Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

Teams365 #2750 - now what integration

7/11/2021

Welcome back to the end of another week! This week we covered so much ground including these posts, mostly focusing on Chapter 2 of Reconnecting Workspaces:

Monday – Hybrid Work Metaphor – Knot

Tuesday – Brain Tip – Chapter 2, Where we explored the use of Color and Branding

Wednesday’s reminder that Relationships + Results = High Performance

Thursday – Team Spirit – 6 Questions on Motivation

One of the things I am finding readers like the most about
Friday Flashback Series- 3 Questions About Motivating Your Team

Saturday Weekly Journaling Prompt- Motivate Me

Enjoy your reflection!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

Teams365 #2675 - Join us at the Remote Pathways Podcast – 5 episodes to check out

4/27/2021

Recently the 2021 Directory of Top Podcasters was released. As part of the Remote Pathways podcast, I am really pleased to be part of that listing in the Business section

As we look back at the 34 plus episodes of the podcast, here are some that continue to stand out:

Episode 32 – Top 10 Tools to Get Things Done in the Virtual, Remote and Hybrid World, https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep32-top-10-tools-to-get-things-done-in-the-virtual-remote-hybrid-world

Episode 19 – Remote Working Myths, https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep019-remote-working-myths

Episode 17 – All leaders, https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep017-every-professional-in-the-remote-space-is-a-leader-and-needs-leadership-skills

Episode 12 – Conflict in the Remote Space with Gayle Oudeh, https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep012-gayle-oudeh-conflict-in-the-remote-space

Episode 11 - Getting Up to Speed Quickly in the Remote Space, https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep011-getting-up-to-speed-quickly-in-the-remote-space

What have been your favorite episodes so far?

Have an episode idea? Reach out and let me know what it is! Email me at info@potentialsrealized.com

Also be sure to check out Episode 27 which took at a look at the Year in Review – Part 2 – spotlighting our 2020 guests. https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep27-a-year-in-review-part-ii-our-fabulous-podcast-guests-and-more

And…. Check out Episode 25, which looked at a Year in Review part 1. https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep25-a-year-in-review-part-1

Enjoy your reflections!
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
Phone: (416)996-8326

TEAMS365 #2622 - Collaboration in the Virtual Space

3/5/2021

I thought it might be interesting to see what I was writing on this time last year. Here’s the post from March 10 2020 – Collaboration in the Virtual Space:

In my book, Effective Virtual Conversations, I share seven skills needed to make collaboration work well. These are particularly important in the remote and virtual space where collaborations need to be more intentional and are often characterized by touch points which are much more infrequent.

The seven areas we want to be building skills and capacity around are:

Trust
Candor
Connection
Flexibility/Adaptability
Self-Awareness
Working Across Differences
Relationship Development

(Page 385 – Effective Virtual Conversations, Britton, 2017)

What do all of these skills look like in your virtual work?

If you were to give each one of them a rating, what would they look like?

Having introduced these categories to hundreds in speaking engagements over the last few years, I often will poll the audiences I speak with about which ones are most important. By far, the one which most frequently gets raised is TRUST.

What does building trust look like in your virtual relationships?

It may include:

Being present – and not looking like you are multi-tasking
Being reliable – following through with promises made to send something out
Participating in chat and/or annotation and/or verbally
Showing up on camera (even if that’s uncomfortable)
Asking questions out of curiosity

Consider recent calls you were on. What does building trust look like in your context?

For more on other topics check out:

Differences When Working Remote
Listen into Five Ways to Strengthen Team Relationships here

Remember that things are magnified in the remote space.
If you are collaborating remotely, consider how some of the 7 Enablers of Great Remote Work fit in, including:

Communication
Clarity
Consistency

What’s going to support better conversations and results in the remote space?

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 #2621 - Team Building Tip 281: Values in Action

3/4/2021

Today’s Thursday Team Building Tip asks you to consider how your values are translating into action. Without action and specific behaviors our values are largely invisible. What are you doing to illustrate to others what is important and what you take a stand for?

For example, if we have a value of reactivity, we will have behaviors and practices which are quick in nature, lean in terms of focus and able to work.

If we have a value of accuracy we may have checks and balances in place to ensure that things are reviewed.

What are the values you want to ensure are illustrated?

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 #2620 - Teamwork Quotes

3/3/2021

The theme last month was all about collaboration. Collaboration is at the heart of any remote or hybrid work experience. Today’s post curates some of my favorite teamwork quotes which have been showcased here over the years in one of the many Teams365 posts. Take a moment to think about how these can inspire your steps this month!

Enjoy some of my favorite teamwork quotes:

“It takes two flints to make a fire” – Louise May Allcott

“A single leaf working alone provides no shade” – Chuck Page

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it” – H.E. Luccock

“How do you have each other’s backs?” – Keith Ferrazzi

“Teams are the engines of business today.” Patrick Lencioni

“No {hu} man is an island, entire of itself; every {hu} man is a piece of the continent.” – John Donne

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” - Ryunosuke Satoro
“A great flame follows a little spark” – Dante

“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with others” – African proverb

“Teams outperform individuals acting alone or in large organizational groupings, especially when performance requires multiple skills, judgements and experiences” – Katzenbach and Smith

“You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note” – Doug Floyd

What’s your favorite teamwork quote? Share it with us in the comments below!

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 #2619 - Hybrid Work

3/2/2021

Almost a year after the world went virtual and work went remote, the initial flickers of hope are emerging for the next iteration of what the workspace (note I don’t say workplace!), might look like as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote 'The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.

As more people become vaccinated, it’s likely that the next wave of work will be one that is hybrid in nature. Part in-person, part remote. With this in mind, I’ll be dedicating upcoming blog posts to explore what might be possible in this way of working.

Hybrid work is nothing new, and has been used by many organizations over the years. __ and ___ are well known for their focus on hybrid work.

Over the last year many organizations and teams have indicated how challenging it can be to work remote. Hybrid workspaces can even enhance that level of challenge, given that people will be working in different ways.

Several principles to keep in mind that we need to :

Remember, things get magnified in the remote and hybrid workspace. From communication to conflict, things often are more magnified than if we were seeing each other every day. What do you need to be aware of?
Proactivity is key – Just as with virtual work and teaming, being proactive in communicating, flagging issues and planning is key for hybrid work. What are the elements you need to be more proactive around.

Consider the varying needs of each team member. It’s likely that some workspaces and teams will work in different ways. What have you learned about how people want, and need, to be supported? What can this look like if people are still working distributed?

Get better at asynchronous teaming – With some people likely to be in person some days of the week, and others offsite, the shift to asynchronous teamwork, and leadership, is likely to stay. This becomes even more important to provide people with the autonomy and flexibility to work across time and distance. Check out this great study by Ruggieri, Boca and Garro (2016) on the different styles of leadership needed in the virtual context. You can read that study here.

Also, consider how the 8 Remote Enablers I shared this time last year in the Remote Working Whitepaper, may need to be adjusted? If you haven’t downloaded a copy of the Remote Working Whitepaper, get it here.

What’s important to take note of or start planning for?
Reach out to discuss your team or organizational needs. We’ve been having discussions with a lot of organizations, leaders and teams about what’s possible for them next. Schedule a call to discuss.

With 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 #2617 - The Week and Month in Review

2/28/2021

Welcome back. It’s hard to believe that it’s the end of the month! Where did February go?

This week we covered a variety of posts including:
Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt #140 – What’s energizing for you
Friday’s flashback – Barriers to Collaboration
Thursday’s focus on the Team Building Tip of What does each team member need?
Wendesday’s post on Cultivating Rituals and Habits
Tuesday’s post on Create a Structure around things
Monday’s 5 Posts about Standing Out Virtually.

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 #2580 – Flashback Friday – 21 for 21 Virtual Co-Working Sprints

1/22/2021

WOW! What an accomplishment. We’ve just spent the last 21 days doing a series of 21 minutes of virtual co-working EVERY Day. That added up to 7 hours and 35 minutes of found time!

I’ve had the pleasure of taking more than 20 people through the process over the last 21 days. Whether they joined us live or remotely, it’s been amazing to see the learning and insights play out.

We also followed the anchoring blog posts which were published here at the Teams365 blog, with the 21 Stand Out Virtually productivity tools. What do you notice about what you got done in the time allotted if you participated.

It was so much fun that I’m committed to doing it all again during the first 21 days of February. Join us – the cost to participate is going to be $79 US which will give you access to all the recordings, worksheets and a special end of each week celebration.

Here’s what people loved about the process.

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

STAND OUT VIRTUALLY 21 FOR 2021: DAY 21 OF 21 DAYS: TRACK IT! – #TEAMS365 #2579

1/21/2021

“To the person who does not know where (S)he wants to go there is no favorable wind” – Seneca

One of the three tenets of PlanDoTrack is Track. As we move into the last tip of the 21 for 21, what are you noticing about the activities you have undertaken in this series?

Trackers can be a great way to get habits ingrained. What are the habits you have created I the last 21 days. Habits are key to success and thriving in the very fluid remote and virtual workspace. Whether we are juggling multiple tasks, or roles (business owner or leader, parent, etc), habits and those things we consistently become automatic.

They may be so automatic that we don’t even notice what we have accomplished.

If you have been part o the 21 for 21 Booster Pack, you will have seen the daily worksheets, and bonus weekly trackers to support you in NOTICING what you have accomplished.

Tracking is all about taking time to pause, reflect and notice the data.
Some of the areas readers have been tracking range from:

Personal items – Reading time, time spent with loved ones, journaling
Fitness goals – Time spent walking, at gym, swimming, heart rate, sleep achieved
Business goals - Calls made, revenue in, program design time, product design time
Special project focus – include any part of the design, implementation or delivery

As part of the 21 for 21 Virtual Co-working Sprints, participants are encouraged to note the daily steps they are taking every day. Over time these add up.

Activity

Take a look at your top 3 goals this year, or quarter, and identify and write out what the milestones are.

Get granular with what milestone success will look like.

Mark the items and the milestone checklist in your calendar. What will you do to track them?

Note the trackers that you want to follow around these milestones (it could be calls etc).

Conversation Sparkers

What are the things you want to TRACK?
What do you notice about the data? What patterns have emerged?

A reminder that there are several tracking tools available to you in the PlanDoTrack planner including, Weekly Daily Trackers – with space to track more than 10 areas, consider some of the habits and consistent actions you want to get into this year, or the results you want to track. Share your insights with us over at the Virtual and Remote Visionaries Hub on Facebook or on Mighty Networks at https://Conversation-Sparker.mn.co

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

STAND OUT VIRTUALLY 21 FOR 2021: DAY 20 OF 21 DAYS: Leverage the PErfect Call Formula and 5 EngaGement LEvers™ – #TEAMS365 #2578

1/20/2021

“Consider engaging people on calls every 7 – 10 minutes to create one that stands out!” – Jennifer Britton

Throughout the Stand Out Virtually series of programming (Challenges, Courses and now this blog series), I refer to the Perfect Call Formula and the 5 Engagement Levers. One of the big challenges is that most calls today in the virtual space STAND OUT for the wrong reasons. They are dull, boring, one-way passages of information.

The perfect call formula, with the acronym of PERC, gets you to think about how you focus on:

P – PROCESS

E – Engagement – What are you doing to activate the 5 Engagement Levers™ so that people are active conversationalists and not just passive participants. The 5 Engagement Levers™ are:

Breakouts
Annotation
Chat
Polls
And Whiteboards

R – Results – As I wrote earlier in the series, always start with the end in mind. What are the results you are aiming for? Are you asking people at the start of the program or process to identify “What success will look like at the end of their work with you?”

C – Connection. In today’s socially isolated world (at least of 2020 and hopefully only part of 2021) connection is key. We want to connect on these layers –

Connection to you as the host
Connection to others
Connection to the content
Connection to the platform
Connection to their Why and what’s important

Activity

Consider what you are doing to embed the Perfect Call Formula in your upcoming virtual conversations -
Ask yourself:

What focus am I putting on process
What am I doing to embed the Five Engagement Levers™
What results are we aiming for?
What am I doing to help people connect in on these five levels?

Conversation Sparkers

What is important to you about STANDING OUT VIRTUALLY?
What changes do you want to make?

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