(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.
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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

Week 17 Focus – Content Creation
Focus Question: What role does content creation (or distribution) play in your world?

Description
At the heart of many virtual organizations, and service-based businesses is content creation. Whether it is designing a new course, writing a blog post, leveraging a series on Instagram, content creation is key. This is why the CBB and PlanDoTrack, includes the Content Pages. As a reminder, included in the Content Pages Section are:
Monthly Content Trackers – Use this to capture what you are posting every day of the month. Include the streams you are posting on, how many visits, likes, comments or other things in notes. You have space in the bottom right corner to note any themes which you are focusing on for the month. This information becomes a gold-mine for years to come!
The Monthly Content Journal – Use these to capture one word reflections on the day . Perhaps you are doing some research. Maybe focusing on capturing new ideas, thoughts than need an anchor somewhere.
31 Day Challenge – Don’t just do it once. Series create energy and generate community. What could you focus on daily for 30 or 31 days in your business to create a baseline, or spread the world?
Content Collaboration Plan - Who can you collaborate with? What do they do? Who do they serve? What could collaboration look like? Why would you want to collaborate or have a joint venture with them? What can you offer them in return for your partnership?

Activity
Review the different Content Tools available. How could you leverage these in your work, and around your current priorities?

What is the content you have created? Make a list and/or note how you might repurpose or repackage the material for different platforms. For example, if you have a blog post, could it be combined with others to create an article, or be converted into a video.

Review your current content calendars. What’s working? What needs to be developed? When are you scheduling in time to create content?

Need some inspiration? Check out the 31 Days of 1BizStepaDay. You’ll find it over at the CoachingBusinessBuilder website.

Connection to the Workbook and Planner

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

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the earlier weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track series

​For many of us, our work revolves around projects – some which last weeks, others which may last months or years.
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Throughout the Planners in the Coaching Business Builder and Plan Do Track, I invite you to consider the Projects, Tasks and Activities you are focusing on this month.
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As it relates to projects, these might include projects which are focused in on creating new processes or procedures or designing and running a program. Projects are usually the larger umbrella which houses discrete tasks and activities.

Tasks and activities are discrete steps. They might be as small as reviewing a report, or as complex as creating an e-book. You’ll want to consider what level of granularity supports you as a professional. Personally, I find that I may include larger projects first as a task, until I figure out how to break it down into smaller, more discrete pieces.

As you consider projects, tasks and activities, you might note every month what you want to:

• START
• Complete/Wrap up
• Continue

For projects that are completing and getting wrapped up, consider these questions:

• What do you want to note in terms of learning – what worked, what didn’t?
• What helped to facilitate and what derailed things?

Spending time on a monthly basis reviewing these elements can ensure that our ideas get carried forward. Seeing them in one place helps us to be more methodical, as well as be able to communicate what needs to get done when, how, and by/with whom. Projects also benefit from time estimation – estimating how much time it really takes to get something done.

What’s important to consider around projects you are managing right now?

Check out recent posts on the topic of Project Management from:
The Teams365 blog for Leaders
Coaching Business Builder blog for Coaches

​Best wishes,
​Jennifer

In a virtual team it is critical to build capacity given that people are working more autonomously. Time spent equipping team members with the tools to influence, be proactive and also communicate is key.
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This week I wanted to zoom into three skills related to coaching that may be valuable to your virtual or remote team. These skills are:

1. Goals
2. Listening
3. Questioning

I often am amazed at how many organizations have not invested time, or resources, into helping team members work around goals. While there are many frameworks including:

• SMART Goals
• CLEAR Goals – see John Whitmore’s Coaching for Performance writing
• WOOP Goals

I usually encourage organizations to consider what’s going to work best for you. A majority of clients I work with are aware of SMART Goals, which we morph into SMART – E Goals, E meaning Exciting. If our goals are not exciting or motivating, it’s unlikely that we will get them done.

As a quick refresher – SMART goals are goals that are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound.

What is important to note around GOALS right now?

Best,
​Jennifer

Week 16 Focus – Project Management 101
Focus Question: What are the projects you are involved in with your business and work right now?
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Description
As small business owners we will often be managing a series of projects. Not all of us are trained in the areas of project management. Quality of a project is determined by a balance of Time, Cost and Scope. If one of these qualities change, there will be an impact on the other two elements.

Projects may be as big as a book creation which is scaled over several months or years, or as discrete as writing a newsletter.

• Certain elements are key in managing projects
• What are the main tasks?
• What do you need to ensure you get done?
• Who is responsible for what?
• What are the tasks which are required?
• What will success look like?

Story - Project Management 101
As a former project manager my world was always framed in program starts, mid-points and end of project reviews. Spending time on end-of-project review helps us reduce learning and mistakes in a second iteration.
Regardless of how big or small the project is it can be useful to talk stop and pause and see how things are going.
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Some of the questions at the midpoint could include:

• What's working well?
• What changes are needed?
• What resourcing needs to change?  (Think: human resource is, IT, other resources…)?
• Who else can we learn from?
• Are there other projects with have experienced a similar status?

In the world of project management, we want to make sure that projects are on time, on scope, and on budget. This is often known as the triple constraint and in any given project these three elements are interdependent. Think about a triangle.
If time changes, the budget or scope needs to change. For example, if you had originally ear-marked 6 months to have a book published, and all of a sudden it needs to be ready in the next 3 months, you will need to explore:
Adding more resources – paying for rush service, or bringing other people on board to help
OR perhaps you need to make the book shorter, so instead of having it be 20 chapters, publishing it as a 10 chapter book this year, and aiming to publish Part 2 of the book as a follow-up next year. 

There is a whole slew of project management tools available. Tools to explore include Asana, Trello, or other apps. 

Activity
Consider a project you are working on. What is the time, scope and budget?
Break things down into project tasks and activities.
What are the major milestones?
What needs to be done by when?
What do you want to do each month or week of the project?  Map it out/create a timeline.
Who are the key stakeholders you need to engage with and keep updated?

​Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Every month use Monthly Daily Tracker to capture key learning from projects. Noting data (milestones, completions, meetings) may help with things like Time Estimation, Process mapping or other learning for this project or others.
As you complete your Monthly To-Dos each month note any projects, tasks and activities you are working on.

There is space in each of the Monthly One-Page Planners to note projects you are starting, continuing and ending.

You can also adapt the Content Trackers or monthly trackers to track the different stages of the projects you are engaging with.
 
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
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“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” – NAPOLEON HILL
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No person operates alone. Relationships are key to our success in business. Our customers can be great advocates of our work. Likewise, fellow professionals may also be a powerful source in sharing the word and testimonial of our work.
What time are you dedicating to building, and maintaining, relationships with others?
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There are several tools included in the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner (for virtual professionals and remote/virtual teams) to help you focus on relationships. From the Top 20 list, to exploring collaboration more intentionally, I hope that you will put more of a focus on relationships this year.
Be sure to check out related posts on relationships and business in February 2019 at the Coaching Business Builder blog, as well as relationships and virtual business/teams at the Teams365 blog. 

Best,
​Jennifer

It’s likely that your virtual and remote team may not get the support they need. As I often write “Out of sight should not equal out of mind”.
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In a virtual and remote team, it can be very useful to provide peer support across the team. This might include things such as:

Mentoring pairs – If there are certain skills people want to develop, is there a way to create mentoring pairs across the team?

Peer partners - A valuable activity can be assigning peer partners across the team on an annual basis. Whether formal, or informal, having a partner people can meet with and ask questions to, can be valuable in sharing learning.

Job shadowing – Another interesting, and valuable, experience can be job shadowing virtually, where a more junior person is paired with a more senior team member. They may shadow meetings virtually and learn more about the behind the scenes work experience by co-working virtually. Consider how you might create a “take me to work day”.

Formal coffee break/meal sharing time – We learn a lot from each other informally. What are the informal pauses you can create for the team? This might involve coffee breaks where people can drop in for a chat once a week or every few weeks, or a lunch time potluck.

Co-working experiences - Where people bring projects they are working on and work together real time on a virtual platform like zoom, checking in at the top of each hour and working for several hour bursts. A session held like this once a month or more frequently can be incredibly valuable in terms of “getting things done” and also supporting learning across the team.

What are the different ways you can build in more virtual connection time across the team? This is critical for building your team culture.

Wishing you the best,
​Jennifer

Week 15 Focus – Partnership Mapping
Focus Question: Who are the partners who can support you in your work?

Description
Being able to lean into others is really important in our work as coaches and virtual professionals. We may not be able to do everything. Being clear on what’s the key partnership are and what value you bring is important.
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Partnerships may range from coordinating projects together, to Joint Ventures, to Co-Design of Programs and Co-Coaching/Co-Facilitation.

Research/Story

• Who are you working in partnership with?
• What is important about that partnership?
• How is it benefiting you?
• How does it benefit them?
• What is the learning to carry forward?

Activity
In terms of mapping partnerships, it can be useful to identify what you are bringing and why.

​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.
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“There are patterns which emerge in one's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme”
― Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Chosen
​
At the start of the year there is often a push to pick a theme to anchor the year. In my past few years I’ve had themes like – Waterfall (2013), or this year’s theme of Magnify. These anchoring themes can provide a valuable touchpoint in terms of focusing effort, creating momentum or even helping with decisions. For example, this year when I am faced with competing options I am finding myself asking the question – which one would help me magnify things more.  Have you considered setting a theme as well for the month or quarter?

You’ll notice in many of the planning tools I have included in the planner sections of PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder, that there is space for you to note the theme.

To support you in picking a theme this year, you may want to take a look at some of the photos I share in a video I created earlier this year for setting your annual vision. You can view it here.

What is your theme this month? 

Best,
​Jennifer

The PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner is geared to virtual and remote team members. As I wrote in last week’s post, this month’s focus is going to be in the overlooked area of virtual and remote teams.

Spending time more intentionally on on-boarding virtual team members can go a far way. Today’s post reaches back to a post from the Teams365 blog in 2018 – Questions New Virtual Team Members May Have.

Here’s what I wrote,
“While this list is no means comprehensive, some questions new virtual team members may have, and areas you will want to cover (in an orientation or on-boarding program) are:

Team Issues:

• What is the culture of the team? Remember, how are things done around here.
• What are the team priorities?
• Who is on the team? What are their strengths?
• What could you reach out to them for?
• What else should the new team member know about the team and its focus?

 
The new team members’ role

• What are the roles and responsibilities of the new team member’s role?
• What key priorities and deadlines are there?
• Who will they need to reach out to?
• What feedback loops are there?
• What is expected in terms of performance?

 
Relationship between the team leader and new team member:

• What are your expectations of me as a team member? Team leader?
• How do you like to be communicated with?
• What are the issues I should surface directly to you? When?
• What are the things I should keep in mind in terms of reporting? Connecting with others on the team?
• What issues should I call about? Email about? Use the web about?

 
Who should I reach out to around:

• How to do things?
• Technical IT issues

What other issues are important to note?

Best,
Jennifer