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

​I thought I would take a look back to the March 2014 posts to see what I was talking about five years ago here at the blog. What was interesting to me was that that month we were talking about team development and team formation, one of the key areas I continue to get questions around.
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I dedicated five posts in March 2014 to discussing Tuckman’s model of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. This model to group and team formation has stood the tests of time, and is something that I continue to see in my work in person and virtually.

Here’s what I shared about the first stage of team formation in Teams365 #70:
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The first stage of team formation is the FORMING stage. Whether it's a new project team coming together, or a new leader joining the team, there are several characteristics common at the FORMING Stage:

1. Team is getting to know each other
2. Safety needs are high, trust levels are low or non-existent
3. Goals, vision and values are needing to be created

As a leader it is important to:
1. Clarify expectations you have.
2. Have the group or team create shared expectations of each other
3. Create opportunities for people to get to know each other
4. Ensure that safety needs are met.

What else is important at the forming stage? What have you noticed in past instances where teams are forming?
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Check out what happens in the storming, norming, performing and adjourning stages.
 
What are you noticing about where your group or team is right now? What are they yearning for?
 
Enjoy the conversations,
Jennifer

Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations prompt is “Who is driving the bus?”. Some of the most common questions I receive from virtual leaders are “Am I coaching? Am I training? Am I facilitating?”.
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While the focus on this question for the people we are hosting the call for is usually “it doesn't matter as long as I am learning”, it can be important for the person who is leading the call to be aware of what they are doing - training, coaching or facilitating. A key question the “facilitator” can be asking to dig a little deeper is  - “Who is driving the bus?” Who is the one that is shaping the direction, and content of the call?"
 
While this may be overly simplistic, a great starting point for understanding the “director” of the call is to consider who is “driving” and shaping the conversation.
 
In coaching, a fundamental premise is that the person being coached should create with the coach (and others) the direction of the call, and their content knowledge should form the foundation of the conversation. The coach is not there to share a lot of content, but rather use any content to “Spark” the conversation. Coaches focus deeply on Goal Setting, and supporting the deepened awareness around “things below the waterline”, things like values, beliefs, assumptions, perspectives. Coaching is rarely a one-off conversation, and usually has multiple touch points.
 
In training, or a webinar in the virtual space, we lean into the content we bring. We are measured on this, and while we want to poll our group members for what they want to learn, the content may also be shaped by the organization. Training is typically content-rich, and in that respect the trainer may be driving the bus a majority of the time, handing off the “wheel” as new skills are acquired, so that bus members get practice.
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Facilitation comes from the Latin word “facilis”. It means “to become easy”. Part of the facilitator’s role virtually is to help people clarify the focus of the conversation, and how they want to move from a to b. A facilitation may be more apt to be a one-off conversation, and usually uses process to help engage the conversation, especially with bigger groups.
 
Who is driving the bus in your virtual conversations? Are there any changes you want to make to this?
 
For more on these distinctions between coaching, training and facilitating, check out any of my first three books – Effective Group Coaching (2010), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) or From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). 
 
Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

This weeks’ weekly journaling prompt invites you to consider the question “My note to self is…..”

This may be an opportunity to:

• Capture key learning
• Identify things you “don’t want to forget”
• Create a bucket list of things you’d love to complete by _____
• Reflect on recent successes and lessons learned
• Signal key life lessons

As with anything in journaling, part of the joy can be simply seeing where your pen leads you without too much censure.

I hope that you have found these Saturday Journaling prompts valuable in providing a starting place for your writing.

In the spirit of mid-month musings – here’s also a highlight of several of the past Saturday posts you’ve seen in the last few months:

Weekly Journaling prompt #37 – Mid-February 

Weekly Journaling prompt – Mid-December

Weekly  Journaling prompt  #31 – Early January 

Wishing you the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.
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​#5 – Know Where your Time Goes

Productivity Tip #4 was Ruthless Time Management, and an invitation to do some data generation around where you are really spending your time. If you have not yet completed this activity, do it now. You’ll need it for this week’s tip, which is to do some assessment on where your time is going.

In today’s busy world, it is very easy to get side-tracked with the “shiny red objects”. These often look very alluring – perhaps promising a quick return or getting things done more quickly. Many times however they become a “rabbit hole” taking you off-course and away from the most important things.

In most of the planning frameworks I have created for the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Planners, I usually include a small box to be filled in with your Top 5 Goals for the month (or quarter). This is a prompt to consider what is most important for you at any given moment.

Where we spend our time should be aligned with our priorities, as well as our values and what’s important for us.

This week, take stock of how your time is being spent in service to your:
Immediate priorities – what is your top 5 for the month/quarter?
Values – What are the elements that are essential to you and your work? Is it excellence, quality, customer service? Note how much time you are spending in values-based activities.
Vision – What % of activities are being spent towards your big picture goals? Towards what is really important for you?

In the Teams365 series of Time Management workshops I share a Time Tracker resource. I’ll be offering this in 2019 as both an on-demand and live program for professionals of all levels. If you are interested in staying connected around all things planning and time management, do sign up for the PlanDoTrack newsletter list.

As you review your data, what are the adjustments you want to make in service to your priorities, values and vision?

Touchpoint with PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner.
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If you have not yet completed your Quarter 1 Goals, refer to the Quarterly  Planning Tools. There you will be encouraged to note your high-level goals and your Top 5. Next, lay them out across the first 3 months of the year. After doing this, you may then want to flip into the monthly pages, and start noting the key activities in the monthly calendars. Start breaking down each activity with smaller steps, adding them to the Monthly To-Dos or the Month in  Focus sheet.

Enjoy,
​Jennifer

This week’s Sunday post takes us back to a 2014 post around focus when I shared a quote from Daniel Goleman’s book on Focus.

In it, he writes the following:
"For leaders to get results, they need all three kinds of focus. Inner focus attunes us to our intuitions, guiding values and better decisions. Other focus smooths out our connections to the people in our lives. an outer focus lets us navigate in the larger world. A leader tuned out of his internal world will be rudderless; one blind to the world of others will be clueless; those indifferent to the larger support within which they operate will be blindsided".  (Goleman: Focus, pp 48)
 
In today’s VUCA world, taking time to focus is critical. Planning is still key, even if it becomes more of a contingency planning process. As someone who led in very uncertain contexts in my former life with my work in the humanitarian sector, when things are complex, planning becomes even more important. Unlike a traditional a to b to c to d model, contingency planning takes us through that and also gets us thinking into a cubed (A3).

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Motivation is a critical topic for team leaders to consider on multiple levels. Against the backdrop of many organizations struggling with "employee engagement issues" motivation can be a core topic.

There are a number of levels at which we can consider the topic of motivation as team leaders including these three questions:
What  motivates each individual team member? Team members can be motivated by both internal and external factors. For some team members it may be pay that really gets them going, while others may be motivated by doing a good job. Spending time getting to know your team and what makes them perform at their best is a key part of stellar team leadership.

What does each team member find important? Our values shape what we deem as important. Whether our values are security, or adventure, these are the things that become our drivers and what we often seek out. Each team will also have its own set of values. As team leaders it can be important to have dialogue around values at two levels - the individual levels and the team level. See how value alignment works with motivation for each team member.

What are levels of trust and connection like on the team? Team motivation is often tied at a much deeper level to the amount of trust in a team and how connected people feel. We often look to the surface level of question what - What motivates each team member - without asking ourselves about the status of trust on the team. If trust levels are low, or if toxic behaviors are present, it's unlikely that team members are going to be motivated to bring their best to work each and every day.

AS you consider the topic of motivation on your team right now, what's important for you to consider? What issues need to be top of mind?

Have a  great Wednesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Join us in January for a Teams365 Coaching Group
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326