Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2524 – Flashback Friday – Year-end 1-1 Questions

11/27/2020

This week as part of the Flashback Friday series I am reaching back to the November 27th, 2018 post. I think you’ll find this valuable as we step into the new year.

It’s that time where we start rolling into year end conversations, holding one on ones (coaching conversations) individually and with the team.

As we move into the end of the year, it is invaluable to schedule some one on one time with each team member. Today’s post includes a selection of 18 questions you might include in those conversations (pick and choose as appropriate). Great year end conversations help to create a pause to reflect achievements, synthesize learning and look ahead to the future.

You may want to incorporate these questions into your conversation:

What are the key achievements you have been most proud of this year?
What projects worked well?
Which projects didn’t go so well?
What was your learning there?
What connections/relationships have been most valuable this year?
Which relationships need attention next year?
What’s been your biggest learning this year? What experiences provided that?
What has worked well with the team this year? What hasn’t?
What feedback do you have for me as the leader? (What’s worked and what hasn’t)
What’s one suggestion for how we could do things differently as a team next year?

Looking ahead to next year:

What are you excited about?
What habits do you want to cultivate or lean into?
What do you want to do to keep growing your skills?
By December 31, 2019 what do you hope you will have achieved? OR by January 1, 2020, what do you hope you will have achieved? (Notice the impact of the difference one day makes! Yes, we are wrapping up a decade next year)
What are your top 3 priorities next year?
What feedback and support are you looking for?
What would be useful in terms of our 1-1 time?
What else is going to help you do your best work?

What else do you like to ask at this time of the year? Please let us know by sharing in the comments below.

Best wishes,
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 #1794 -Bringing projects to a close

11/28/2018

At this time of year, the clock is ticking and it may now be GO Time to get projects across the finish line. Where there was once time and leeway, now things need to get done and completed. What is it going to take to get the project completed before the end of the year?

To bring the project across the finish line consider:

What is it going to take to bring this project to a successful close?
What resources are needed? Do we need to pull new resources?
Are there any lessons learned from other projects that we can incorporate?
Are there any specialized, or talented, human resources we can bring in at this time to move the project quicker? Are there experts or seasoned team members who can complete tasks more quickly than others?
What elements can be completed consecutively? We often think that tasks are sequential (i.e. this has to be done before that), when in fact, we might be able to complete some tasks consecutively.
What does complete look like? Think about quality and scope. Are we still within the original scope of the project, or has there been scope creep?
Do we want to reconfirm project requirements, checking for any assumptions which may not be correct?
What can we do to minimize distractions and focus on what is really important? Are there some tasks which need to be devolved from those on the project team so they can focus 100 % on the task at hand?
What does project close out look like?
How can we capture the learning so we don’t repeat these cycles next time?
What’s going to help your projects move to completion phase quickly?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
Join Jennifer for a year-end virtual planning retreat in the PlanDoTrack Series!
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
YouTube – Teams365 Leadership Channel
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#TEAMS365 #1793: 18 Questions for 2018 Year End One-on-Ones

11/27/2018

It’s that time where we start rolling into year end conversations, holding one on ones (coaching conversations) individually and with the team.
As we move into the end of the year, it is invaluable to schedule some one on one time with each team member. Today’s post includes a selection of 18 questions you might include in those conversations (pick and choose as appropriate). Great year end conversations help to create a pause to reflect achievements, synthesize learning and look ahead to the future.
You may want to incorporate these questions into your conversation:

What are the key achievements you have been most proud of this year?
What projects worked well?
Which projects didn’t go so well?
What was your learning there?
What connections/relationships have been most valuable this year?
Which relationships need attention next year?
What’s been your biggest learning this year? What experiences provided that?
What has worked well with the team this year? What hasn’t?
What feedback do you have for me as the leader? (What’s worked and what hasn’t)
What’s one suggestion for how we could do things differently as a team next year?

Looking ahead to next year:

What are you excited about?
What habits do you want to cultivate or lean into?
What do you want to do to keep growing your skills?
By December 31, 2019 what do you hope you will have achieved? OR by January 1, 2020, what do you hope you will have achieved? (Notice the impact of the difference one day makes! Yes, we are wrapping up a decade next year)
What are your top 3 priorities next year?
What feedback and support are you looking for?
What would be useful in terms of our 1-1 time?
What else is going to help you do your best work?

What else do you like to ask at this time of the year? Please let us know by sharing in the comments below.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
Join Jennifer for a year-end virtual planning retreat in the PlanDoTrack Series!
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
YouTube – Teams365 Leadership Channel
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#TEAMS365 #1789 #FLASHBACKFRIDAY - Year End Retreats

11/23/2018

Given our quickly shifting focus to the holidays and year end, I thought it would be appropriate to shift our attention back to a Linked In article I wrote and post I shared this time last year – Teams365 #1389.

This "It’s that time of year for parties, year-end team retreats and other events. Are you maximizing the amount of time and impact of these team events?

Having supported year-end programming for teams and organizations for many years I thought it would be useful to share four focus areas you may want to consider as you start preparing, planning and perhaps facilitating your year-end processes.

Number One — What’s the purpose? If you had to distill down the top two or three takeaways from the retreat process or that off site, what is it? The purpose of our year-end function can impact the structure and activities undertaken in the program.

Is the purpose of your year-end event:

to build connection?
to share important information?
do some goal planning?
to build understanding across the silos, that may exist within your organization?

I’d encourage you to think about the top two or three purposes of the upcoming program and link to consideration #2.

Number Two — What is the connection to the business? Think about what is the connection to the business. It’s still very common in today’s world for people to just go through the motions of a traditional annual year end party and /or event.
Are you really maximizing that investment of bringing people together?
Could you build into that luncheon a half-day session before or after, to do some work with your staff teams to support their development, to help them look at their skills and strengths and styles and also to share with them, you know, and help them connect to the link with your business.
What opportunities do you have already formalized for bringing people together at year-end? What changes or additions do you want to make?

Number Three — Do you want to do it all alone? Many organizations today have a committee and amongst that committee membership, there may be some members who would be very comfortable in facilitating your year-end team or organizational process.
So, think about who might be best equipped to do the work? Is it you, members of that committee or maybe you are interested in bringing in an external facilitator?
One of the things we do, is either we come in and facilitate or develop activities which you can facilitate yourself.
Think about how you might be able to leverage the resources you have and or bring in some special guest speakers or external resources to contribute to the environment that you want to create.

Number Four — How are you going to take this forward? One of the biggest challenges that we see in learning and development today is this continued lack of transferability to the work place.
This was what drew me to focus more on the area of Coaching which places an ongoing emphasis on accountability and transferability to the workplace.
One the things I like to encourage organizations that I partner with to always thinking about is – How will you sustain the conversation? How will you take this forward into your work?
Hopefully any year-end retreat process or year-end meeting will have an action step and a very formalized action planning stage. Remember to build in time in the new year to revisit your commitments and accountabilities.

Here’s a quick recap:
Number One - Think about the purpose. What are the top three or four reasons or things that you want people to take away?
Number Two - What’s the link of the year-end program to the business? Is it just to have fun or something else?
Number Three - As your approaching your year-end processes, is this something you want to do or do you want to bring in a facilitator? A third option perhaps is to have something designed for you, so you can facilitate it yourself.
And finally, Number Four. What are the takeaways? How will people sustain the conversation? When will you check in on your actions and commitments?
I hope that you’re finding these ideas valuable, practical, and of course, implementable."
What are you looking forward to creating for your team in terms of year end planning and reflection?

Take a look at some of the other year end posts here.

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
Join Jennifer for a year-end virtual planning retreat in the PlanDoTrack Series!
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
YouTube – Teams365 Leadership Channel
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#TEAMS365 #1786 Year End Productivity Reminders – 4 Areas to Keep in Mind

11/20/2018

As we start creeping to the close of the year, pressure ramps up to “Get it done!”. There may not seem to be enough hours in the day, or even the rest of the year, to get EVERY. THING. DONE!

Today’s post gets you thinking about a number of “year-end productivity hacks” which bring us back to some of the tried and true prioritization tools:

#1 – Understanding your Pareto Ratio – The 80/20 rule asserts that we get 80% of our results from 20% of our efforts. While it may not be truly 80% it can be very useful to think about the areas that provide the most impact in your work, and the results you are aiming towards.
It can be very useful to understand where we get our impact, particularly at crunch time, so that we know what to say yes to, and what we want to say no to.

#2 – Going back to Covey’s Urgent/Important Framework – I have written about how a five day training around Steven Covey’s work as a younger manager more than 15 years ago, still influences my thinking about time management. If you haven’t read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, do it now! With the volume of distractions at a peak (from social media, to tech, to diffuse focus):

What’s really important to be focusing on now?
What’s important in the mid-term so that you are setting yourself up for success in the new year?
What are distractions and time wasters?

#3 – What can you delegate and defer?
Delegation continues to be a stretch area for most professionals today. Many times we feel we can’t delegate or we have no one to delegate to? What are the tasks that only you can do? What are the tasks that could be chunked down/broken down, so others might be able to complete?
For more on delegation – check out this LinkedIn article “Your Key To Success: Effective Delegation” I wrote on delegation.

#4 – What is absolutely essential?
Sometimes we really need to get ruthless with our time, asking “what’s absolutely essential?”. As we get into crunch time, what are the things we need to move to the finish line this year, no matter what? What are the elements that can carry over? What elements need to be put on hold?

For more on these prioritization tools, take a look at what I wrote in Teams365 #951 on prioritization.

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#TEAMS365 #1782 #FLASHBACKFRIDAY: 10 Year End Activities With Your Team

11/16/2018

It may seem early to some, but before we know it, the end of the year will be here! If you are a business owner or team leader, already you may have your year-end celebrations well in place. If you don’t, it’s not too late! Here’s a post I wrote back in 2015 on 10 different things you might want to build in time for at year end. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #703.

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 tin foil, plastercine or paper mache, 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 year
8. Taking time to acknowledge each other
9. Celebrating your successes from the year - a lunch out (or in) or a night out bowling or playing ping pong (yes teams can have fun together!)
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 | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

TEams365 #313: November Team Leader Breakfast Cafe - Year End Retreats and Meetings

11/9/2014

The first Wednesday of every month I host a short call for team leaders called the Team Leader Breakfast Cafe. It is a short 15-20 minute call which focuses in on key topics in support of your work as a team leader. In August I looked at Team Culture, September Strengths, and last month at the Six Factors for High Performing Teams. You can access the calls here.

as we move into the month of November, one of the key activities facing team leaders is organizing that year end meeting, luncheon or retreat. This month's breakfast cafe gets you to consider what the purpose is for your year end process, and also explores key elements you will want to include. I also share two quick activities you may want to consider incorporating for your retreat process.

Retreat facilitation is part of our focus and support for team leaders. We would be pleased to partner with you to design a customized program for your team, department or organization. We can also design certain components which you can facilitate yourself. Contact me to discuss your needs for your next team building or retreat process.

As you consider your team's needs for year end meetings, what is a priority? What do you want them to take out of the experience?

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Leadership, Teamwork and Coaching
2015 Program Dates for the Teams 365 Coaching Groups and Team Leader Foundations program coming soon.
Join us in a few weeks for the Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive online program - November 25-26, 2014 OR the two day in person Facilitation Skills Intensive program in downtown Toronto December 15-16.

#Teams365 #292: Prepping For Your Year End Retreat or Team Function

10/19/2014

Today's post is an audio which delves into the popular topic of planning for your year end retreat or team function. Each year we receive a number of requests to support teams and organizations in making their year end program both fun and focused on moving the business, and people, forward.

In this week's audio (approximately 6 minutes) I share four focus areas for you to consider as you start prepping for your year end retreat or team function.

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized - Leadership | Teamwork | Coaching Skills Training for Leaders | Team and Corporate Retreats
Supporting Team Leaders One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Teams365 Blog
(416)996-8326

Please email us to set up a time to discuss how we can support you with your retreat this year - either through facilitation or helping you design a great program which you can facilitate. Virtual Retreat facilitation is also available.