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#TEAMS365 #1993: Weekly Journaling Prompt 54

6/15/2019

As we arc into another Weekly Journaling Prompt, this week’s question gets you to consider the question “My favorite experience this year has been…..”.

Taking time to stop and pause along the way can be invaluable.

What are the key highlights of your year so far?
What would you put in your top 10 list?
What have you crossed off your bucket list?
What still remains?
What are the things you have learned from?

Draw out a roadmap of the key journeys and highlights you have had from the year.

Enjoy the reflection!
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.

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#TEAMS365 #1992 – Listening and Questions – FlashBack Friday

6/14/2019

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This week’s Flashback Friday takes us back to a spring 2018 on 19 questions to be asking during one-on-ones, project debriefs, and I thought it would be useful to share in light of recent posts about listening and questioning.

Here’s what I wrote in Teams #1562

Today's post focuses on questions to spark discussion around three key spring start up activities. In these three areas mentioned in yesterday’s blog post - one on ones, planning and project debriefs.

Today’s post dives into a series of questions you’ll want to ask yourself, and your team, in three key spring areas. Whether you are a team leader, member or even business owner, this may be one of those posts that you want to highlight and return back to.

One on Ones:
One on ones with your team are critical on a regular basis. Unfortunately, they are also the things that usually get left at the bottom of the to-do-list. While each team leader will have their own frequency of holding these with team members, you do want to make them regularly consistent. Some of the questions you may want to incorporate into your upcoming one on ones are:

1. What are your key priorities this quarter?
2. What support do you need in order to be successful? (From me, from others on the team)?
3. How frequently would you like us to connect?
4. What’s going to help you stretch as a professional? What’s going to be the challenge for you this?
5. What are the partnerships or relationships which are going to help you be successful?
6. What check ins will be useful (time, frequency, type) to see how things are going?

Project Debriefs:
Projects large and small deserve a bit of post-mortem or debrief. Here is a selection of questions you may want to incorporate into your next project debrief.

1. What worked well with that project?
2. What were the three critical success factors (i.e. things that mad the project a success)
3. What key lessons were learned?
4. Which projects do they need to be carried forward into? Who else could benefit from hearing about these lessons learned?
5. What needs to be avoided at all costs in future projects?
6. What systems helped with teamwork, roles, tasks and resources?

Planning:
If you haven't had the chance to undertake some planning, grab a pen and work through these questions. They are also ones you may want to share with your team:

1. What are the top 3 -5 priorities this month?
2. Who (or what relationships) is/are needed in order to make this a success?
3. What’s the one habit that will help these projects?
4. What might get in the way?
5. Where are you getting the bulk of your results right now? How can you do more of this? What do you need to say no to?
6. What can get delegated or deferred?
7. What tasks are not adding value and need to be dumped?

Enjoy the questions. Share your favorite here in the comments!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #1991 – Team Building Tip 240

6/13/2019

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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

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#TEAMS365 #1989 – Mentoring

6/12/2019

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At all stages of our careers, mentoring can be an invaluable approach. Learning from the wisdom and experience of others is priceless.

Mentors play a key role including:

Providing an alternative view of our industry/role/profession from what others might see, based on their own experience.
Acting as a sounding board as we work through different ideas.
Helping us understand and navigate the undercurrents of an organization and/or industry.

Formal mentors are usually different than our own bosses, which provides the advantage of an unbiased confidant.

What are the mentoring opportunities available to you?

When considering a mentor ask yourself:

What is the role I want the mentor to play?
What type of support am I looking for? (Sounding board, understanding undercurrents)
What are my goals for the mentoring experience?
What role(s) do I want the mentor to play?

Many formal mentoring programs will have application processes and sharing your responses around these areas can help not only with pairing you with a good fit, but also getting the most out of the limited time you have together.

Wishing you the best,
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #1989 – Feedback and Performance Check

6/11/2019

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A few days ago, I shared a post on preparing for the performance conversation. Feedback and performance conversations are often an area team members of all kinds struggle with, regardless of level of experience. When is the last time you held a two-way performance conversation – receiving and providing feedback to those you work with?

Things to keep in mind:

Feedback and performance conversations should be ongoing.
Signal when you are having a performance conversation. Sometimes it’s so informal that people don’t even recognize that they are receiving feedback. This is particularly important if performance is not going well.
Be specific about what performance is expected for each role. Provide examples of what good performance would look like.
Be sure to indicate what follow up is needed – and follow up. Lack of follow up may signals that you are not interested, or that things are better, when in fact they may not be.
Are you making the performance conversation two way? Any performance conversation is an opportunity to get feedback for yourself.
Experiment with leading with what the other person sees and observes about their own behavior. What do they notice?

What else is important to note in your feedback conversations?

Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #1988 – Effective Virtual Conversations tIP #98: Virtual Conversation In Focus: MOOC

6/10/2019

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Welcome back to another Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week we are zooming into one specific type of virtual conversation: the MOOC – Massive Open Online Course. The term was originally pioneered in the formal education sector, with platforms like Coursera and EdX bringing us university level courses for the masses. Personally, I’ve extended my own learning (which consists of a Master’s degree, a Post Graduate Certificate, multiple professional certifications) with great courses through both the Coursera and EdX platforms. I’ve taken courses on The Science of Happiness, Emotional Intelligence and Coaching with Compassion. All three courses have found their way into my own program design and consulting and coaching work with teams and organizations.

The benefit of these courses is that it gives you access, usually at a budget friendly price, to current academic thinking and research. For those of us who are practitioners, the value is in ensuring that we are grounding our approaches in the latest. At the same time, we don’t have to sign up for a full-course load and can take programming that truly is of greatest service to us.
Another benefit of these types of courses is that they are usually on-demand, which means that you can take them at your own pace. Formal assignments ensure that you remain on course and time.

This week think about how new and on-demand learning could support you in your continued growth and effectiveness as a professional.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #1987: PlanDoTrack In Focus: Listening Skills for Remote Team Members and Leaders

6/9/2019

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It’s Sunday and time to borrow from the PlanDoTrack blog. Earlier this week I shared this week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip around honing listening. I recently shared this blog post over at the PlanDoTrack site.

Here’s what I wrote about listening for Virtual and Remote Teams:

Last week I focused on the first of three coaching skills which can be important to equip all virtual and remote team members with. While these are often considered “coaching skills for leaders” in the virtual and remote environment, building this capacity in our virtual team can enhance productivity, peer support and results.

Last week I explored GOALS. This week let us look at listening.

Communication occurs in many channels in the virtual space – from conversations by phone, to texts, to email and IM (Instant Messaging).

Each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

Research shows that a significant portion of our understanding comes from tone, which is lost when we lean into digital channels of communication – text, email and IM. This can lead to a lot of misunderstandings, misinterpretations and lack of clarity.

Our listening can be heavily influenced by a number of factors:

Distractions (what we have on our plate, not reading things fully)
Our relationship with the sender (what do we know about their context, their intent, their focus and priorities)
Our understanding of the topic
Thinking about what we want to say, rather than listening for what is really being said

When we are able to meet for voice conversations, we may hear the tone, if we are listening for it. Adding on visual cues – like streaming for a meeting instead of just using the phone – can add additional layers on to the conversation. Being able to share our screen and work together real-time can also help us understand the full context.

What are the things that are helping and hindering your virtual conversations?
Are distractions getting in the way? How are you using all the tools you have available? What are you doing to increase your understanding of other’s context and priorities?

There are many more tools and ideas available for virtual teams in these various resources from me:

Part 3 of my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, focuses on virtual team development, meetings and communication.
Check out the posts related to Coaching Skills and Virtual and Remote Teams over at the Teams365 blog.

Let me know how I can support your virtual team development. From virtual retreat facilitation, to offering virtual team coaching services, we specialize in virtual team support.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #1986 - Weekly Journaling Prompt #53

6/8/2019

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It’s hard to believe but this weekly Saturday series on Weekly Journaling prompts started a year ago. This week invites you to take a moment to pause and take stock of what you notice about your journaling. Whether you have been following the Teams365 Weekly Jounraling Prompts since June of 2018, or this is the first one, take a few minutes today to review any journaling or writing you’ve done.. It’s not often that we stop for a few minutes to pause and see how things are going.

As you flip through what you have created, notice:

What are the highlights?
What key themes are included in your journal?
What are the patterns you notice?
What key accomplishments stand out?
What hasn’t been captured in your journaling?
What surprises you?
What do you want to make sure you lock in to your memory?

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the first year of these posts. A quick reminder that you can pick up a self-guided journaling printable notebook at the Potentials Realized store. I’ve pulled together the first 12 weeks of the WJP into one downloadable booklet for $7. Click on over to the Potentials Realized store and pick up a copy. Volume 2 of Weeks 13 – 24 will be released soon and will also be available at the Potentials Realized store.

Have a great Saturday!
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #1985 - #FLASHBACKFRIDAY: Preparing For the Feedback Conversation

6/7/2019

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This week’s flashback Friday takes us to preparing for the feedback conversation. When feedback is unplanned or unscheduled things can go awry. Even taking a few minutes on a regular basis to review your team members performance, can be a useful habit to get into. Providing feedback on a regular basis is a best practice of leadership today.

Check out Teams365 1252 Preparing for the Feedback Conversation. This is useful for both the person giving and the person receiving the feedback.

Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1252:
Today's post takes us to the realm of feedback, an area I often find myself working with teams around. The performance conversation should not be a one-off conversation. In fact, it should be an on-going dialogue (two-way) between staff and their leader.

Taking time to prepare for the feedback conversation is an essential step in the process, and it is often one that is overlooked. It's important to take some time to think about the performance conversation, rather than just winging it.

Some things to do when you are starting to prepare for any feedback conversation is:

Make sure that you have solid items to talk about. What are the facts? What is hearsay? What have you seen yourself? If you realize that you don't have a lot to share, this is a flag to make some changes so that next time you do.

What are the key goals which are important to discuss? Another challenge in the feedback conversation is that the team leader may be focusing on different things than the employee. What are the key goals which are important to discuss? Are these aligned?

How have you set the employee up for success in scheduling this meeting? Performance conversations should be a two-way process. What have you done to set the employee up for success? Have you asked them to consider any questions prior to meeting? Have you invited them to do a self-assessment? When was the last time the two of you sat down to explore performance issues? Nothing raised in an annual review should be a surprize.

Dedicate time and space for the performance conversation and preparation. Even though many of us feel we need to run from task to task, feedback and performance conversations should not be left as a low item priority. Make sure you are dedicating time and space for not only holding the performance conversation, but also preparing for it.

What other tips do you have for preparing for the performance conversation?

Enjoy the 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.

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#TEAMS365 #1984 - Team Building Tip #239:What's Taboo?

6/6/2019

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This week’s Team Building Tip gets your team to consider the question – “What is taboo?”.

Once teams feel safe to put issues on the table, and that they will not face any retribution for speaking their mind, getting the team to identify what is TABOO or off-limits can be key to moving a team forward. It is important to look into the dusty corners, and shine the light on the things that don’t want to be seen or discussed. This is particularly important when the pace of business speeds up, and things become more urgent. It’s the things that are taboo that can grow in size or come out of nowhere, taking a team down.

What are the things that are TABOO for you and your team to:

Discuss
Do
Put into Practice

Is it time for a change?

Best wishes,
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.

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Teams365 Blog

#TEAMS365 #1993: Weekly Journaling Prompt 54

#TEAMS365 #1992 – Listening and Questions – FlashBack Friday

#TEAMS365 #1991 – Team Building Tip 240

#TEAMS365 #1989 – Mentoring

#TEAMS365 #1989 – Feedback and Performance Check

#TEAMS365 #1988 – Effective Virtual Conversations tIP #98: Virtual Conversation In Focus: MOOC

#TEAMS365 #1987: PlanDoTrack In Focus: Listening Skills for Remote Team Members and Leaders

#TEAMS365 #1986 - Weekly Journaling Prompt #53

#TEAMS365 #1985 - #FLASHBACKFRIDAY: Preparing For the Feedback Conversation

#TEAMS365 #1984 - Team Building Tip #239:What's Taboo?

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PicK up a copy of PlanDoTrack - For Virtual and Remote Professionals

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Become a PlanDoTrack Facilitator:
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