Focus Question: What’s important to note about your work right now?

Description
This year we’ve taken a look at a wide variety of core topics for remote work – from delegation, to team development, feedback, to learning.

This week, and next, you will have an opportunity to take stock of where you have grown and shifted this year.

Growth doesn’t always happen on a straight path, and there may be many twists and turns along the way. This week take a look at the many milestones you have moved through. What are they?

Questions to consider:

• What were the major milestones throughout your year?
• What were your growth areas?
• What were the plateaus?
• What stands out for you?

Another key element of the year has been your vision. Have you gone back to review your vision?  If not, do that now. Notice:

• What was your vision at the start of the year?
• What major milestones did you meet or exceed?
• How did your vision shift?
• Even with a shift, how did it come to fruition?

You are invited to spend time creating your vision for the new year. Check it out.

Activity
 
Review your notes from the year, highlighting for yourself key themes, learning and accomplishment.

You may want to check out Jennifer’s recent year end video at her YouTube channel.

All the best,
Jennifer

Focus Question: What’s important about innovation for you right now?

Description
The world is a different place than it was at the start of the year, the decade, and even 90 days ago. This has implications for our planning and how we work.

Innovation has always been an important topic for teams, business owners and leaders in the virtual space, and today it's even more important.

What can we be doing to foster innovation for ourselves and others? In this month's post I thought it would be interesting to focus in on several different tools we can use to foster new ways of thinking.

There are several great resources for coaches to explore when looking to boost their toolkit around coaching for innovation including Coaching for Innovation: Tools and Techniques for Encouraging New Ideas in the Workplace – Cristina Bianchi and Maureen Steele. Check out their related website.

Activity
Innovation - Exercise #12 of The 40 Ways to Work with Visual Cards available at the Potentials Realized site.

Time needed: 10 - 30 minutes

Instructions:
Get group members to think about what they need to innovate around.
With this in mind, have them select a card which represents a new perspective on the situation. Alternatively, you could also randomly hand people a card.  If you are doing this virtually, provide the group with a series of photos they can choose from or show one.

Ask each participant to take a deep look at the photo (individually) and reflect on: In the context of innovation, what does this image invoke for you? What’s significant? If you were to apply this image to what you are innovating around, what would be possible?
After each person has done this, get each person to lay out their cards (or virtually share which one they selected). Depending on group size, either have people pair up, or have everyone look at each card. Give a few minutes to reflect on what innovation “Spark” is created by each card. Have people write this down.

In pairs, or in the small group give each person the opportunity to speak about what they are realizing about what’s next for them, or what’s new for them, around innovation based on the photos. If you are working with a team, you may simply have each team member select a photo of what innovation represents or means to them and have them share it.

Collectively ask the team to make up their own story or synthesis of all the cards.
​
Questions around coaching for innovation:

1. What’s another way of looking at that?
2. What’s important about making a change?
3. What does innovation mean for us?
4. Who do we need to collaborate with for innovation?
5. What mindsets do we need to shift in order to innovate more effectively?
6. What will help us be successful?

Wish you the best,
​Jennifer

Focus Question: What’s important to note about your work right now?
​
Description
Every quarter, I’ll be including a pause point to undertake a quarterly checkpoint. In addition to weekly and monthly planning, it can be valuable to spend time doing some quarterly planning. Looking across your goals and achievements over a three-month period, can provide a different perspective.

Activity
Earmark 30 – 60 minutes to undertake your Q1 checkpoint. If you prefer to do this in the company of others, consider joining me for a quarterly planning session.
Grab a pen and your planner or journal. You may wish to set a timer, giving yourself 3-5 minutes to reflect on and capture your thoughts around each of these questions.
Note the following:

• What have you accomplished?
• What are the things which are still needing to get done?
• What has been your key learning over time?

 
Over the last three months ask yourself:

• What are the patterns you are noticing?
• What has shifted?
• What has stayed the same?
• What are you surprized about?
• What are you doing to leverage your strengths?
• What strengths are becoming overmagnified?
• What habits are helping you? What habits do you want to put more attention around?

 
Note your programming and/or services deliver. Ask yourself:

• Where have you been spending your time?
• What have you done to prioritize? What’s working and what’s not?
• How much volume of work have you been completing?

 
For more on this topic check out:
PlanDoTrack – Quarterly Planning Section
Remote Pathways New Guide – Quarterly Checkpoint (Day 30)

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’s important to note about your work right now?

Description
Every quarter, I’ll be including a pause point to undertake a quarterly checkpoint. In addition to weekly and monthly planning, it can be valuable to spend time doing some quarterly planning. Looking across your goals and achievements over a three-month period, can provide a different perspective.

Activity
Earmark 30 – 60 minutes to undertake your Q1 checkpoint. If you prefer to do this in the company of others, consider joining me for a quarterly planning session.
Grab a pen and your planner or journal. You may wish to set a timer, giving yourself 3-5 minutes to reflect on and capture your thoughts around each of these questions.

Note the following:

• What have you accomplished?
• What are the things which are still needing to get done?
• What has been your key learning over time?

 
Over the last three months ask yourself:

• What are the patterns you are noticing?
• What has shifted?
• What has stayed the same?
• What are you surprized about?
• What are you doing to leverage your strengths?
• What strengths are becoming overmagnified?
• What habits are helping you? What habits do you want to put more attention around?

 
Note your programming and/or services deliver. Ask yourself:

• Where have you been spending your time?
• What have you done to prioritize? What’s working and what’s not?
• How much volume of work have you been completing?

 
For more on this topic check out:
PlanDoTrack – Quarterly Planning Section
Remote Pathways New Guide – Quarterly Checkpoint (Day 30)

Enjoy your reflections!
​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.
​

Welcome to the Remote Pathways 52 weeks series! Each week I’ll be bringing you an installment. Part of the tagline of my writing in the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner is that Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum. I hope that these weekly prompts will provide you with short, manageable action steps you can take weekly, which will create some momentum over the course of the year.

Activity
This week’s activity gets you connected with your vision for the year. Perhaps you’ve already created your vision but have put it away. Maybe you haven’t taken time to work on it yet. Spend 15-30 minutes working through the following vision questions:

• It’s the end of 2020 and I have…..
• _____ catches my eye.
• Wild success will look like…..
• Resources I need are:
• The pieces of your work for this year are…..
• My 5 priorities or big rocks are….
• Thinking about the fundamentals…
• I want to BE…
• Projects include:
• Partners include:
• Derailers…
• Habits…
• Enablers…
• My quarterly focus: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4
• My theme of the year…
• My next steps are:

Need to Know
Don’t just go through this exercise and forget it. You may want to condense your focus onto a one pager that you can keep it visible throughout the year.
I just wrapped up a coaching session with a group who had gone through a similar exercise last year at this time. One of the major success factors they mentioned was “keeping their vision visible throughout the year”. Visions help us through the ups and downs. They are the big picture we reach towards.
So what? – What’s important about this topic?
Our vision can help to clarify where we focus and what we say “no” to. A compelling vision will help our prioritization and focus. As Seneca wrote in Ancient Greece, “If a [person] knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”

Where to go?
If you have a copy of PlanDoTrack, check out the Vision Questions on page 99.
 
Now What? What will you do?
Take time today to either revisit your vision or work on your vision. Make it visible.

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.