Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2474 – Team Building Tip 265 – Communicate in a Way That Works for You

10/8/2020

Last week I was on a podcast with Coach Beth Bulow, talking about remote work and virtual conversations. We spoke about some of the core tenets of virtual conversations, including touching on this tip which is Team Building Tip 265 – Communicate in a way that works for you.

There are many different options for communication in the remote space, including voice, text, video, apps, email etc. What are the best channels or platforms for the messages you want to communicate? What is the best way to communicate the message you are saying? What is the best channel for each person you are talking with?

Communication in the virtual space can be an art form. It’s easy to make assumptions about how people want to be communicated with when we aren’t together. Consider what you want to do in order to invite team members to share and interact in a way that works for them.

This week have discussion around what preferences you have around receiving and giving communication. Flag areas that need further attention (i.e. finding out that someone never reads texts, or only checks email once a day). Adjust your communication appropriately.

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

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2472 - Another 5 Day Stand Out Virtually Challenge

10/6/2020

This week I am hosting another 5 Day Stand Out Virtually Challenge, this one focusing on supporting organizational or corporate initiatives.

With many organizations realizing that their training, and team development, is going to need to be extended into the virtual realm for the distant future, being able to serve large groups, teams and even entire organizations in engaging virtual conversations focused on boosting relationships and enhancing results.
There are many options for virtual conversations in the corporate space including:

Virtual Retreats (Yes, organizations and teams moving their retreat process online.)
Team Meetings
Team Building Sessions – From escape room experiences to team development, team building is of great need. Prior to the pandemic about 1 in 4 remote teams had virtual team development. Given that teams are often the engines of business, what’s possible in your organization? Contact us to learn more about our team days.
Strategic Planning Sessions – One of my favorites, strategic planning sessions are a must as we move into Q4. Be sure to leave enough time for discussion and working on the plan.
Micro-learning – Short video-based learning modules which people can fit in
Virtual Round-tables – Time dedicated to bringing people together for discussion and dialogue.

What are the different virtual formats you want to explore? What’s going to help teams and groups work more effectively in the virtual space?

Be sure to return back to read tomorrow’s blog post on “The Different Bells and Whistles of Engagement for Zoom Calls”

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

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

TEAMS365 #2460 – Team Building Tip 264

9/24/2020

Last winter I published a white paper entitled the “Remote Working Whitepaper”. It’s been downloaded hundreds of times that I can track. You can pick up a copy here.

In it, I share what I term the 7 C’s or Remote Enablers to Work. The first one is expectations – what are the agreements you are creating as a team? This might include:

Quality of work.
Communication – how much, in what channels, how regularly?
How often you meet.
The process and structure of how you meet.
What is applicable and appropriate to raise at meetings, and what should be funneled elsewhere?

Clarity around expectations creates alignment around goals. What are the conversations you want to have?

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

Join us September 17th for the one-day Stand Out Virtually! STtdio Day Masterclass - Learn more about creating exceptional virtual presentations, meetings and programs, and leave the day with your next one sketched out!

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