This year teams of all kinds have been finding micro-windows for conversation. The business context is not slowing down, change is ever present, and teams are needing to manage uncertainty. When we have a context like this, it can be really important to zoom into connecting with our bigger picture, and also focus on prioritization and systems.

As a team, it may be useful to invest time focusing on revisiting or discussing:

#1 - Our Ways of Working/Team Agreements: What are the norms and ways we work together? What’s acceptable? What’s not?

A reminder that much of the recent research, including Google’s project Aristotle, has validated what many of us as team practitioners have been doing for years – helping teams articulate HOW they want to operate. What’s acceptable and what’s not on a team?

#2 – Our Vision: Vision helps us move through the ups and downs of business. When things are changing at the micro-level, our vision may become more static, and can act as a guidepost. What are you doing to revisit your vision? How aligned is everyone around the vision? Does everyone see how they fit into the vision and how they contribute? Note that the time window around vision may be shorter than it was – rather than focusing on a 10-year window it may be 36-month vision.

spending a few minutes as a team at year end to reconnect around what your vision is for the upcoming year can be a valuable exercise.

I wrote more extended posts around working with vision back in 2015, and here are some of the questions I included at that time for discussion as a team in Teams365 #366. Here are some of those questions I included at the time:

Before you get back to work for the year, spend a few minutes reflecting on these key questions for your 2015 goals:

• What are your key goals for the next year - personally? As a team?
  
• On a scale of 1-10, how easy are these goals? Which ones are going to be the most stretch?
• What will keep these goals at the forefront for you this year?
• How do you want to track them? What are key milestones along the way?
• What do you need in order to achieve them (people, resources, finances etc)?
• What are you committed to achieving this next year, no matter what?
  
• How do your individual, team and organizational goals align?
• Who will you be accountable to?

• How will you celebrate them along the way?

Take time to write these down in  a place you can refer back to. When you get back to work, share and discuss these with your team members, those you collaborate with, and other stakeholders.

#3 - Systems and Processes become important given that we may need to shift our role even more. When we leave a role often our knowledge leaves with us. Savvy leaders know the importance systems and process play in helping to build on the learning that people bring. Even if they are moved to a new project, good systems and processes will help capture the learning.

#4 – Relationships. As I write in my latest work around Remote Pathways, “no person is an island”. Relationships play a critical role for team members, especially in the remote space. Remote does not equal disconnected. What are you doing to bring people together regularly to build trust and connection?  With low levels of trust, it’s likely that people will not be willing to bring their best self to work. With low levels of trust, it’s unlikely that the big issues will be surfaced. When people do not feel connected, it’s also unlikely that the real issues get surfaced. We want to make sure we help team members, especially remote team members, see their connections with each other.

For more on trust, check out this earlier Teams365 blog post and related cartoon around 9 different ways to build trust or Teams365 1512 for Building TRust in a virtual team.

Check out this blog post on creating connection and building community across the team.

Enjoy your conversation!
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.

It’s Monday which means that it’s time for another Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s tip is a remote team tip. 

A 2018 survey carried out by Indeed.ca found that 65% of employers surveyed found that their employees were more productive when working remote. While many employees want to work remote for flexibility reasons (less commute time, more focused break, being able to navigate caretaking responsibilities), some remote workers may be concerned that they are less visible.

I’ve been enjoying working and writing more in this topic area of remote work and if you listen to podcasts, I would invite you to connect in to the new Remote Pathways Podcast I am co-hosting with Michelle Mullins.

In the remote space, consistency is key. When we see things through micro-windows (i.e. the short amount of time we are on the screen) and given the vast balance of time spent working individually and alone, CONSISTENCY can take on a new level of importance.

On a remote team level, consistency can include a focus on consistency as it relates to meetings, process, procedures, systems, and communication.

Consider:

• Meetings - How often are you meeting as a team? It can be beneficial to get in the habit of holding meetings consistently. For example, every Tuesday morning at 9 am ET. For those on the west coast it may mean an earlier start time, but people can start to plan their day and schedule around this. Booking in advance can help to anchor and protect those time windows.
• Process and systems - Consistency is key for a remote team, spread across multiple levels. Investing time in clear processes and systems ensure a consistent output and standardization across a team. We know that it’s important for team members to have shared goals and performance measures. What do you need to look at as it relates to creating consistency around process?
• Procedures - Related to process, there may be procedures which need tightening up, as the team grows and expands. Consider reporting and sharing of information. What are the things that need to be looked at?

Communication is most likely the one that can benefit from the enhanced focus. Consistently communicating messages that are important is key, especially when team members may have different preferences in terms of how they connect in. What do you notice about communication needs and preferences?

All the 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 we move towards the end of the year, it’s an opportune time to focus in on the systems in your work. Systems help us automate routine tasks and also create consistency. Systems help us with information sharing and leveraging tasks and processes. This is key when people and projects may move not only in an office but move to different locations.

As we move to year end, it can be an important time to dedicate some focus on anchoring in the systems we have been using, developing others and/or making sure systems and focused.

This year I’ve mentioned systems several times. They are an important part of keeping a remote or global business running consistently, ensuring that our customer or clients experience is the same from location to location.

In larger organizations, systems are likely to be well established, but in start ups or smaller organizations it’s likely that they are not as well developed.

You might consider the systems you have as it relates to sharing of information around projects, special initiatives and tasks. One of the challenges as teams move into the remote space is that information flow may not be as smooth. If you have people needing to access information and work on shared documents or with shared information what needs attention. This may involve nomenclature around how documents are saved and where things get digitally filed. IT may also involve a mindset shift around how items get documented and shared.

• Communication (Internal/External, team communication)
• Performance
• Goals
• Projects
• Marketing/Business Cases/Case Studies

What else?

If you have not taken a look at this month’s Effective Virtual Conversations call which I held on November 4th around Remote and Virtual Team Tools, do take a look. In the 25-minute call I share five key areas you will want to explore and possibly incorporate with your team – from communication tools, to team development tools, to project management tools.

What is the one tool you know you can’t live without? For me, I would say it is Zoom. Whether I am leading a group session or hosting an individual coaching session, Zoom allows me to seamlessly move throughout calls all day long, seeing my clients without having to travel  (sometimes thousands of miles to see them!). While travel is a passion for some, having spent the better part of my first decade plus of my working career travelling for a living, I so appreciate getting to reconnect with places without having to physically go there.

Wishing you the 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.

This week’s Team Building Tip is a systems check. Systems are key in the remote and virtual workspace. They are the things that keep us doing things in a consistent manner, creating a seamless experience for our team members and customers. Consider a team that is spread across Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris and Shanghai. We want to ensure that a customer will have a similar experience across the different areas.

In my PlanDoTrack Workbook Planner and the Coaching Business Builder Workbook Planner, I explore five systems which can help remote workers and solopreneurs.

They are:

1. Financial systems - Invoicing, Accounts Payable, Cash Flow, Accounts Receivable etc
2. Client systems - Welcome Kits, other supports
3. Onboarding systems - Questionnaires, Agreements, Welcome Letters
4. Marketing - Websites, Social Media Feeds, Frequently Asked Questions
5. Content - Do you know what you have created? Do you have an accessible listing of what there is?
6. Sales - What do you notice about sales? What can generate more? What follow-up do you have with those you have sold to?

 

• What is the current state of these five areas? What could use attention?
• What systems do you as a team have in place? What needs focus?
• What new systems could benefit the team?

All the best,
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources. ​

​This month we’ve continued to focus on helping you build your remote team skills. Many professionals new to remote work are curious about what they want to add to their toolbox. This may include things such as:

#1 Systems to Keep You Focused – Systems may range from financial systems (budget, expenses), communication systems – voice, text, email, instant messaging, knowledgement management systems. (Where do you get information?, How do you share information?, How do you file and access information for others across the team?)

#2 Team Development Tools – Having a variety of team development tools to help the team connect, get to know each other and focus in on the work and results you want. More on this topic in tomorrow’s Teams365 blog post.

#3 Relationship Management Tools – What is going to help you build relationships with both internal and external stakeholders? If you are part of a remote team, it’s likely that you are also navigating matrix relationships, and are part of a team.

#4 Planning Tools – As a team, what are your key goals? What are you needing to focus on?

#5 Planning Tools as an Individual – As professionals, it’s likely that we will all have different preferences for planning. Some remote workers want to keep in all in the Cloud, others want an analog paper-based planning tool. In addition to the daily plans, are you taking time to focus on the quarterly and annual plans in your business? This is what I designed the PlanDoTrack Planner for. It’s an analog (i.e. paper-based) workbook and planner to help you (and other team members) get clear on what’s important to you along planning, personal productivity and skills levels.

#6 Getting Organized – Having a well set up office which functions is a big part of the equation. Check out this past post about what elements you will want to have in place.

#7 Performance Tools – Business is about getting results, and it’s important that the team is clear on what needs to get done and what success will look like. What is the current state of performance on a team and individual level? What conversations need to take place?

#8 Coaching Tools – Going hand in hand with performance tools are coaching tools to have great conversations. There are a range of different conversations which need to take place on the team level. From performance conversations (What’s working well and what’s not?)

#9 Project Management Tools – It’s likely that in your work as a remote professional you are regularly navigating projects. What is important to note about your project management skills and tools? Considering the projects you are navigating, how are they going along SCOPE, TIME and BUDGET? What needs attention? Who can help you with this?

#10 A Focus on Team Culture and Identity – While it might seem out of the norm to include this, team culture and identity is critical in today’s workspace. Our culture is WHO WE ARE, HOW WE DO THINGS and WHAT WE VALUE. When was the last time you spent time having a discussion around your team identity and how you do things? If you have team agreements around how you do things, when did you last explore these? If you don’t have them, is it time to create them?

As you consider your work right now, which areas could benefit from more attention? Stay tuned as we dive a little deeper into these topics and be sure to check out the related tags for other things I have already written on them.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources. ​

This week’s Tuesday blog post continues along the pathway of working productively in the remote space. Today’s topic is about getting organized in remote space.

Working remote may mean a smaller office footprint than you might have been used to, or a more open workspace which is shared with friends and loved ones.

Keeping focused, keeping things secure, and keeping things organized are key for success. In today’s post, I’ll cover five areas you might want to consider as it relates to getting and keeping organized:

#1 – Files – From our paper-based files, to electronic ways, we file and access information, keeping files in check is critical.

#2 – Version Control – When working with other team members in collaborative documents being able to access and work on the most up-to-date documents is key.

#3 – Build in time for planning – Planning often falls to the bottom of the list for remote work. When boundaries are fluid by us working odd hours with our stakeholders across the world, the ability to build in time for planning is important.

#4 – Consider Batching – Remote workers are often pulled from task to task, especially if we become reactive around key tasks coming in via email.  A challenge for the remote team today is ensuring that we do make headway on all the different tasks involved such as the more focused, deeper work required for tasks.

#5 – Keep on top of rote tasks – Reporting, finances, filing etc. Dedicating 15 minutes to more rote tasks regularly can help to keep the clutter (physical and mental at play). Physically also filing things in an orderly fashion -i.e. a box for receipts – can also help to diminish the mental clutter created by the open loop of invoices which have not been entered.

One final thing to keep in mind in terms of getting more organized = systems. In PlanDoTrack, I point to the importance of five main areas of systems for entrepreneurs and other remote workers. Consider these areas:

1. Financial systems – Invoicing, Accounts Payable, Cash Flow, Accounts Receivable etc.
2. Client and Stakeholder systems – Connecting with and sharing information with others – this might include things such as email templates, contact lists, meeting notes, past reports on collaboration.
3. Marketing – Websites, Social Media Feeds, Frequently Asked Questions
4. Content – Do you know what you have created? Do you have an accessible listing of what there is?
5. Sales – What do you notice about sales? What can generate more? What follow-up do you have with those you have sold to?

I'm adding on the other area you may find useful which is Project Management - What can you do to make your project flow and communication work for effectively? Are thre apps or programs which will help you like Asana or Trello? These are two that we use here to manage our projects.

​What are the systems which are going to help you streamline and keep on top of your work?

IF you are a coach -  be sure to check out my recent article for the Coaching Tools Company newsletter which was just published on coaching business systems. You can read it here.

For more on this topic, be sure to check out section 3 of both PlanDoTrack (a planner workbook for remote professionals) and CoachingBusiness Builder (a planner-workbook for professional coaches)

Best,
​Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip gets you to think about “What systems will help you be more effective?”. Whether you are running remote team meetings, or hosting webinars, systems operate in the background. It’s the systems that we have in place that help us replicate and scale our work, as well as duplicate it and ensure that people are having a similar experience across locations.

There are a number of systems which you will want to keep in mind as it relates to virtual conversations:

• Recording – where do you keep your recordings, how do you itemize them?
• Platform – log in, passwords, etc.
• Participant or team systems – who is who, how to contact, other details
• Program systems and materials

Of course, there may be other items such as:

• Administrative items
• Financial systems – budgets, expenses
• Communication systems

Think about the systems which are going to help you scale your work. What’s important to note? What is important to take action on?

​Enjoy the start to your week.

Best,
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources. ​

​As a business owner I am regularly thinking about systems and processes for the business. In structuring the way I work here at Potentials Realized, I’ve been intentional since the start of the business to earmark the summer months for extended periods of work in my remote northern office. Early on in the business this included a series of short long weekends, and now fifteen years later includes a five to six week block of time. I have found that as the pace of business has increased, these blocks of time have become even more important for focus and recharging.
​
The nice thing about working remote this that it also provides more of an opportunity to undertake some “digital detox”. This involves:

• Shorter, and more focused, periods of being online (helped by a much slower connection speed!)
• Changing my work schedule so that I check emails at the start of the day and towards the end of a regular workday
• Letting people know that for a certain period of the year, I am working even more remote and won’t be as available (this is key for managing expectations)

While some readers might think – I couldn’t do that – I have come to realize that “I simply CANNOT not do this!”. It’s critical for my own productivity and also satisfaction with my work.
​​
What’s going to help you detox digitally?

For more great resources on this do check out Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism Book. It’s a great read.

Wishing you the best,
Jennifer