The final team skill we are going to explore is the skill of influence. This is a core skill for remote professionals of all kinds today. Given that we are working across a web of relationships – upwards, downwards, and sideways – team members will need to develop skills in this area.
​
When thinking about the skill of influence, it can be useful to consider:

• What are the relationships I am in that require I use the skill of influence? (This may be where you do not have a direct reporting relationship – think peers, other technical experts, other team members)
• What is the end result I am aiming for around the specific project/initiative?
• What is the common ground you are exploring?
• What is important about the end result for the other person?
• What could a win-win look like?
• What are the key areas you are considering?
• The skill of influence is critical for remote workers today. What would help you acquire further skills in this area?

​
Best wishes,
Jennifer

​This month we have been exploring teamwork skills, taking a look at a range of them. One skillset which is critical for remote teams is that of change management. In supporting team members through ongoing change, it can be very stressful. It may be useful as a team, and as individuals, to explore questions such as:

• What is your natural tendency to approach change?
• How quickly do you approach change?
• What do you find problematic, or challenging, as it relates to change?

We often think it’s enough to think about and speak about the changes required. In fact, what is important is also to consider what changes are required as you move forward and sustain the changes over time. This might involve new rewards, new habits and  new accountability structures. What are the things that will support the changes you are going through as a team? What are the requirements you have to evolve?

For more on the topic of change management check out these past Teams365 posts. 

Best wishes,
Jennifer

This time of year can be a transition for many – with some team members leaving, and others coming on board. How intentional are you with your onboarding of new virtual team members? What do you do? Do you pair people up with  a buddy? Do you create a way for people to shadow others virtually, to get a sense of how things are done on the team. Onboarding and orientation can be a hit or miss for many organizations and teams. Often, it is left up to the leader to make sure new members are welcomed and starting their job off on the right foot. In the virtual space, where a team member may start weeks or even months before they have contact with the main office, providing them with a structured process at the start of their involvement with the team is important.
 
While this list is no means comprehensive, some questions new virtual team members may have, and areas you will want to cover are:

Team Issues:
What is the culture of the team? Remember, how are things done around here.
What are the team priorities?
Who is on the team? What are their strengths?
What could you reach out to them for?
What else should the new team member know about the team and its focus?
 
The new team members’ role
What are the roles and responsibilities of the new team member’s role?
What key priorities and deadlines are there?
Who will they need to reach out to?
What feedback loops are there?
What is expected in terms of performance?
 
Relationship between the team leader and new team member:
 What are your expectations of me as a team member? Team leader?
How do you like to be communicated with?
What are the issues I should surface directly to you? When?
What are the things I should keep in mind in terms of reporting? Connecting with others on the team?
What issues should I call about? Email about? Use the web about?
 
Who should I reach out to around:

• How to do things?
• Technical IT issues

What other issues are important to note?
 
What have you found useful in terms of onboarding new virtual team members? Do you assign a peer partner from the team? How often do they meet? What works well? Feel free to comment below.
 
Enjoy!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

It’s the start of a new month and this month we’ll be lasering into more team development processes. Whether you are a virtual and remote team, or an intact team rubbing shoulder to shoulder, teams excel when they are able to focus on both enhancing their RESULTS and boosting their RELATIONSHIPS. If this is your first time to the Teams365 blog, welcome! Do check out past posts I’ve written over the years on Team Development.
 
Today’s post zooms into the area of a pulse check for virtual and remote teams. While this can apply to all teams, there are some specifics for virtual and remote teams here.
 
Questions to consider as a virtual team:
As we look across the team:

• What have been our major successes this year?
• What’s been working well?
• What systems have helped us do our best work?
• What has helped us keep aligned?
• What information have team members benefited from?
• What communication strategies are keeping us updated?
• What ways are we supporting each other – through skills, sharing of information etc?
• Who else needs to be looped in?

 
On a scale of 1-10, how would we rate our focus on results?

​What’s working?
What’s not?
 
On a scale of 1-10, how would we rate our focus on relationships?
What’s working?
What’s not?
 
What is needed to do your best work going forwards?
 
Have a great week!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

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 coud 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 -doing 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? 
​
​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

​

Back on September 20th I started a series of posts that took us through the fall - 20 Focus Areas for Virtual and Remote Teams, and activities you might consider using with your teams.

From vision work, to developing a team charter, building relationships and EI, to making matrix management work, I shared different activities you might bring into your next team meeting, as well as questions which might frame your next team conversation.

Over the last three months I've covered activities in these areas:

• ​Who are we as a team? Check out Teams #1359: Who are we as a team?
  
• Getting to know each other - team individuals
• What's our vision?
• Creating a team charter or team agreements
  
• Team Roles
  
• Goals - immediate work planning for the next month/quarter. Check out Teams365 #1380 on Goals.
  
• Identifying Strategic Goals. Check out Teams365 #1386 around working with strategic goals.
  
• Knowing our strengths (i.e. StrengthsFinder)
• Knowing our styles (DiSC ) - this can impact communication, decision making
• Difficult Conversations. Check out Teams365 #1394:
  
• Conflict Management
• Providing Feedback to Each Other
  
• Other performance management issues
  
• Time Management and Prioritizing
• Matrix Management. Check out Teams365 #1421 around Matrix Management.
  
• Work-life
• Intercultural skills and knowledge
• Project Management
• Emotional Intelligence
  
• Relationship Building
  

Check out all of the 20 Virtual and Remote Team Activities here.

As a former team leader myself I know that many times we are left with the task of developing our team members, and the 2016 Culture Wizard Survey found, only 22% of virtual teams receive any development support. Read their survey here. Are you one of those 22%?

Mid-summer my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, was released and it's started making its way into the hands of team leaders all over the world. Chapter 7 is dedicated to different activities you can use with teams. Please check those out.

During November I was able to draft the manuscript of another new book, this one which will be for virtual and remote team leaders, addressing the topic of skills, competencies and practices. It will also include 20 different tools for team leaders and their teams. Keep your eyes open for this new book from me in mid to late 2018!

I've highlighted a number of the activity posts here and hope that you will check out the posts, to build your baseline. Enjoy and let us know which ones you have tried.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

I love today's weekend quote which comes from Erin Meyer who wrote:
"When you meet your workmates by the water cooler or photocopier every day, you know instinctively who you can and cannot trust. In a geographically distributed team, trust is measured almost exclusively in terms of reliability".

What are the behaviors that are building trust on your team right now? (Virtual or other)
What are the behaviors that are hindering, or breaking, trust?
What's does reliability mean on this team?

One of the key themes in Effective Virtual Conversations is the need for virtual facilitators and virtual leaders to take time to build trust and connection with their groups and teams. Otherwise, it's hard to realize the potential of the call or team itself.

What needs attention in this area? What do you want to do?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

​Yesterday's post was on Virtual or Remote Team Development and a suggestion for an activity to fovus on results. Virtual and Remote TEam Development can take a number of forms  - from being part of team meetings, to being stand alone days. What are the types of topics you might want to address? Today's post includes 20 different topics which are common for virtual teams. As you take a look at this list you might want to:

1. ​Share it with the team. What would they prioritize as the topic five topic areas for discussion?
2. Consider in what format you would want to address these (as part of a team meeting, as a separate one)

Here are some of the more common remote and virtual team development topic areas:

• ​Who are we as a team? 
• Getting to know each other - team individuals
• What's our vision?
• Creating a team charter or team agreements
• Team Roles
• Goals - immediate work planning for the next month/quarter
• Identifying Strategic Goals
• Knowing our strengths (i.e. StrengthsFinder)
• Knowing our styles (DiSC ) - this can impact communication, decision making
• Difficult Conversations
• Conflict Management
• Providing Feedback to Each Other
• Other performance management issues
• Time Management and Prioritizing
• Matrix Management
• Work-life
• Intercultural skills and knowledge
• Project Management
• Emotional Intelligence
• Relationship Building

​Over the last 3 years it is likely that you will find a number of posts related to HOW to address some of these areas. 

​You may also notice that some of these topics are team-focused, while others are individually focused. Depending on how your team operates, and what stage of evolution it is at, you may find a preference for one or another.

What team events do you have scheduled during which you could focus on some of these topics? What do you see as current priorities? 
What other questions would be useful to consider as you look at these topics?

​I hope that today's post has sparked some interest?

One of the main themes here at the Teams365 blog is helping team leaders and their team members thrive. Yesterday's post looked at six elements new virtual teams need in order to thrive. Today’s post covers several core areas new team leaders require for success as they assume a new role. These items include:

1. Support and dialogue around what changes might be required regarding their new role
2. Mentoring by someone experienced who can share best practices and their experience in leading virtual teams
3. Budget to travel out to meet with their team and bring them together on a regular basis. Out of sight does not mean out of mind, as just as we invest in co-located teams, investing in the development of virtual teams is also necessary
4. Necessary tech support for the team in order to connect effectively, efficiently and real-time. This might involve using a combination of Web Ex or Zoom for virtual meetings, and portals such as Slack for keeping people connected and sharing documentation/materials on a real-time basis.
5. Regular development opportunities and check ins with their peers and staff to share best practices and also to be able to enhance their skills

While we are often keen to offer more training for our leaders, in the case of virtual team leaders, consider how training can be supplemented by both mentoring and coaching (group and/or 1-1).

In today's business context many teams are moving to a mobile, distributed or remote work force. Whether it's because the talent pool is dispersed, or commute times are pressurizing employees, remote work can be as effective or more so, when virtual teams are set up for success. Today's post explores six things new virtual teams need in order to thrive. These elements include:

1. 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?
   
2. Clarity regarding expectations regarding working – hours, approaches, breaks, how to log and share work etc.
   
3. 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 fae teams, so is face to face for virtual team.
4. Regular check ins and feedback. Regular check-ins and feedback may revolve around the questions:
   1. How’s it going?
   2. What’s working? What’s not?
   3. What support do you need?
   4. What are your current priorities?
   5. What resources do you need in order to get the results you need?
5. Platforms so they can see each other and connect with their team. This could include regular virtual potlucks where the tea actually connects for a meal from each of their locations. It could also include face-to-face time – quarterly or on a regular basis.
   
6. 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?
   

What other elements do you see as essential for new virtual teams to hit the ground running?

Enjoy the start of your week,
Jennifer