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.

​It’s Thursday and while some are celebrating Thanksgiving, many of us have a regular day of work. This week’s Team Building Tip is a “Remote Work Enabler”. Throughout the upcoming weeks I’ll be including a number of special items to keep in mind to help your remote team THRIVE, not just SURVIVE!

The first remote work enabler I wanted to point to was that of expectation. In a remote team, we may be part of multiple matrix relationships, which makes it even more important for us to be clear on our expectations about HOW THINGS ARE DONE.

Teams can benefit from taking time to create a WAYS OF WORKING, or Team Agreements about how they will operate together.

What are the team expectations around?:

• Showing up for meetings
• Focus at meetings
• Being prepared
• Being punctual
• Quality of work
• Surfacing issues
• Addressing difficult conversations
• How you interact with each other
• Share information
• Connect with others outside of the organization
• Participate in ongoing learning

Each one of these could spark a conversation around multiple factors.

When expectations are not clear we run the risk of doing things differently, having varied output, and most importantly, creating assumptions that might not be founded. These can have the most detrimental impact in the long run.
As a team, what do expectations do you want to make clear?

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 gets you to consider the question – “What’s getting in the way?” As a team, what are the things which have obstructed you from what’s really important?

It’s at this time of year that we may become really clear about the SHINY RED OBJECTS which have become an alluring focus but may not have translated to business results. OR WAIT? Have they?

It can be important to think about activities not only from an immediate impact, but also in terms of the longer-term activities and seed-planting work which needs to go into bigger projects. For those reading the Teams 365 blog who are solopreneurs you will probably know what I mean. Many times, we take on creative projects which may not be revenue generating but actually are key in moving the business forward. The challenge is to make sure that there is a good balance between those activities which need to happen NOW and generate revenue, as well as those activities which are key to business growth but may only pay off in the long run.

This week consider the question – What’s getting in the way? Is it a closed road, or an important detour?

What do you need to say YES to? NO to?

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 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. ​

As we go to wrap up the month of October, we are that much closer to the end of the year. Today is an opportunity to focus in on the opportunity cost of things you are doing, and not doing. Today’s team prompt is the question: "What is the cost of not…"

You might consider things along the lines of:

• What is the cost of not undertaking (insert task, activity or project)?
• What is the cost of not delegating?
• What is the cost of not prioritizing?
• What is the cost of not minimizing digital distractions?
• What is the cost of not focusing?
• What is the cost of not celebrating? Acknowledging others’ efforts?

Take your pick!

Enjoy the conversation,
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. ​

Where did the week go!? We’re here on Sunday and I wanted to take a quick recap of where we explored this week:

• Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt – Read it here
• Friday’s post which took us back to a LinkedIn Pulse point I shared a few years ago entitled “4 Best Practices for Year-End Team Retreats”
• Thursday’s Team Building Tip getting us to think about the team question “What would create more safety?”
• Wednesday’s post around setting our remote team up for success. Read it here.
• Tuesday’s post around Team Effectiveness for your remote team. Read it here.
• Monday’s post on Effective Virtual Conversations. Read it here.

What are the things that are important for you to note about your focus this week? Your achievements?

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. ​

Safety is an essential element for teams to thrive. Since the publication of her 2012 book, Teaming, I’ve been pointing people to the research of Amy Edmondson, as it relates to the trust, safety and connection teams require in order to operate. Her writing includes Teaming (2012), Extreme Teams and the Fearless Organization (2018).

You can view what she has to say on this topic in her TED talk on “How to Turn a Bunch of Strangers into a Team” here. 

Having a discussion with the team about “What would create more safety?” for the team can be seen as a risky conversation by some. At the same time, it’s useful to surface questions like these in creating the open dialogue which is needed in high trust organizations. The feedback received, AND ideas created by the various members of the team, helps to create shared ownership for the team experience.

Enjoy your conversation this week, and if you are looking for more on the topic of building trust, connection and safety be sure to also check out the series of posts I’ve included here at the Teams365 blog post around TRUST.

Enjoy the conversation!
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. ​

Yesterday we explored some of the key ingredients for helping teams thrive in the remote space. Given that many team members in the remote space are likely to be part of several matrix teams, it’s good practice to have them identify what is important to them.

Some of the additional ingredients teams require in working remote are:

• Understanding around how their roles work together
• Clarity around what they need to do
• Resourcing required
• Knowledge of, and connection with, the people who can support them in getting things done
• Knowledge of who is who on the team, who they can go to for what, and how their work interfaces or connects in with others
• Focused time to work on getting to know their team members, and build trust (check out the past Teams365 posts on building Trust)
• Authority to complete the work that they have been tasked with
• Feedback around what is working, and what is not with their actions

What are the things which you see as being important to ensure for your team members?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Put a bunch of people together and think that they will become a team immediately? Think again! Teams don’t just become exceptional overnight, especially if they are in the remote space.

With remote work becoming more common place today, it’s key that we start spending more time exploring what it means to be an exceptional team in the virtual space.

As I shared in Effective Virtual Conversations, “High-performing teams – in both the virtual and in-person realm – don’t just happen. They require work, focus and support. Whether it’s training, coaching, or mentoring, virtual team leaders and virtual team members benefit from focus.”  (Britton, 2017, pg 348).
Today’s and tomorrow’s posts are going to explore what can set a virtual or remote team up for success. Just as I do in Effective Virtual Conversations, let’s return back to the basics with what helps teams excel. If you have followed along here at the Teams365 blog for a while, you will know that I often refer to the foundational elements of team development as the Six Factors. Here’s a reminder of what those are again:

#TEAMS365 #1920: Team Development: Revisiting the Six Factors

This month's theme here at the Teams365 blog is Team Springboards. Where do you start the conversation about how the team is doing?

​​One of the frameworks I continue to share with teams is what I call the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. These are six things that teams need in order to excel. The ingredients come from the research of professionals including: Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams), Hackman and Wageman (A Theory of Team Coaching) and others.

As you step into the new month, as a team you’ll take the pulse of where you are on a scale of 1- 10 in each of these six areas:

1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)
What is your purpose? Your mission? Why do you exist? Does everyone hold the same understanding? What does this mean practically for your work? What priorities does your purpose or mission naturally create?

2. Shared behavioral norms
How do you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team? What behaviors and habits exist? Which ones are supportive of exceptional performance? Which ones aren't?

3. Shared commitment
What are team members committed to? What will you get done, no matter what? Is there anything that needs to be dropped off the list?

4. Shared performance goals
What are key goals for the team this year? What are key individual goals? How do your goals align? Overlap? What does success look like for each member? For the entire team? Does everyone have an understanding of the key goals of others on the team and how they feed into them?

5. Shared team practices
Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event. What practices support your relationships?

6. Clear Roles
How do our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities?
 
Prefer to listen to an audio – check out this 2014 Team Leader Breakfast call I hosted or view it as a video here.

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. ​

Each Thursday I provide a question for you as a team to explore and have a short conversation around. Typically, these are questions which may provoke new discussions you are not having or prompt a sharing of information that is not naturally available.

This week’s team building question might fall into the category of “provocative” for some teams.

The question is “What is not being spoken about?”.

We know from research that teams which excel are teams which are able to surface difficult issues for exploration, without fear of retribution. This is not easy and requires high levels of TRUST and connection with other group members.

When we don’t surface issues, or address issues which need to be raised, it’s likely that they will grow in magnitude and possibly FESTER, creating more toxicity for the team. Rather than being an issue which could be addressed quickly it may become an issue that gets charged with emotional and resentment.

When we are surrounded by an elephant in the room it can be refreshing to finally name it, even if we can’t address it right away.

As a team this week, how might it be useful to surface the issues which are not being spoken about? What do you want to do to capture these and address them in the medium- to long-term? When we open what might be perceived as a Pandora’s Box it can be useful to have shared clarity around what will happen with these issues. Are you looking to spark conversation and problem solving or provide a “release valve” on issues which need to be surfaced but may not change? Consider how you want to set this question up as a team.

Enjoy your conversations!
​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. ​