An increasing number of teams are moving to the virtual and remote space. While team foundations are team foundations, I am finding a lot of team leaders are eager to acquire more resources around team building activities for their own teams.
As a professional who has been involved in supporting virtual and remote teams for the better part of the last 30 years (yes -- even before the days of the internet!), first as a team leader, and more recently in the last 15 years as a coach and author, virtual and remote teamwork is a passion of mine.

I included several chapters on the topic of virtual team development in my 2017 book - Effective Virtual Conversations (see part 3 and specifically chapters 10 -12). I also have included virtual options in the 40 Ways to Work with Visual Cards e-book, which includes step by step facilitated instructions and questions to explore topics related to change, innovation, teamwork with your teams using images and other visuals.
This month, I wanted to further go into detail about different virtual and remote team activities, and this has been the focus over at my sister blog - the Teams365 blog at my main company site PotentialsRealized.com.
Each Tuesday and Wednesday this month I am going into further detail about different activities you can use with your own virtual or remote team in your next web or phone based meeting.
Here are several posts with more information on specific activities you might want to  explore with your virtual or remote team:
Teams365 #1899 - Using Icons to explore topics. Click here to view.

Teams365 #1898: Virtual Team Builder - COINS: Click here to view

Teams365 #1892: Creating Connection through Images. Click here to view.

Be sure to visit the Teams365 blog regularly for more tips on virtual team development. Given that virtual and remote teamwork has been a significant focus for me at that blog for the last six years, you are also invited to check out the tags related to virtual and remote teamwork at the Teams365 blog such has remote teams, as well as the downloadable ebook -  A-Z of Virtual and Remote Leadership . Let us know how you put these ideas into practice, by sharing over at the PlanDoTrack Facebook page. You may also want to use #remoteteamtips as a hashtag

Best wishes
Jennifer

Week 11 Focus – Enabler: Habits
Focus Question: What are the habits shaping your work?

Description
Habits are things that we undertake, almost subconsciously, to the point of sometimes not even being aware of them. As repetitive actions, habits are a powerful force, in shaping our work and business.

Story
At the beginning of each year, I find that conversation starts to flow towards dialogue around habits with my coaching clients. Perhaps this is because it’s time for a new year, or maybe because it’s a clean slate.

Here’s what I wrote about habits at the Teams365 blog,

“Habits and practices are things we do automatically, sometimes unconsciously, because they have come so ingrained. There are many schools of thought that create a link between habits and success. That habits lead to success.”
As the tagline in the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack asserts:

Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum

Habits play a key role in shaping our regular actions. Habits are things we do automatically, and if we are able to instill regular go-to activities that can help us move forward, it can support automation of tasks and activities.
​
As you consider your current goals and priorities:
1. What will help you be successful this year?
2. What are the consistent behaviors and actions you want to or need to undertake to move you towards your goals?
3. What could amplify, or magnify, those goals?
4. What's missing that could make a difference?
5. What small shifts would make a new ripple?
6. What does consistency mean for you around habits?
7. What could get in the way?
8. What is going to remind you about your commitment to your goals?
9. What do you notice about how your mindset is influencing your habits?
10. What is becoming automatic for you OR what needs to become automatic for you in your successful pursuit towards your goal.”
(Source: https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-1466-2018-kickstart-day-5-of-8-habits-and-practices-to-move-you-towards-your-goals)

Activity
Make a list of the top 5-10 habits that shape your work as a business owner, solopreneur or remote worker. What are the things you consistently do, no matter what?

As part of the iceberg in Section 1 of the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, you are invited to review pages 25 and 27 to identify your habits in work. Consider how they are helping and how they are hindering you.
​
What are the changes you want to make in service to your goals?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Complete pages 25 and 27 in both the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, to identify your habits in work, and how they are helping and how they are hindering you.

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.” – Francis Bacon
 
Making things more visible is key to productivity for some in today’s digitally distracted world. Our brains can only hold a certain amount of information   - usually said to be 5 + or – 2.
​
Think about how well you remember what you thought about doing yesterday at lunch.

Research is also pointing to the fact that we also remember things differently when we grab a pen and paper and write things down, rather than put it in our device.
 
How much energy have you spent this week trying to keep ideas in your head?
​
Dedicating a small notebook to ideas, plans, and resources can be a great memory jogger, and creates a great capsule to reflect back on periods of your life on. I just came across a very small notebook (think smaller than the size of an index card) that accompanied me over 3 months of travel and work in Central America when I was 21. Just seeing it, unlocked a series of memories I had not thought of for years!

What is the practice you want to get into in terms of writing things down?
​
For those that like high level bullet-form ideas, be sure to check out the Monthly Daily Planner – One Line a Day in the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Planners. It only takes one minute to jot some ideas down!

Enjoy your writing!
​Jennifer

Virtual and remote teams need attention too! Did you know that a 2016 study by Culture Wizard found that only 22% of remote and virtual teams benefit from focused team development time?
When working with virtual and remote teams we want to help them develop on several levels including:

• Results
• Relationships
• Process

Virtual and Remote Teams need to get clear on Results. This entails having everyone be clear on:

• What are our major goals?
• What will success look like?
• How does each one of us feed into successful achievement of this goal?
• What does alignment look like for us?
• What are the number 1 priorities?
• If nothing else gets done, what is essential?
• What feedback loops do we have around this?

I have written quite a bit on Virtual and Remote Team Development over at my sister blog, the Teams365 blog. One series you may want to check out is the A-Z of Virtual and Remote Team Development Series.
On the Relationship front, we want to be sure to:

• Know each other
• Understand what strengths each person brings to the team
• Consider how our strengths can be leverage collectively, as well as what gaps might exist?
• What is building, and distracting, from trust?
• What is each person’s unique working style? Styles impact decision making, conflict, communication, pacing, stress etc.
• How might I need to adjust my style to better support them/connect with them?

 
Process pieces also keep virtual and remote teams moving. These include team practices of meeting regularly, updating each other, sharing information, providing feedback. What are the process pieces which are important for the team right now?
What are the things that are helping you as a team right now, build relationships, focus on results and refine process?
 
Best,
​Jennifer

​Week 10 Focus – Strengths
Focus Question: What are your innate talents and strengths? How do you use these every day?

Description
Each of us brings our own unique and innate strengths. What are the strengths you bring to the table every day?

Research/Story
For many decades now, Gallup has studied the impact of strengths on work. They have found some very compelling statistics behind why we should focus more on helping people connect with, and leverage, their strengths every day at work. Did you know:

• Gallup has found that when employees get to use their strengths every day they are:
  • 6x more engaged
  • 3x more likely to report having excellent quality of life
  • 8.9% more profitable
• Teams which focus on strengths have 12.5% greater productivity.

Gallup Strengths Center. 

Author Marcus Buckingham undertook research and he writes that “1.5 Million employees on 50, 000 teams were surveyed, and they found that the most important lever to team performance was ‘Do you have an opportunity to use your strengths at work every day?’ (Reference: Go Put Your Strengths to Work)
Those that “strongly agreed” found:

• 38% highly productive
  
• 44% high customer satisfaction scores
• 50% higher employee retention

(Marcus Buckingham, The Business Case for Strengths, 2016)
While we cannot always use our strengths at work every day, over time we may gravitate to jobs which do cultivate our strengths. As we set up businesses or work remote, being able to leverage strengths regularly can be an important motivational factor. When we are able to leverage strengths, we are more apt to move into flow and find greater job satisfaction.

Strengths over-used can become a blindspot. We may over-lean into our strengths in times of pressure, urgency and resource constraints. Notice what happens when your strengths become over-magnified.

Activity
If you have not yet worked with strengths, spend some time identifying what your strengths are.  There are several different strengths assessments you may want to explore including Gallup’s StrengthsFinder 2.0, the Entrepreneurial StrengthsFinder, as well as Positive Psychology’s VIA Character Survey.
If you have not undertaken one of these assessments to ascertain your top 5 strengths, take a few minutes to do that this week, reflecting on the questions:

• Where are you able to use your strengths regularly?
• How does this support your work and priorities right now?
• Where are you over-utilizing your strengths? What blind spot is that creating?
  

What other strengths are needed in your work? How do you outsource these pieces of work, or bring others onto the team, over time?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
There are several touch points throughout the planners to get you thinking about your strengths, including - Section 4 of both books which explores the Ecosystem as well as:

​ What are your strengths, and how you can leverage them?

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

“Accountability is a statement of personal promise, both to yourself and to the people around you, to deliver specific defined results.” Brian Dive, The Accountable Leader

As you consider your current projects and goals – what does accountability mean? Who is going to do what? When? And How?
​
Accountability can take many forms in today’s work space but still comes back to the basics – who is going to do what, when, and  where.

There are many different accountability frameworks and structures. From automatic tracers which give you reminders and prizes for achieving what you have set out for, to peer groups (see last week’s Mastermind post) which hold you accountable for what you said you would do.
​
As virtual teams, accountability is important and may include portals and dashboards where people can keep each other updated and “in the loop”.

Accountability is part of a high-performance landscape – organizations and teams which are great at getting results usually have a clear sense of what kind of accountability is going to work best.

Take a look at this article for more on accountability  - 12 Keys to a More Effective Accountability Strategy.

Wishing you the best,
Jennifer

Trust is critical for any team’s success. As virtual and remote teams, trust may be the lubricant which helps the group move from being a collection of individual contributors, to the “well-oiled” machine of a team.

What can we do to build more trust and connection on our virtual teams?

Here are some things to consider:
Be aware of magnification – Our touchpoints in the virtual space are often fewer and less frequent. We often do not see each other every day, even in passing. With this in mind, our words and actions can become more magnified for good or bad.
What is important to note around what’s getting magnified within your team?

Be clear and intentional with communication – Our word, even more than our actions, can translate further on a virtual team. Given that we aren’t seen “in action” on a regular basis, our words do live on – via email, text.

Follow-through – Given the magnification effect, as well as the spotlights that we only see in limited windows, follow-through around what we say we are going to do, is critical.
​
Be proactive and make things visible- Out of sight does not equal out of mind. What are you doing to proactively reach out to the team? To help them form connections? To surface issues?
Making things visible may include naming issues at play, sharing more of the context you are operating within, or literally making things visible for the team.
In building trust and connection within your virtual or remote team consider:

• What are the touchpoints created for team members to connect and get to know each other?
• What are the issues which need to be surfaced?
• What are the elements which need to be made clearer or more visible?
• What goals and results do we need to make more visible?

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

Week 9 Focus – Partnerships
Focus Question: Who can help you in making your vision a reality?

Description
As a solopreneur, or virtual worker, we cannot go it alone all the time. Leaning into different types of partnerships – long term and short term, helps us get things done, expand our base, and possibly move into new areas.
Partnerships can take several different forms. From Joint Ventures, to Co-Facilitation, to Collaboration, to Co-Coaching. What are the different partnerships you engage in?

Research/Story
Key ingredients which make partnerships include skills in the areas of:

• Trust
• Candor
• Connection
• Self-awareness
• Working Across Differences
• Relationship Development
• Other

Taking time to be in dialogue about relationships and partnerships is critical for success. These conversations need to start well in advance as you start to design and develop your common ground and shared agreements.

Activity
As you think about your year and the most important goals you have, make a list of the people who can help you. If you have not yet completed the Top 20 List in the workbook, do that now.
Synergies with others –
There are many times when we want to synergize with others in terms of a focus. As coaches, this might include co-facilitation, joint ventures or others.
What are the key elements to help you as a business synergize?
Questions to ask yourself:

• What do you want to get out of the collaboration?
• What would be useful to focus on?
• What are you bringing to the collaboration?
• What is the line in the sand in terms of where it is your materials?
• Where are other opportunities to collaborate?
• How will you offer feedback to each other?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
There are many touchpoints with the Planner and Workbook including:
Collaboration (pages 49 – 53 – CBB or pages 53- 56 – PDT)
Top 20 List in the workbook (page 83 – CBB or page 87 – PDT)
Phases of Partnering and Co-Facilitation Journey – pages 90 – 92 (CBB) and 92 – 94 (PDT)

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking

​Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Author of several books including: PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Effective Group Coaching (2010)
Potentials Realized  - Specializing in support to virtual and remote teams, leaders and entrepreneurs
Award-winning Coaching Skills Training
Join us for one of our 2019 Annual Coaching Groups - Teams365 Leadership Lab for Virtual Leaders and Team Members or
Coaching Biz Growth Lab - for coaches and other virtual entrepreneurs
(416)996-8326

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