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”. 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 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
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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:
The new team members’ role
Relationship between the team leader and new team member:
Who should I reach out to around:
What other issues are important to note? Best, Jennifer 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 Welcome to Q2! What are your top 3-5 priorities this quarter? Where do you have them enshrined or written down? Have you completed your Quarterly Planning Pages? (found on pages 139-148 of PlanDoTrack) As we step into a new month, it is time for a new focus. On Mondays here at the PlanDoTrack blog I will be shifting my focus for the next two months to more of a focus on virtual teams. Whether you are an entrepreneur working with an extended team, or a corporate employee leading a remote team, you’ll find these next 2 months of posts useful. This month also marks the start of our 15th Year Celebrations. It is hard to believe but it was 15 years ago that I founded Potentials Realized. I returned back to Canada on April 1st, 2004, after having spent most of the 90s and early 2000s working across Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. An eye infection “gone bad” led to permanent vision impairment in one of my eyes, a significant factor in bringing me “back home to Canada”. While it’s easy to say now that everything turned out well, one of the reasons I’ve shaped such a virtual business has been in part to circumvent my limitations, as much as possible! I am thankful that technology has made the team support even easier today than it was 15 years ago, turning this into a very viable business model. I hope that you will join us throughout the next 12 months for monthly celebrations. I’ll be sharing different case studies of the work accomplished, and each month will have a different spotlight. You can download the 15th anniversary calendar here. And stay tuned at the PlanDoTrack Facebook page for announcements! Now onward to our April Focus….. The focus in April will be around virtual teams and on-boarding new members. In the virtual space, investing time in welcoming and on-boarding new team members is a very important function. This month I’ll be sharing a variety of posts to support virtual teams with the on-boarding process. It’s likely that you may not have a formalized process, or there may be one that is more geared to in-person work. I’ll be referring back to a number of Teams365 posts I have offered in the past, so if you have not yet found that resource, be sure to check out this sibling blog geared for leaders, team members and others over at my main site – Potentials Realized. Best, Jennifer 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 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 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:
On the Relationship front, we want to be sure to:
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 Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) “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 Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Now available - the 19 Productivity Tips On-Demand Program. 19 tips in 19 different areas. Join Jennifer for 2 live calls a month up to July 2019. Reserve your spot here. One of the favorite things I enjoy about the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners are the Trackers. I’ve included 12 sets of Monthly Daily Trackers in each publication, so that you can track the most important elements in your work (and life) over the course of a year. Making things visible, and intentionally tracking items, can provide valuable information and data. This can help us with our decision making, and prioritizing. Remote Workers might be tracking:
Virtual Businesses might track:
What are the elements you are tracking? Best wishes, Jennifer 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 Leveraging our time is as much about getting organized, as it is getting clear on what’s important. Against the backdrop of complexity, ongoing change and disruption, getting ruthless with our time management can be so important to many. As a business owner, or remote worker, this is especially true. We can’t get our time back. So, when we go down a rabbit hole (whether it’s doing too much research online, following a shiny red object or thinking we just need to learn “one more thing”), the costs can be tremendous. Not just in NOT getting things done, but in terms of our focus, our motivation and also our profit line! Discernment is about getting clear on what’s important and what’s not. It is about being clear of what’s going to provide impact now, later or never. As a remote worker or virtual business owner, we are do often have greater control over our time. Our colleagues and/or superiors may be hundreds of miles away, or several time zones ahead. As remote workers, it’s not always about how we manage our time, but how we get our results. Those who feel the crunch in getting something over the finish line is usually only us (and those loved ones around us!). With this in mind, what is the cost of not being discerning around where your time goes, or how clear your projects are, or what is a more important priority than another? As we embark on new projects, or start a new week, it can be useful to ask ourselves, and our stakeholders:
What questions do you want to ask as you decide one priority to another? Let us know using the comments below! Jennifer 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 Continuing in the theme of this month around time management and productivity, today our attention turns to Organizing Your Remote Workspace. As a virtual or remote worker, having an organized workspace can be challenging. Sometimes we may be working out of a space that serves many more people (think – the family or room mates), sometimes we may be on the move, and other times we may be needing to work off-hours. Getting organized in your virtual space is key to productivity success. This may look different for each one of us. Three areas you will want to consider getting organized around includes: · Reducing Distractions · Files #1 – Reducing Distractions – Take note of the workspace you have and the distractions which are common. If you are working in a shared space, what can you do to minimize interruptions from others, or enhance privacy? Could this mean changing your working hours, or flow of work? There can also be many visual distractions, from clutter to the pull of what’s around our periphery. Investing in regular time for clean up and decluttering can do a long way. This could also mean investing in a screen or other item that could serve as a barrier. Consider other elements which will add to your workspace including lighting and a clear and comfortable space to work at. Power sources and chairs may round out the list. #2 - Files Files and materials take all different shapes and forms. From digital to paper based, what are the files you are needing to keep at hand? How can you access them? What can you do to ensure they are secure? What organizing do you need to complete with them? #3 – Email – Email can become an all-consuming entity. While some jobs require that you are on a significant part of the day, can you experiment with windows where you shut down email? Dr. Gloria Mark found that when distracted, it could take us upwards of 22 minutes to get back on task. When you need to focus on “deep work” (reports, analysis, creating, thinking) what windows have you created for yourself? What else is going to help you focus and thrive in your remote work-space? Share with us the one thing that has made all the difference in your working remote. Have a great start to your week, Jennifer 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 Book a call with Jennifer As virtual and remote professionals, we often work interpedently and autonomously, with colleagues miles away and/or many time zones away. Having the motivation to do great work can be critical for success. Also key to remote work, is generating the momentum it can take when we are often a “one stop shop”, given that we are often responsible for many different facets of our work. We may be the face to customers, as well as a designer and book-keeper, all in the same week. Creating an annual theme and/or intention can help us lean into what’s important in our work. It can also be something we return to again, and again, throughout the year. I thought it would be interesting to have you experience a little bit of what I do in the PlanDoTrack Virtual Retreat which is take people through a series of reflective prompts and exercises. I've created a short 2 minute video which you can view below. Carve out a few minutes to view this video, noting the photos which resonate most with you, and how you want them to connect with your focus this year. After you have watched the video, take a few minutes to note what photos or images connected most. What theme can that point to you to for 2019? Having a theme for the year can create a powerful framework for Virtual and Remote Professionals. Just like a vision, they help us through the ebbs and flows of work. A quick reminder of some other content you may be interested in: 1. A few days ago I started to share the weekly 2019 series - 52 Weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking. It's a compendium, or supplement, of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner. For those that have a copy of either the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or the Coaching Business Builder, you may be interested in taking some weekly action around your planning, reflection and tracking. Each week I will be focusing on a different theme related to the book. They are geared to give you a chance to pause, reflect and apply. Posts will come out early Friday morning, giving you time during your week's wind-down to reflect and work through the related activities that day, over the weekend or early in the new week. The first one - Week 1 of the 52 Week Compendium - came our a few days ago on Friday January 4th. You can catch it here. 2. Do check out the 19 for 2019 Productivity Tips which have been posted over at the Teams365 blog. I’ll be sharing more as we continue to move though January. View the past Teams365 Productivity Tips here . Looking forward to continuing the conversation with you this year! Please pass on these links to others who are interested. Thank you! Warm wishes, Jennifer Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder Now Available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner – Pick up a copy today on Amazon Join us for a year-end virtual planning retreat! Is 2019 your year to move things forward through group learning and accountability? Join me for one of our annual groups - The Teams365 Leadership Lab (focusing on team leadership, virtual teams) The Learning Lab and Design Studio (focusing on program design) or the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (focusing on business development) Happy New Year! Thanks for joining me at the PlanDoTrack blog. This blog is geared for professionals of all kinds - leaders, entrepreneurs and team members. We focus on all things related to personal productivity, teamwork, leadership, impact and efficiency! Where do you really spend your time? What impact are you getting from your efforts? What’s your vision? These are some of the big picture questions I’ve been asking as part of the 19 for 2019 Productivity Tips. For the last month over at the Teams365 Blog, I’ve been including twice a week productivity tips over the last month, to gear us up for 2019. I thought it would be useful direct you to them, in case you have missed them. Be sure to check out the first six in the series: 1. Have a clear vision (December 4) 2. Where are you getting your results (December 5) 3. Consider your 80/20 (December 11) 4. Be ruthless with your time – it’s a non-renewable resource (December 12) 5. Know where your time goes (December 17) 6. Chunk it! (December 18) Best, Jennifer Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder Now Available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner – Pick up a copy today on Amazon Join us for a new year virtual planning retreat on Tuesday January 8th from 1-5 pm Eastern (on zoom) Is 2019 your year to move things forward through group learning and accountability? Join me for one of our annual groups - The Teams365 Leadership Lab (focusing on team leadership, virtual teams) The Learning Lab and Design Studio (focusing on program design) or the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (focusing on business development) |
AuthorJennifer Britton is the blogger behind the popular Teams365 blog, a daily,blog for team leaders and members since 2014. Her latest publication is the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner. Pick up a copy at Amazon. Pick Up a CopyUpcoming Programs
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January 2021
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