pay attention to as you move into the final month of the year?
​
Here’s several questions to get you thinking about this month end:

• What were my major achievements this month?
• What “last mile” activities did I get to complete? What’s still on the list to complete before year end?
• 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 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 _______

As I think about the summer overall:

• My biggest accomplishment has been....
• My biggest learning has been....
• My ability to flourish has been supported by....
• I'm proud of....
• The one habit which has really helped me has been...
• I want to continue….

Looking ahead to the month of December:

1. My top 3 -5 goals this month are:
2. The things I absolutely want to finish are:
3. My priorities are:
4. Wild success at the end of the month will look like …. (Yes, this is one of my favorite questions which I ask each month in PlanDoTrack…)
5. The interruptions and disruptions I want to minimize are….
6. The habit I want to focus on is…
7. I want to take daily steps around…
8. I want to reach out to….
9. I want to say NO to…
10. I want to keep an eye on…
11. I’m excited about….

Enjoy the reflections!
​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.

As we arc towards the end of the year, it’s time to focus in on our 2020 vision. I’ve been enjoying hosting a number of events in the last few weeks around visioning for the new year, and new decade.

If you weren’t able to join us last week for the 2020 Vision session, please check out the recording here. You can download an associated worksheet here as well. The session will take about 30 minutes to go through.

Having a vision is important for a number of reasons. Our vision is important as it can help us to:

• Move through the ups and downs of everyday business. It can provide an anchor when things are turbulent.
• Stay focused and make decisions. It may make it easier to say yes to things that align with where we want to go and say no to things that are out of range.
• Pull us forward and motivate us when things are not working well.

Today’s post also serves as an opportunity to pause and take stock of where things are at. What are the things that need attention and need to get done before the end of the year? Is there anything you haven’t yet accomplished that you do want to put attention on?

As part of today’s post, be sure to grab a pen and participate in the 2020 Vision session I facilitated last week. You will find it here on YOUTUBE. Enjoy!

Best wishes, 
​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.

We’re about six weeks away from the end of the year, a time which I like to frame as the LAST MILE of the year. It’s at this point where we start getting really clear on what needs to get done, what needs to get carried forward and what needs to get delegated.

Today’s post is an encouragement to think about what you want to accomplish in the last six weeks of the month.  As we consider the last mile there may be many areas we want to consider including:

Projects:

• What are the projects which still need attention?
• What are the projects which need more resources to wrap up?
• What has moved out of scope and needs to be readjusted?

One-on-one time with your team:

• When was the last time you held 1-1's with your team?
• What are conversations which need to happen before year end?

Team Events:

• What team events need to happen before year end?
• What supports do they need individually? Collectively?

Planning and Performance Events:

• Have you already prepared your 2020 plans – at the organizational, team and individual levels?
• When did you last hold a performance conversation with each team member? Ask for feedback yourself?

Stakeholder Events:

• What stakeholders do you want to reach out to?
• What conversations and/or collaborations are important to have?
• What updates are important to provide?
• Who do you want to set meetings up with before year end, or at the start of the year?

Communication and Reporting

• What reports need to be completed?
• What information needs to be shred with others?
• What reports need an update?
• What tasks have you been putting off? What needs an update?

Other Items:

• What other items need to be wrapped up?
• What do you need to put in hold or closed off on?
• What are you going to do to capture lessons learned and lessons to carry forward?

The last couple of weeks of the year can feel like a whirlwind, and sometimes the important tasks get set aside and missed, including time set aside for the team. In one of my newsletters this month I included 8 different ways to wrap the year up with groups and teams – link to newsletter here. 

What daily steps do you want to take going forward to get important items focused on?

Best wishes,
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.

Welcome to a new month here at the Teams365 blog. Our focus for the month of November is going to be on getting you prepared for year end, navigating disruption, and also continuing with our remote teamwork tips.

Today’s business context can be very volatile. With this in mind, we’re going to focus in on a number of key topics you have probably been hearing about:

• VUCA
• Focus
• Attention
• Systems

In addition to this, we’ll explore:

• Year End Vision
• Year End Team Acknowledgements
• Vision for 2020

It’s also the start of the month which means that it’s time to spend a few minutes reviewing October and doing some planning for the month of November.

As you think about October:

• What were your main accomplishments?
• What skills and strengths helped you?
• What distractions got in the way?
• What surprized you?
• How did you navigate the changes you were faced with?
• What projects, tasks and activities are going to carry forward?
• What Q4 goals have been achieved? What’s shifted already?
• What else is important to note?

As you look ahead to November:

• What are your top 3-5 priorities?
• What’s important to take action on and wrap up this month?
• What key activities are important to put boundaries around?
• What distractions do you want to minimize?
• What relationships are important to note?
• What habits to you want to count on?

What else?

If you have a copy of PlanDoTrack or Coaching Business Builder take note of the metrics you have been tracking in your Monthly Daily Trackers and be sure to complete the Month in Review as well as your Monthly To-Dos, and new month in review.

With 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 month we’ve continued to focus on helping you build your remote team skills. Many professionals new to remote work are curious about what they want to add to their toolbox. This may include things such as:

#1 Systems to Keep You Focused – Systems may range from financial systems (budget, expenses), communication systems – voice, text, email, instant messaging, knowledgement management systems. (Where do you get information?, How do you share information?, How do you file and access information for others across the team?)

#2 Team Development Tools – Having a variety of team development tools to help the team connect, get to know each other and focus in on the work and results you want. More on this topic in tomorrow’s Teams365 blog post.

#3 Relationship Management Tools – What is going to help you build relationships with both internal and external stakeholders? If you are part of a remote team, it’s likely that you are also navigating matrix relationships, and are part of a team.

#4 Planning Tools – As a team, what are your key goals? What are you needing to focus on?

#5 Planning Tools as an Individual – As professionals, it’s likely that we will all have different preferences for planning. Some remote workers want to keep in all in the Cloud, others want an analog paper-based planning tool. In addition to the daily plans, are you taking time to focus on the quarterly and annual plans in your business? This is what I designed the PlanDoTrack Planner for. It’s an analog (i.e. paper-based) workbook and planner to help you (and other team members) get clear on what’s important to you along planning, personal productivity and skills levels.

#6 Getting Organized – Having a well set up office which functions is a big part of the equation. Check out this past post about what elements you will want to have in place.

#7 Performance Tools – Business is about getting results, and it’s important that the team is clear on what needs to get done and what success will look like. What is the current state of performance on a team and individual level? What conversations need to take place?

#8 Coaching Tools – Going hand in hand with performance tools are coaching tools to have great conversations. There are a range of different conversations which need to take place on the team level. From performance conversations (What’s working well and what’s not?)

#9 Project Management Tools – It’s likely that in your work as a remote professional you are regularly navigating projects. What is important to note about your project management skills and tools? Considering the projects you are navigating, how are they going along SCOPE, TIME and BUDGET? What needs attention? Who can help you with this?

#10 A Focus on Team Culture and Identity – While it might seem out of the norm to include this, team culture and identity is critical in today’s workspace. Our culture is WHO WE ARE, HOW WE DO THINGS and WHAT WE VALUE. When was the last time you spent time having a discussion around your team identity and how you do things? If you have team agreements around how you do things, when did you last explore these? If you don’t have them, is it time to create them?

As you consider your work right now, which areas could benefit from more attention? Stay tuned as we dive a little deeper into these topics and be sure to check out the related tags for other things I have already written on them.

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 Tuesday blog post continues along the pathway of working productively in the remote space. Today’s topic is about getting organized in remote space.

Working remote may mean a smaller office footprint than you might have been used to, or a more open workspace which is shared with friends and loved ones.

Keeping focused, keeping things secure, and keeping things organized are key for success. In today’s post, I’ll cover five areas you might want to consider as it relates to getting and keeping organized:

#1 – Files – From our paper-based files, to electronic ways, we file and access information, keeping files in check is critical.

#2 – Version Control – When working with other team members in collaborative documents being able to access and work on the most up-to-date documents is key.

#3 – Build in time for planning – Planning often falls to the bottom of the list for remote work. When boundaries are fluid by us working odd hours with our stakeholders across the world, the ability to build in time for planning is important.

#4 – Consider Batching – Remote workers are often pulled from task to task, especially if we become reactive around key tasks coming in via email.  A challenge for the remote team today is ensuring that we do make headway on all the different tasks involved such as the more focused, deeper work required for tasks.

#5 – Keep on top of rote tasks – Reporting, finances, filing etc. Dedicating 15 minutes to more rote tasks regularly can help to keep the clutter (physical and mental at play). Physically also filing things in an orderly fashion -i.e. a box for receipts – can also help to diminish the mental clutter created by the open loop of invoices which have not been entered.

One final thing to keep in mind in terms of getting more organized = systems. In PlanDoTrack, I point to the importance of five main areas of systems for entrepreneurs and other remote workers. Consider these areas:

1. Financial systems – Invoicing, Accounts Payable, Cash Flow, Accounts Receivable etc.
2. Client and Stakeholder systems – Connecting with and sharing information with others – this might include things such as email templates, contact lists, meeting notes, past reports on collaboration.
3. Marketing – Websites, Social Media Feeds, Frequently Asked Questions
4. Content – Do you know what you have created? Do you have an accessible listing of what there is?
5. Sales – What do you notice about sales? What can generate more? What follow-up do you have with those you have sold to?

I'm adding on the other area you may find useful which is Project Management - What can you do to make your project flow and communication work for effectively? Are thre apps or programs which will help you like Asana or Trello? These are two that we use here to manage our projects.

​What are the systems which are going to help you streamline and keep on top of your work?

IF you are a coach -  be sure to check out my recent article for the Coaching Tools Company newsletter which was just published on coaching business systems. You can read it here.

For more on this topic, be sure to check out section 3 of both PlanDoTrack (a planner workbook for remote professionals) and CoachingBusiness Builder (a planner-workbook for professional coaches)

Best,
​Jennifer

It’s Saturday – yeah! What do you have planned this weekend?

Here at the Teams365 blog, I include a Weekly Journaling Prompt each weekend. I hope that you will find 5-10 minutes to reflect and possibly journal or think about this week’s prompt.

This week’s prompt is “Activities I want to make sure I complete before ___ are…”

As we step into a new quarter and the last three months of the year, it’s a great time to take stock of what is still outstanding.

What are the things you want to complete this month?

Before the end of the year?

If you haven’t taken a look at your annual plan for a while, now is a great time to do so. What’s still outstanding? What’s complete?

This week I hope that you will find some time to reflect on these questions.

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. ​