Not so long from now, as a vaccine becomes a reality for many, teams, organizations and businesses are likely to be making the shift back into the office for some. With hybrid work arrangements, it’s important to take a look at the following:

Head back to the basics of teams,

Remember the Remote Work Enablers – these are all still important as we move into hybrid work arrangements, the 7 remote enablers are still critical levers for successful workplace results and relationships. The 7 Remote Work Enablers includes:

1. Connection
2. Communication
3. Clarity
4. Community
5. Culture
6. Collaboration
7. And Consistency

Which area, or areas, could use more attention?

Revisit your processes - What needs to change when some people are in the office, and others are still working from home, what work processes need to change?

Keep everything simple - One of the mantras of 2020 has been to “keep everything simple”. The complexity is around us when we work remotely, and when we shift to hybrid work arrangements, new layers of complexity emerge – some people working at home/others in the office; a sense that things have returned to how they “once were” when in fact we may be a different business than we were before.

Keeping things simple involves simplifying our practices and processes.

What do you need to simplify?

Related to this is to ensure that there are ways to keep things moving in a way that works for the different styles. Consider bringing things online and moving things forward in a way that works for those who remain virtual and those who are in an office space.

It’s likely to be many more months before a hybrid workplace arrangement exists. What do you want to take note of?

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

Inclusivity in the virtual space is an essential area to explore in virtual meeting spaces. What are we doing to ensure that we are bringing all voices into the room?

From time zone differences, to language differences, different technical backgrounds, and geographic differences, working in the virtual space often expands the diversity of those in the room. It’s not uncommon for most virtual conversations to vary on these different areas, along with many more – gender, race, sexual orientation, social identity, as well as the different thinking and learning styles, and ways we interact with the world.

For example, some of us need more time for reflection that others. Some of us may be learning by doing (kinesthetic) while others learn by hearing (auditory) or seeing (visual).

As a leader, facilitator or virtual host, what are you doing to ensure that you are incorporating a variety of techniques to bring all different voices in the room?

Consider these tips:

• Mix it up to ensure that you are incorporating approaches for different learning styles. For those that like visuals and learn that way, what images (versus text) can you incorporate? Might you include a video?
• For those that have a kinesthetic preference, what can you do to make the call more interactive and physically active? Can you incorporate annotation? What can you do to ensure that there might be some movement (safely!)?
• For those that learn auditorily (by listening), what can you do to incorporate more opportunities for virtual breakouts, dialogue and small group sharing?

Another dynamic you will encounter is those who are possibly dialing in by phone, and those on the web that can see each other. Consider what you are doing to speak to group members from both locations. If people cannot see others (i.e. dialing in by phone), I will usually get them to go first, to connect them in more quickly.

Geographically, what’s important to consider? Are you moving West to East, East to West, South to North, and North to South?

If group members on the call speak different first languages, what can you do to incorporate more visuals, and/or written prompts so people who have stronger reading ability can follow that rather than spoken words?

What else is important to note?

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar
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PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here. ​

Who are you? How do people see you?

This week’s Weekly Journaling Prompt gets you to think in terms of how you are unique.

What are the six words you would use to describe yourself? What’s important about who you are?

One of the assessments I like to use in my work as a coach is the StrengthsFinder from Gallup. As they indicate, the chances of two people having the same Top 5 strengths is one in 33.4 million. Read this article about this from Gallup.

In a world in which things can seem commoditized, AND people are worried about Artificial Intelligence, we might take heart to recognize that we are all unique.

This weekend I hope you will enjoy reflecting on the question – "6 Words to Describe Me Are…"
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Maybe you outreach to others and also ask them what they think.
 
Enjoy the reflection!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!
​

This month we’re looking at building relationships in the workspace. Whether it’s meeting colleagues half a world away or getting to know new team members who you can’t see every day, today’s post gets you thinking about, and using, five conversation starters in the remote space. These can be useful to combine together if you are creating more of a focus for team members to meet with each other and learn about each other’s work. As I write “Remote does not mean disconnected!”. Remote team members are often surprized to see just how connected their work really is.


Tell me a little more about your role and what you focus on? (another reframe may be – Tell me a little more about your work?)

It’s likely that this question will take you in the broad landscape of what someone does. It can be useful to hear what they do, where they are based, what they are responsible for. Are they part of a local office that you can’t see, or do they work from home? Are they part of just your team or multiple matrix teams? What are the major items they are responsible for?

Tell me a little more about your priorities right now?

This question helps get at what their priorities are. In the remote space, it’s easy to think that everyone is working on the same projects that we are, when in fact, they may have two or three other priorities ahead of ours.

How do you see our roles fitting together?

This question may be a “door opener” to your peer asking you questions about your work and what you do. It may also help to clarify the intersection points of your work. The value of having regular conversations and talking about what you do is that you may start seeing even more connections together than you did in isolation.

What type of communication is going to work for you?

This question helps to create a proactive approach to teamwork. The support needed, and valued, by each team member may be different.

Asking how you can support others in their work can surface a discussion around strengths, preferences, and how each team member is unique. If you know that someone puts an emphasis on brevity and timeliness, your response can adapt. It may mean short bullet form emails, specific to the task, rather than long winded emails which ask questions about how people are doing as in the case of another team member who values relationships, inquiry and a slower pace.

Beyond this, you will likely hear about the varying channel preferences people have and the frequency people will value.

What should I know about your work context and preferences?

In the remote space our team may be “on” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7). Understanding how people work, where they work and what their context is critical for communication, workflow and also prioritization. If you know that someone is only in the office two days a week you can prioritize accordingly. If you understand that a colleague’s work hours don’t intersect with yours, you will be able to adjust WHEN you send info – i.e. at the end of your day so they can work on it during their work day and have it back to you by the time you get back online the next morning.

How can I support your work?
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Even if you aren’t seeing each other every day, or working physically side-by-side, collaboration and reciprocity still exists. Find out what you each can do for each other. Maybe they have specialized skills and experience you can learn from, maybe there are process tools they are really good at. What supports can you offer each other?

I hope that you will start to incorporate some of these questions as you move forward with your conversations and relationship building. What time are you earmarking for conversations this week?

Warm wishes, 
Jennifer

This week’s Team Building Tip gets you to consider the question “HOW do you want feedback?” As part of team days, I host for teams (virtually and in person) we usually wind up doing work around strengths or styles, helping team members understand the diverse needs and approaches on the team. From there, we usually start exploring what these differences mean in terms of communication, working style, approaches to conflict and also things that get under our skin, or triggers.

One of the areas where you may see significant differences is in the area of feedback – how we like to give it, and how we like to receive it. Feedback should be a two-way street.

This week’s Team Building Tip asks the question: “How do you want feedback?”
Options might include:

• Regular in batches or as things happen
• Focused on the big picture vs. Granular in detail
• Verbal only vs writing which you can review and then connect verbally to speak about

What are the ways you want to focus on feedback?

Feedback should also be a two-way street, and while asking the question to those we are supporting through feedback, you’ll want to consider asking “What type of feedback do you want as the receiver?”

Note that in many teams, feedback is not just between the leader and team members. There may be peer feedback cycles as well. The question how “How do you want feedback?” may be an interesting one to explore with the entire team.
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Enjoy the conversations!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Writing 
Phone (416)996-8326
 
As we step into the end of the year, get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.

For many years, I have shared the research with teams that they excel when they focus on both relationships and results. The same holds true for remote teams as well.

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip gets you thinking about what you are doing to help remote teams explore both their results and relationships.

A focus on results can include:

• Their goals
• Their vision
• Clarity around communication, tasks and focus
• How we measure success
• Leadership
• Roles

 
Relationship focus may explore:

• How much we know and trust each other
• Understanding our connections
• Understanding what our styles, and preferences are
• How we work across differences, conflict and difficult issues

​What are the things you need to focus on as a team?

In the remote space, taking time to build out the relationship focus is essential. We want to make sure that we are exploring who we are, what our strengths are, how we prefer to work, what helps and what hinders our work. No person is an island in any work context today. What opportunities are you creating to ensure that there is a focus on relationships in the team?

Could there be a component that you build into your next team meeting that focuses on having people share what they are working on and/or a little about their work. You might even consider undertaking some work around strengths or other areas.

What are the things you want to focus in around as a team right now?

Best wishes, 
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Writing 
Phone (416)996-8326
 
As we step into the end of the year, get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.

This week’s Team Building Tip should hopefully surface an interesting dialogue around communication and how people prefer to communicate.

One of the major areas of conflict for teams today can be the varied ways people want to communicate, and becoming entrenched in our own preferences, without embracing other ways of working.

On a team, it’s likely that you all will have different preferences around –

• Text vs. Chat
• Visual vs. Data
• Real-time vs. Recording
• Face-to-face vs. Virtual
• Big picture vs. Granular detail
• Focused on the present vs Focused on the future

This list could continue. As a team, it might be an interesting conversation to go around the table to discuss what:

• Different preferences exist along these continua listed above
• Focus areas
• What you as a team are doing in terms of varying approaches and meeting different people’s needs

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Writing 
Phone (416)996-8326
 
As we step into the end of the year, get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.

In my work as a coach, I am privileged to work with leaders (both seasoned and new), as well as teams. At this time of year, I like to pause and take stock of some of the themes I’ve seen and have been working around with clients. It’s been a varied year, but some of the key conversations I’ve been hearing about are:

How do we work most effectively knowing we are a diverse team? This often has involved a deeper dive into helping people understand not only their strengths or styles, but also the flip side of it – what happens when their strengths or styles become over-magnified.

What can we do to focus? Discernment and focus are two areas many teams have been building their muscle in. While the range of what this looks like can be vast, some of the questions teams like to engage with are:

• Where are we paying attention?
• What do we need to say no to (these may be things that are not adding value, are serving as a distraction rather than an important piece of work or….)
• What areas do we need to become more discerning in?

What else is important to note as a team?

What can we do to become more effective as a virtual team? With an increasing number of people going remote, it’s important to think about what is going to make you most effective when working across distance and boundaries. I’m exploring this topic, and several others, in my new podcast series – Remote Pathways Podcast which I am co-hosting with Michelle Mullins. Check it out at https://www.RemotePathways.com
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How do we become better at prioritization? Becoming better at prioritization may be an antidote for some teams, and one way to start dialing back on the pressures they experience. What do you notice about priorities on your team? How do you balance out the varying weight of each?

Best, 
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Writing 
Phone (416)996-8326
 
As we step into the end of the year, get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.

As many of us step into some holiday time, today’s post gets you to think about simplification. Simpler does not always mean simple. In business, simplification can help with focus, clarity and standing out.
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In marketing, simplification may mean smaller chunks, more focused messaging. Consistently on a channel.

In service offerings, simplification may mean one thing instead of three.
In systems, simplification might mean streamlining.

In content creation, simplification may mean repurposing and repackaging what you already have, rather than focusing on creating something new.

Around habits and work style, simplification may mean letting something go, or doing something less frequently.

What does simplification mean for you? What would be beneficial about simplifying right now in your work?
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Best wishes,
Jennifer

It’s time for another weekly journaling prompt. These are geared to get you to build in a pause point every week and think about what is important to you.

This week the question is “at my best I am….”

In past posts I've shared the benefits of journaling. You can read that post here.

One of the activities I take a lot of teams through is this reflectin of who they are when they are at their best. Reconnecting with what's worked, and who we are when we are leveraging our skills and strengths can create a strong pivot.

Today I hope you will find some time to create a few minutes to capture reflections of times when you were at your best.

Enjoy your writing!
​Jennifer