​It’s Sunday and time to borrow from the PlanDoTrack blog. Earlier this week I shared this week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip around honing listening. I recently shared this blog post over at the PlanDoTrack site. 

Here’s what I wrote about listening for Virtual and Remote Teams:
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Last week I focused on the first of three coaching skills which can be important to equip all virtual and remote team members with. While these are often considered “coaching skills for leaders” in the virtual and remote environment, building this capacity in our virtual team can enhance productivity, peer support and results.
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Last week I explored GOALS. This week let us look at listening.
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Communication occurs in many channels in the virtual space – from conversations by phone, to texts, to email and IM (Instant Messaging).

Each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

Research shows that a significant portion of our understanding comes from tone, which is lost when we lean into digital channels of communication – text, email and IM. This can lead to a lot of misunderstandings, misinterpretations and lack of clarity.

Our listening can be heavily influenced by a number of factors:

• Distractions (what we have on our plate, not reading things fully)
• Our relationship with the sender (what do we know about their context, their intent, their focus and priorities)
• Our understanding of the topic
• Thinking about what we want to say, rather than listening for what is really being said

When we are able to meet for voice conversations, we may hear the tone, if we are listening for it. Adding on visual cues – like streaming for a meeting instead of just using the phone – can add additional layers on to the conversation. Being able to share our screen and work together real-time can also help us understand the full context.

What are the things that are helping and hindering your virtual conversations?
Are distractions getting in the way? How are you using all the tools you have available?  What are you doing to increase your understanding of other’s context and priorities?

There are many more tools and ideas available for virtual teams in these various resources from me:

• Part 3 of my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, focuses on virtual team development, meetings and communication. 
• Check out the posts related to Coaching Skills and Virtual and Remote Teams over at the Teams365 blog.

Let me know how I can support your virtual team development. From virtual retreat facilitation, to offering virtual team coaching services, we specialize in virtual team support.  

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.

Welcome back to another Monday Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s tip focuses into the skill of listening.

As both leaders and team members listening is a critical skill, particularly in the virtual space. It is important for all of us - leaders, entrepreneurs, individual contributors and team members.

Keys to listening in the virtual and remote space are to ensure that we are:

• Focusing – Focusing 100% of our attention on the person who is speaking – not using other devices or focusing on other things.
• Listening to the tone as well as the words. If you are streaming, what do you notice about the body language?
• Listening for the pause points – What does their speed and rate of pitch say? How quickly or slowly are they speaking.

Finally, do you fall into one of the biggest pitfalls of listening today? We want to make sure that we are listening for what is really being said, rather than listening to respond. One of the greatest challenges for most professionals today is that they are so focused on figuring out what they plan to say, that they really are not listening to what is being said. What are you listening for?

I recently came across a great article by Ben Gross on the importance of listening. Here's a link to his article on listening.

It is often said that employees leave managers, not companies. What can you do to boost your listening skills? What did you notice about your last conversation?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

​This month’s theme is about teamwork in complexity. One of the more complex areas can be the virtual and remote space. Let’s look at mistakes made by new and experienced virtual and remote team leaders.
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I also thought it would be interesting to reach back to a skill-based post as well. Here’s what I wrote about virtual and remote leadership skills:

Today we reach the W in the A-Z of Virtual and Remote Team Leadership. As virtual and remote team leaders, having a wealth of skills and experiences to draw on can be invaluable.  Given the need to lead across distance and ever-changing contexts it can be useful to have a broad base of skills to draw up on. Many of us are Jacks or Jills of all trades. The ability to lead confidently in uncertainty and across issues we are often unfamiliar with is key. Our ability to empower our team members to take the lead and advise on issues is also critical.

​Questions to Consider:

• ​When you think of your skill base as a team leader, what broad skills do you bring really help you lead effectively?
• What new skills would you like to add to the table?
• ​What experiences add to your mix?
• ​What new leadership experiences would help you round out your style?

https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-850-virtual-and-remote-team-leadership-w-is-for

I also wanted to remind you of some of the more common mistakes new and experienced virtual and remote team leaders make:

Today’s post explores common mistakes virtual and remote team leaders can make. In this post we are going to look at five different ones.

1. Not enough 1-1's – As I have said many times, being out of sight is not the same as being out of mind. Not spending enough time in one-on-ones can be detrimental to the levels of trust team members feel, the connection they feel with others, which will have an impact on levels of engagement. What is an appropriate frequency of meeting time with team members? What does it look like – phone calls, video streaming, onsite visits, or bringing staff into the office regularly?
2. Not learning on your feet – Part of being an effective virtual and remote team leader is your ability to be shifting, learning and adapting. Given that there is much less levels of control and greater span, the ability to learn on your feet and expecting this rather than feeling you will have all the answers, can make a big difference with team members.
3. Not being clear with goals – Goals can be a little different with virtual and remote teams. Whether people are matrixed and reporting into different areas, or whether goals can become competitive, providing opportunities to be clear with goals is important.
4. Not helping people connect with the bigger picture – Because virtual and remote team members are working with different levels of autonomy and independently, helping team members connect with the bigger picture is essential. This could include helping them understand more about corporate and departmental goals, giving them more access to strategic or corporate plans, and making goals and achievements more visible. Making goals more visible might include making the reporting structures more shared and visually appealing, or mapping out team goals on a weekly basis or other.
5. Not providing team members with the necessary responsibility and authority – A final mistake virtual and remote team leaders can make is not providing the necessary responsibility and authority to their team members so they can make the decisions they need to autonomously.

https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-1177-common-mistakes-made-by-virtual-and-remote-team-leaders

What can you do to avoid these common mistakes?

Pick up a copy of the entire A-Z series at the Potentials Realized Store here. It’s a downloadable ebook format for $19 US.

All the best,
Jennifer

Welcome back to another Sunday post here at the Teams365 blog.

Today there are two items I wanted to share with you:

#1 – The latest installment of the #90DaysPlanDoTrack Video Montage. These are a summary of some of the daily question prompts I have shared over at the CoachingBizBuilder Instagram feed. They will be of interest to business owners, leaders and other team members.
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#2 – I also wanted to share another post from the vault here at the Teams365 blog. Given our focus this month on Teamwork in uncertainty, you’ll also want to think about how prioritization can be a skill cultivated with all team members. Whether the team is working remote or in person, when things are changing quickly being able to prioritize work and ask questions to others to prioritize is also a key skill.

Here’s a post I wrote last year on Prioritization and Teamwork in Complexity – Teams365 #1610
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Prioritization is a skill set we draw upon regularly in times of complexity. Prioritization allows all team members to regularly scan and manage their workload.

Key to prioritization is:

• Having the tools to prioritize
• Feeling empowered to make decisions and take responsibility for managing workload
• Understanding what is most important – to the different players of the team, as well as the different time frames you are working on (short term, medium term)

In past Teams365 posts I’ve explored a range of prioritization skills including the Urgent/Important Matrix (we often attribute to Covey), as well as a Decision Matrix where we weight what’s important in making our decisions
 
For more on the topic of prioritization, check out these additional resources:

• This excellent article from MindTools.com - which has an incredible amount of other resources team members and leaders will also want to check out.
• LiquidPlanner.com's article on How to Prioritize Work When Everything Is #1 - Read it here.
• For those that are looking at prioritization through the lens of product design, you'll want to take  a look at this excellent article 20 Product Prioritization Techniques.

​Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Jennifer

This week’s Team Building question gets you to consider the question “What relationship items need attention?”.

Even in a virtual space, relationships are key to business success.

As a team, it is important to spend some time focusing on:

• Getting to know our team
• Understanding who they are, what they value and what their priorities are
• Understanding how we can support them better

I hope that you will bring this question into your next team meeting so that you can hear from the team about what is needed.

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 an digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

This week’s Team Building Tip #230 is “This year, we will lead from…"
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As a team there are many things you might want to lead from. This includes:

• Practices
• Values
• Behaviors

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Consider what you want to lead from as a team.
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These weekly Team Building Tips are intended to get you thinking as a team and in dialogue around what’s important.

Take a look at other past Team Building Tips here.

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

It is the weekend and time for another audio post. Today's post looks at 5 Barriers to Collaborative Leadership Styles, or things that get in the way in terms of our approach to leadership. A great resource on this topic is Morten Henson's book, Collaboration, which goes much deeper into the topic of good and bad collaboration.

Enjoy this weekend's quick audio (6 min 30 sec)!

Yesterday we looked at five pitfalls for virtual facilitators. Ranging from tech challenges, to one participant not being able to get on the calls, to group members not hearing you, I also provided a couple of very practical tips around how to mitigate when these pitfalls happen. In the virtual realm it can be best to operate with the premise that pitfalls probably will occur so you can be proactive.

Today's post includes five more pitfalls and what you might consider doing if they happen. These have been taken from my Group Coaching Ins and Outs blog, where I have been blogging on group prgoram issues (coaching, retreats, and facilitation since 2005. Click on over for lots more posts on this topic!

Pitfall #6 - Technology Breaks down – Check out the services you are using and have a back up. Make sure your connection works from your landline and mobile (and voip). Sometimes there can be a difference as to what you can access and where. Know how to complete quick items like record, mute, unmute, raise hands, chat or work a white board. Practice is usually the only way to master these.

Pitfall #7 - No on, or fewer than registered, shows – Rescheduling can become a slippery slope.  Whether you have 4 people on the call or 40 people on the call, consider how your virtual program (or components of it) can be packaged for future benefit. How will  you record the call? What changes might need to be made to the process and approach? It is likely that people will be running late. A best practice is always to start and end on time, given that people are likely to be calling in at different times of their days. As a facilitation team consider how you are handling missed attendees and last minute cancellations.

Pitfall #8 - Low energy: Virtual programs can be challenging for new facilitators in terms of the energy and feedback you receive. If you are using only a phone based system, other than enabling people to raise their hands in response, or signal on their keypad their agreement, it may feel like you are talking into a black hole. Your energy is imperative in keeping the flow going.  Remember too that it is critical to engage your group members every 5-7 minutes. Without involvement and engagement it is challenging for anyone to continue to focus, let alone participate.

Pitfall # 9 - Lack of connection felt by the group - It is surprising how facilitators overlook how important it is to build connection amongst group members. Connection is an essential ingredient for group coaching, and is an important foundation even with a telesemianr or teleclass which may be more content focused. Engagement levels will be impacted if group members do not feel connected with the host and/or others.

Solution: Consider how you can build connection (as appropriate) amongst group members. If it is an extended program are you giving air time for everyone to speak? Are you encouaging that people send out a bio/photo between calls? For one-off engagements are you posing questions to the group which they can respond to verbally, by email/chat or by using their key pad?

Pitfall #10 - The multi-tasking mindset -  The multi-tasking mindset can be common place for many of us. What can you do to capture people's attention and keep it focused.

Solution: Consider these questions: Are you making a request for people to disconnect from other technologies? Are you changing the pace frequently (ie. every 5-7 or 10 min)? Are you creating opportunities for individuals to pause and engage at their desk? What engagement strategies are you employing? Check out Teams365 #967 for Four Tips for Keeping Virtual Events More Engaging.

What other pitfalls are you concerned about? Let me know and I'll feature it in a future blog post.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Check out our newest on-demand course: Teams365 Teamwork Foundations
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Join us this fall for a 15 hour Virtual Train-the-trainer in the Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive program. We'll be covering the best practices of designing and leading virtual calls. The program will be held on Fridays from 3 - 4:30 pm ET starting September 23. Click here to learn more and reserve your spot.

We're back tracking today to New Team Leader Foundations tip #7 - Take stock of  your skills and knowledge. What else do you need to learn right now. Earlier this week I talked about the importance of the role of a mentor. He or she can also provide valuable insights around what skills are needed.

The shift to team leadership from team member or individual contributor is often seen as the largest shift in leadership given that for many it is the first leadership role they have undertaken.

Much of the training work, and coaching work, we do at Potentials Realized supports new and experienced leaders in the realm of leadership development. Some of the key skill areas for leaders are:

Self-leadership skills - knowledge of self, presence, self-management

Relationship building skills including influence, working with others, relationship building, managing up etc

Technical leadership skills -these are the areas many of us are already good with

Team Leadership Skills - Communication, Delegation, Motivation, Coaching etc.

If you've been following the Teams365 blog for a while, chances are you've developed an affinity for some of our series covering many of these skills. Please check the tags listing on the right.

What are the skills you want to be focusing on developing the rest of this year?

Best
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Looking for more tips and ideas to support you in your work as a leader? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, full of tips, resources and hacks for leaders and team members looking to realize their potential. Sign up at http://bit.ly/teams365news
Phone: (416)996-8326

Accountability in today’s environment means many things. In some organizational cultures the word is shunned, whereas in others it is held up on a  pedestal as something to aspire to.

Accountability can be influenced by many things including the culture of the organization, how it is modelled at all levels, and how organizations hold the space for accountability.

What does accountability mean in your organization? How is it modelled? When you think of it being modelled positively, what comes to mind?
Accountability within teams occurs at several levels, the individual, team, department and organizational. It is possible to have a team with a strong accountability culture within a weak organizational accountability environment.

There are a number of things we can do in fostering greater accountability including:

• Having it modelled at all levels of the organization, especially at senior leadership levels. Accountability involves demonstrating respect, follow through and ownership for things that are going well, and not going well.
• Encouraging feedback – genuinely. If a feedback loop is not encouraged/modelled it is difficult to grow a culture of accountability. When everything is “fine” and no one is addressing the elephant in the room, it’s hard to start building a culture of accountability.
• Being responsible, and taking responsibility – How often is the “passing the buck” behavior happening? If a culture of this sort has developed, how do you break the habit?
• Walking your talk – if you say you are going to follow up, do it! Otherwise, it just becomes lip-service.
• Making sure that performance measures and goals are clear. If people don’t know what is expected, performance is not going to measure up.
• Be clear on roles and connectivity. Who is responsible for what? If person A does not get something done, what is the impact? What is appropriate for person B to do if person A does not complete?

Over the next few days I’ll be looking at accountability as a follow on to the Foundations of Goals we just wrapped up.

​Have a great Friday,
Jennifer
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Jennifer Britton
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Join us this summer for a Teams365 Coaching Group
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365


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