Focus Question:  What matrix teams are you part of? What makes it work?

Description
Four Keys for Making the Matrix Work:

1. Create Shared Expectations. Given that your staff member will be managed by two or more sets of people, creating shared expectations among the three (or more) of you is key. Who do you report to on what? What does success look like to all the parties involved? What are everyone's various expectations and priorities? How do these align? Conflict?

2. Clarity. Clarity around roles and responsibilities, reporting relationships, goals and who does what is key in successful matrix management. Taking time to be extremely clear is key to success. Having a plan and process in place to address lack of clarity issues can also be important.

3. Checking assumptions. Given that matrix management relationships often occur at a distance, it is important to check the various assumptions. Assumptions about priorities, flow, pace, quality may be a starting point for discussion on a regular basis.

4. Frequent touch points and adjustments. Regular and frequent touch points amongst the three parties can be very useful, along with an understanding that regular adjustments will need to be made. In my former world of work, I usually tried to aim for quarterly or semi-annual three-way meetings (both supervisors and employee). While this took some planning time, it was often identified as a critical success factor.
Originally published as https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-594-matrix-management-4-keys-to-making-it-work)

​Who do you have in your relationship web?

Activity
Note the conversations you want to have with those you are in matrix relationships with. When are you meeting as a group of three? What are the things you want to have discussion around?
 
For more on this topic check out:
Teams365 blog posts on this topic over at Potentials Realized.com 

Including:

• Teams365 #595 – Matrix Teams – Where’s the Loyalty?
• Teams365 #596 – Matrix and Goal Setting
• Teams365 #602 – Matrix Management – Top Tips

All the 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 are the key relationships you need to develop?
 
Description
Earlier this year I did a series of calls entitled “No Person Is An Island”. If you pick up my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, you’ll see me use that term a number of times.

Business success is often linked to our relationships. And the saying “no person is an island” reflects that we operate in connection with others, even if we feel isolated as a remote worker.
​
If we are part of a team, it’s likely that we have a boss, peers, and even those we manage. We also may need to interface with both internal and external stakeholders on a regular basis.

Activity
For each key relationship, work through the questions listed here.
 

For more on this topic check out:
Check out the Top 20 Activities in PlanDoTrack, as well as the Relationship Mapping Exercise.

Enjoy!
​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 going to make your meetings more productive?
 
Description
In the remote space we may find ourselves buffeted by meetings at all times of the day. Are they the most effective? Get into the practice of asking yourselves the 8 Essential Meeting Questions in advance of each meeting.

Meetings may consume upwards of 40% of managers’ days and they are needed, especially in the remote space. What can we do to make sure they are effective?
For many years now I’ve been sharing these five tips with those leaders, team members and facilitators I work with, who are looking to amp up their meeting muscles. These were originally published in Teams365 #960. Read it here.

Five quick tips for making meetings more effective include:
​
1. Be clear on the purpose of the meeting. Is a meeting the best way to handle this?

2. Be clear on who needs to be at the table. Does everyone need to be there for the full meeting? Who might be needed in order to provide information? Decisions? Authority? Make sure you know who will need to be there or else it may mean another meeting. Having everyone there all the time may actually slow the meeting down. At this point, you will want to start considering who needs to be there, when.

3. What is the outcome you desire? What are the 3-5 tangible takeaways you want from the meeting? This question will help to reinforce what the purpose is, and who really should be at the table.

4. What decisions have been made? What outcomes are expected, and what are the timelines? Who is responsible for doing this? Tracking it? Reporting on it? What will follow up look like? Being granular in this stage is key to success. Many times, it is glossed over. Be sure to leave sufficient time to summarize key decisions made, and implications of this.

5. Keep to time. Time management is an art form with effective meetings. Being too lax with time can lead to frustration and disengagement. If timing tends to fall off, assign someone a timekeeper role, and put your stronger facilitator in the chair seat to keep the meeting moving. Tangents don't always benefit meetings.
The cost of NOT undertaking meetings is high. What’s the right balance for your team in terms of sharing information and also making them most efficient?
 
For more on this topic check out:
Effective Virtual Conversations Chapter 9 – In Focus: Virtual Meetings of All Stripes

Best wishes, 
​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 systems will help you scale and streamline?

Description
Systems help us scale things. They are what helps us magnify our presence, even if we are a small company. Systems may link into automation to reduce the time spent on tasks that are not a “value add”.

In the remote space, systems also ensure consistency. This is critical if we are one of many people in a program. If I am offering something here in Toronto in a certain way, or with a certain promise, things are done the same way via my colleagues in another location.

In order to ensure systems don’t just become a “thing” we will want to ensure that we are also having a discussion around the values that underpin a system. So, for example, if we have a value of being “high touch” our systems for client onboarding may also reflect that. There may be personalization and a human touch behind that part of the work. What might be automated instead are some of the financial pieces of the work. 

​Activity
Think about these four areas of work – learning, project management, financial and communication. What new additions could you add to help amplify your efforts?

For more on this topic check out: 
​Section 3 of PlanDoTrack

All the 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.
​

Focus Question:  What ways do different partners like to communicate?

Description
Communication is one of the cornerstones of exceptional remote work. What can you do to boost your communication skills in service to your clients?

Communication can take many forms as a remote worker – from text, to instant messaging, to voice mails left in Voxxer, to messages in Slack.

Part of the challenge of remote work is learning the right communication channel for the right type of message. Sending an important message to our boss for discussion is likely to be better done by phone or email than IM. Sharing a quick tip with a co-worker who needs a response NOW is probably better done in a quick IM than a full-blown email.
​
Basic components for communication:

• There are two parts to communication – the message and what’s interpreted. What are you doing to check in that your message was received as it was intended?
• Be clear with your request – what are you asking people to take action on?
• Another key layer is to also think about people’s preferences. What is the best channel for the message and the person?

Activity
Consider your most important communication messages this week.
Ask yourself:

• What is the key message I need to communicate?
• What is the best channel?
• How will I check for understanding?
• How do I reinforce it?

 
For more on this topic check out:
Communication in general is the main focus of my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations. Be sure to read the relevant chapters – for example, chapters 9 – 11 if you are a virtual or remote team, or

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 type of peer support could you benefit from? What are you curious about learning about from your peers? (Knowledge, resources, tricky issues, hacks etc.?)
​
Description
Peer support is an often-underutilized component of any learning process inside, and outside, of organizations.

Peer support can take many forms:

Learning partners – Partnerships can be formed with members of the same team or different teams to provide a wider view of the work, role industry and/or organization,  Learning partners may be assigned specific questions that they explore together so they can learn more about each other’s roles, processes, skills etc.  Learning partners can also be used as part of larger training, with partners meeting in between modules to support each other’s implementation of skills.

Job Shadowing – This involves spending time with others and following them through day-to-day operations. Job shadowing provides a “birds-eye view” of how tasks are done.

Action Learning Groups – Groups of peers may come together and work real-time on current challenges and opportunities in an organization.

Peer Coaching – Connected with other learning initiatives, small groups of peers may come together for discussion, sharing and learning about what’s working, what’s possible and what’s challenging with their work and/or their role.
​
What else might be possible?

Activity
Consider the different opportunities you have in place for more peer learning and support.
What are the things you are curious about?

• How people do things? (i.e. organizing, systems, relationships, etc.)
• What people do and what they are responsible for?
• How they approach tricky issues?
• What resources they would recommend?

For more on this topic check out:
PlanDoTrack – Quarterly Planning Section and related questions.
Effective Virtual Conversations – chapters on peer learning.

Wishing you the 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: Who can you learn from? What new insights do you want to gain more information around?

Description
Mentoring is an extremely important relationship for professionals at all stages of their career. Mentors can help you see below the waterline of how things operate, understand what is needed, identify conversations you need to have, and also help you avoid pitfalls based on their own experience.

Mentoring is usually a different relationship than coaching and supervision. Mentors provide insights and advice based on their own work experience.

Mentoring has been found to have multiple benefits for both mentor and protégé including more confidence, clarity about what’s required, and some studies have even found reduced turnover and higher compensation. What do you see as benefits to mentoring?

Activity
Consider the areas you could benefit from having a mentor support you around.

Making Mentoring Work
There are several items which makes mentoring work including creating a roadmap of where you are going to go, having a plan, and being clear around your roles.

Mentoring typically has a fixed start and end. It can be beneficial to have clear GOALS around what the mentoring conversations are going to cover. Consider creating consistent meetings and a timeline or roadmap of where you are going.

Finally, it should be clear who is setting the meeting agenda, and what you want to accomplish in each conversation.

Be sure that you are clear on the roles the mentor and mentee or protégé will play.

Mentors can provide an important “inside track” of how things really get done in an organization or industry. They may also be someone you can take tricky issues to or seek alternative perspectives around.

While mentoring used to be seen as something only seasoned professionals offered, today the concept of “Reverse Mentoring” has taken root. Younger proteges are often teaching seasoned mentors’ key elements around new ways of working, technology and other topics. This serves to ensure that there really is a beneficial two-way relationship.

For more on this:
Check out sections 2 and 4 questions around Collaboration in both PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder. These sections will provide you with possible questions you will want to ask in establishing your mentoring relationship. There are also multiple blog posts on the topic of mentoring over at the Teams365 blog at PotentialsRealized.com. 

All the best, 
​Jennifer

​Check out the most recent Remote Pathways Podcast Episode which covers the topic of Strengths. You can listen to Episode 8 here, or on your favorite podcast player.

Focus Question: What are the skills you want to grow into?

Description
There are many skills which can help you stand out as a remote professional – here are the ones I shared in Effective Virtual Conversations for remote leaders. In fact, for most remote professionals we can benefit from skills in these areas.

What do you need to focus on in as it relates to skills in each area? What can help you grow? What areas have you had not exposure to?

As a remote worker it may be even more important to revisit these skills on a regular basis. Ask for feedback from others.
​
Looking back to last week’s post on the ecosystem of learning where we explored the different ways you can learn in the remote space, what can you do to expand your skills in these different areas?

Activity
Take look at your skills in each of these areas. Rate yourself on a 1-10 with 1 being low and 10 being high. Note what your focus is going forward, including how you want to grow or develop your skills in each area.

Note your ratings and consider what you want to do to grow in these areas you have highlighted. My top 3 areas of focus are:
1.
2.
3.

Take a few minutes to download this week's 52 Week for Remote Work one-pager on Remote Working Skills.

All the best,
​Jennifer

​Check out the most recent Remote Pathways Podcast Episode which covers the topic of Mentoring, Working from anywhere and systems. You can listen to Episode 6 here, or on your favorite podcast player. Also be sure to take a look at the episode download.

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.