I’ve spent a lot of time in the last fifteen years sparking conversations around partnering, teamwork and collaboration. A common question I’ve asked is “what makes your partnership work”? 
​
Beyerlein, Nemiro and Beyerlein in their chapter entitled "A Framework for Working Across Boundaries" in The Handbook of Virtual Teams (pg 28, 2008) write that the ingredients for successful collaboration include:

• a shared goal
• relationships with purpose
• commitment towards each others’ success

What do you see as the elements required?

In the work I have done as a team coach, there are usually four factors which are mentioned regularly by the teams and groups I work with:

1. Trust
2. Complimentary Skills
3. Planning 
4. Leveraging Strengths

 
Without Trust, it is unlikely that the relationship will sustain itself and that goals will be achieved to the amount that they can be. Trust is the foundation of most great partnerships. How are you being transparent with each other? What are you doing to follow through on what you said you would do? What are you doing to offer feedback in order to further your relationship and results? Trust is one of the four cornerstones of great partnership and is linked back to the behaviors which can be seen.

The second cornerstone is Complimentary Skills. Complimentary skills are important in partnerships to help you accelerate or augment what is possible. If skills are too similar and you are cloning each other, it is likely that a huge blindspot will be created.

Planning involves having a shared vision, meeting regularly to pause, making adjustments and thinking about what’s working and what’s not. Having a shared vision for your work or projects is a key element of success.

Questions you may want to ask regularly:

• What's working well? What's not?
• What areas could use shoring up - vision, focus, skills, communication, roles?
• What are you learning about collaboration?

Finally, what can you do to Leverage Strengths? We naturally bring elements to the table. What are the things we can do to augment what we are naturally talented with? Our talents/strengths usually create a unique mindset or approach to our work. In the partnership, how is each person uniquely positioned?

All 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 these Instagram accounts @coachingbizbuilder & @remotepathways!
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

Are you a remote professional? Listen into the Remote Pathways Podcast on your favorite podcast player!

​Week 39 Focus – Team Development: Understanding How Teams Operate
Focus Question: What does your team need right now?

 Description
In growing a team, it is important to understand the arc of team development. Teams naturally move through the process of what is commonly referred to as Tuckman’s Model. This series of stages from Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. At different stages team and groups have varying needs. 
 
Here’s what I shared about the five stages of Tuckman’s model in a Teams365 blog post:
 
The forming stage occurs when groups or teams are coming together, and/or are being joined by new group/team members. Key needs at this stage include safety, connection and understanding what expectations are. As coaches, it is important at this stage to encourage dialogue around expectations, group or team agreements (or "how we want to operate/get along") and connect people with each other as well as with you.
 
By the second conversation, groups are often into the Storming Stage where they are asking themselves "What? So, who are we? What's this all about?". This is where conflict starts to emerge and can be very overt (visible) or under wraps (i.e. people choosing not to engage and double-booking themselves). Conflict is a normal and healthy part of group development when they have the tools and skills to learn to work across differences. We can support groups and teams as coaches sat this stage by supporting them with a process and tools that help them gain clarity about who they are and what it's all about.
 
As groups and teams move through Storming and start to create their own identify they move to the Norming stage. We may start seeing the group really start coming together in the second or third group coaching conversation, or even in the morning of a multi-day program. As coaches we can support the process by encouraging dialogue around roles, key goals they are working towards collectively and the purpose of the group or team.
 
The next stage in Tuckman's Model is Performing. At this stage, the group or team has everything they need and clarity around what they are doing so they can get the work done. As coaches, we can support teams and groups at this stage for pausing to reflect on what's working, what's not, what needs a tweak and what's going to support their results.
 
Groups and teams will end - whether it is a team member leaving, a project team winding down, or a group disbanding. In the Adjourning stage we want to create the space for people to acknowledge their achievements, learning and start looking at next steps.
 
Activity
Questions to consider:

• What stage is the group or team you are working with right now?
• What can you do to support them? What do they need from you?

I go into greater detail about Tuckman’s Model in most of my books, given that the stages play out in both in-person and virtual teams.

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
As you consider the different relationships you are in, what stages are you at?

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

Week 33 Focus – People Management 101
Focus Question: What makes your people exceptional?

Description
People are at the heart of any great business, or team. People management is a critical element for success.
If you are a first-time team developer there’s lots to learn. It is often said that the move to first time supervisor or manager of people is the largest step you’ll ever undertake during your career. In PlanDoTrack, I explore core skills needed by both team leaders and team members. Given the autonomous nature of virtual and remote work, it can be beneficial and valuable to build these skills across an entire team – not just with the leader.
As a leader of people, there are a variety of different conversations you will engage in. Here are several of them:

• Performance conversations
• Delegation
• Prioritization
• Helping you do your best work – strengths conversations
• Mentoring or advisory conversations
• Change – what’s not work and why

As people leaders, we will want to keep in mind these team development and motivational foundations:

• We are motivated by both internal and external factors (Internal factors include= Learning, Growth, Achievement, Mastery - External factors include= Promotion, Reward and Compensation);
• We want support in different ways (regular check-ins vs “let me get on with my work”);
• We want to give feedback in different ways;
• We want to receive feedback in different ways;
• Hearing something once may not be enough;
• Being shown what it can look like, or different samples of work, can be helpful in creating a visible path.

Team development is a process. Different types of team development activities are required throughout the year. From team check-ins to retreats, ask yourself:

• What’s the best activity for the moment?
• What’s the most important thing for the team to focus on right now?
• What’s the best vehicle?
• When do we really need to get together?

In working in a virtual or remote space, all of us have the need to be a good people leader - not only formal managers - as we get work done through others.
 
Activity
Consider your skill base right now. What is one skill area you could become more effective in to boost your impact as a people leader?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Complete the Wheel of Virtual and Remote Work in PlanDoTrack and review the skills listed in Section 1 of PlanDoTrack. What do you notice? Where can you improve?

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

​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