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Teams365 Blog

Daily tips, tools and blog posts for leaders and their teams. Daily posts since January 2014. The Teams365 blog is brought to you by Jennifer Britton, founder of Potentials Realized, and author of Effective Group Coaching and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching.

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TEAMS365 #2419 – Flashback Friday: 10 Key Roles Team Leaders Play in Organizational Success…and think about it now virtually

8/14/2020

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This week I wanted to reach back to a post I wrote in 2016, and get you thinking about how it translates to the type of support you are providing your team leaders in the virtual space.

Here’s what I wrote in Teams365  #1026

Earlier this week I was part of a panel discussion on Team and Group Coaching at this week's Columbia University's Coaching Conference. As a coach, when I come into work with teams, team leaders play a key role in creating the conditions for success in building and maintaining a coaching culture. This was a precursor for success in work I undertook last year in developing a coaching culture with The Scarborough Hospital here in the Toronto area. This work just won a PRISM Award for Coaching Excellence from the International Coach Federation Toronto Chapter earlier this week.

While in the thick of things, team leaders sometimes forget the critical role they play for organizational success. Here's ten ways team leaders contribute to organizational success:
1. They translate the organizational objectives, KPIs and vision down into the tactical team realm;
2. They are the conduit for feedback and information up the leadership and organizational ranks;
3. They play a key role in creating a coaching culture (see above);
4. They are often the eyes and ears of what is really being spoken about in an organization;
5. They are the human face of the organization for team members, especially in larger organizations;
6. They are often the link and relationship with external stakeholders;
7. They often get called into be the voice of the organization for customers or clients when things go wrong;
8. They are able to share best practices quickly across their web of peers;
9. They have direct impact on the morale, culture and spirit of the teams they lead;
10. They play the unique middle role of being a conduit up and down the organization. This role is often overlooked by teams and leaders above them alike.

Based on this, what support are you providing right now for your team leaders? How are you involving them in communication and decision making? What development opportunities are they getting.

As you may know here at the Teams365 blog most of our work is geared to supporting teams and team leaders in doing their best work. If have questions about how coaching skills training, or some of our other leadership development programming could be of support, please reach out and let's set up a time to talk.
 
As many of you know virtual programming has been our preferred way of operating since opening our doors in 2004. What can we do to support your virtual and remote teams and/or organization in doing your best work?

With 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
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TEAMS365 #2363 – FlashbackFriday – Five Focus Areas for Team Leaders: Teams365 #2213

6/19/2020

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In this week’s Flashback Friday post, I am reaching back to one of the earlier posts from January 2020 – Five Focus Areas for Team Leaders. In hindsight, with all that we have moved through in recent months, it’s interesting that I chose these five areas back in January. Take a look at think about what you might want to continue to focus on going forward. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 blog post Teams365 #2213.

This week I came across a note I had made myself late last year and never got posted. Having worked to support team leaders for a number of years, I often get asked, “what are some of the key conversations they are having with their teams right now”? Here are five areas team leaders today may be in conversation around:

#1 - Focus - With so much occurring in the workplace today – flavors of the month, shiny red objects, interruptions, course changes, external events, etc…helping our team members focus on what is important RIGHT NOW, today, can be an important message to keep reinforcing. Helping team members with prioritization skills and being able to continue to focus on what’s important without adding to the interruptions and divergence is also key. If you are operating in a team context, the impact of one team member slipping may have a domino effect. What are the things that are going to help with focus?

#2 - Connection - What are the things you can do to help people feel connected? Connected to others in the team? Connected to the resources they need? The information they need? What is important about this topic right now for the team?

#3 - Disruption and Change - Disruption and change is becoming more commonplace across industries. Global events can have local impact. Disruption in a related industry can have a trickle effect. What are you doing to help people understand how they react to change, and also build capability in the areas of strategic thinking and/or contingency planning? Having worked for many decades in the areas of strategic planning, critical thinking and contingency planning, I often take it for granted that people are using these tools. What’s important to explore and have conversation with your team?

#4 - Building Trust - As Stephen Covey wrote - and I paraphrase – “Trust is the currency of business”. What are you doing to build trust, and erode trust? In today’s fast, and sometimes remote, business context, we may only see people in “small windows” of time.  Comments, and reactions, may get magnified. Certain activities or patterns of behaviors might be perceived as the norm. What are you doing to build trust, particularly in terms of creating an environment where people can be heard, and listened to? Where follow through is modeled? Where communication fits the needs of the team? What behaviors are visible?

#5 – What can people on the team do to be able to do their best work? Finally, we know from strengths-based research that when people are able to do their best work and use their strengths, there’s greater productivity, engagement and quality of life. Check out Gallup’s Strengths Center for the latest research on this.

Asking the team what they can do to do their best work, as often as possible can be a great conversation. It may also open up a debate point of “Why can’t I do this all the time?”. While we may not be able to use strengths EVERY DAY and EVERY HOUR on every PROJECT, what can we do to magnify or expand this?

Enjoy the conversations and let us know what you are exploring in your team. 

Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 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, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar
​
PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here. ​
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TEAMS365 #2360 –Back to Remote Team Basics – Core Teamwork Skills: Communication

6/16/2020

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Each week I’m going to be sharing a new remote team basics post. Given that at a lot of teams will not be returning to a full in-person team experience, it can be important to return to the basics of remote teamwork. Today we explore teamwork skills.

In the paradigm shift of remote leadership, all team leaders need to develop capacity with leadership skills such as relationship building, communication, influence, decision making and prioritization. When our work needs to be managed by ourselves and we can’t physically get together, these core skills are really important.

As I wrote back in February in the Remote Working Whitepaper, in addition to these teamwork skills, we also want to make sure we foster the 7 Remote Enablers™, what I also term the 7 Cs to Remote Work™ - Communication, Clarity, Connection, Culture, Consistency, Community and Collaboration.

What are you doing to build these and foster these throughout your teamwork, processes and practices?

Today let’s explore one of the foundational teamwork skills: COMMUNICATION.
Communication in the remote space does illustrate two fundamental principles in remote work those being “things get magnified in the remote space” and “things can be more complex”.

In terms of things being more complex, communication in the remote space happens along many different channels – slack, IM, text, phone, Voxxer, dashboards, email, social channels. It can be dizzying, and exhausting, if boundaries aren’t incorporated. What are the expectations regarding how many channels communication can occur on? How quickly do you need to respond? When are you “on” and when are you off?

Each of us is also likely to have a preference in terms of what we like as our primary and secondary channels, also creating more complexity.

To what level of detail do people on the team require information? High Level? Granular? Big picture? Regardless of level, be sure to connect people into the WHY and what’s important.

To the point of things getting magnified, what do you notice about what does get communicated? What does not? And what becomes noise, when it’s being overly communicated?

Consistency is key around communication, so consider how you are being consistent with core messaging?

As you consider communication this week, what’s important to notice?
​
Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 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, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar
​
PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here. ​
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TEAMS365 #2258 – Flashback Friday – 7 Focus Areas for Team Leaders (from 2017)

3/6/2020

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Over the last few years, there’s been a treasure trove of content built up here. As part of the Flashback Friday series, I like to go back and do a quick share of past posts. This week I am reaching back to a great post from 2017 on 7 Focus Areas for Team Leaders. Ask yourself how much this has changed in the last few years. My guess is they are all still relevant for your work:

Today's blog post focuses on 7 tools for leaders we have covered during 2017. As busy professionals, both team leaders and team members can benefit from having a robust toolkit of tools to pull from. Here are seven that we've focused on throughout the year:

1. Questions - Questions form the backbone to any great conversation. One of the Teams365 videos which has been viewed the most this year is the 20 Coaching Questions video I created from Teams365 #1277. You can view the video here. Subscribe to our Teams365 Leadership YouTube Channel to keep up-to-date with the weekly Teams365 videos I release each Sunday.

​2. Techniques for leading more effective virtual conversations – One-on-ones, virtual meetings, and webinars. With the launch of my newest book this past summer, Effective Virtual Conversations, I started dedicating Monday's Teams365 blog posts to the topic of leading more effective virtual conversations. If you have not checked out the 26-ish weekly posts on these, please do so here.
​Whether it's using more breakouts or asking better questions, virtual meetings and webinars can break the mold of what I call "Death by Conference Call" - the multi-tasking, zoning out mindset. Be sure to also check out the related Community Calls I have hosted this fall as well.

​3. Tools for collaboration - Working across teams, and organizations, and industries is becoming much more the norm for most leaders and team members today. In February, I focused on the topic of Collaboration. Take a look at the top posts from February around the topic of collaboration.
 
4. Strategic planning - Whether strategic in your organization means 36 months or 10 years, planning sessions for teams continued to be very popular in 2017. You will want to check out several of the posts I have included around this topic here at the blog.

​5. Strengths-based teamwork - Almost every month this year I found myself facilitating strengths-based teamwork sessions with teams, both in person and virtually. Whether we explored StrengthsFinder 2.0 or used VIA Strengths, I found these conversations to be extremely vibrant and transformational for teams. Circling back with most of them months later, strengths-based approaches really stuck out for them, and were approaches they could integrate into their everyday work. Contact me to discuss how we can bring a strengths-based teamwork session to your team this next year.
  
6. Feedback - Another area I found most of my team support boiled down to this year was around the areas of feedback. Check out the Teams365 posts on the topic of feedback here. 

7. Difficult Conversations - Going hand in hand with feedback was the topic of having more difficult, or courageous, conversations during 2017.
Check out the Teams365 posts here on this topic.

What are the areas you have been focusing on?

All the best,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
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.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!
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TEAMS365 #2223 – FlashbackFriday: Team Leader Trends – How are they changing?

1/31/2020

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​And here we are at the last day of January! As part of our Flashback Friday post I wanted to take us back to past January posts to see what we were focusing on the last few years. Consider how much has shifted in your workplace.
 
Here’s what I shared in 2016 about 4 Key Team Leader areas for 2016
:


Here are four areas I think will continue to be very important for team leaders in 2016:

1. Virtualization and mobility - Whether we are called upon to lead a virtual team, or our team members become more mobile in their workplaces and workflow, honing skills as a virtual team leader is important. I'll be doing an upcoming series of blog posts on this topic and you can also check out past posts I've written on virtual team leadership here.

Also connected to this topic is the idea of leading meetings and hosting training or development opportunities for your team. Virtual Facilitation is a skill set that is increasingly important for so many team leaders today. I'll be holding the next 15-hour Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive training program online on Thursdays from 12 - 3 pm Eastern/New York from February 4 - March 4th (five weeks of 3-hour blocks). During this 15-hour course you get ample practice and exposure to creating and leading engaging virtual training, meetings and other discussions suing a wide range of platforms including Zoom, Skype, and several of the mainstream platforms. Learn more about the Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive program here and reserve your spot.

2. Continued focus on honing coaching skills - As it is often said "Conversations are the currency of business". Supporting your team and yourself in having better conversations can payoff in dividends. Your skills as coach and as a leader are key, and you may also place a focus on honing peer coaching skills so team members can support each other.

Coaching skills training is one of the mainstays of our business and in the last twelve years we've trained thousands of coaches and leaders in coaching skills. Learn more about the in-person, virtual and e-learning programs we have on coaching skills by contacting us.

3. Supporting team members in working across differences - Workplaces today are incredibly diverse. Whether the diversity exists because you are cross-functional team, a gene rationally diverse team, or a global team spanning multiple cultures, team members can benefit from knowing more about their styles and preferences, how this impacts others positively or negatively, and also how they may want to learn to flex their styles.

We use a number of different assessments in support of developing self-awareness and skills in these areas including the Everything DiSC and the Team Diagnostic Survey for teams, partnered with team coaching.

4. Strengthening Relationships - Just as conversation is the currency of business, business is done through relationships. Whether relationships are virtual or in-person, team leaders will need to continue to navigate a variety of relationships from their team, to their boss, to other peer team leaders, stakeholders etc. I'll be focusing more on relationship management skills in the month of February, and also check out past posts on the topic of relationship management.

Skills in the areas of influence, motivation and negotiation will continue to be important areas to focus on for team leaders.


How are the skills of strengthening relationships, coaching, virtual conversations and supporting team members in working across differences still relevant? Still a priority?

We continue to offer supports in all four areas, particularly for teams which operate virtually or remote. Please contact me and let me know how we can support you.

That’s it for January – I look forward to shifting our attention next month to the topic of Collaboration and Relationships, also continued focus areas of needs.
Coming up tomorrow – our regular month end reflection post – enjoy!

All the best,
Jennifer
​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!
 
As we step into the start 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.

February 2019 programs start early next week including GroupCoachingEssentials (8.75 CCEs), and the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program (8.5 CCEs) - geared to support you in creating more exceptional virtual conversations. Finally the Mentor Coaching Group for Winter 2020 will begin - aimed at coaches who are working towards their ACC, PCC or renewing.
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TEAMS365 #2214 – Team Essential – Building Trust

1/22/2020

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A large part of the conversations I have directly with team or with leaders is around trust. This seems to be one of the most significant issues in organizations today, helping or hindering what gets done.

As we wrap up to the 20 for 20 series, I want to put some further attention around some of the Team Essentials. These are things that we will want to return back to and explore further with those we work with – even if we work remote. In fact, trust can become an even more important issue for those working in the remote space. It’s our trust levels that often go hand in hand with our sense of connection. When working remote, that sense of connection can have significant impact on our motivation, engagement and even ability to show up and do great work, day in and day out. If we don’t trust, or even know, those in our team, it’s hard to collaborate. This will ultimately have an impact on outcomes and results.

What are the different ways we can build trust? I like to go back to the basics. Trust is seen through behaviors we undertake and choose to share. It includes the things that can seem mundane like:
  • Showing up
  • Being prepared
  • Following through on what we say we will
  • Providing feedback (about what’s working, and when its not!)
  • Communicating
  • Inquiring/asking questions

There are several excellent models around trust that teams may want to explore. Two that I have continued to point to include:
  • Reina and Reina’s model around trust – Check out some of their writing here.
  • Stephen Covey’s books around Smart Trust and the Speed of Trust 

​What are the books and resources you recommend around trust? Are there any podcasts or other resources you go-to on a regular basis?

Enjoy the 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 start 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.

Winter 2019 programs start this week including the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (an annual focus on coaching business development), GroupCoachingEssentials (8.75 CCEs), the Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs) and the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program (8.5 CCEs) - geared to support you in creating more exceptional virtual conversations. Finally the Mentor Coaching Group for Winter 2020 will begin - aimed at coaches who are working towards their ACC, PCC or renewing.
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TEAMS365 #2213 –  Five Focus Areas for Team Leaders

1/21/2020

0 Comments

 
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This week I came across a note I had made myself late last year and never got posted. Having worked to support team leaders for a number of years, I often get asked, “what are some of the key conversations they are having with their teams right now”? Here are five areas team leaders today may be in conversation around:

#1 - Focus - With so much occurring in the workplace today – flavors of the month, shiny red objects, interruptions, course changes, external events, etc…helping our team members focus on what is important RIGHT NOW, today, can be an important message to keep reinforcing. Helping team members with prioritization skills and being able to continue to focus on what’s important without adding to the interruptions and divergence is also key. If you are operating in a team context, the impact of one team member slipping may have a domino effect. What are the things that are going to help with focus?

#2 - Connection - What are the things you can do to help people feel connected? Connected to others in the team? Connected to the resources they need? The information they need? What is important about this topic right now for the team?

#3 - Disruption and Change - Disruption and change is becoming more commonplace across industries. Global events can have local impact. Disruption in a related industry can have a trickle effect. What are you doing to help people understand how they react to change, and also build capability in the areas of strategic thinking and/or contingency planning? Having worked for many decades in the areas of strategic planning, critical thinking and contingency planning, I often take it for granted that people are using these tools. What’s important to explore and have conversation with your team?

#4 - Building Trust - As Stephen Covey wrote - and I paraphrase – “Trust is the currency of business”. What are you doing to build trust, and erode trust? In today’s fast, and sometimes remote, business context, we may only see people in “small windows” of time.  Comments, and reactions, may get magnified. Certain activities or patterns of behaviors might be perceived as the norm. What are you doing to build trust, particularly in terms of creating an environment where people can be heard, and listened to? Where follow through is modeled? Where communication fits the needs of the team? What behaviors are visible?

#5 – What can people on the team do to be able to do their best work? Finally, we know from strengths-based research that when people are able to do their best work and use their strengths, there’s greater productivity, engagement and quality of life. Check out Gallup’s Strengths Center for the latest research on this.

Asking the team what they can do to do their best work, as often as possible can be a great conversation. It may also open up a debate point of “Why can’t I do this all the time?”. While we may not be able to use strengths EVERY DAY and EVERY HOUR on every PROJECT, what can we do to magnify or expand this?
Enjoy the conversations and let us know what you are exploring in your team. 

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 start 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.

Winter 2019 programs start this week including the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (an annual focus on coaching business development), GroupCoachingEssentials (8.75 CCEs), the Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs) and the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program (8.5 CCEs) - geared to support you in creating more exceptional virtual conversations. Finally the Mentor Coaching Group for Winter 2020 will begin - aimed at coaches who are working towards their ACC, PCC or renewing.
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TEAMS365 #2173 –  Team Building Tip 266: Pitfall Alert

12/12/2019

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This week’s Team Building Tip gets you to think about different pitfalls which might exist in your work. Proactivity and thinking through what you might do to prevent them, or recover, if you don’t prevent them, can save a lot of time and energy.

Here’s a list of some of the common pitfalls I saw this year in the work that I did with leaders and teams:
  • Team Pitfalls - Disengagement, people disconnecting because they always feel that they are the ones who have to flex (i.e. being the only team member who has to call in early or late all the time), not sharing information, not collaborating because people don’t know who is who.
  • Communication Pitfalls - Messages not being understood as intended, overuse of different technologies, assuming everyone had read the email.
  • Leadership Pitfalls - Not being clear in terms of process, message, outcome, not co-creating expectations with the team, not investing in one-on-one time, not being consistent with messages and meetings, not providing direction/information on the big picture and strategic direction, not being clear on how people connect and not providing time for the team to meet.
  • Technology Pitfalls - Not keeping things simple in the virtual space, getting thrown off by tech challenges, not running through the technology before the conversation, not taking time to prepare, trying to fit too much in and not keeping it simple.
  • Meeting Pitfalls – Not having an agenda, not getting input around the agenda, not rotating facilitation of it, not following up on accountabilities, not being consistent with meeting, not being clear on purpose of meetings.

What other pitfalls have you experienced this year?

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.
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TEAMS365 #2167 –  Flashback Friday: Expectations and CLarification

12/6/2019

0 Comments

 
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This week I am reaching back to one of the original Teams365 blog posts.
 
Here’s what I wrote, which might be an interesting conversation starter as you go through your year-end discussions. Expectations are often at the heart of a high performing team. 

Our final team building tip of the year gets you to think about the expectations which need to be clarified for the team. One of the biggest hindrances to exceptional team performance is lack of clarity around expectations.

Earmarking a focus around clarifying expectations in the new year can pay off in dividends.

Areas you may want to ensure you have clear, and shared, expectations around are:
- What does success look like? For us individually? Collectively as a team?
- What are our start and end times?
- What does quality mean?
- What does being an exceptional team mean?
- What are we committed to creating? What do we need to do in order to get there?
- What do you expect of me as leader this year? What do I expect from you this year?

What other expectations are important for your team to discuss as you get back to work in January?


Enjoy the 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.
0 Comments

TEAMS365 #2137: Navigating VUCA As a Team

11/6/2019

0 Comments

 
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The term VUCA has jumped out of the world of the army, into the everyday lexicon of business. I recently went back to some writing I was doing in 2017, and there it was in the first page of the manuscript!

What is VUCA and why is it important? VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

Let’s break these terms down a bit:

Volatility – In volatility, things are changing, and usually changing rapidly. This might mean that market conditions are changing, regulations are changing, or dollar values are changing. What do you notice about volatility in your context?

Uncertainty takes many forms. From not knowing what’s around the corner, to not knowing what’s needed, uncertainty can paralyze teams. Becoming comfortable in operating without a lot of certainty is often takes a different mindset. It may also mean that we become “comfortable with the uncomfortable” and learn to make decisions based on the information which is available (and may not be comprehensive or may change).

Complexity is one of the biggest challenges to leaders and teams today. This may mean we need a variety of skills from across disciplines and/or a wider understanding of more things. Helping to simplify what we can, can offer an antidote to complexity.

Ambiguity occurs when things are not clear. This may be due to things changing regularly OR due to the complexity. What can you do to become more discerning, see the patterns which exist, or break things down into more discrete pieces?

In supporting teams and leaders in organizations today, four things we can do in support of operating at our peak in a VUCA environment:

#1 – Create consistency around process. With so much change around a team, consistency is key to success. Consistency can take several forms on teams including consistent meetings, consistent check-ins, regular one-on-one coaching sessions, regular reporting. Revisit these on a regular basis as contexts may change – what frequency is needed?

As a team discuss what does consistency mean? What’s important to you?

#2 – Connect people with the bigger picture. While the details may change (and do!) the bigger picture – where we are going, what’s important to us, what we are aiming for – is likely to stay more stable. Vision and mission create an anchor. They also provide an important marker when things do change.

#3 – Keep it simple. A VUCA context can paralyse and overwhelm. Keeping things simple does not mean simplifying. It means emphasizing what is core. Consider questions like “What’s essential? vs. What’s a nice to have?” OR “What are the three bullet points to emphasize?”. Help team members discern any patterns within what might appear chaotic.

#4 – Connect people with others. Part of ongoing change means that we often don’t know what or who we need down the road. Connecting members of the team with others supports them in knowing who they can reach out to, or where they can go for support. Connections may include both internal and external stakeholders.
​
For more on the topic of VUCA, check out these other Teams365 posts:
  • Teams365 1770: VIDEO – Six Ingredients for Teams in Today’s VUCA World (2 min)
  • Teams365 #1611: Teamwork in Complexity – Focus and Renewal 

Enjoy!
​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)
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
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. 
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    Jennifer Britton - Known for her writing and work in the areas of remote and virtual teamwork, leadership, team and group coaching, Jenn is the founder of Potentials Realized, and a former team leader with global organizations including the UN. She is passionate about helping teams and organizations to do their best work. Potentials Realized is a performance improvement company providing training, coaching and facilitation services. We specialize in support to virtual teams, remote work, and virtual facilitation, in addition to our award-winning coaching  and program design services.

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