Supporting team members around strengths can help boost productivity, engagement and zest! What can we specifically do to spark that conversation? In today’s Flashback Friday post, I reach back to a post from 2017, where I shared the facilitated instructions from one of the exercises found in the 40 Ways to Work with Visual Cards. This exercise can get you sparking a new conversation around strengths. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1387.

In today’s post, we’re exploring strengths for virtual teams. How do you make it happen?

Helping team members understand their strengths helps teams leverage their skills and harness their capabilities. Gallup has also found very compelling results when team members are able to bring their strengths to work every day.

In addition to the StrengthsFinder, teams may also want to investigate another strengths assessment that being VIA Strengths – Values in Action.

The following is a short warm-up activity to a more detailed discussion as a team around your strengths.

When I’ve seen you at your best….

Time: 15 minutes
Materials Needed: None

Instructions:
Virtual team members need acknowledgement as well, particularly as they may receive less feedback that teams who can see each other face-to-face.

Ask team members to think about one person on the team who they have liaised with, or worked closely with (virtually) in the last quarter. At one of your team meetings you will give people the opportunity to share with that colleague responses to the following questions:

1. I see one of your strengths as….
2. I appreciate …..
3. Going forward, as we work together, I’d like to ask you to ______
4. You bring ….. to our team.

​This is an activity which will cultivate positive emotion and will bring team members closer together. Teams need positive reinforcement, as well as constructive feedback. For more on the concept of constructive feedback, check out the Foundations of Feedback series I did. It will be of interest to teams of all kinds who are hoping to build more of a feedback culture.
 
Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

This week’s Team Building Tip takes us into another check point -this week around your results focus. As indicated in the posts over the last couple of weeks as we step into the new year it can be valuable to consider where we want to focus and what we want to focus on.

Part of this decision gets us to think about what are the RESULTS we want to FOCUS on?

Consider the following in your next team meeting:

• How are we doing with all of our annual/quarterly goals?
• What needs attention?
• What has given us the most impact this year?
• What activities have detracted from our purpose/vision/goals?
• What distractions have we faced?
• What’s going to help us magnify and accelerate our results?
• What is absolutely critical for us to complete before year end? What do we need to say NO to in order for this to happen?
• What may we need to shift?

Enjoy the conversation!
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success focusing on the Remote Space
Author of 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.
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. ​
Coming soon - the Remote Pathways™ Podcast

This week’s quote is all about focused doing. It comes from Thomas Edison who wrote:
“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”

What are you noticing right now about your workflow? As we continue to explore the topic of remote work this month, time management, boundaries and focus are key themes in the background.

Given the pace of business today, it’s likely that you don’t read this blog every day, so each Sunday I curate the weekly posts I’ve shared. Enjoy!
 
This week we explored a number of key areas including:

• Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip of Virtual Icebreakers. Getting a virtual team meeting or event kicked off in a way that is memorable doesn’t need to take a lot of time or preparation. Consider these ideas for your next meeting.
• Tuesday’s remote work focus which included tips of five areas of working remote.
• Wednesday’s remote work myth that “It has to take longer”.
• Thursday’s Team Building Question as a team of “What are you not talking about?”.
• Friday’s Flashback Friday looking at some of the remote landscape statistics from 2015. What has changed in your industry or region?
• Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt 72 focusing on celebrating this year, and past years, successes.

Enjoy your Sunday!
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. ​

Working remote usually involves having a number of balls in the air at any given time. With that in mind, brevity is really important, as is keeping projects moving along. Prioritization and communication around these priorities are crucial.

This week’s myth for remote work is “It needs to take longer”. As you go about your work consider what you can do to create more focus, brevity and conciseness.

Areas to explore are: meetings, paperwork, communication touch-points.

Less is more in the world of the remote worker. What can be distilled down or made clearer?

Too much information may lead to a lack of understanding or different interpretations.

What are the sound-bytes you want to make sure you communicate?

Best,
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

​This week’s Team Building Tip gets you to discuss the question “What do you want to say NO TO?”. Discernment is critical in today’s business context. Take a look at this past post. If you work within a matrix environment, it can be very easy to get overloaded with new work and responsibilities. Taking a big picture of what’s going on and being clear on competing priorities can be essential. Saying NO or NOT RIGHT NOW as much as YES can be critical for productivity.

Saying NO needs to be done in a tactful way. In the remote space this may involve:

• Helping people understand the context of your work. This might involve things like having everyone share a status update or adding a “priorities section” to your team meetings.
• Problem solving together with the person you are having to say “no” to. Language might be along the lines of “If I focus on this task right now, then that task may not be completed until next week? What would you prefer me to focus on?” or “Is there anyone else who might be able to take on this task?”

Saying “no” is important so you can FOCUS in on what’s most important.

What are the things you want to be focusing on this month? This quarter?

All the best, 
​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. ​

Getting organized and set up with the space and processes you require to work at peak performance is critical for those new to the remote space. It’s tempting to say “I’ll deal with it later”, and it’s likely that later may never arrive. Build in time at the start of your remote work to put into place these items at your new, dedicated work space:
​

• A place with good lighting, privacy and space to work

• A place to close the door and have private conversations
• Place to secure files – physically and digitally
• Cloud based storage for when you need it
• Contact list you can access
• Back up - where are you saving your files?
  
• Super strong internet
• Clear boundaries with loved ones and family about when and when you are not available. What are your working hours? Break times?  Just because you are home it does not mean that you can walk the dog, take out the garbage, cook dinner etc. Developing a series of “go-to” phrases for when neighbors ask you to do things that will distract you from your focus can be useful.

What else do you think you will require to help you be at your best in the remote space?

Best,
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 #FlashbackFriday post takes us back to 2016 and a post I think is still very relevant – minimizing distractions in the remote space.

Let’s revisit Teams365 post 797: Four Ways to Minimize Distractions with Remote Work.

Over the last week we have been focused on remote work. Today's post looks at four ways to minimize distractions when working remote. They are:

1. Clear space for where you are going to work. Whether our workspace is a small table which folds back into the wall when we are done or we have dedicated office space, clearing the clutter can be an important step in creating space to focus and be productive.

Consider where you work - what needs to be cleared? Spend 15 min this week clearing yourself more space.

2. Make sure you have what you need in order to do your work. Small issues can become big issues when working remote. An old laptop which crashes regularly, taking with it your hard work, becomes a liability. Slow internet speeds can also take a toll. While these issues might be minor pain when working remote once a month, if you need to work remote several days a week, the cost adds up. Consider what you might be tolerating in terms of equipment/resources that just aren't cutting it.

What's the cost of replacing them? What's the cost if you don't?

3. Consider when you are at your peak for different types of work. Some of us like the early morning to get out thoughts down on paper, while others like to tackle calls first thing in the morning. Consider your style and preferences in terms of when you would like to get different tasks accomplished, and SCHEDULE IT IN.

4. Sometimes we get distracted because we don't allow ourselves time for a break, or we don't allow ourselves to get into the flow of one activity at a time. While there are many tips to time management that we've covered (check out all our time management tips here), months ago I wrote about the Pomodoro approach where you set a timer for a set amount of time (i.e. 25 minutes) and work until the alarm goes off. Other time management gurus recommend a 10-minute break every 50 minutes. What is going to keep you focused and at your prime in terms of productivity?

Let us know which tips you try out and what you find useful!

Best,
Jennifer

​This week’s Thursday Team Building Tip gets you to consider the question “What needs to be collapsed?”. Just like this photo there are sometimes things that need to be demolished or face implosion before they are ready.

An alternative view on this is what needs to be condensed or abbreviated?

Think about current projects and initiatives as you consider these two questions.

A reminder of this month's Effective Virtual Conversations call which focused on creating more impactful meetings. Time spent does not always equal impact. Check out this month's 20 minute call for more tips on meeting management.
​
Enjoy your conversation,
Jennifer

This month we are exploring a number of remote working myths including “Out of sight equals out of mind” as well as other remote work pitfalls.

Today’s post explores the myth that “Boundaries aren’t important” and that remote work is always flexible.

One of the main challenges of remote work is that we are usually pulled in a number of different directions by people who can’t see what we are working on. Not knowing the context can provide a lack of clarity around priorities and workflow. At the same time, we may also want to accommodate all requests and say yes, rather than discerning what is a priority.

On another level, boundaries can become blurred in our home/work life, especially if we are working from home and have not set up a dedicated area for work – be sure to check out my post from last month about “setting yourself up for success in the remote space” and making sure you have what you need.

Consider the different boundaries that are important in your work, this might include:

• Boundaries between different tasks and projects you are working on
• Boundaries between the different teams you are part of
• Boundaries between your working hours and non-working hours
• Boundaries between when you are ON and OFF
• Boundaries between priorities
• Boundaries between your work and home space

What do you notice as you explore these boundaries? What conversations do you want to have?

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. ​