​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

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

Stay Connected

I'm very excited to announce the release of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and will be released on December 14, 2018. Check it out and pick up your copy now!

Perhaps you are:
* a full time remote or virtual team member, connecting with team members across the country or the world
* a professional who works from home several times a week, connecting physically with the office 1-2 times a week or month
* the owner of a virtual business, enjoying the #laptoplifestyle OR
* in the process of creating a side-gig that embraces the freedom of a non-brick and mortar environment

Part workbook, part planner, it’s geared for virtual and remote team members, leaders and virtual businesses. Based on the success of the release of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner I launched in July, I’ve customized the workbook for the virtual and remote team space.  As many of you may know, I'm a former virtual team leader and program manager myself, operating and leading teams remotely since the 1990s (pre-internet days!). Direct and indirect support through coaching, training and consulting to virtual and global teams and organizations has been a mainstay of my company, Potentials Realized, since I opened the doors in April 2004. I'm so excited to finally have a resource I can offer for those working remote and virtual!
It’s an analog, desk sized calendar, 288 pages in length, to reflect the importance of having one “Go to” resource to place your “To Dos”, project ideas, content plans and monthly reflections.
Divided into four sections, the workbook  (100 pages) covers:
Virtual and Remote Business Foundations – for teams and also businesses. This includes a series of skill checks and some of the latest stats on virtual and remote work.
The Primer – A dozen practical and tactical tips and focus areas which you can integrate into your work,  business and/or share with  your team.
Marketing Essentials – Whether we are sharing what our virtual team is doing, positioning our services, or going out to promote on social media, the marketing essentials section covers the foundations of business planning, and covers 9 promotional vehicles virtual providers may use to get the word out about what they do. Given the virtual space, it's likely that leaders and team members may also be the "Face" of their organization, locally. While it's termed "marketing", advocacy is a large part of what we do in representing the brands we work for.

The Ecosystem – At the heart of a successful virtual team, business or leader is ourselves. The Ecosystem section focuses on who YOU are as a leader – your strengths, values and opportunities. This section has evolved out of the Inner Business leader Virtual Retreats I have hosted for years.
 
The planner section covers Annual, Quarterly and Monthly planning resources, along with a robust content planning section. Including more than 28 resources you’ll find:
·         Monthly Trackers – to track different elements for your business
·         Annual project planners
·         Quarterly Reviews
·         Monthly In Focus
·        Content Creation Resources

I look forward to hearing how you, and others you work with, enjoy the planner. Do share your comments and reviews, please!

For more support in these areas, do check out the PlanDoTrack Virtual Retreats I run on a regular basis. These 4 hour hands-on productivity virtual sessions are geared to get you planning, doing and tracking your most important business projects. Click here to learn more and join us. Upcoming dates include December 20, 2018 and January 8, 2019. Click here to learn more and register.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join us for a year-end virtual planning retreat!
Pre-order a copy of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals on Amazon (Available December 14). Check it out here.​