Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2527 - Stand Out Virtually Principle #3 - Things Get Magnified in the Remote Space

11/30/2020

Welcome back to another Stand Out Virtually weekly principle. This week I wanted to share the principle that “Things get magnified in the remote space”. That’s the good, the bad, and the not so great.

What are the things you want to showcase? When we have limited time together as teams or others, things become more pronounced.

If things are unclear, it’s likely that they will be even more unclear. If people feel disconnected, their sensation may be even more around disconnection.

What are the things you want to spotlight? What needs volume to be amplified around? To be minimized?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2522 – Building Connection in Virtual Meetings

11/25/2020

Over the last few weeks, I have been undertaking a lot of speaking around virtual facilitation, as well as hosting a number of virtual groups, and virtual train-the-trainers. I’ve also been part of several online conferences, either as a participant, or as in the case of Running Remote, a community sponsor.

One of the key themes which has emerged is HOW do we BUILD connection across the virtual space?

When things are complex, it’s even more important to intentionally be building connections across a group.

Here are two ideas:

Have people introduce themselves by asking them to share something that they bring that’s unique to the group. After everyone has welcomed themselves, be sure to ask the group to consider the key themes which have emerged across the group.
Add a layer of BINGO to your next meeting – you can see it at play in our Remote Pathways Podcast call around Trust and Connection from May 2020. Check it out here.

Check out the November 17th blog post which includes links to the topic of trust and connection as well. You can read the November blog post here - TEAMS365 #2514 – Building Connection in Your Remote Team #remoteteams - POTENTIALS REALIZED

This is in addition to a couple of other ideas including:

Create a virtual co-working group of people inside, or outside of your organization, stating time to meet online.
Joining communities of like-minded people who are also exploring topic areas of similar interest.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2521 – Remote Working Mindset: Remote Pathways Podcast

11/24/2020

A few weeks ago, at the Remote Pathways podcast we released Episode 24 - Mindsets for Remote Work, with our special guest, Jennifer Grote.

Be sure to check out the podcast on your favorite player or here.

Why is mindset important? In today’s complex, and ever-changing context mindset is critical. It’s important to be intentional with what we want to create in our work.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS354 #2520 - Stand Out Virtually Principle 2 – Take a Stand

11/23/2020

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

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2515 - Celebrating our first season of the Remote Pathways podcast

11/18/2020

Next week signals of our first year of the Remote Pathways podcast. When my co-host Michelle Mullins and I started this journey a year ago of exploring the people, pathways and processes to remote work, we would have had no idea how the year would be placing such an emphasis on remote wok.

We’ve released 24 great episodes exploring the terrain of the remote workspace. From entrepreneurial pursuits to project managers, sales professionals, to virtual facilitators, the landscape of remote work is vast. We have also focused on helping people explore some of the key areas that help people thrive, for example, our episodes with:

Check out some of my other favorite episodes:

We are looking forward to having you join us for season 2!
Enjoy your conversations,

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2514 – Building Connection in Your Remote Team

11/17/2020

One of the challenges of today’s remote team is that of connection which has implications for results and relationships. When people don’t feel connected it has impact on productivity, teamwork and also results.

What are the ways you are connecting your team?

Many teams these days are incorporating some, or all, of these:

Weekly or daily huddles (as time zones permit)
Virtual Co-Working Sessions (Check out The Remote Pathways podcast episode on Co-working
Peer partners who meet around key accountability measures

What are the things you are doing to help people feel connected and aligned with your purpose?

What are the best vehicles for you as a team to stay connected?

For more on the topic of building trust and connection, check out these other Teams365 blog posts:

Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2513 Stand Out Virtually Principle #1 – Be consistent

11/16/2020

Welcome back to another Monday post focusing on having great virtual conversations. For the last 175 weeks I’ve been sharing an Effective Virtual Conversations tip. As some of you know, earlier this year I started bringing a new micro-brand out into the world entitled Stand out Virtually. Back in the summer I started hosting a series of 5 Day Challenges around the SOV Brand.

I’ll be switching attention to this micro-brand on some of our Monday blog posts, stating with principle #1 which will be no surprize to those who have followed my writing – Be Consistent.

Consistency is key in the remote space. With so much noise and focus, being able to stand out virtually is a critical part of the digital conversation.

In marketing, we used to talk about the 7- 11 rule, where it would take 7 - 11 touchpoints for someone to start to notice something. In recent months, I’ve heard this number jump to 15 - 30 touchpoints.

What does being consistent mean for you?

Within the virtual space this could mean:

Using similar branding and colors in your message. Using similar font.
Doing a series of posts, calls or communication around a particular topic.
Always posting something at a certain time of the day or week.

Consistency has become an important anchor in a digitally distracted world.

What are you doing to do to create consistency?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2508 – Routines and Decision Fatigue

11/11/2020

How are routines helping you make decisions? What are you simplifying in your work from home experience so that things are becoming routine and don’t need to take as much energy?

There have been several studies which have explored the role of routine in creative and high performance in leadership. Consider Steve Jobs who wore the same clothing each day. Consider others who eat similar meals.

Making decisions takes energy, and especially in times of complexity, making things simpler (see Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip), can be a key strategy for flow and ease.

What are the things you might create a routine around? Consider these elements:

How you structure meetings or rote tasks
Meals
What you wear
Your daily routine

There is also a cost of not making decisions. Consider what happens when you “sit on the fence” rather than trusting your journey down a particular path.

Today, consider what you can create more routine around.

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2503 – Flashback Friday – Stand Out Remotely

11/6/2020

Aligned with this week’s theme of branding, celebrations and motivations I thought it would be useful to reach back to one of my July 2020 posts. This year I’ve been building out a series of programming around Stand Out Virtually™, and what it means for you and as a business.

Here’s what I wrote back in Teams365 2403:

One of the many challenges faced at the moment is standing out remotely. With back-to-back virtual meetings becoming the norm, one call can blend into another. Note, if you haven’t read yesterday’s Back to The Basics call on the Energy of the Call, check it out.

At the same time, many professionals are concerned that they are not as visible in the virtual space as they are in a face to face environment. This translates to concern around their visibility for career progression, taking on special projects etc.

Several things you will want to consider:

#1 – What does “standing out remotely” mean for you? What’s important about this? Do you want to stand out more so that your message is remembered – which may mean more about presentation techniques? OR is it standing out as a professional? And perhaps someone who is known for great virtual calls which whiz by and are remembered. What’s your WHY around this?

#2 – Our personal brand can get translated through the screen through our slides, images, our background and also what we are wearing. What are the brand elements you want to keep in mind?

#3 – Be proactive. This might mean getting into the rhythm of connecting regularly with others. It might mean getting a mentor. It might mean focusing in on getting active in a professional association. What do you want to be known for?

Standing out remotely means many different things. I’ll be focusing more on the topic in August as it relates to leading more engaging and memorable virtual calls. Are you ready to Stand Out?

Even though the Challenge is complete, you can check out my 5 Day Challenge – Standing Out Virtually. Participate in the challenge at your own pace for $97 US.

I hope you will!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2501 – Personal Branding 101 for Remote Work

11/4/2020

As someone who has had the privilege to coach entrepreneurs for more than 15 years, I love working around the topic of Personal Branding. This is now a topic of critical importance to everyone in the remote space. Since we are not being “seen” live in the same frequency, things can get pronounced. What are you noticing about how you communicate who you are, what you stand for and how that gets translated on the screen?

Enter personal branding.

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” - Seth Godin

What is the message you want to communicate through your colors, tagline and visuals?

Brands are like a fingerprint for a business. They are unique. They communicate to the external world on many different levels – who you are, what you do, what they can expect.

Brands are linked to our business, or focus, and signal a lot without us even saying a word.

This month you are invited to explore the different elements of your brand. Brands consist of several elements including:

Colors
Images and Icons
Your Tagline
The slides you use
The Typography
Musical Elements
The words you use

Questions you will want to explore around your brand include:

What’s important to communicate to others? What’s the look at feel about your brand?
What type of brand do you want – Playful? Serious? Minimalistic? Colorful?
What do you want to communicate through your brand? – Speed, service, reliability?
Do you use any taglines? The tagline for the CBB is Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum
Colors – What are the colors of the brand you want to signal? Check out this article from 99 Designs on Branding and Colors
Or Marketo’s What Brand Colors Can Reveal About Your Business
What’s your name?
Are there any other elements – sounds, movements?
What images and icons represent your brand? (More on this later this week)
What typography represents your brand – Bold, flowery?

What’s important to note about personal branding for you right now? This is a topic we explore in the Incubator program, which starts quarterly.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326