It’s likely that this month your team is coming back together after months where not everyone may not have been around. September is an important time to get back to routines and habits, as well as creating new ones that may work better. Consider what you are doing (as a team, and as a professional) around these key areas:
Meetings – with meetings taking upwards of 40% of professionals times, what are the ESSENTIAL meetings to schedule this month? What can be deferred? Which ones do you need to negotiate your presence at? Where do you need to be, where you are not already? What’s going to make your meetings more effective?
Coaching Conversations – “Coaching is a conversation with intent” is what I wrote back in 2013 in my book “From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching”. What are the focused conversations you want to have an on a REGULAR basis this fall? What needs, and warrants, attention? What type of conversations are going to support different team members?
Email and Communication – What’s working with communication right now? What’s not? What can be streamlined (think email)? What are people’s preferences?
FOCUS – What are the interruptions that are pulling you off course? As you think about the last few months, what’s helped with your focus? What’s hindered? In today’s workspace focus is at a premium. What are the pockets where you can create more focus to get the important things done?
Renewal – The field of high performance sport shows that renewal is just as important as running. What are you doing to build in times for FOCUS and Renewal?
 
Best
Jennifer

Over the last few months one of our main series has been the Team Development Activities A - z series where I covered twenty six short activities you can bring into your own team development work. Whether you have 15 min at a team meeting or are looking for something to do virtually, these 26 activities are quick and can spark a good conversation. Last week I included links to the first 13 posts A - L. Today I'm including links to the last 13 - M through Z. Enjoy!



​Teams365 #1084: M is for Metaphor - check out this post here
Teams365 #1085 - N is for What's in Your Nature - Strengths and Styles - a favorite part of my work is in this area with teams and leaders. Check out this video post here.
​Teams65 #1086 - O is for Options and Opportunities. Check out this post here.
​Teams365 #1099: P is for Problem Solving, Priorities, Positivity and Productivity. Check out this post here
Teams365 #1101 - Q is for Questions. Check out the post here.
​Teams365 #1102 - R is for Results and Relationships. Check out the post here.
​Teams365 #1106 - Si for Strengths. Check out this post here.
​Teams365 #1107 T is for Trust. Check out this post here.
​Teams365 #1108 U is for Unique. Check out this post here.
​Teams365 #1113: V is for Vision. Check out an activity to work around vision here.
​Teams365 #1114: W is for Wheel. Check out an activity here.
​Teams365 #1119: X is for X-Cel. Check out this post here
​Teams365 #1120: Y is for Yesable. Check out his post here.
​Teams365 #1121: Z is for Zooming in. Check out this post here.

​I hope that you enjoyed this series and will be using some of these activities in your own upcoming team conversations. Please take a moment and let me know what series you'd like us to focus on next.

​Have a great start to your week,
​Jennifer

I wanted to return back to doing some audio posts here at the TEams365 blog. Today's audio post includes Four Team Coaching Opportunities. Please listen into this short 10 minute audio which explores four opportunities for considering a team coaching approach.

Enjoy listening in!

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326
Contact us by email to set up a time to discuss your coaching needs

Many different activities get labelled coaching in today’ environment. Today’s post shares four foundations of the coaching approach. Whether we are coaching others as leaders, or work a an external or internal coach, these four foundations ground the variety of approaches which fall in the category of coaching.

1. Accountability – accountability is at the core of any coaching process. Coaching is not just about having a conversation, it is about taking action. Coaching is an approach where the person being coached is responsible for taking action. Accountability in coaching does not mean telling someone what to do.  If the person being coached does not want to be in the drivers seat than coaching as a modality is probably not the right fit or solution for that conversation.

2. Goals – Coaching is about getting results. Each coaching conversation will focus on a goal – articulated or not. Perhaps someone wants to become a better public speaker or more effective at managing their range of emotions at work. In coaching,  It can be good practice to start the conversation by asking what the goals are for the coaching conversation. You’ll want to also connect these goals with the goals in the bigger picture. Finally, best practice is to wrap up by asking how did we do on our goals today.

3. Coaching is not about fixing. There often is a misperception that coaching is to “fix people’ or a remedial approach. In fact, the coaching philosophy is grounded in the ability of each person being coached as being resourceful (able to effect change), and  creative (able to come up with their own solutions). The role of the coach is to help the person being coached discover these answers or connect with others who can help them do that. Most coaching models are grounded in an appreciative standpoint.

4.  Coaching is not a one off conversation. Coaching is not about a one-off conversation. If supports a process of change which takes placer over time. The ability for the coach (internal, eternal or leader ) to circle back and check in is critical.

While there can be many different models of coaching, and different contests (i.e. individual coaching, team coaching, group coaching) most all are rounded in these coaching philosophies. If not, what is probably being  labelled coaching, might not be. For more information check out the International Coach Federation, the global body governing professional coaching. You can find them at www.coachfederation.org.

Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326
Contact us by email to set up a time to discuss your coaching needs

Today's quote comes from All In, a book by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, which we included on the Essential Leadership Reads list a few weeks ago.

High performing teams are ones who know their differences and are able to effectively work across these differences. What research continues to show is that teams who bring complimentary strengths are stronger.

Throughout the year I've been pointing to various assessments, resources and tools which will help you as a team dialogue around what makes you unique - as individuals and as a team. Some of the ones I have spotlighted since the beginning of the year are:

StrengthsFinder 2.0  - read more about what I have written about strengths this year here.
VIA Strengths - click here for more info
Everything DiSC  - click here fore more info
Five Behaviors of A Cohesive Team - Click here for more info

Regardless of what resource you use to identify what makes you unique, it's important to have dialogue to notice where the overlap is, where the gaps are, and how you as a team want to work across differences.  An essential part of the team building and/or team coaching process is about identifying how the team is unique and what roles each team member can play.

Questions to consider:
What does each team member uniquely bring to the team?
What are the differences which exist? How does this help you? Hinder you?
What gaps exist?
What do you need more of  on this team?

Interested in exploring your team strengths and/or styles more? Contact me to discuss what this could look like through a retreat or team coaching process.

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized - Leadership | Teamwork | Coaching Skills Training for Leaders
Supporting Team Leaders One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss how we can work with you to create an excptional team or organizational retreat, or how you can work better across differences with the Everything DiSC
(416)996-8326

Earlier this week I was interviewed by Mulling at Work which aired on Atlanta's 1160 Newstalk on Monday June 23rd.

During the show I speak about teams, coaching and team leadership. You can listen into the 45 minute radio interview here (click this link to listen in to the June23rd episode).

What is your favorite idea? Please feel free to comment below.

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC
Potentials Realized
Coaching for Team Leaders
(416)996-TEAM

 Unfortunately not every team flourishes all the time. Many teams today fall into very toxic team behaviors. Today’s cartoon is the sixth in our Teams365 series and illustrates a very common toxic behavior pattern - the water cooler talk. Does this happen at your organization? Chances are, it does.

The somewhat innocuous water cooler talk can turn into behavior which  erodes trust amongst team members. Trust is a foundational per-cursor to highly effective teams.

Last week I delivered a presentation on Trust and Cohesive Teams to the Women in Capital Markets Sharpen Your Skills Series. We shared dialogue around more than a dozen behaviors that build trust. A post later this week will explore some of these twelve behaviors that build trust individually within teams as well as collectively.

As you look at today’s cartoon, how is this similar to what happens in your organization? What needs to be made more transparent in your team/organization?

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized  - Leadership, Teamwork and Retreats
Join us for the next Stepping Into Your Team Leadership Capacity Group  - starting July 14th Mondays 8:15 - 9:15 am ET by phone - running to November 2014
Phone: (416)996-TEAM

Silos are common place in so many organizations today. Some argue that strengthening teams may in fact create even more silos.

Healthy organizations have strong team identity as well as strong cross-team relationships. This is where my work as both a group and team coach is often positioned in organizations. Group coaching creates an opportunity for dialogue across an organization, and the silos which exist, and team coaching, helps to strengthen both the team relationships and results.

Question to consider:
What silos currently exist in your organization?
How are they detrimental?
Are there any benefits to silos?

With best wishes,
Jennifer


Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in getting your best results through coaching, training or a retreat program
(416)996-TEAM (8326)