Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2453 – Team Building Tip #263

9/17/2020

This week’s Team Building Question is “what’s getting in the way?”. Success in today’s business context is about ongoing evaluation of what’s working and what’s not. What worked this time last year may not be the thing that works right now.

As you consider the question “What’s getting in the way?” consider what this might be as it relates to process, teamwork, communication, meetings, projects etc.

Taking a hard look regularly at what works, and what doesn’t will help you as a team keep moving and adapting.

As an old mentor of mine once said “In times of disruption, there can be no sacred cows”. This was a mantra I led by for many years, being involved in post-disaster rehabilitation and regrowth along with many other key programming areas including educational reform and environmental initiatives.

What’s getting in the way of your success right now?
What are the roadblocks you are facing?

What can help you get over (or around those roadblocks)?

What resources do you need – people? Technology? Change of process? New information? Different skills or expertise?

What’s needed to make a change?

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 #2446 –Team Building Tip 262: Results Focus

9/10/2020

This week’s Team Building Tip is appropriately entitled “Results Focus”. As we get back to work, what are the conversations you need to have around RESULTS?

Today, as a team, it may be useful to discuss:
What are the core results we are looking to achieve by the end of the:

Year?
End of this quarter?
End of this month?

It can also be useful to identify:

What is giving us results? It may be due to processes, people, resources, expertise.
What is getting in the way of results?
Which activities are giving us the highest impact? (Think about the Pareto Principle and what is giving more results)

What other questions are important to explore around results?

Remember that results are just one part of the equation to high performance.

As I write in my work:
High Performance = Results + Relationships

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 #2439 – Team Building Tip 261

9/3/2020

Today’s Team Building Tip is a systems check. It is geared to get you thinking about what needs attention in your systems. Systems are a valuable component of business, which allow us to streamline, and also ensure consistency. This is key is different people are working on the team.

In PlanDoTrack, and Coaching Business Builder, I share systems in 5 key areas -- these are important whether we are a solopreneur or running a 1,000-person operation. Consider here you are in each of these and what could use attention:

Financial systems
Client Systems
Marketing
Content
Sales

Questions you might consider are:

Financial systems – How are you doing with things including invoicing, accounts payable, receivable? What makes it easy for people to do business with you? What do you find challenging? Is it time to get some advice in this area, or renegotiate your terms?
Client systems – What are the things clients receive as they become a client of yours? What message does it send? Is there anything you’ve been wanting to create for your clients which doesn’t yet exist? Consider welcome letters, questionnaires, agreements etc.
Marketing – Marketing is at the heart of a coaching business. Whether we are marketing via relationship building, content marketing, in-person or via social media, what are you doing to let people know about what you have to offer, what coaching is and how you provide support? What could use an update? A refresh? Look at your metrics? What’s working? What’s not?
Content – Content marketing may be a tangential part of a coaching business, however, over time, it’s likely that you may find yourself blogging, podcasting or creating content for reading lists and TED talks you recommend around the topics you coach around. For those that are going offer more than coaching services, this may be a significant part of your work. If you have a copy of the Coaching Business Builder, check out the Content Development Tools, including the Content Daily Trackers. Note what content you have created this year, OR spend time thinking about the top 3 areas you would like to develop content around for the new year.
Sales – What do you have in place around sales? Is it time for a web update? How clear is your call to action? What do you want people to do on each of your webpages?

What are the areas you want to focus on, or revisit as you step into September?

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 #2432 – Team Building Tip 260

8/27/2020

Welcome back to another Thursday Team Building Tip. This week’s tip is “What is the cost of NOT….”

As you think about your vision for the year, what’s important to DO? Focus on? BE?

Consider what you are NOT doing. NOT focusing on. NOT being.

Sometimes it’s as important to look at things through the lens of contrast, and saying NO, not just saying yes.

As you step into your September routine as a team, what might you do to take more of a litmus test around what you ARE focusing on right now?

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 #2425 – Team Building Tip 259

8/20/2020

This week’s Team Building Tip asks the question – What would create more safety?

For team members to engage, or individuals to engage virtually, we need to ensure that there is safety. This is an essential ingredient for learning, results, relationships and performance.

Safety is created through many things –

From being clear on what people can expect
From being clear on outcomes
By inviting all voices into the room
By being clear what the boundaries are around the outcome
By clarifying roles

Safety is an important part of what I term “the triad of virtual calls”. This includes TRUST, SAFETY and CONNECTION. Be sure to check out other posts on this topic here.

As you surface this conversation, what do you notice?

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 #2418 – Team Building Tip 258

8/13/2020

This week’s Team Building Question may seem a bit provocative, and in the remote space, it’s critical that we ask it – What’s not being spoken about?

When trust levels are high the question “what’s not being spoken about” can open up the doorway for a great dialogue. When trust levels are low, this question might seem very provocative.

The answer to this question can shine the light on areas you need to explore as a team, or areas to keep in min.

Here are a few other questions to keep in mind this week:

What other areas haven’t you explored, or spoken about?
What is taboo in terms of looking at as a team?
What ideas are never surfaced?
What’s not safe about bringing up an alternative view?

Enjoy your conversation,
Jennifer

PS - Take a minute and be sure to join us over at the Virtual and Remote Visionaries Hub as well on Facebook. You can join us here.

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 #2411 – Team Building Tip 257

8/6/2020

Welcome back to another weekly Team Building Question, which I hope you will bring into your conversations. This week’s question gets you to consider the question “What would the devil’s advocate say?”.

The devil’s advocate is the person who typically goes against the grain, perhaps even to the point of stirring “the pot” around team issues.

This voice can be very unpopular and even vilified in a team context, however, it’s important, especially in times of change and disruption to explore this perspective. There may be some real value and new insights when we slip into this perspective.

What would the Devil’s Advocate say in your team? What learning and insights can that provide to you?

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 #2404 – Team Building Tip 256: Where Do You Want to Get More Grounded?

7/30/2020

This week’s Weekly Team Building Tip gets you to think about the question: “Where do you want to get more grounded?”. 2020 has been characterized by uncertainty, massive changes and a lot of disruption. What can be really important in these moments is being grounded. Like a piece of bamboo or a flexible pole, while the outward edges may need to flex, our grounding can help keep us anchored.

Getting grounded may involve several different practices. It might entail:

Focusing on our routines.
Taking time each day to reflect on what’s working, and what’s not.
Reflecting on what things to keep and what things to adjust or iterate. As a team this may involve: Regular conversations about priorities, collaboration and also what to say no to.
Practices like meditation, or mindfulness techniques where you become more aware of regular activities.
When working remotely or as a distributed team, focusing in on your practices.

What are the things you want to do to get more grounded? To stay grounded?

Please share with us your favorite resources in the comments below!

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 #2397 – Team Building Tip 255

7/23/2020

This week’s Team Building Question is number 255 in the series. What do you want to say NO to?

Turning away work, or saying no to a project, may provide the space you need in order to focus on your priorities.

A challenge of the remote work space which many have is boundaries. Boundaries around our time, boundaries around availability.

Another challenge of the remote space is that it can be more challenging to identify what’s important. When our team members are scattered and we don’t get to meet them at the water cooler, how do we know what’s important NOW?
As a team, if you haven’t had a conversation recently around what your priorities are collectively and individually, I hope you will use this as a nudge.

As you look at all the things you have on the go, what do you want to say NO to?

Enjoy your 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 #2390 – Team Building Tip 254

7/16/2020

Welcome back to another weekly Thursday question to bring into your team. This week’s question is “What could be collapsed?”

When you think about this question it might take you to thinking about:

What processes could be collapsed so they are more streamlined?
What components could be simplified?
What communication could be made easier?
What elements could be broken down?
When you think of collapsed, what is important to note?

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