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

​It’s Sunday, which means that it’s time for another Video Montage from the #90DaysPlanDoTrack. If you have not seen these Instagram gems before, they are short questions I pose on a regular basis to encourage some consistent action in your work or business, to create more momentum towards your most important goals.

Take a look at the Video Montage #16 here.

If you haven’t viewed the earlier ones, take a look at those posts here.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

It is the end of another month, and also a quarter. What are the key things you want to make sure you take note of, celebrate and review?

Here are several questions you will want to explore as you consider month and quarter end:

Reflecting on March and/ or the entire quarter:

• What have been your successes this month?
• What didn’t work? Why?
• What are the changes you would make in the future to that?
• What has been your biggest learning?
• What habits have supported you?
• What things have gotten in the way?
• Where have you been getting your results?
• What metrics do you want to note?

Looking ahead to the next quarter or the next month:

• What are the things you need to prioritize gong forward – next month? Next quarter?
• What do you need to say "no" to?
• What resources are going to help you be successful?
• What relationships are critical for success?
• What do you want to make sure you are communicating? To whom?
• What do you want to make sure you schedule time in for?
• Thinking about your metrics, what are the things that you want to track on a regular basis. What are the goals you hope to achieve or hit around these in the next period? 

Last week I enjoyed leading a session using a new Quarterly Review form. I made this supplementary form available to those who receive my PlanDoTrack newsletter. If you'd like to become a subscriber and receive this monthly newsletter related to planning, and virtual team issues, please sign up here.

I hope that you will find some time today to celebrate your learning and achievements for q1. Please pass this link on to others who could benefit from some reflection and planning time.

Enjoy your reflections,
Jennifer

This week’s team building tip gets the team to discuss the question “If we could do one thing differently this year, it would be….”

Spending time surfacing dialogue around alternative perspectives can be important for teams who feel that dialogue is not available.

Enjoy the discussion!
​Jennifer

Welcome back to the 15th weekly video montage. These are a compilation of the regular posts from the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series.

The #90DaysPlanDoTrack series gets you to think about, and take action on, daily prompts around your work or business.
 
Enjoy your Sunday and share with us your favorite question over at the PlanDoTrack Facebook Page.
 
Given that we are now stepping into a new season be sure to take a few minutes to reflect on the questions included in the Spring Prompts earlier this week. 

Best,
Jennifer

This week’s weekly journaling prompt gets you to think about the question: “I need…..”. What are the things you need right now to:

• Prioritize?
• Spend time doing what you love?
• Focus on the things that are important?
• Get ahead of the curve?
• Other….?

 
We don’t always think about what we need, nor make the requests to make it happen.

What are the things you need right now?
 
If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out the reflective questions for spring, published yesterday here at the blog. Check out Teams365  #1908.

Best,
Jennifer

Happy spring! Has the new season sprung where you are?

In my work as a coach I see a lot of seasonality – beginnings, ends and excitement for change. As we step into the new season today, I wanted to share some of the spring questions I had posted in Teams365 #811.

I hope that you will take a few minutes to reflect on these questions today:

What are your goals this season?
What new habits and practices do you want to put into place?
What relationships do you want to put attention around?
What else is significant for you this spring (or fall)?

Looking backwards:
What successes did you have over the last quarter?
What helped you?
What got in the way?

What changes do you want to make this spring?
What and who will help you be successful?
 
What are the other questions which are important to consider right now?
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Enjoy your reflection,
Jennifer

​Welcome back to another Thursday Team Building Tip. This week’s question invites you as a team to articulate your response to the question “This year our focus has been _____”.

​Consider what you have been exploring and looking at as a team and as individuals. What are the things which are helping you? What are the major projects you have completed? What have you been saying YES to, rather than NO to? How has this been helping you?

The weekly Thursday Team Building Tips are geared to get you thinking about your team’s work and focus.
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Check out other past Team Building Tips here.

You might also be interested in exploring yesterday’s topic of different ways to work with virtual teams around creating their team culture.

Wishing you the best,
​Jennifer

Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations prompt is “Who is driving the bus?”. Some of the most common questions I receive from virtual leaders are “Am I coaching? Am I training? Am I facilitating?”.
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While the focus on this question for the people we are hosting the call for is usually “it doesn't matter as long as I am learning”, it can be important for the person who is leading the call to be aware of what they are doing - training, coaching or facilitating. A key question the “facilitator” can be asking to dig a little deeper is  - “Who is driving the bus?” Who is the one that is shaping the direction, and content of the call?"
 
While this may be overly simplistic, a great starting point for understanding the “director” of the call is to consider who is “driving” and shaping the conversation.
 
In coaching, a fundamental premise is that the person being coached should create with the coach (and others) the direction of the call, and their content knowledge should form the foundation of the conversation. The coach is not there to share a lot of content, but rather use any content to “Spark” the conversation. Coaches focus deeply on Goal Setting, and supporting the deepened awareness around “things below the waterline”, things like values, beliefs, assumptions, perspectives. Coaching is rarely a one-off conversation, and usually has multiple touch points.
 
In training, or a webinar in the virtual space, we lean into the content we bring. We are measured on this, and while we want to poll our group members for what they want to learn, the content may also be shaped by the organization. Training is typically content-rich, and in that respect the trainer may be driving the bus a majority of the time, handing off the “wheel” as new skills are acquired, so that bus members get practice.
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Facilitation comes from the Latin word “facilis”. It means “to become easy”. Part of the facilitator’s role virtually is to help people clarify the focus of the conversation, and how they want to move from a to b. A facilitation may be more apt to be a one-off conversation, and usually uses process to help engage the conversation, especially with bigger groups.
 
Who is driving the bus in your virtual conversations? Are there any changes you want to make to this?
 
For more on these distinctions between coaching, training and facilitating, check out any of my first three books – Effective Group Coaching (2010), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) or From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). 
 
Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

This weeks’ weekly journaling prompt invites you to consider the question “My note to self is…..”

This may be an opportunity to:

• Capture key learning
• Identify things you “don’t want to forget”
• Create a bucket list of things you’d love to complete by _____
• Reflect on recent successes and lessons learned
• Signal key life lessons

As with anything in journaling, part of the joy can be simply seeing where your pen leads you without too much censure.

I hope that you have found these Saturday Journaling prompts valuable in providing a starting place for your writing.

In the spirit of mid-month musings – here’s also a highlight of several of the past Saturday posts you’ve seen in the last few months:

Weekly Journaling prompt #37 – Mid-February 

Weekly Journaling prompt – Mid-December

Weekly  Journaling prompt  #31 – Early January 

Wishing you 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.
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