Holiday Virtual Retreat - Saturday December 9/06
Haven Amidst the Holidays
10 - 3 pm (EST) - By Phone
Looking for some quiet time during the busy holiday season to reflect on 2006, and start planning for 2007?
Join me on Saturday December 9th from 10 am – 3pm (EST) for a five hour virtual retreat. Connect (by phone) with other busy professionals from across North America (and possibly around the world) as we:
* Reflect on the successes and challenges of 2006
* Explore our current level of satisfaction with our work and life
* Connect with our most important values
* Develop our personal vision (for work, life, family etc)
* Create an Action Plan for 2007
The group will meet every hour by phone for the first twenty minutes of the hour, and we will spend the remaining part of the hour individually working through creative exercises, designed to provide clarity and haven amongst this busy holiday time.
What participants receive:
* A retreat manual which contains the exercises for the retreat, as well as creative design space, along with follow up resources
* A follow up group call, scheduled for Thursday January 4 2007 from 7:30 – 8:30 pm (EST)
* A one-on-one thirty minute coaching session with Certified Coach Jennifer Britton
Participants will take away:
* The opportunity to refresh and recharge during the holiday season
* Clarity and focus on their level of balance in different areas of their life
* An understanding of their personal values
* Their personal vision story
* A personal action plan for 2007
Your investment: $75 if booked before November 29th, plus the cost of your long-distance phone calls. To register, please contact Jennifer Britton by phone at 1-866-217-1960 or by email at jennifer@potentialsrealized.com. Registrations will be accepted until December 8th. Regular pricing is $97 when booked after November 29th.
Registrations can be made by phone or fax (Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960). To download a registration form, please click here. For more information, please visit our Group Coaching Essentials website.
I hope that you will join me! Space is limited to 10 retreat participants.
With best wishes,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, CPCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Monday, November 27, 2006
What are Job Seekers looking for?
What are Job Seekers Looking for?
This month's ASTD T & D Magazine quotes interesting research found by Accenture regarding the organization characteristics that matter most to job seekers. What do you think they are?
Here they are in order of importance - the top ten organization characteristics that matter most to job seekers:
1. Offers challenging and interesting work - 60%
2. Recognizes and rewards accomplishments - 58%
3. Provides an opportunity for fast career growth and advancement - 44%
4. Is financially strong - 42%
5. Is people oriented - 42%
6. Offers flexible work arrangements - 41%
7. Is innovative - 33%
8 Is approachable - 27%
9. Fosters a team-oriented environment - 27%
10. Is a global company - 26%
What does your organization have to offer to potential job candidates? Are you surprised by these results? What do you have planned for 2007 to strengthen these characteristics? If you are a job seeker, do you agree?
Trends are forecasting a talent shortage in many industries across North America over the next 5-10 years as the baby boomers retire. How will this impact you?
I'd welcome hearing your thoughts with respect to these questions. Please feel free to comment below.
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, CHRP, CPCC, CPT
Potentials Realized
This month's ASTD T & D Magazine quotes interesting research found by Accenture regarding the organization characteristics that matter most to job seekers. What do you think they are?
Here they are in order of importance - the top ten organization characteristics that matter most to job seekers:
1. Offers challenging and interesting work - 60%
2. Recognizes and rewards accomplishments - 58%
3. Provides an opportunity for fast career growth and advancement - 44%
4. Is financially strong - 42%
5. Is people oriented - 42%
6. Offers flexible work arrangements - 41%
7. Is innovative - 33%
8 Is approachable - 27%
9. Fosters a team-oriented environment - 27%
10. Is a global company - 26%
What does your organization have to offer to potential job candidates? Are you surprised by these results? What do you have planned for 2007 to strengthen these characteristics? If you are a job seeker, do you agree?
Trends are forecasting a talent shortage in many industries across North America over the next 5-10 years as the baby boomers retire. How will this impact you?
I'd welcome hearing your thoughts with respect to these questions. Please feel free to comment below.
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, CHRP, CPCC, CPT
Potentials Realized
Monday, November 20, 2006
90 Days Biz Success Program starts January 8th
The Biz Success 90 Day Group Coaching program
Are you looking to move your business forward in 2007? I am excited to announce new 2007 dates for the Biz Success program.
This 90 Day program is designed for both new entrepreneurs who are looking to launch their business, as well as experienced entrepreneurs who are wanting a kick start to move their business to the next level.
This ninety-day program combines two group coaching sessions per month (by phone) along with one thirty minute individual coaching session with Certified Coach Jennifer Britton. Course participants also receive thirty-six business tips delivered to their email box, three times a week, as well as a toolbox of resources in the program workbook. Course size is limited to 8 participants to ensure individualized attention.
Benefit from the momentum created in a group environment, and join other business owners from across North America in this intensive business success program.
Participants will:
*Develop or refine their business vision
*Explore their unique strengths and abilities as a business person, identifying areas for improvement
*Identify opportunities for collaboration and partnerships with other business owners
*Develop their marketing strategy and budget
*Investigate how their business can leverage technology to build their client base and increase sales through an introduction to blogs, podcasts and other platforms
*Develop a concrete business action plan for 2007
One session will be dedicated to additional topics that matter most to participants.
The program includes
*7 one-hour interactive teleseminar programs;
*Bi-weekly topic module notes and resource links
*36 business tips delivered to your in-box, three times a week during the 90 day program
*Three individual coaching sessions with Coach Jennifer Britton (30 minutes each by phone)
*A group follow-up call one month after the program
Certified Coach Jennifer Britton is also a part-time Faculty member for Business Studies at the post-secondary level, and is a co-author of “Starting Your Own Business – A Guide for Women in York Region” (YSSTAB, 2006). Jennifer has worked with entrepreneurs in Canada and the US to successfully launch, market and expand their businesses.
Your investment: $149US/month or $375US/program (plus any long distance charges)
Next program begins: Mondays 7-8 pm (EST) January 8th
Group Calls: Jan 8, 22, Feb. 5, 19, March 5, 19/07. Final Call Monday April 2/07
For more information, please click the link above. The course size is limited to 8 business owners, so please register early. You can register by phoning 1-866-217-1960 or by emailing me at jennifer@potentialsrealized.com.
I will be holding a free information call on the program in the next few weeks -- if you would like to be notified of the call, please send me an email with BizSuccessJan in the subject line.
I look forward to hearing from you!
With best wishes,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, CHRP, CPCC, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Are you looking to move your business forward in 2007? I am excited to announce new 2007 dates for the Biz Success program.
This 90 Day program is designed for both new entrepreneurs who are looking to launch their business, as well as experienced entrepreneurs who are wanting a kick start to move their business to the next level.
This ninety-day program combines two group coaching sessions per month (by phone) along with one thirty minute individual coaching session with Certified Coach Jennifer Britton. Course participants also receive thirty-six business tips delivered to their email box, three times a week, as well as a toolbox of resources in the program workbook. Course size is limited to 8 participants to ensure individualized attention.
Benefit from the momentum created in a group environment, and join other business owners from across North America in this intensive business success program.
Participants will:
*Develop or refine their business vision
*Explore their unique strengths and abilities as a business person, identifying areas for improvement
*Identify opportunities for collaboration and partnerships with other business owners
*Develop their marketing strategy and budget
*Investigate how their business can leverage technology to build their client base and increase sales through an introduction to blogs, podcasts and other platforms
*Develop a concrete business action plan for 2007
One session will be dedicated to additional topics that matter most to participants.
The program includes
*7 one-hour interactive teleseminar programs;
*Bi-weekly topic module notes and resource links
*36 business tips delivered to your in-box, three times a week during the 90 day program
*Three individual coaching sessions with Coach Jennifer Britton (30 minutes each by phone)
*A group follow-up call one month after the program
Certified Coach Jennifer Britton is also a part-time Faculty member for Business Studies at the post-secondary level, and is a co-author of “Starting Your Own Business – A Guide for Women in York Region” (YSSTAB, 2006). Jennifer has worked with entrepreneurs in Canada and the US to successfully launch, market and expand their businesses.
Your investment: $149US/month or $375US/program (plus any long distance charges)
Next program begins: Mondays 7-8 pm (EST) January 8th
Group Calls: Jan 8, 22, Feb. 5, 19, March 5, 19/07. Final Call Monday April 2/07
For more information, please click the link above. The course size is limited to 8 business owners, so please register early. You can register by phoning 1-866-217-1960 or by emailing me at jennifer@potentialsrealized.com.
I will be holding a free information call on the program in the next few weeks -- if you would like to be notified of the call, please send me an email with BizSuccessJan in the subject line.
I look forward to hearing from you!
With best wishes,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, CHRP, CPCC, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Friday, November 17, 2006
Creating the Foundation for Virtual Team Success
Creating The Foundation of Virtual Team Success
Copyright 2006 - Jennifer Britton/Potentials Realized. All rights reserved
I have been thinking quite a bit lately about virtual teams, in part due to a request from one of my client organizations. It's taken me back to my own work as a virtual team manager, and provided me with the opportunity to reflect on some of the success factors which made our virtual teams so productive, and also fun to work with. As I have mentionned in my former work I have managed teams stretching across 10 countries of one region as well as 10 regions of one country. This led to many challenges, but also tremendous opportunities for us as a team.
The following are some of the ingredients needed to create the foundation for virtual team success:
1. Ensuring a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities - As a virtual team, the need to clearly define roles and responsibilities becomes even more paramount than in face to face team environments. As a manager, or even team member, it is critical that team members (and managers) fully understand their roles and responsibilities, reporting relationships, as well as where roles and responsibilities overlap. If you are part of a virtual team, are you clear on this?
2. Negotiating matrix management relationships - A matrix management structure exists when a professional may be managed by two different managers, delineated often by projects they are involved with. Given the nature of virtual teams, individual members may often be part of a matrix management reporting process. If this is the case, it is often beneficial to have a three way discussion between both managers and the staff member, ensuring that everyone has a common understanding regarding who manages what, what reporting relationships exist, how work processes will be weighted and prioritized.
3. Working across cultural differences - Given that virtual teams are often global in nature, or even cross-continental, it is important that cultural differences are understood. Differences may exist along several continuum, including prioritization, language, the concept of time and management. Exploring individual cultural differences as well as creating a common ground and way of working for the team.
4. Creating opportunities for face-to-face interaction - The effectiveness of virtual teams can be greatly enhanced by budgeting and planning for face-to-face interaction at least once a year. A multi-day retreat can serve as a forum for getting to know each other, creating a shared workplan, discussing strategic directions and creating a shared vision for the team and its work.
As a former virtual team manager I have seen the transformational results from multi-day face-to-face retreats with my virtual teams. Even by harnessing the best technology, we cannot replace face-to-face interaction. Although budgeting and advocating for these processes seemed daunting at times, my managers were quickly won over by the results of our first annual retreat.
I now work with virtual teams to facilitate these types of retreats, so if you are interested in discussing what is possible for your virtual team, please feel free to contact me.
5. Developing a common vision -- I have made reference to the importance of developing a common vision. A shared, common vision, understood by all virtual team members acts as an important anchor for decision making, accountability and results. There are a number of vision processes which can be undertaken, depending on the needs of the client. Developing this in a face-to-face session, at the start of the virtual team creation is ideal, although creating this mid-stream will also bring benefits to the team.
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts -- what other success factors do you see as important for virtual teams? Please feel free to comment below.
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, CPT, CPCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
http://www.potentialsrealized.com
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com
Jennifer Britton, CPT, CHRP, CPCC is the founder of Potentials Realized, a Canadian based performance improvement company. Jennifer works with organizations who are looking to accelerate their business results through improved teamwork and performance issues. Jennifer is a Certified Coach, Human Resource Professional and Certified Performance Technologist. She has worked with corporate, non-profit and governmental clients in four continents. For more information, please visit www.potentialsrealized.com.
You may reprint this article free of charge in your newsletter, magazine or website/blog, provided that they are unedited and the the copyright, bio and contact information appears with each article. Articles appearing on the web must provide a hyperlink to our site. Please provide us with a courtesy copy of the print or email issues containg the article, or the URL of the article site. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!
Copyright 2006 - Jennifer Britton/Potentials Realized. All rights reserved
I have been thinking quite a bit lately about virtual teams, in part due to a request from one of my client organizations. It's taken me back to my own work as a virtual team manager, and provided me with the opportunity to reflect on some of the success factors which made our virtual teams so productive, and also fun to work with. As I have mentionned in my former work I have managed teams stretching across 10 countries of one region as well as 10 regions of one country. This led to many challenges, but also tremendous opportunities for us as a team.
The following are some of the ingredients needed to create the foundation for virtual team success:
1. Ensuring a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities - As a virtual team, the need to clearly define roles and responsibilities becomes even more paramount than in face to face team environments. As a manager, or even team member, it is critical that team members (and managers) fully understand their roles and responsibilities, reporting relationships, as well as where roles and responsibilities overlap. If you are part of a virtual team, are you clear on this?
2. Negotiating matrix management relationships - A matrix management structure exists when a professional may be managed by two different managers, delineated often by projects they are involved with. Given the nature of virtual teams, individual members may often be part of a matrix management reporting process. If this is the case, it is often beneficial to have a three way discussion between both managers and the staff member, ensuring that everyone has a common understanding regarding who manages what, what reporting relationships exist, how work processes will be weighted and prioritized.
3. Working across cultural differences - Given that virtual teams are often global in nature, or even cross-continental, it is important that cultural differences are understood. Differences may exist along several continuum, including prioritization, language, the concept of time and management. Exploring individual cultural differences as well as creating a common ground and way of working for the team.
4. Creating opportunities for face-to-face interaction - The effectiveness of virtual teams can be greatly enhanced by budgeting and planning for face-to-face interaction at least once a year. A multi-day retreat can serve as a forum for getting to know each other, creating a shared workplan, discussing strategic directions and creating a shared vision for the team and its work.
As a former virtual team manager I have seen the transformational results from multi-day face-to-face retreats with my virtual teams. Even by harnessing the best technology, we cannot replace face-to-face interaction. Although budgeting and advocating for these processes seemed daunting at times, my managers were quickly won over by the results of our first annual retreat.
I now work with virtual teams to facilitate these types of retreats, so if you are interested in discussing what is possible for your virtual team, please feel free to contact me.
5. Developing a common vision -- I have made reference to the importance of developing a common vision. A shared, common vision, understood by all virtual team members acts as an important anchor for decision making, accountability and results. There are a number of vision processes which can be undertaken, depending on the needs of the client. Developing this in a face-to-face session, at the start of the virtual team creation is ideal, although creating this mid-stream will also bring benefits to the team.
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts -- what other success factors do you see as important for virtual teams? Please feel free to comment below.
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, CPT, CPCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
http://www.potentialsrealized.com
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com
Jennifer Britton, CPT, CHRP, CPCC is the founder of Potentials Realized, a Canadian based performance improvement company. Jennifer works with organizations who are looking to accelerate their business results through improved teamwork and performance issues. Jennifer is a Certified Coach, Human Resource Professional and Certified Performance Technologist. She has worked with corporate, non-profit and governmental clients in four continents. For more information, please visit www.potentialsrealized.com.
You may reprint this article free of charge in your newsletter, magazine or website/blog, provided that they are unedited and the the copyright, bio and contact information appears with each article. Articles appearing on the web must provide a hyperlink to our site. Please provide us with a courtesy copy of the print or email issues containg the article, or the URL of the article site. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Do you have what it takes to succeed?
I am back from two fantastic international conferences (the CSTD 2006 Annual Conference and the ICF 2006 International Conference). It's been wonderful to be able to connect with other professionals over the past few weeks, as well as hear from some of today's business thought leaders. Over the past two weeks I've heard from some of today's innovators who are creating the edge - Dan Pink, Guy Kawasaki, Lynne Swift and Marshall Goldsmith. Each one of them has an incredibly powerful message for the business world -- from new ways of thinking (literally), to innovation, our relationship with money, to how to harness your team's fullest potential.
The title for this blog "Do you have what it takes to succeed?" stems from Dan Pink's book "A Whole New Mind" which Dan presented on at the ICF Conference. This was the second time I have seen him speak in the last year, both times equally powerful. The question I've posed arises from Dan's thesis of the need to foster new human abilities as we move out of the Information Age into the Conceptual Age.
As we look around in today's business environment, change is evident everywhere we turn. Are the old paradigms of disciplines, thinking in silos, and left-brain approaches still serving us? Dan writes about new abilities needed by the future's leaders -- design, story, symphony, empathy, play, meaning. All of these come from a more right brained approach to business and leadership. How much are you using your right brain? Which skills have you fostered.
Take a look at Dan's book. It's a great read. You can order the book off Amazon via his website.
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
www.potentialsrealized.com
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com
The title for this blog "Do you have what it takes to succeed?" stems from Dan Pink's book "A Whole New Mind" which Dan presented on at the ICF Conference. This was the second time I have seen him speak in the last year, both times equally powerful. The question I've posed arises from Dan's thesis of the need to foster new human abilities as we move out of the Information Age into the Conceptual Age.
As we look around in today's business environment, change is evident everywhere we turn. Are the old paradigms of disciplines, thinking in silos, and left-brain approaches still serving us? Dan writes about new abilities needed by the future's leaders -- design, story, symphony, empathy, play, meaning. All of these come from a more right brained approach to business and leadership. How much are you using your right brain? Which skills have you fostered.
Take a look at Dan's book. It's a great read. You can order the book off Amazon via his website.
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
www.potentialsrealized.com
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com
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