Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2528 – Starting a New Month, November Reflections, & Starting to Wind Down the Year

12/1/2020

Here we are at December. It’s hard to believe that we are here already. Given that it’s a new month, let’s take a moment to build in a reflective pause to capture the learning. I hope that you’ll earmark 15 minutes to work through today’s questions:

Reflecting on the month of November:

What were my major achievements this past month?
What do I want to celebrate?
As I consider my goals (and resolutions) I made at the start of the year, how am I doing with these on a scale of 1-10? Which ones are becoming new habits or something I can check off?
Which goals need to be let go of or changed?
What habits have supported me this past month?
As a leader, what have I noticed about my team this past month?
As a leader, what notes should I make about performance issues? (if I haven't done it already!)
The thing that has helped me be most productive this month has been ______
The thing that has helped me be most successful this month has been ______
The thing that has helped me be happiest this month has been ________
The thing that has helped me be most healthy has been _______
What have I noticed about my work/productivity/results and/or relationships during the winter months (if you are in the northern hemisphere) or summer (if you are in the southern hemisphere)?
How I’m doing with my theme of the year (how I am living it, embodying it)?

Looking ahead to December:

The one thing I am committed to completing this month is…
The project I want to get started…
The project I most want to wrap up is...
My priorities are:
Our team priorities are:
My goals are:
My teams goals are:
I want to...
I'll be really happy at the end of December or/the year when….

All the 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 #2517 #FlashBack Friday – 10 Things Before the End of The Year

11/20/2020

It’s hard to believe (sometimes…) that we’re nearing the end of the year.
Today's post gets you to think further about year end activities and possible retreat ideas for your team. While not everyone will be able to take a day away from the office, even spreading some of these activities over a couple of weeks, or the next month or two, gets you thinking about, and in dialogue, about important issues.

Here are ten things to be sparking focus and conversation around with your team:

1. Creating a Year in Summary - Using photos or words, how would you describe the highlights of the last year?
2. Strengths based work using either StrengthsFinder or VIA Strengths
3. Goal setting for the new year - overall goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals. Looking at how individual, team and organizational goals overlap
4. Creating an action plan for the new year
5. Creating a Vision for the new year
6. Vision Modelling - using materials at hand coming up with a model for your vision that you as a team can look at regularly
7. Coming up with a theme for the new year
8. Taking time to acknowledge each other
9. Celebrating your successes from the year - a virtual team building event – escape room or BINGO Round
10. Setting an Intention for the year

What other activities might you undertake to wrap up the year together?

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

TEAMS365 #2403 – Stand Out Remotely

7/29/2020

One of the many challenges faced at the moment is standing out remotely. With back-to-back virtual meetings becoming the norm, one call can blend into another. Note, if you haven’t read yesterday’s Back to The Basics call on the Energy of the Call, check it out.

At the same time, many professionals are concerned that they are not as visible in the virtual space as they are in a face to face environment. This translates to concern around their visibility for career progression, taking on special projects etc.

Several things you will want to consider:

#1 – What does “standing out remotely” mean for you ? What’s important about this? Do you want to stand out more so that your message is remembered – which may mean more about presentation techniques? OR is it standing out as a professional? And perhaps someone who is known for great virtual calls which whiz by and are remembered. What’s your WHY around this?

#2 – Our personal brand can get translated through the screen through our slides, images, our background and also what we are wearing. What are the brand elements you want to keep in mind?

#3 – Be proactive. This might mean getting into the rhythm of connecting regularly with others. It might mean getting a mentor. It might mean focusing in on getting active in a professional association. What do you want to be known for?

Standing out remotely means many different things. I’ll be focusing more on the topic in August as it relates to leading more engaging and memorable virtual calls. Are you ready to Stand Out? Check out my 5 Day Challenge – Standing Out Virtually at (insert)

Have a great week and hope you will join us next week.

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 #2352 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 149: Make It Visible

6/8/2020

Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip gets you thinking about MAKING THINGS VISIBLE. While many professionals have spent the last three months in the virtual and remote workspace, it’s likely that you might have felt bombarded by video streaming. The lexicon and language of video conferencing has shifted dramatically – from things like “zoom-bombings” (people dropping into your zoom calls), to “zoom fatigue” (the feelings of exhaustion from yet another video conferencing).

One of the downsides to digital life and work is the fact that other things aren’t as visible. Unlike being able to flip open a notebook, or look at a posting on the wall, it’s much harder to be able to “see things”.

Virtual calls also benefit from a rich array of visible cues. From incorporating graphics to video, what is going to jazz up your next presentation?

Even using the DESIGN feature in PowerPoint may shift a content rich presentation to one that has icons embedded with it.

Always be sure to respect intellectual property and copyright. Consider investing in commercial stock photography at places like istockphoto or AdobeStock or turn to the generosity of sites like Unsplash or Pixabay. Always read the fine print in terms of how you can, and cannot, use materials.

What are the things you want to draw attention to? What can you do to convert these into photographs or icons?

Is there content that could be converted across to a video? Consider using AdodeSpark to turn your jpgs to a short video with music and/or voice over or turn to Lumen5 to convert text to a short video using their AI based program.

Enjoy your focus!

Best 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 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 #2322 – Weekly Journaling Prompt 98: What’s Your Mantra?

5/9/2020

This week’s Weekly Journaling Prompt is MY MANTRA is….

What are the words you live, and work by?

Starting early in my career, when I was based in South America and the Caribbean, I found myself embracing the notion of a Mantra as both a leader and an individual.

While my leadership mantra was often “embrace the chaos” (in other words, don’t try to fight the effects of crisis, fluctuation and crisis, but roll with it and use the energy more proactively to see patterns, and options). I also held another mantra of “I’m only one person, I can only do so much”. This was an important acknowledgement and reminder or myself that as a leader I NEEDED to lean into my team, and the people around me to effect change and make a difference. I still return to these on a regular basis (and probably could benefit from revisiting more regularly), especially as a business owner.

My personal mantra during those years was often “Carpe Diem” or “Seize the Day”. This was really important as my life abroad was very dynamic, and I never really knew where they next day would take me. My work took me regularly to the highs and lows of life and living.

Both of these mantras were something I reminded myself of often and were visible in different ways – from a Carpe Diem token on my table to a photo one of my mentors had given me signifying what reminded me of “embrace the chaos”.

In this week’s journaling, you are invited to consider what your mantra or mantras are.

What are they?

How do they shape what you do? Where you put attention? What you choose to invest your time, focus and energy around?

How can these be enshrined or made more visible?

Enjoy your journaling!
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 #2320 – Team Building Tip 243

5/7/2020

Focus has been a major theme for many professionals in recent weeks. This week’s Team Building tip gets you to consider the question “What’s possible if you had more focus?”.

As a team, have some discussion around where your focus is – this month, this week, each day of the week. Is everyone aligned? Is everyone on the same page?

If team members are members of multiple teams, it’s important to have this conversation regularly.

Questions to consider:

What’s important for us to focus on right now – today? This week? This month?
What are we not focusing on, and need to?
What do we need to STOP focusing on?
Where do we need to enhance our focus?
What distractions are getting in the way of focus?
What’s possible if we/I had more focus?

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 #2319 – Remote Team Builder: Vision Mapping

5/6/2020

While some people are starting to go back to work face to face, many of us are still working in the remote space for a while longer. Today’s post shares with you one quick remote team builder. We know that teams excel when they have a clear focus on what results are needed, as well as who they are (their relationships).

One of the elements which is critical for success is that of having a clear vision that everyone can connect to, and keep in mind. Your vision as a team may be like a horizon – pulling you forward and getting more in focus the closer you get to it. For some teams it may be important to focus on creating a vision to the end of the year, for others, to the end of 2021.

So, what can we do to create this?

At your next team meeting, dedicate 15-20 minutes to working around vision. This may be the start of a multi-session conversation.

Make a whiteboard available and be sure to set annotation as “on” with your platform.

You might start by asking people to consider the current corporate goals and direction to do a series of sharing and writing around different questions such as:

Looking ahead to end of 2020 (or 2021), what are we known for? (think accomplishments)
Who have we served?
What have been our greatest accomplishments?
What’s important to us?
What are the things we do not waver on?
What do we go to bat for? (i.e. address until it’s right)
What else makes us unique?

To spark some ideas, you might even show some photographs and get people to choose from them. Today’s graphic incorporates an activity I recently shared at one of our Remote Pathways calls.

Doing an activity like this will also clarify your culture as a team. I like to define culture as WHO WE ARE and HOW WE DO THINGS.

Save screenshots of the different questions as you go so you have something to refer back to and bring forward to your next conversation.

Enjoy the 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 #2313 –Team Building Tip 242

4/30/2020

The last month has been full of disruption for most of us around the world. It may be at moments like this that we need to activate our metaphorical “jet fuel” to move us to the next place.

It’s been commonplace for organizations, teams and businesses to be stuck, shut and simply out of gas this month. Coronavirus has impacted everyone.

Next steps for many after this passes may look very different than what you expected and had envisioned earlier this year. Is it time to revisit your vision and think about what you want to create? What if you had some "jet fuel" to move you into the next stratosphere? What if…?

If you are interested in making a shift, today’s question of “What could jettison you forward?” might be of interest to explore and consider.

Enjoy your 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.

TEAMS365 #2311 – Collaborating in the Remote Space

4/28/2020

One of the legacies of March and April 2020 may be learning how to effectively collaborate in the remote space. This is important whether we are collaborating with our peers, our leader, another team or even stakeholders. Today’s blog post explores four tenets of collaborating in the remote space:

# 1 - Create a clear end result and vision of success for this project. What are you wanting to create together? Why are you doing this? (Note: lack of clarity on this can create a lot of divergence as you go.) How will you know that you will have been successful with this?

#2 - Be proactive and don’t assume. In the remote space, at the best of times, we see each person’s world in a small box. This may not be representative of everything that is on the go.

#3 - Plan it. Take time as a partnership to ask yourselves, what’ important about this? What are you wanting to achieve?

What are your strengths? What are the gaps between the strengths of your partnership?

Find common ground as well as differences. What are the areas we foresee might be challenges? What can we do to mitigate against those?

#4 - Be proactive with communication and ensure you do this on a regular basis. Shift your mindset to one of “of course” to “What should I communicate?” Given that it’s likely we are under-communicating rather than over-communicating.

What’s going to help your collaboration work better?

For more on this topic check out other posts I have done on collaboration.

Wishing you the best,
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 #2298 Mid-Month Checkpoint for Virtual Teams

4/15/2020

It’s mid-month and a great time to do a check point for your team. Many teams may now have been working from home or remotely for at least a month. It’s also mid-month which is always a good time to stop and pause and consider how things are going.

Take a few minutes to reflect on these questions:

What’s working for us as a team right now?
What ways have we been able to pivot successfully to meet our business needs? Our team’s needs?
How are we doing in terms of our results for the quarter?
What routines are working well for us?
How are we doing on the foundations of team effectiveness? Rate on scale of 1-10 and have discussion on what shifts might be needed:
- Clear vision, shared by all
- Clear goals and understanding of what success looks like and how goals are measured
- Clear roles – Who does what?
- Shared team practices – regular meetings, and other touchpoints

Best 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 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.