I’m reaching back to Teams365 1245 which covered a number of elements all remote workers need. Given that most of us will be working this way for the next while, it’s a good reminder before we step into the holidays to see what is important. Consider reviewing these items within the team – is everyone clear on them?

• Clarity regarding reporting relationships. Who are they to report to on what issues? When is reporting required? If matrix reporting relationships exist, what do they report to whom? What issues need to be co-reported?
• Clarity regarding expectations regarding working – Hours, approaches, breaks, how to log and share work etc.
• The technology and ability to connect with others in the team and across the organization. Working remote can be a lonely endeavor and just as social time is important for face to face teams, so is face to face for virtual team.
• Regular check-ins and feedback. Regular check-ins and feedback may revolve around the questions:
  
  • How’s it going?
    
  • What’s working? What’s not?
    
  • What support do you need?
    
  • What are your current priorities?
    
  • What resources do you need in order to get the results you need?
• Platforms so they can see each other and connect with their team. This could include regular virtual potlucks where the team actually connects for a meal from each of their locations. It could also include face-to-face time – quarterly or on a regular basis.
• Clarity regarding how to flag issues: What issues to raise and when. Who should they be flagging issues to? When is the team leader available and how?

​Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Here we are at December. It’s hard to believe that we are here already. Given that it’s a new month, let’s take a moment to build in a reflective pause to capture the learning.  I hope that you’ll earmark 15 minutes to work through today’s questions:
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Reflecting on the month of November:

• What were my major achievements this past 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 past month?
• As a leader, what have I noticed about my team this past 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 December:

• The one thing I am committed to completing this month is…
• The project I want to get started…
• The project I most want to wrap up is...
• 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 December or/the year when….

All the best,
Jennifer

This week as part of the Flashback Friday series I am reaching back to the November 27th, 2018 post. I think you’ll find this valuable as we step into the new year.

It’s that time where we start rolling into year end conversations, holding one on ones (coaching conversations) individually and with the team.

As we move into the end of the year, it is invaluable to schedule some one on one time with each team member. Today’s post includes a selection of 18 questions you might include in those conversations (pick and choose as appropriate). Great year end conversations help to create a pause to reflect achievements, synthesize learning and look ahead to the future.
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You may want to incorporate these questions into your conversation:

1. What are the key achievements you have been most proud of this year?
2. What projects worked well?
3. Which projects didn’t go so well?
4. What was your learning there?
5. What connections/relationships have been most valuable this year?
6. Which relationships need attention next year?
7. What’s been your biggest learning this year? What experiences provided that?
8. What has worked well with the team this year? What hasn’t?
9. What feedback do you have for me as the leader? (What’s worked and what hasn’t)
10. What’s one suggestion for how we could do things differently as a team next year?

Looking ahead to next year:

1. What are you excited about?
2. What habits do you want to cultivate or lean into?
3. What do you want to do to keep growing your skills?
4. By December 31, 2019 what do you hope you will have achieved? OR by January 1, 2020, what do you hope you will have achieved? (Notice the impact of the difference one day makes!  Yes, we are wrapping up a decade next year)
5. What are your top 3 priorities next year?
6. What feedback and support are you looking for?
7. What would be useful in terms of our 1-1 time?
8. What else is going to help you do your best work?

What else do you like to ask at this time of the year? Please let us know by sharing in the comments below.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

With so much noise in the virtual space, it is not only important to be consistent, it is also important to take a stand around what’s important to you?

What are you committed to creating in your work, no matter what?

What is the stand you are taking?

Late 2019, I put my stake in the ground for creating and holding the space for virtual and remote professionals globally to do their best work. Through training, coaching, the Remote Pathways podcast and my writing, my goal is to reach, and impact 795,000 remote professionals by the end of 2021.

My commitment has not just been shaped in the last year, but rather the last 3 decades of my career. From leading teams in the remote space from most of the 1990s, to establishing a virtual business back in 2004, working in the virtual and remote space has been a big part of my passion and my focus.

Well before this year’s pandemic, my focus on global connections and mitigating environmental impact where driving forces for my choices around virtual work.

My stand is that remote work and virtual conversations are an essential part of the fabric of work. Even when we can work in other ways, I do believe that these are here to stay.

As you consider your work and your calling, what is important for you to focus on? What are you passionate about taking a stand around?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Journaling Prompt gets you to consider the question: “Elements which are important”. As we start winding down the year, I hope that this question is a useful one for you to consider.

Think about the elements in your:

• Work
• Relationships
• Family
• Life
• Home
• Community

What are the elements which are important for you? What are you going to make sure you always have space for?

Enjoy the reflection!
Jennifer

Keep it simple has been a mantra of my work for three decades now. Whether it’s been navigating complexity in leading post-disaster management programming with the UN or supporting thousands of coaches to develop their own group coaching programming, “keep it simple” is key.

Think about today’s virtual context. People don’t want another slide or tidbit of information. They likely want to spend time in conversation and connection with others.

What are you doing to what I call “distill things down to the core” so the most important elements are present?

This may involve invoking the three-part rubric of “Need to Know, Nice to Know and Where to Go” (which I originally picked up as a great train-the-trainer tip from Bob Pike back in 2000 – thank you Bob!)

This week consider what you can do to keep things simple in your virtual programming. This might entail “keeping it simple” around:

• Process
• Instructions
• The number of questions you ask
• Post Work
• The number of goals people are focusing on

I first wrote about “keeping things simple” back in Effective Group Coaching, and then again in From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching.

What else can you do to keep things simple?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

How was your week? This week we covered a range of really important topics for today’s remote worker. It reflects some of the writing I am doing this month as part of NANOWRIMO – the National Novel Writing Month. It probably won’t be a surprize that I am writing about Standing Out Virtually.

This week we’ve explored the following topics:

• Saturday – Weekly Journaling Prompt – 128 – “Elements which are key…”
• Friday’s Flashback Friday to Stand Out Remotely
• Thursday’s focus on the Team Building Question 268 – Celebrate!
• Wednesday’s focus on Personal Branding – What are you signaling?
• Tuesday’s focus on Motivators in the Remote Space
• Monday’s focus on Micro-meetings

I hope that you enjoyed this week’s topics as much as I enjoyed writing about them. What are you enjoying right now? What’s going to move your work forward?

With best wishes
Jennifer

Today’s journaling prompt gets you to consider the question “Elements which are key are…”

One of the themes I have as an anchor this fall is “Distill down to the core”. In remote work, most things are about simplification. It is about getting crystalized into what are the key elements.

This week you are invited to reflect on, and journal around, the question “Elements which are key are….”

What are the core elements?

This weekly journaling prompt flows well with an earlier post this week around Personal Branding. As you write out your key elements (for you, or a project) think about how that can influence the brand.

Enjoy your reflection and exploration around today’s question!
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With best wishes,
Jennifer

It’s Friday which means it’s time to take a look back at an older blog post. Today’s post brings us back to a post from 2018 - #1533: Empathy and Building Connection in Virtual Teams. I think it’s just as relevant today as it was when it was first published. What do you think?
 
One of the skills which is important to develop in the virtual world today is empathy. One of the challenges is that we don't get to see beyond the screen.  What are some ways we can be building more empathy and understanding with other virtual team members?

​What comes to mind in terms of ways you can boost more connection and understanding amongst team members?

​Empathy is a skill set critical for teamwork and leadership. In fact, I probably could do a series of post on this topic.  In today's post I want to zoom into the question of "what are some practical ways to build more empathy across virtual teams, while also boosting connection?". 

​There have been some great writings by others on the topic of empathy. Consider these articles -Empathy in Leadership - 10 Reasons Why It Matters by Tanveer Naseer. Read it here.
​Matthew Taylor's Empathy in Leadership: Coaching Leaders to Manage Their Stories. Read it here.
Center for Creative Leadership: Empathy in the Workplace. Find this here.

​As virtual teams, what are some ways we can build our skills in empathy while building connection:

​1. Provide opportunities for team members to get to know each other - online and offline. While some virtual teams will never meet, building in time for "getting to know" each other is critical. This could entail dedicating some time to sharing "What's outside your window?" or "…on your desk" as I describe in Chapter 7 of my new book Effective Virtual Conversations.

​2. Create formal learning partnerships with others on the team. Many virtual teams benefit from having peer partners to meet with on a regular basis. This helps us to learn more about each other, what projects we are working on. As we listen and learn more trust, connection and understanding is created.

​3. Be present and listen. We continue to see how important the ability to focus on virtual conversations is. Nothing will destroy trust and connection faster than hearing other person on the end of the phone or streaming typing away, writing an email while you are speaking together. What will it take to be present, focus, and deeply listen in your virtual conversations?

​4. Listen for the deeper layers - Typically in listening we may be staying at the surface. Hearing with one ear and thinking about what we are going to say back to the other person. In the deeper listening needed by virtual teams today, listen to what the person is saying. Notice the pace, pitch of the conversation. Notice what is the emotion behind the words? What is being said? 
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​5. Take time to share more about your world, your work, your priorities. An important part of empathy is understanding. It's a two-way street - being open to share, and being receptive to listening. how much are you sharing about your world, your work and your priorities?

​There are multiple ways be can be focusing on the skills of empathy as we build connection on teams. What are some approaches you as a team want to focus on?

​With best wishes,
Jennifer

As we step into October, what are the things you want to get done this month? Innovation continues to be a theme for many businesses, as does simply getting things done, and not only surviving, but thriving. As of today, here are 91 more days left in the year. What do you want to make sure you complete? Focus on? Put aside?

This month we are continuing our focus on thriving in the digital space as a professional or team.

If you didn’t do yesterday’s Q3 Review and Q4 planning, take a moment to review that.

Today we’re going to do our monthly planning review and goal setting for the month ahead. So, chunk it down a bit and let’s look at it:

Here are some questions to consider:

1. As you reflect on September, what were your successes and accomplishments?
2. What are you most proud of?
3. What habits helped you? What routines?
4. What were key learnings during the month?
5. What key relationships have helped you so far this year? Which ones need more attention?
6. What helped you? What hindered you?
7. What do you need to say YES to this month? What do you need to stop doing, or say NO to this month?
8. What does your team need to be acknowledged for?

As you look to October, consider these questions:

1. What are your key priorities for October? Quarter 4?
2. What are the key goals?
3. What are the major priorities?
4. What will you need to place attention on?
5. What changes do you want to make?
6. What resources do you want to tap into?
7. What relationships are important?
8. What habits are essential?

Enjoy your review!
Jennifer