Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

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 #2409 – Remote Skill in Focus: FOCUS

8/4/2020

FOCUS is a key skill set for all of us working remotely. It’s not only about our ATTENTION, and what we choose to pay attention, as well as what we train our brains to pay attention to. It’s also about what we prioritize.

What we choose to FOCUS on in the remote space not only has implications for ourselves, but also those we work with. Alignment issues have always been key --- Are we all pulling in the same direction? Is the sequence of our work feeding into each other, or creating gaps of time where nothing gets done?

When we explore the topic of FOCUS several things need to be kept in mind:

The Reticular Activating System is the part of our brain which helps us discern which stimuli we should pay attention to. It really is the part of the brain which helps to sift though all of the data coming at us at one time.
When part of a team, it’s important that we understand the bigger picture of things. We want to make sure that everyone on the team has information about:
- WHY – What is the task or goal?
- WHAT WILL SUCCESS LOOK LIKE – What does a successful end result look like? Without knowing this, we may all be aiming for different things. Instead of creating a 4-page report, I might be thinking we are working on a 40-page report. Be sure to clarify what success will look like.
- WHAT ARE THE ROLES INVOLVED – With bigger tasks and projects, there is likely to be a number of activities and tasks which need to roll into each other. Does the team understand what those roles are? Does the team understand how they each fit together and what the sequence is? Be sure to clarify roles involved and who is doing what. Also consider if everyone is in the right role or if things should be switched up.

With your current projects and tasks for the next month, what’s important to clarify?

Note that CLARITY is one of the 7 Remote Enablers I write about in the Remote Working Whitepaper. Be sure to pick up a copy here.

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 #2394 – Effective Virtual Conversations 159: Remote Leadership Skill- Working Across Differences

7/20/2020

The skill set of “working across differences” has always been an important skill set for those of us working across distance. From time zone differences, to cultural differences, to technical differences, and language differences, there are so many things which make us all unique as part of a remote team.

In order to work across differences, we will want to:

Help people identify and articulate their own strengths and uniqueness
Support the team to see where common ground resides
Support the team to note where gaps exist
Support the team in understanding people’s preferences
Support the team in establishing shared agreements of how they want to work together. These behavioral norms shape our team culture – who we are and how we do things. It’s an important part of understanding what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable on the team.

With this knowledge in mind, and the tasks at hand, note what elements we each need to magnify and what we may also minimize.

As I wrote in June 2016:

There are a variety of differences which show up in teams every day -
from styles to technical skills.

Different approaches can be a source of strength if people are confident and knowledgeable in working across differences.

Some of these are signals that different styles may be at play:

A look of confusion when one team member is speaking
Conflict
Multiple misunderstandings regarding what is being said or what needs to get done

Tips for working across differences:
* Spend time working on the relationship. Know what you uniquely bring, your
strengths, talents and preferences.
* How does this mesh with the collective? How might it not?
* What do others value?
* What adaptations are needed to your approaches?

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 #2384 – Flashback Friday: Teamwork Skills in Complexity – Curiosity

7/10/2020

Welcome back to another Friday where we are focusing on Teamwork Skills in Complexity. This week’s post is all about the skill of Curiosity. To explore it, let’s look back at Teams365 #1596.

Here’s what I wrote:

This month we are exploring what’s required to thrive in today’s ongoing world of complexity. Last week we explored listening, and today we are exploring the skill of curiosity and open-mindedness. Tomorrow, we will be turning our attention to the skill of experimentation.

Curiosity is a critical skill set for today’s ongoing change and complexity, given that many times “we do not know” or have all of the information needed to make decisions or see what is next. This could be because things are changing so fast or it could be because things are unclear on the road ahead. Being able to lead from a place of curiosity or “not knowing” can be liberating when the shift has been made.

One thing that can help us on our voyage of curiosity as a leader is questions. We can use questions to check assumptions, learn from others, and harness the wisdom that exists. Some questions that enable all team members to step into a place of curiosity are:

What’s possible?
What’s one thing we haven’t tried?
What else?
What else can you leverage?
What’s the worst thing that can happen?
What’s another option?
What could you do differently?

In order to cultivate curiosity within our team we can:

Encourage risk taking and mistakes
Support team members in pilots and experimentation
Enable learning across the silos which exist within the business
Expose the team to new areas regularly
Support a growth mindset

What can you do as a team to cultivate curiosity?

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

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAMS365 #2377 – Flashback Friday: Teamwork in Complexity – Experimentation

7/3/2020

This week we take a look back at a post which is probably even more relevant today than it was when I wrote it back in 2017 – Teamwork in Complexity.

What are you noticing about how teamwork is changing in your work in 2020?

What role does experimentation play in helping you be successful?

Take a look at this post:

This month we are exploring the skills required in teamwork, including listening and curiosity. Today I wanted to take a dive into a third skill area, that being the area of experimentation.

Experimentation is key for business leaders and teams today. Many times, the context is changing so quickly that we don’t have time to complete an entire roll-out before having to make a final decision. That can lead to a mindset of experimentation, where it is encouraged to try things out, see what works and what doesn’t.

In supporting experimentation in our team we want to:

Encourage and reward trial and error
Create safety around not getting “things right”
Provide team members with time and resources to experiment, beyond their everyday team responsibilities
Facilitate an evaluation of projects or “Experiments” that are completed or are even at the midpoint

Questions we may ask at project reviews include:

What’s working?
What’s not?
What are the things that need to be abandoned or tweaked?
What additional resources do we need?
What unknown obstacles have become visible?
What is the big learning we are taking?
What is the one thing/ or the many things we are going to do differently going forward?
Who else can we learn from (including our own past projects)?

Enjoy the 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

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAMS365 #2370 – FlashbackFriday – Teamwork Skills In Complexity – Experimentation

6/26/2020

Many of you know that I cohost the Remote Pathways podcast. It was inspired by a writing project I started last year about the Digital Dozen™, twelve different types of remote workers. This writing has been shaped by my own adventures in the remote space over the last three decades.

One of the most important areas I ‘ve seen for teams that thrive in complex and uncertain times is adopting an experimental mindset. This is a topic I wrote about a few years ago in Teams365 #1597 which I thought would be good to return to in today’s Flashback Friday. In fact, at the Remote Pathways Community, we’ve had Experimentation as our Quarterly Theme for 2020. What have you done this quarter to incorporate more experimentation?

Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1597:

This month we are exploring the skills required in teamwork, including listening and curiosity. Today I wanted to take a dive into a third skill area, that being the area of experimentation.

Experimentation is key for business leaders and teams today. Many times, the context is changing so quickly that we don’t have time to complete an entire roll-out before having to make a final decision. That can lead to a mindset of experimentation, where it is encouraged to try things out, see what works and what doesn’t.

In supporting experimentation in our team we want to:

Encourage and reward trial and error
Create safety around not getting “things right”
Provide team members with time and resources to experiment, beyond their everyday team responsibilities
Facilitate an evaluation of projects or “experiments” that are completed or are even at the midpoint

Questions we may ask at project reviews include:

What’s working?
What’s not?
What are the things that need to be abandoned or tweaked?
What additional resources do we need?
What unknown obstacles have become visible?
What is the big learning we are taking?
What is the one thing/ or the many things we are going to do differently going forward?
Who else can we learn from (including our own past projects?

What are you going to do to create more of a focus around experimentation?

Have a great weekend!
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

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAMS365 #2356 – FlashbackFriday: Teams365 #1597: Teamwork Skills in Complexity: Experimentation

6/12/2020

My former world of work involved leading mega-projects in terms of post disaster management support. From coordinating teams of professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds (GIS specialists, architects, civil engineers, health care professionals) to rebuild different components of society (from roads, to land records, educational systems to health care). My work during the 1990s and early 2000s was outside of the norm, I believe, from what many leaders experienced. Flashforward to 2020, where everyone – leaders and team members alike – can benefit from thinking about teamwork and leadership skills to support them in navigating and thriving in complex environments.

Today’s post takes us back to one of several posts from May 2018 where I explored different teamwork skills required for complexity in a series of Teams365 blog posts. From exploring experimentations, to curiosity, problem solving, focus (and think about yesterday’s blog post about the RAS), to listening and synergy.

As part of today’s Flashback Friday post, let’s take a look at one of the skills that I think is probably most important to cultivate and sometimes requires a significant shift in terms of focus and mindset. It’s the skill of experimentation.
How often do you experiment?

Are you encouraged to experiment? Are youencouraged to try things out, even if they don’t work?

Here’s what I wrote, and as you read, consider how experimentation might support your work efforts.

This month we are exploring the skills required in teamwork, including listening and curiosity. Today I wanted to take a dive into a third skill area, that being the area of experimentation.

Experimentation is key for business leaders and teams today. Many times, the context is changing so quickly that we don’t have time to complete an entire roll-out before having to make a final decision. That can lead to a mindset of experimentation, where it is encouraged to try things out, see what works and what doesn’t.

In supporting experimentation in our team we want to:

Encourage and reward trial and error
Create safety around not getting “things right”
Provide team members with time and resources to experiment, beyond their everyday team responsibilities
Facilitate an evaluation of projects or “experiments” that are completed or are even at the midpoint

Questions we may ask at project reviews include:

What’s working?
What’s not?
What are the things that need to be abandoned or tweaked?
What additional resources do we need?
What unknown obstacles have become visible?
What is the big learning we are taking?
What is the one thing/ or the many things we are going to do differently going forward?
Who else can we learn from (including our own past projects)?

Enjoy your reflections!
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.

TEAMS365 #2348 – Team Building Tip 248

6/4/2020

The concept of deliberative practice has gained popularity in recent years, featured in books such as Michael Bungay Stanier’s the Coaching Habit, or in James Clear’s article about Deliberative Practice here.

The notion of deliberative practice is grounded in sport. Just like becoming a pro tennis star or soccer team, it’s critical to get practice and feedback on your actions. With each feedback round we are able to adjust and tweak our skills.

As teams, it takes time and practice to excel. What do you need to do to practice? What are the things which are going to help you hone the skills you need?

What feedback loops exist? What are you able to do to cultivate both positive and constructive feedback?

Enjoy your conversations,
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.

#TEAMS365 #2244 – #Flashback Friday – 5 Ingredients for Successful Collaboration

2/21/2020

With this month’s focus on partnering and working more collaboratively, a key ingredient of remote work, I thought it might be interesting to reach back to one of the Team Leader Breakfast Café Recordings I did a few years ago in 2017. While this isn’t the entire call, here are the five areas I highlighted as Five Key Ingredients for Successful Collaboration. You can listen into the original audio over at Teams365 #1152. Here’s what I shared in that audio:

What we know about great collaboration and great partnering is that a number of essential elements are in place. Typically partnering works best when we have a set of complimentary skills.

When partners are too similar, or teams are too similar we can create a lot of blind spots. We may have great bench strength in certain areas like the ability to execute results or to build relationships. And we may be missing certain skills that are essential, like strategic thinking.

That's great to drive for results, but if we're not clear on why we're driving for those results or if they're the best ones, then we may find ourselves in some challenges.

Another key principle in making collaboration work is making sure that we're leveraging people's strengths. As I have written many times here at the Teams365 blog, the research done by the Gallup organization points to that when teams that have the opportunity to use their strengths on a regular basis they are more productive and members generally have higher quality of life.
If you haven't had a chance to do any strength-based work with your teams, please reach out and contact me to discuss a Team Strengths Day. I use a number of strengths-based assessments in my work as a coach, as a trainer that can be brought into one-on-one conversations or work with your entire team.

The more we know ourselves, know what we're good at, and also know where we might find struggle, helps us be more effective. We can communicate that to others.

Teamwork is just like an orchestra. It’s not about being the best at everything, or even trying to. Teamwork is about making sure that we have the right people on the right instrument in the right seat, leveraging their strengths as best as possible.

As research has shown, it's much easier for us to do well in our strengths and to try to mitigate against our weaknesses.

Back to collaboration –two other factors really make it work well.

The third one is PLAN. Partnerships, great teams, great collaboration don’t just materialize. It happens with some planning. In my several of my books including Effective Virtual Conversations, I share more about the Arc of co-facilitation and some of the questions you can ask when you plan.

And number four, I wanted to mention which intentionality. So, as you go about your teamwork and or developing new partnerships, maybe you've been tasked with leading a new project. Maybe you've been tasked with pulling a group of experts together. Think about questions like how do we blend our skills or what do we each bring to the table?

Also, you want to make sure that you're feeling connected because we know that connection creates safety. Psychologically, if we think we are too different, it's very hard for teams in groups to move forward. So, a question around that might be getting people not to think about what they bring that’s unique, but also what is it that they bring that is similar.

In making teamwork and collaboration work take some time to get to know each other. Ask yourself questions around strengths and what's important, what will success look like for each of you as well as what will success look like for you collectively?

The fifth area I wanted to mention in terms of just getting or making collaboration, partnering really work is to make sure that you have deep levels of trust.

Trust is really the foundation of so many things. If we don't have trust, it's very hard to move into the deeper dialogue to feel that you are being supported, to know that someone has your back. Then in building trust, we want to undertake consistent actions that represent our intentions. We want to make sure that it's in proper alignment with where we're going, and we also want to make sure that we have things like transparency in place as well as feedback loops.

So just to quickly run through these five areas, again, things to think about as you're entering your partnerships, future projects, future collaborations.

Number one, how do we bring complimentary skills to the table?
Number two, what are our strengths and how do we leverage those?
Number three, have we built in enough time for planning related to that?
Number four, how intentional are we being?
And finally, what are our levels of trust?

I hope that you'll check out some of our Teams365 blog posts related to this topic. Some of the most popular posts of months have included the six barriers to collaboration . Also check out making mentoring work virtually. Whether you are partnering with others face to face or in the virtual realm, in the same company or across the globe, these principles hold true.

Interested in learning more or want individual or team coaching support around this? Looking to have a virtual team day facilitated to do some work around strengths? Please reach out to me by email at [email protected] and let’s set up a conversation.

Enjoy your weekend!
Jennifer

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

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!

TEAMS365 #2230 In Focus – Collaboration – A Link Back to Teams365 #1750

2/7/2020

Today I wanted to take you back to #Teams365 #1750 – Teamwork Skill – Partnering, Collaboration and Relationship Building. Check out the original post here.

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” – Theodore Roosevelt

The skills of collaboration, partnering and relationship management are all critical for success in today’s workplace. Whether we work in-person or virtually, being able to build solid relationships with other members of our team, others inside the organization, and potentially external partners and customers/clients is critical for success.

It’s important to be able to build relationships:

Upwards with our boss and other leaders in the organization.
Across with peers in the organization – in other teams and departments.
Downwards with anyone we manage or lead.

Whether we have a formal title of leadership or not, partnering, collaboration and relationship management are all critical skill sets.

One of the biggest adjustments remote team leaders and members face is how to build relationships, and work through others in the virtual space.

Consider your work and what it may look like as a professional in today’s context. Who do you relate with on a regular basis? What value are you providing in the interactions you have? What type of support do they need from you?

We often use the term “collaboration” around in today’s workplace thinking that all tasks and projects need collaboration. As I have written several times, collaboration may be overused at times, employed when individual effort may be best, and under-utilized when a collaborative approach would be best.

Questions to consider when you collaborate or partner with others:

What are the outcomes we are looking for? How will we know we’ve been successful?
Do we need to collaborate, cooperate, collaborate or co-create?
Each one of these requires different risk, input and levels of relationship. To what level do you need to be involved?
What’s important to acknowledge about the impact of collaboration?
When we do collaborate how can I be relied upon? What do others need from me? What do I need from them?
What check-ins will we have along the way to identify what’s working, what adjustments are needed, and what learning we are having?

I hope that you have found it valuable to return back to this former blog post.
Don’t forget to download a copy of the February Calendar. Many of these posts are ones you will want to explore.

Warm wishes,
Jennifer

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

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!