As a professional coach, I’ve spent tens of thousands of hours in coaching conversations since I opened the doors of Potentials Realized in April 2004. I’ve also led thousands of hours of coaching skills training with professional coaches, as well as leaders. Over all that time, two of the skills which I think are invaluable regardless off whether you are wearing the hat of coach is LISTENING and QUESTIONING. In yesterday’s post, I flagged these as two critical skills for making remote relationships work. Today’s blog post is dedicated to focus in on these two skills.

Let’s look at each one in turn:

Listening – Listening is a skill set that is under-developed for many professionals today.

A challenge in the remote space is we may (or may not) have visual cues of listening. Some researchers assert that upwards of 55% of our message comes from the visual cues of body language (i.e. how someone is standing, if they are smiling, or what their eyes are saying). In the remote space, we may not see the other person, and even if we are streaming, we may only see one part of their body in a more artificial or plastique way). 

Often, we are thinking about what the point we want to get across, rather than truly listening for what the other person is saying.

In the remote space, what are you listening for? What are you noticing about the word choice? What are you noticing about the energy of the conversation? The pace of the conversation? What are the word choices you are hearing?

What we pick up when we listen is also likely to influence our word choice and how we adjust our speaking with others. There is a scientific term called mimicry. In intimate relationships like a mother and a child, safety and connection is created by a mirroring of pace, sound, even gestures. What are you doing to create that safety and connection? Be sure to check out my January post on these topics if you haven’t looked at them yet.

Questions – Questions are key to powerful communication in the remote space. What do you notice about how you ask questions? Are they clear?

Some general guidelines:

Ask one question at a time – If we ask several questions at one time, it may confuse the person we are speaking with.  As I like to say as a mentor coach – watch for stacking – or when you ask two questions at once.

Watch where your questions go – Are they open? Short? If we start questions with a WHAT they are usually the most open ended. Questions that start with WHY may activate some defensiveness. Notice what happens next time you ask a why question in the remote space where you can see each other. Unless there are high levels of trust, you may find the person raises their shoulders and their tone of voice changes.

Provide a pause before jumping in with your question – Let the other person finish, and hopefully breathe, before you ask your question.

This week zoom into what you notice about your listening and questioning in upcoming conversations. What do you notice?
​
Enjoy!
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!

Yesterday we explored some of the key ingredients for helping teams thrive in the remote space. Given that many team members in the remote space are likely to be part of several matrix teams, it’s good practice to have them identify what is important to them.

Some of the additional ingredients teams require in working remote are:

• Understanding around how their roles work together
• Clarity around what they need to do
• Resourcing required
• Knowledge of, and connection with, the people who can support them in getting things done
• Knowledge of who is who on the team, who they can go to for what, and how their work interfaces or connects in with others
• Focused time to work on getting to know their team members, and build trust (check out the past Teams365 posts on building Trust)
• Authority to complete the work that they have been tasked with
• Feedback around what is working, and what is not with their actions

What are the things which you see as being important to ensure for your team members?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Put a bunch of people together and think that they will become a team immediately? Think again! Teams don’t just become exceptional overnight, especially if they are in the remote space.

With remote work becoming more common place today, it’s key that we start spending more time exploring what it means to be an exceptional team in the virtual space.

As I shared in Effective Virtual Conversations, “High-performing teams – in both the virtual and in-person realm – don’t just happen. They require work, focus and support. Whether it’s training, coaching, or mentoring, virtual team leaders and virtual team members benefit from focus.”  (Britton, 2017, pg 348).
Today’s and tomorrow’s posts are going to explore what can set a virtual or remote team up for success. Just as I do in Effective Virtual Conversations, let’s return back to the basics with what helps teams excel. If you have followed along here at the Teams365 blog for a while, you will know that I often refer to the foundational elements of team development as the Six Factors. Here’s a reminder of what those are again:

#TEAMS365 #1920: Team Development: Revisiting the Six Factors

This month's theme here at the Teams365 blog is Team Springboards. Where do you start the conversation about how the team is doing?

​​One of the frameworks I continue to share with teams is what I call the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. These are six things that teams need in order to excel. The ingredients come from the research of professionals including: Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams), Hackman and Wageman (A Theory of Team Coaching) and others.

As you step into the new month, as a team you’ll take the pulse of where you are on a scale of 1- 10 in each of these six areas:

1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)
What is your purpose? Your mission? Why do you exist? Does everyone hold the same understanding? What does this mean practically for your work? What priorities does your purpose or mission naturally create?

2. Shared behavioral norms
How do you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team? What behaviors and habits exist? Which ones are supportive of exceptional performance? Which ones aren't?

3. Shared commitment
What are team members committed to? What will you get done, no matter what? Is there anything that needs to be dropped off the list?

4. Shared performance goals
What are key goals for the team this year? What are key individual goals? How do your goals align? Overlap? What does success look like for each member? For the entire team? Does everyone have an understanding of the key goals of others on the team and how they feed into them?

5. Shared team practices
Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event. What practices support your relationships?

6. Clear Roles
How do our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities?
 
Prefer to listen to an audio – check out this 2014 Team Leader Breakfast call I hosted or view it as a video here.

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 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.
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. ​

Today’s blog post continues this month’s focus on remote work myths and pitfalls. Today’s myth is a common pitfall – “out of sight equals out of mind”. In fact, both research and practice have shown the need for more consistent and frequent communication to keep things moving on remote teams.

​This can be accomplished via a number of avenues including:

• Creating opportunities for peers to connect on a regular basis. This might include more formal activities, or it might include more informal events like virtual potlucks or co-working sessions. In a remote team, focus should be made on providing regular peer connections.
• Consistent meeting times for the team. It can be a very slippery slope when remote teams try to find a time when everyone is available. This may never happen! Get into the practice of establishing a set time so everyone can start adjusting their schedule to meet this. For those that are not there, have peer partners provide an update and/or check in.
• Put attention on team development for the team. It’s often assumed that remote teams don’t need a focus, however, if we treat everyone as separate bubbles, it’s really hard for people to feel part of a bigger entity. Research in the last few years has found that only about 1 in 4 remote teams do put a focus on team development. Going back to the basics around team effectiveness, teamwork skills and building a team identity can go a long way. AND it can be done virtually as well!
• Build a strong team identity. Team culture is key in remote team success. It helps with connection and alignment. Check out past posts I’ve written on team culture and team identity in the last few months.

Ensuring regular one-on-ones with staff. Be sure to check out past Teams365 blog posts for more on hosting 1-1 calls, and questions you might ask. 

What’s going to support your team from not feeling “out of sight and mind”.

Enjoy your conversations,
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.
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. ​

Exceptional results usually don’t “just happen”, they require practice. For teams this holds true. Teamwork practice can include skill development in areas including conflict, communication (listening, questioning, working across differences). It can also include scenario-based learning (what would we do if x happened?).

While some teams might think that practice is not for them, others may recognize that practice is essential for exceptional performance. When stakes are high, lives may be impacted by failure, it’s key to get it right.

Practice also helps us with alignment, and development shared mental models. It’s these shared mental models that help us move in similar directions when faced with a situation, even if we are in different continents, or in different roles.

As a team, where could practice benefit you?

What do you as a team need to do practice more?

Best,
​Jennifer

We operate in an era of disruption. Whether it’s the presence of our phones (and not even just looking at it!), or whether it’s being pulled by multiple partners and stakeholders in the workplace, this week’s theme gets you to consider the question:

• What’s not in focus?
• What are the things you have not been paying attention to?
• What are the things that are not clear?
• What’s still hazy?
• Who can help you by providing focus, or providing support so you can shift your attention and focus?

Attention and focus are prized possessions (and skills) in today’s work space. What’s going to help you widen your gaze at times so that you can notice what you are focusing on, and what you are not. So that you can determine that what you are focusing on, really is the thing that does need focus?

Enjoy your team conversation this week around the question of “What’s not in focus?”. It may be interesting to notice what perspective gets shared from each team member!
​
Warm regards,
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 we explored the topic of Teamwork in Uncertainty. From looking at the statistics of readers, it seems like it was a very resonant topic for those who visited the Teams365 blog this month. If you haven’t taken a look at this month’s posts, please be sure to check out:

1968 – Tuesday May 21: Teamwork in Uncertainty – Pivot
1969 – Wednesday May 22: Teamwork in Uncertainty  - Comfort with the Unknown
1974 –– Tuesday May 28: Teamwork in Uncertainty – Strengths and Go-Tos
1975 – Wednesday May 29: Teamwork in Uncertainty – Synergies

As we step into the end of May, I thought it would be useful to reach back to one of the posts from last May on Prioritization.

One of the most disruptive things about disruption is the impact on our focus. Prioritization becomes a key skill set to cultivate.

Here’s what I wrote last May about leading in complexity -
​
“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 weigh 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.

In my books PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder I share four prioritization tools I use regularly with my clients and teams including the Urgent/Important Matrix and Strategic Issues Mapping.

The issue of prioritization takes on increased importance when we are working as part of a matrix or remote team. In these instances, our priorities may be varied and not as visible to ourselves and others. What is important for you to note around prioritization?

Best
Jennifer

Jennifer Bri​tton – 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.

In keeping aligned with this month’s focus on Teamwork in Uncertainty, today’s blog post gets you thinking about how you can leverage synergy across your team.
​
When situations are complex and uncertain, it may be difficult to bring all the skills required for success. Therefore, being able to focus in on leveraging the skills that are available to you as a group or team can help maximize your skill base as well as what is available to you.

As I wrote in yesterdays’ post, knowing our strengths is important on the individual and team levels.

In synergy, we are looking at how 1+1 equals more than 2.
​
If you have completed some strengths-based work, some additional questions to explore as a team are:

1. What the core strengths we bring as a collective?
2. What can we harness as a team?
3. Where might we be over-developed?
4. What is missing?
5. Where are the gaps?
6. When we think about current projects what strengths would benefit them?
7. Who is best suited to support which project?
8. What else is important to note?

​In situations of uncertainty, it can be important to consider risk, and also contingencies. Given that contexts may be changing rapidly leading from strengths allows us to do things quicker and with less energy expended, freeing up focus and energy for other items.
​
What’s is important to note around synergy?


Best wishes,
Jennifer

In our last Teamwork in Uncertainty post of the month we’re going to explore a favorite topic here at the Teams365 blog – Strengths. As I have shared in many other posts, strengths have a variety of benefits, from strengthening productivity to creating more engagement in the workplace.

In times of uncertainty the only thing we may be able to rely on are our strengths – our own and others. When we are tasked with new activities and tasks it can be useful to explore who on the team might have brought a similar experience. What are the strengths that can support you as a team?

As I share in PlanDoTrack, there are several key questions you will want to explore on the individual level. Check out the sections on strengths in Sections 1 and 4 of PlanDoTrack.

Some of the more common frameworks include:

• Utilizing Gallup’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 - Purchase a copy of the book for each team member and have them bring their reports to an upcoming team meeting.
• Incorporating the VIA Character Survey – This comes from the Positive Psychology realm and provides another doorway into exploring strengths. The nice thing about this assessment is that it is free.

As with any assessment, it’s important to reinforce a few things:

• This may provide a snapshot in time and can be dependent on a variety of factors.
• Take what is valuable from the information. Assessments are intended to provide insights, not a box.
• Exploring strengths and styles helps us understand ourselves better. Under times of stress and pressure, some of these styles and strengths become magnified. When magnified, some of our strengths become a liability. For example., if one of my strengths is getting results, this is good. However, in times of pressure I may become dogmatic in getting results, pushing harder than needed and burning myself, and others, out. Success in today’s workplace requires a focus on both RESULTS and RELATIONSHIPS.
• Look at both the individual view of things and the collective view. The power of bringing most assessments (not all, but many) into the team context is to provide a snapshot across the team, helping them see the collective. It also provides an opportunity for everyone to have a collective framework for exploration and dialogue.

Questions to consider:

• What are the discussions you want to have around strengths?
• What’s important about exploring this topic individually and collectively?
• What do you notice about the collective strengths of the team?
• Where are there gaps? What might you do about this?
• What will be valuable for you as a team to explore around strengths?

Are you looking to do more work with your team around strengths? Contact me to discuss our team day sessions for teams around strengths. 

Enjoy your conversations,
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.