Week 13 Focus – Quarterly Check In: Skills
Focus Question: What have you accomplished in this last quarter? What are the tasks you want to undertake in the next quarter?


Description
In addition to building in time for weekly and monthly planning, it’s also important that we build in time for quarterly planning. For some, it may be easier to break down annual goals into quarterly milestones and micro-projects. For others, you might work upwards from monthly themes and projects to quarterly plans.
A quarterly check in can look different for each virtual professional or business owner. From dedicating an hour for review to ear-marking a full day with the team to review and plan for the time ahead. Be sure to use the weekly, monthly and annual resources available to you in the workbook planner.

Research/Story
Create a quarterly review day. Put a date on the calendar every quarter can help to update certain tasks. Set a date in your calendar to look at the following quarterly items:
A. Review financials – sales, expenses, revenue. What needs to be changed? Where is revenue going? What is cash flow like? What about the accumulation of debt?
What is the financial data saying? What is that status around invoicing and accounts payable.
B. Update your metrics. Complete your statistics.
What are the things you are tracking in the Monthly Daily Trackers?
Over the course of the last 3 months ask yourself:

• What are the patterns you are noticing?      
• What has shifted?
• What has stayed the same?
• What are you surprised about?
  

C. Note programming/services delivered:

• What have you been doing?
• What has been selling?
• What engagements did you get – speaking, coaching, training?
• How much volume of work have you been involved in creating and/or delivering? What’s working? What’s not?

Ensure that you have a footprint or record of your work - What was the focus of your work, major achievements, contact details. Have you put a copy of material in your portfolio (digital or hard-copy)?
D. Focus on project related work:

• What are the projects you are STARTING?
• What are the projects IN PROCESS?
• What are the projects you are COMPLETING?

E. Examine resourcing:
What resourcing is helping you? Consider:

• Materials
• People
• IT

What are the contingency resources available to you and you ok?
F. Content Creation and Visibility:

• What is on your content calendar for the next series of time?
• What content have you created that you can scale or replicate?

Client/Customer log and statistics. How much coaching are you doing? What skills have you been leveraging?
G. Organizational Learning Check Point

• What’s working and what’s not?
• What key learning has been undertaken?
• What learning needs are there going forward?

H. What are the other things you want to review?
I. Looking ahead – What are the main priorities for the next 3 months?
What are the creative projects which are going to pull you forward?

Activity
Schedule in 15-30 minutes to undertake your quarterly review. It might include a selection of these questions listed above.

As part of the review you might also undertake or revisit any self-assessments such as Wheels you have completed.

In both the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, I have included a Wheel of Small Business Mastery (page 8 in Coaching Business Builder, or page 27/28 in PlanDoTrack) and/or Virtual and Remote Work page 14 in PlanDoTrack).

Take a few minutes to score yourself and revisit where you are at. What has shifted? What new skills have you learned or started to master due to use? What new skills are required on the horizon?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
In addition to the wheels there are four sets of quarterly tools throughout the two planners. Be sure to take some time to explore these tools in Section 5 of the Workbook/Planner:
Quarterly To Dos – Use this to capture key to-dos in each of the 4 quarters of the year. Some professionals will use this as a warehouse over the course of the year.
Quarterly reflections: Use the chart to capture:

• Projects
• Achievements
• Learning
• Opportunities

Quarterly Planner Sheet: Use the one page to identify your top 5 goals for that period, identifying projects, also highlight key task on each month (5 weeks outline per month)
Finally, join Jennifer for a live or on-demand quarterly planning session where she provides you with a step-by-step series of questions to think about for your quarterly plan.

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

​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

​What do you do each month to capture your learning and what you’ve achieved? One of the favorite things I have enjoyed doing since launching the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner last summer was holding virtual month end planning sessions. These are a short paid program, which takes you through a series of reflective prompts and opportunities for capturing your learning over the last few months, and what you are planning for the month ahead.
 
While one hour might seem hard to find in your schedule, the benefit of having a focus for the next month is invaluable. Connect this with capturing learning (what worked well and what didn’t) from earlier months, makes it a very powerful process. 
 
Month end planning sessions are usually held on the last working day of each month from 6-7 am ET. Yes, it’s early, AND have you read the literature on what successful people do before breakfast? I’ve moved into my 2nd year of starting work at 5 am ET. I am not sure how much of the creative projects which fuel me, I would be able to achieve without this time.

If you are not an early bird, the good news is that this month's Month End Planning session will be held on Friday March 29th from 3 - 4 pm Eastern/New York on zoom. Those joining me for this paid one-hour one-off program will benefit from getting a chance to do a Quarterly Review as well. More info and registration at the top of this page.

We are going to be exploring questions related to your achievements, learning and plans for the next month and quarter.

If this is a topic of interest to you, be sure to check out the Facebook Live I did earlier today which is now posted at the PlanDoTrack Facebook Page, as well as this article "Create a Pause for Clients via Quarterly Reviews or Retreats, I wrote for the Coaching Tools. You can read that article here at their site.

Hope that you will join me for the month end planning session later this month! You can sign up here.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

​Has spring sprung in your part of the world? We are just around the corner from Q2 and I thought it would be useful to focus this week’s blog post on 10 Questions to ask in setting your Q2 goals.

1. How am I on target with my 2019 goals?
2. What were my major accomplishments during Q1? (Think about yourself and your team?)
3. What systems helped? What systems need attention?
4. Where is revenue/sales/impact coming from?
5. What activities are giving me/us results?
6. What can I do to magnify these?
7. Where do I need to become more efficient in my work? More effective?
8. What needs attention?
9. What am I doing to build relationships?
10. What are the items and conversations which are important to note and carry forward?

When did I last revisit my SWOT?  (A key strategic planning tool is the SWOT – if you are not familiar with this, be sure to check out the exercise in description of Section 4 of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner)

What is going to provide you with efficiency and effectiveness for Spring?
​
Best wishes,
Jennifer

Week 12 Focus – Systems
Focus Question: What are the tasks and activities which need to appear seamless in your work, like the same person is doing it, whether the task is completed in Toronto, Las Vegas, London, Auckland, or Shanghai?

Description
Systems help us scale a business, reducing the time to do things, ensuring tasks are done consistently, and enabling us to accrue information so we can learn, and pass on to others as our team grows.

In growing a virtual or coaching business there are five key areas which can be important to focus on. This is an area we continue exploring at both the Teams365 Leadership Lab (for virtual and remote professionals) the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (an annual group focused on coaching business development).

If you are a remote or virtual worker, as the team context becomes more fluid with people becoming part of matrix teams where things may be one differently, systems create clarity and efficiency. They also help to capture key institutional learning as organizations grow, making it easier for people to step into roles that others once held.

As a business, systems help us automate and scale, reducing the time to complete tasks that may not require as much effort.
​
Common areas which entrepreneurial businesses or virtual workers may find a focus on are:

• Sales and Marketing – Promotion
• Customer and Client Supports
• Registration and Onboarding
• Financial – Budgeting
• Communication 

Activity
Review the systems you have available to you in your business or work. What helps streamline? Ensure consistency? Allow you to scale?
What are the areas you want to focus more around?
Who can help you build your toolkit in these areas?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to Section 3 in the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack for more on systems.

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

“Journal what you love, what you hate, what's in your head, what's important. Journaling organizes your thoughts; allows you to see things in a concrete way that otherwise you might not see. Focus on what you think you need to…” – Kay Walkingstick

Did you know that for the last few months I have been sharing weekly journaling prompts over at the Teams365 blog? 
 
Dedicating short amounts of time each week to pause and focus on what’s important to you can become an important practice in terms of reflection and learning.
 
For many years I kept a regular journal, documenting my life and experiences while I lived and worked overseas. It was an important vehicle to capture experiences and memories, identify learning and work through insights.
 
For many of us (myself included) life may seem pretty standard, it can be valuable to building reflective pauses on a regular basis. It can also be useful in business to create regular pause points to note what is working, and what is not.            `
 
Here’s a selection of 9 of my favorite weekly journal prompts –









Grab a pen and your journal and I hope that you'll enjoy capturing some thoughts as we usher in spring later today!
​Best,
Jennifer

​

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