Questions for Leaders and their Teams

Some of the work I've been enjoying lately has been with teams - some at full day offsites, some as we connect virtually, and one where I get to meet with them face to face every few weeks. This year on our Potentials Realized Facebook page, I am posting weekly questions for leaders and their teams. These are questions you may wish to incorporate into your team meetings, or even circulate by email.

We know that high-performing teams have a clear vision, clear roles and shared commitment. Extraordinary teams aren't just born, they emerge out of conversation and work together.

I hope that you will continue to follow the weekly team and leader tips throughout the year at the Potentials Realized Facebook page. Here are the first eight questions from the first two months of the year:

1. What are your most important goals this year? What do you need to get there?
2. Which habits are working for your team right now? Which ones aren't?
3. What strengths exist on your team? How are they being leverage? How are your strengths being overused and perhaps creating a blindspot? 
4. What has been working in this so far this year? What do you want to be doing more of? Less of?
5.  What are the critical skills for your team right now?
6.  What is the conversation you NEED to have this week? What will be the benefit of having this conversation?
7. Where has the team been focusing so far this year? What's been working well with this focus? What changes may need to be made?
8. Where is the team getting the most traction and results right now?

Teams will continue to be a major focus of my work this year. As some of you already know, my next book will be focusing on team coaching. The new book - From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching, will be released in mid-June and is already available for pre-order at Amazon.

Best regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC

Leadership | TeamWork | Retreats | Coaching
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Email: jennifer {at}potentialsrealized {dot}com
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

New Article - Six Essential Skills for Teamwork

2013 has started off with a strong focus on teamwork for many of the organizations I partner with. I have a new article available online entitled Six Essential Skills for Teamwork which I hope that you will find useful. You can read it over at EzineArticles.com here.

Whether I am working with a team during a retreat, training program or coaching session we will usually explore many of these six essential skills I mention in the article:

1. Communication
2. Adaptability
3. Appreciation of Differences
4. Trust and Respect
5. Emotional Intelligence
6. Commitment, Accountability and Follow-through

 These are not the only teamwork skills required to make teams exceptional, however, they are an important part of the foundation and fabric of successful teams. How does your team stack up in terms of these skill areas? Which ones are you strong with? Which ones could use a bit of development? What might that look like - retreat, training, coaching, other?


Each week this year I will be posing a question for teams and leaders at our new Potentials Realized Facebook page. I hope that you will join me there to continue the conversation.


Have a great week!

Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized - Leadership, Teamwork, Retreats
Phone: (416)996-TEAM (8326)