Focus Question: What are you committed to as a team?

Description
What are you committed to, no matter what?
Teams are as strong as their weakest link. What are you committed to no matter what?

Focus Question:  What needs to be clearer for the team?

Description
Regardless, of whether we are face-to-face or working remote, teams are teams are teams.  Over the last few decades team effectiveness research continues to validate core elements which teams need in order to thrive. The ingredients come from the research of professionals including: Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams), Hackman and Wageman (A Theory of Team Coaching) and others.
 
Part of great leadership in complexity is about distilling things down to their core. When it comes to teamwork it can be beneficial to get back to the basics. When I work with teams, I like to share with them the following six elements which I call the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. These are six things that teams need in order to excel. 

​As you step into this week, as a team, take the pulse of where you are on a scale of 1 - 10 the second 3 areas needed for team effectiveness:
 
4. Shared performance goals
What are key goals for the team this year? What are key individual goals? How do your goals align? Overlap? What does success look like for each member? For the entire team? Does everyone have an understanding of the key goals of others on the team and how they feed into them?
 
5. Shared team practices
Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event. What practices support your relationships?
 
6. Clear Roles
How do our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities?

Activity
Where are we in each of the Six Factors? What requires attention?
For more on this topic check out:
Teams365 Team Leader Breakfast Café Call on the Six Factors.

Best,
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Co-host of the Remote Pathways Podcast
Potentials Realized – Coaching, Training and Consulting Services for remote teams, leaders and professionals 
 
Check out the most recent Remote Pathways Podcast Episode, where we explore the people, places and processes of exceptional remote work. You can listen to the latest episode here, or on your favorite podcast player.
​

Focus Question: What learning do you want to undertake?

Description
Learning can take many forms. As a remote professional, it can be very important to build in time for ongoing learning.
As I wrote in Effective Virtual Conversations, consider the following approaches to learning. It might include:

What are the things you are wanting to learn? What are the best modalities to learn these? Where else might you explore these learnings?

Activity
Identify the learning needs you have to do your best work. What type of learning is going to help you? Where can you access this learning? What do you need to schedule in? What else do you need to note?

Need to Know
In addition to the different types of learning, there are many different areas and bands you can be exploring around learning.
Just like this week’s quote, we will want to explore the various layers: actions, habits, values and destiny.

So what? – What’s important about this topic?
There are many different ways we can learn tasks. What’s going to support you with learning as you need it, when you need it and how you need it?

For more on this:
Check out the PlanDoTrack call on the Forgetting Curve – Spring 2019.
Check out chapter 3 of Effective Virtual Conversations, Jennifer Britton, especially page 11.

Best wishes, 
​Jennifer

​Check out the most recent Remote Pathways Podcast Episode which covers the topic of Vision. You can listen to Episode 4 here, or on your favorite podcast player.