Business Toolkit - The "Biz" Toolkit

Toxic Communication in Today's Workforce

2012-02-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I spoke at the HRPA conference here in Toronto on Toxic Communication and how it impacts performance. This seems to be a topic very prevalent in so many work places these days.

Toxic communication patterns can run the range of the gossip at the watercooler, to the rolling of eyes during presentations, the "here we go again", the subtle (or not) ignoring during meetings by leaving or disconnecting on a blackberry, or the more obvious name-calling or berating.

Toxic behavior is normal - what is not is when it goes to the extreme. My team coaching partner Sharon Miller and I typically use the following definition for toxic behavior -

A Toxic Relationship is a relationship characterized by behaviors on the part of the toxic partner that are emotionally and, not infrequently, physically damaging to their partner.

The cost of toxicity in today's workplace is huge. A study by Porath and Pearson (2009) found the following impact on employees:

48% decreased their work effort
47% decreased time at work
38% decreased work quality
68% said their performance declined
80% said they lost time worrying about it
63% lost time avoiding the person
78% said their commitment to the organization declined

Consider the following:

What toxic communication patterns are present in your organization? Within your team?

What is the cost of this?

What is needed to address/change the communication patterns?

Warm regards

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC

Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

Potentials Realized

Team Coaching, Facilitation and Training

Phone: (416)996-8326

Questions for Building Stronger Work Partnerships

2012-02-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, today's post deals with business relationships. Strong business relationships are critical for success across all industries today. A few years ago when I was writing Effective Group Coaching, I was asked about how to make co-facilitation of programs really work. It led me to write an accompanying digital chapter for the book. Whether you are co-leading, co-facilitating or working collaboratively, here are some questions to consider and discuss together:

1. What are the unique strengths we each bring? How do these overlap/intersect?
2. How do our skill sets and strengths compliment each other?
3. How do our skill sets and strengths create a blindspot? (note a blindspot is an area which you may not be aware of, or has an absence)
4. How do we individually and collectively define success for this work?
5. What does "quality" and "success" look like? (Be specific)
6. What is/are the priorities - individually and collectively?
7. What can we each be counted on for, no matter what?
8. If things go off the rails, what will you commit to doing?
9. What support and feedback does your partner require?
10. What support and feedback do you both need from the people/project you support?
11. What will you do to celebrate your successes along the way?

Have a terrific week!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Potentials Realized
Coaching, Facilitation and Training Services
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com
Phone: (416) 996-TEAM (8326)

Skills Needed for Collaboration

2012-01-26T09:32:00.000-08:00

In follow up to my recent post on Creating the Context For Collaboration, it's important to also think about the skills professionals will need to thrive in collaborative context.

Resmus, in Best Practices: How to Make Collaboration Work, indicates that employees will need skills in:

Facilitation
Team Building
Conflict Resolution/Negotiation
Brainstorming
Technology
Ethics

In my former work with the UN as a leader these skills were essential. I continue to see in my current work supporting teams and organizations make this shift that some additional skills are required at all levels. These skills include - For New and Current Employees:

Communication
Relationship Building
Influence
Emotional Intelligence (particularly enhanced Self Management, Relationship Management)

Where do your own skills in these areas lie? Which ones are strengths? Which ones need some fine tuning?

What other skills do you see as being essential in boosting collaboration?

We work with teams and organizations to boost these skills through intensive training programs (virtual and in person), staff retreats and 3-6 month group and team coaching processes. If you have any questions, please give me a call.

Have a great week,

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPT

Potentials Realized

Phone: (416) 996-TEAM (8326) | info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Creating the Context for Collaboration

2012-01-24T06:30:00.000-08:00

Collaboration is critical to success in today's economy. What context is required for a collaborative workforce?

Here's a quick definition that I often use for Collaboration from Beyerlein, Nemiro, and Beyerlein, 2008):

“Collaboration occurs when individuals work together towards a shared goal, completing the work is dependent on relationships with a purpose, and individuals working together in purposeful ways toward a shared goal are committed to one another’s success” (Beyerlein, Nemiro, Beyerlein, 2008)

As you consider the context for collaboration in your organization or team ask yourself:

How clear are shared goals within your organization? how are these communicated? Where might they be unclear?
How strong are your team work skills, enabling individuals to work together? What gets in the way of individuals working together?
Are relationships strong across the team/department/organization?
How purposeful are relationships? Do relationships exist to get work done?
What is the level of accountability for results? What is the level of commitment? What needs clarity? Shoring up?

What is the context for collaboration at your organization, or within your team right now? What actions will make it a more enabling context?

Have a great week

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton

Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

Team Coaching | Corporate Retreats

Potentials Realized.com | Group Coaching Essentials.com

Phone: (416)996-TEAM (8326)

Teamwork and Vision

2012-01-09T06:03:00.000-08:00

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. ~Andrew Carnegie

As we move into a new business year many organizations take a look at teams and what they want to create in the year ahead. It is certainly a popular time of year for planning and team building. How effective are your teams? What is the link between the corporate goals and individual contribution? How clear are team-members about this link?

Last year, we put a focus on leadership here at the blog. Most leaders recognize that their successes are linked to their teams successes. So this year, we are going to continue to focus on the interplay between teams and leadership.

I look forward to much dialogue throughout the year on teams and leadership. If there are some focus areas or questions you have that you'd like spotlighted on the blog this year, please drop me an email.

In the meantime, please check out the team and leadership tags to see what I've said/written over the past few years!

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Potentials Realized
Team Building and Team Coaching Services
Phone: 416.996.TEAM (8326)

Five Focus Areas for Reducing Silos in Your Organization

2011-11-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

Mid-way into fall, I am finally able to do some posting on the blog. I have a new article entitled "Five focus areas for reducing silos in your organization" just published online which I wanted to share with you. You can access it here.

Ask yourself:
What silos are present in your organization?
What is the impact of these silos - on People? Peformance? Team work?
If you selected one of these five areas to focus on this month, which one would have the greatest impact?

Please feel free to share with your colleagues and get the conversation started.

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2011)
Potentials Realized
Connect with us on our new Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/potentialsrealized
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jennbritton

Leadership - What Path are You Creating?

2011-08-17T11:02:00.001-07:00

Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Harold R. McAlindon

As leaders we are often called on to create new paths as we walk.

Ask yourself:

What new paths are you creating?

Where are you following? How does this serve, or not serve, the people you work with?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Team and Leadership Coaching
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

Tips for Making Your Next Meeting Work

2011-07-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

Making Your Next Meeting Really Work

The Death by Meeting syndrome is endemic in today’s work environment. Did you know that the average employee spends 25% of their time in meetings. Here are five tips for making your next meeting the best it can be.

Have a clear focus – Clarify what the purpose is, and be clear on the outcomes you want to achieve. Create an agenda, assign timefrwames to the itmes you deem necessary. Stick to the timeframes, and if you can finish more quickly – great, keep moving! You will also want to determine if two shorter, more focused meetings, can be as effective as one longer meeting.

Make sure that the right people are at the table. As you create your agenda, ask yourself - Who needs to be there? Who would be useful to have at the table to provide information on an item? To make a decision on an item? To take issues forward. Also, consider who doesn’t need to be there? It is important to recognize that decisions involving more group members take longer, so don’t hesitate to set up smaller groups or committees to take discussion forward, and report back to the bigger group.

Assign responsibility – Before moving off a topic make sure that next steps are clear. Assign responsibility to one person who will take action on the item and report back to the group. Standard coaching questions such as :What will you do? By When? How will we know? will come in handy.

Follow up with follow up and accountability – On action items and important issues, ensure that you close the loop on what action steps were promised last meeting.

Assess and Readjust – As you become more proficient as a group with really effective meetings, notice what is really working. What old approaches need to be abandoned?.

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Phone: 416.996.TEAM

Mapping Your Team's Strengths

2011-06-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

Professionals, and teams, flourish when they are able to use their strengths. Did you know that...

"When an organization's leadership fails to focus on an individual's strengths, the odds of an employee being engaged are a dismal 1 in 11 (9%). But when an organization's leadership focus on the strengths of its employees, the odds soar to almost 3 in 4 (73%). When leaders focus on an invest in their employee's strengths, the odds of each person being engaged goes up eightfold" - http://strengths.gallup.com

What are the strengths of your team members? How aware are they of these strengths? How are you creating environments for people to use their strengths?

A few weeks ago I worked with a wonderful organization who chose to invest time and focus on their team strengths, through focus and investment in an off-site retreat process. The day focused on really getting to know who was on the team, where the strengths lay, and what the gaps were. That, coupled with some skill development, can take a team a long, long way.

Great resources in this area are:
StrengthsFinder 2.0 - Tom Rath
Strengths-Based Leadership
Go, Put Your Strengths to Work - Marcus Buckingham

Consider the following:
What are you doing to invest in strengths? To help others identify their strengths?
Where do your team strengths lay?
What's missing? A gap? What's the impact of this?
What can you be doing differently to leverage the team strengths?

If you'd like to learn more about how coaching and/or retreats incorporating the strengths based approach would benefit your team or organization, please feel free to contact me. I would be happy to share some case studies of how this has benefited other organizations and professionals.

In closing, what can you do today to more fully utilize YOUR STRENGTHS?

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Phone: 416.996.8326
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Team Players - Who Are They? What Skills Do They Need?

2011-05-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

"Teamplayer: One who unites others toward a shared destiny through sharing information and ideas, empowering others and developing trust."
- Dennis Kinlaw

Ask yourself:
What are you doing to foster a team player mindset?
Who are your team players? What skills to they bring? What value does it add to your team?
What information and ideas are being shared readily? What is being held back?
How is the team "feeling" empowered?
What is the state of trust within the team? What needs to be shored up?

Overall, what's the one focus area that will move your team forward this week?

Have a great week!

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC
Potentials Realized
Team Coaching Services

High Performing Teams: What Will Move You?

2011-05-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I spoke to HR Professionals in Halifax regarding High Performing Teams. I often get asked what's the difference between a team and a high performing team?

Here are some of the characteristics which Kazenbach and Smith identified the following as differentiators:
1. A Deeper sense of purpose
2. More ambitious performance goals
3. More "complete" approaches to work (better work approaches)
4. Mutual Accountability - the recognition and importance of all being jointly accountable to team goals, in addition to their own responsibilities
5. Complimentary, and often interchangeable, skills

As you look at this list, consider what it would take to move your team towards high performance:

1. How many of these characteristics does your team exhibit?
2. In which area would your team's growth really make an impact?
3. What would it take to develop in this one area?

As we move into late spring and summer, it is always a popular time for Team Retreats/Offsites, Workshops, Group Coaching as well as Team Coaching Engagements. If you are interested in learning more about our services in these areas, please feel free to contact me directly or visit our Team Services page. A few dates for June and July are available for bookings and we are starting to develop fall programs with clients.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) - Also avaialble at Amazon, Wiley & Chapters
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com
Phone: 416.996.TEAM (416.996.8326)

Leadership - Harnessing the Diverse Styles of Your Team

2011-05-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

A great leader is in touch with the different needs and preferences of the group they lead. What are the unique styles that exist within your team?

I often undertake work with teams to explore the styles that exist, how these styles are complimentary and where they are not. We also look at how styles impact communication, leadership, conflict, teamwork, for better or worse.

What do you know about the unique working styles of your team? How are they contributing to your team success? How are they creating blindspots?

Some wonderful style tools you may wish to bring into your team work/building/conversations are the DiSc or even the PSI tool.

"Do you want a collection of brilliant minds or a brilliant collection of minds?" - R. Meredith Belbin

Have a great week!

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Phone: 416.996.TEAM (8326)

Leadership - What Makes You Different?

2011-04-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

As a leader, what makes you different? What makes you stand out? What do you bring to your team that no other leader has?

I was asked the question "What makes you different as a professional working on leadership development issues?" a few months ago by a prospective client a few months ago. I guess that my answer set me apart as they are a new client now.

As I reflected on my own journey about what has set me apart, earlier as a leader, now in my work with organizations, I realized that being a leader is often about deviating from the common path. As a 26 year old young woman I was tasked in leading a team of 100 staff and volunteers in the jungles of South America in the mid-90s. A lot of my seniors had their doubts. I look back at a very intensive 18 month period at the head of that project as rich with learning and setting the foundation for my later success. It taught me a lot about what I was capable of, and when it was critical to step back and let the team thrive as well. That was not always the most popular way of leading even 15 years ago, AND it worked. As a leader you can't do it all! Knowing about what makes you different, and not being afraid of "owning" that is key.

What sets you apart as a leader? What do you notice about where you are different? How that is enabling you, and perhaps holding you back at times?

As always, I'd welcome your thoughts and comments!

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Phone: 416.996-TEAM
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Leadership - Vision

2011-04-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

What's the vision for your work? Where do you want to be 6 months from now? 1 year from now? 3 years from now? What about your vision for your team?

It is quite easy to get caught up in the short term and urgent priorities which take our eyes off the horizon and pull us squarely into the hear and now.

Leadership vision is a critical success factor in today's marketplace. Here is what a number of writers have to say on vision:

" Vision is the art of seeing the invisible" - Jonathon Swift

"If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left if compromise" - Robert Fritz

"Nothing stops and organization faster than people who believe that the way you worked yesterday is the best way to work tomorrow" - Jon Madonna

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality" - Warren Bennis

Consider these questions moving forward:
- What is your strength as it relates to vision?
- Where would you like to be 6 months from now? 1 year from now? 3 years from now?
- What will it take to lead from vision?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley 2010)
Potentials Realized

Leadership: Influence

2011-03-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

The skill of influence is critical in today's business environment, whether you are a leader with title or not. As Ken Blanchard states, "The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority".

Over the past few weeks I've run a number of programs with new, and aspiring, leaders - in the financial services sector, the safety industry as well as in policing. Regardless of our title, we have the ability to influence others. In fact, when we are not in an official position of power, the skill of influence may become even more important in accomplishing our goals and objectives.

"Because everything we say and do is the length and shadow of our souls, our influence is determined by the quality of our being" - Dale Turner

Consider the following:
1. How are you using your skills of influence?
2. What impact is influence having on your work?
3. Who is in your circle of influence? Who is missing?

A great book with more information on this topic is Kerry Patterson's Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. A definite read!

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Leadership 365: Tips for Delegation

2011-03-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

Effective Delegation often holds the key to managerial success and time management. What should you consider before delegating? Here are some tips to make sure delegation goes the best it can:

1. Be clear on the tasks you want to, and can, delegate. Not eveything can be delegated as a manager. What are some of the concrete activities/tasks you can pass on.
2. Consider who might benefit from the opportunity to take on the task. Do they have the skills (or stretch ability) to get it done?
3. Be clear on what the end result is expected to look like. Make sure that there is a common picture held by both of you.
4. Ensure that the person you are delegating to has the necessary resources, and authority, to complete the task.
5. Create a common understanding about time frames, success factors, and what the final product will look like.
6. Set up regular touchpoints/meetings to check in on progress and identify any roadblocks that are emerging.
7. Once the task is completed, review/identify any lessons learned.
8. Recognize and celebrate the achievement in a way that is meaningful and relevant.

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

Time Management: Tackle that List

2011-02-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

In honor of the national month of Time Mangement, I wanted to share a link to some of my past time management posts. As we all know, the pace of change is just not slowing down. One of my favorite time management models is the 4 D model. If you are trying to figure our how to get a handle on things take look at your TO DO list and divide it into these 4 Ds:

Do it - What are the activities/tasks that you want to, or need to do? Figure out how much time these will take and SCHEDULE it! Remember, what doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done.

Defer it - Again looking at your list, what can you defer, or put off to later. Perhaps there are some tasks that really aren't urgent or don't need to be done to next quarter. Again, SCHEDULE these or put it on a separate list for mid-term activities, not daily or monthly activities.

Delgate it - What's on your list that can be delegated to others? To other staff members (or others in your life - i.e. spouse/family member). If you are delegating ensure that people have the resources (budget, knowledge, tools) as well as the responsibility to complete the task. The time spent up front in handing it over may seem like a lot, but should pay off in the end.

Dump it - Take a look and notice those tasks that have been carried forward, and forward, and forward. Hopefully these are the only items that cannot be categorized anywhere else (do, defer, delegate). What do you need to dump? Just say no! What do you need to let go of?

Next time you go to tackle that to do list, consider the 4 Ds to shorten it!

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author of Effective Group Coaching
Coaching Services for Teams, Managers and Groups
Follow me: http://twitter.com/jennbritton

Teamwork and Leadership: Complimentarity

2011-02-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

“ The most effective leaders know better than to try to be someone they are
not. Whenever they spot an opportunity, they reinvest in their strengths….
Leaders stay true to who they are – and then make sure they have the right
people around them. Those who surround themselves with similar personalities
will always be at a disadvantage in the long run to those who are secure enough
in themselves to enlist partners with complimentary strengths.”
Tom Rath and Barrie Conchie – Strengths Based Leadership

Consider the following questions:

What skills do you bring as a leader?
What are your strengths?
What blindspots are these strengths creating?
What complimentary strengths do you need to really be productive? What complimentary strengths does your team need?
Who do you want to enlist to boost your team and results?

Have a great week,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, CHRP

Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley,2010)

Team Coaching Services

Great Book - The Orange Revolution

2011-02-03T05:37:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying a great book which any team leader can benefit from. The Orange Revolution - How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization, is a must read for teams across any industry.

I really liked this book for its' practicality, as well as the research included of 350,000 participants by the Best Companies Group.

The book covers practical suggestions for leaders and team members in creating "breakthrough" teams.

Authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton have done a terrific job in creating a book that also provides practical approaches to building highly motivated, breakthrough teams.

You can pick up a copy at Amazon, and you may also want to check out the resources available at their site at http://www.organgerev.com/resources.

Have a great week
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

Leadership Vs. Management

2011-01-24T06:23:00.000-08:00

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter F. Drucker

There is often a lot of debate regarding the differences between leadership and management. For most of my career I have held the view that leadership can be fostered in everyone, regardless of title, versus management being more related to a specific role.

In his book, The Leaders Digest, Jim Clemmer makes the following distinction between leadership and management:

Ask yourself:
What activities are you undertaking this week that fall under the management side?
Which activities are you engaging with for the leadership side?
Where is it more important for you to spend you time?
Which skills and approaches do you want to put further focus on this month?

Have a great week
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

Common Team Challenges

2011-01-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

In a couple of weeks I'm speaking at this year's HRPA Conference, co-leading a session entitled "Tips, Traps and Frameworks for Creating High Performing Teams". As a coach and consultant who works with teams who want to get better, I am often asked What are some of the key challenges a team can face in their life-cycle?

In today's post I am tackling three very common team challenges faced in almost every industry:

New Leadership - In this era of change, teams encounter new leadership, sometimes more frequently than they would wish. New leaders bring the possibility of new opportunities and certainly a new history for the team. It may take 90 days for a new person to feel comfortable in their role, AND it may take a team even longer to feel comfortable with a new leader.

Ask yourself:
What are your plans to really get to know your team? Discuss expectations?
How is leadership having an impact on your team?
As a new leader what is important to recognize and acknowledge within this team? What changes do you want to make?

Matrix Management - A majority of my career existed against the backdrop of matrix management often across global boundaries. As a Program Manager and Director, it was very common for my own team to have several supervisors. How do you create a sense of team identify when operating in a matrixed environment? It is possible, and requires strong relationship building and communication skills. This team challenge is a definitely a topic for several posts. I hope that you will check out what I have said about matrix teams under our tags.

Ask yourself:
What communication channels need to be opened in your matrix environment?
What information needs to be shared?
What roles need to be clarified?

Silos - Silos are a common challenge in so many workforces today. Even as organizational change is designed to "bring down the silos" many times, new ones emerge or old ones become even more entrenched.

Ask yourself:
What is your organization doing to foster communication between different parts of the organization?
How is your team impacted by silos?

If you are attending HRPA's conference this year, I look forward to meeting you!

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized Team Services
Team Coaching, Workshops, Retreats
Phone: 416.996.TEAM (8326)
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

Small Business Clean Up for the New Year

2011-01-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy the regular newsletter I receive from Donna Gunter, the Internet Marketing Automation Coach. Last week she had a link to a blog post she wrote entitled

Business Planning: Your 17-Point New Year's Business Inventory and Cleanup

It's a brilliant reminder of many of the important, yet simple things, we can do as business owners at the start of the year to make our lives easier for ourselves.

By this time of year the glow of all those new years resolutions starts to wear off. As a business coach I continue to be an advocate that it is never too late to start some new habits. I hope that you will take a look at Donna's post and take some action today.

As Donna says in her 17th point:

Clean it up. Now it’s time for serious evaluation and to make some difficult choices. Remember, these will be some of the most important business decisions you'll make to help you refocus for a highly productive and profitable business. There are just two rules to follow here:
If it doesn't fit in with your chosen target market and business plan – GET RID OF IT!
If you still decide to hang on to it anyway, but it weighs on you in any way – GET RID OF IT!

What things do you need, and want to, get rid of this year?

Have a terrific week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
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Leadership: Consistency

2011-01-17T14:28:00.000-08:00

Consistency is a key factor in leadership success. Whether it is consistency of action, consistency in equity and treating everyone fair, or consistency in follow through, or feedback.

Ask yourself:
How are your actions being consistent?
What area do you need, or want, to take more consistent action in?

The following blog post of Art Petty's entitled "Leadership Caffeine: In Praise of Consistency" includes 12 Leadership Activities where Consistency is Priceless, as well as 6 Reasons Why Consistency is Critical to Your Success. Click on over and take a read. It's a good one.

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching

Leadership: Choices

2011-01-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself. - Robert Benett, US Senator

Choice is a foundational principle of leadership coaching. Leaders can learn to be more intentional and aware of the choices they are making for themselves, their team and/or their organization.

Ask yourself:
What choices have you made recently that were really important for you? Your team? Your organization?
What was the benefit or payoff of this choice? What was the cost?
What freedom has this choice provided you with? What made it difficult or easy?
What possibilities or opportunities does this choice now provide you with?

Have a great start to the week.

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

Leadership: Values

2011-01-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

Values act as an inner compass for leaders, teams and organizations.

Principles are natural laws that are external to us and that ultimately control the consequences of our actions. Values are internal and subjective and represent that which we feel strongest about in guiding our behavior. - Steven Covey

Ask yourself:

When is the last time you reflected on what values you hold as a leader.
What's truly important for you? Your team? Your organization?
What would you go to bat for?

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

This post is part of the Leadership 365 posts I am writing during 2011, geared for leaders of all kinds - new leaders, experienced leaders, leaders without title. The posts are geared to get you to pause and quickly reflect on how the concept or quote relates to your work, or your life, at the moment. - Jenn Britton

Leadership: The First Step

2011-01-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

During 2011 I'm going to be writing a series of leadership posts. Geared for first time managers, as well as leaders without title, I intend that this will be another way to keep the communication flowing with the wonderful leaders and managers I work with during the leadership training programs I run.

Sometimes we all need a quick focus or a word to get us going. My intention for these leadership posts is for them to be a "burst" or booster shot to get your thoughts and actions moving in a few direction.

Today's Leadership post is about taking that first step as a leader. Whether we are a leader with, or without, title, the first step can be seen as the hardest.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ask yourself:
What is the first step for you as a leader?
What is the trail that you want to leave? What mark is important for you to leave?
What's the opportunity that lies ahead?

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching

New Article on Creating Strong Mentoring Relationships

2010-09-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

A quick note to share with you a new article I have written on creating strong mentoring relationships which is now posted at EzineArticles.com. You can read it online here.

If you are working on developing a mentoring program, or are a mentor or mentee yourself, I hope that you will find this, and some of my other posts on mentoring here at the BizToolkit blog useful. As always, I welcome your thoughts!

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Phone: (416) 996-8326
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Team Buidling Series Feature from Investment Executive

2010-09-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

I wanted to let you know of a series on team building articles I was featured on this week. Fiona Collie of Investment Executive's Build Your Business column just put out a great three part series on team building. Click on the links to read her articles on:

Turning Your Staff Into A Team
Improving Your Team Communication
Making Better Decisions As a Team

Enjoy the tips, and as always I look forward to your comments and how YOU are putting the tips into action! Feel free to comment below.

Warmly
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)

9 Steps to Work Less and Do More Just Released

2010-09-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today's the day that the Get It Done Guy's 9 Steps To Work Less and Do More is launched! Many of you will know the importance I place on time management and personal productivity.

As his microsite says, "The book's nine steps build a foundation for streamlining how you get what you want out of work (and life):

Step 1. Live and work on purpose
Step 2: Stop procrastinating
Step 3: Conquer your technology
Step 4: Cultivate focus
Step 5: Stay organized (mentally as well as physically)
Step 6: Don't waste time. A lot of supposedly “on task” work
Step 7: Optimize!
Step 8: Build stronger relationships
Step 9: Leverage!:

While I haven't yet read the book myself, I'm really impressed with all of the supports Stever Robin's has put into his many other services such as his podcasts and audio files. Take a look at his microsite http://www.getitdoneguynews.com for some fantastic nuggets! Defintiely check it out and make sure you have at least a few minutes to focus.

You can pick up your own copy today at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

Looking forward to sharing more about this resource in the coming weeks!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching
Potentials Realized

6 Tips for New Small Business Owners

2010-09-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

This April marked my 6th year of business. I continue to be reminded of the excitement and emotions of new business owners through regular discussions with partiicpants of the 90 Day BizSuccess program - some of whom are new business owners, as well as seasoned small business people.

In running the program I often get asked, what are some tips for new business owners. Here are 6 tips which have kept business exciting, and successful for me, over the years.

1. Track it! Take notice of the impact of the activities you are undertaking, over both the short term as well as the medium term. What are you noticing about the money you have invested into different marketing activities? Notice what's giving you impact in terms of your activities, networking and relationships.

2. Create Systems so that you don't have to recreate things over, and over again. It's not surprising that even experienced business owners still " have not had time" to create simple processes for their buinesses such as invoices, proposal formats etc.

Ask yourself:

What activities might you need to repeat time and time again (consider finance, people, marketing etc)?

What systems would benefit your business?

When will you spend time creating these?

3. Build on What You Already Have, Have Done or Do: Many times small business owners fail to capitalize on what they have already created, designed or know. What can you build upon in your business? Do you really need to start off at 0?

4. Plan it! Time Management and Planning can be a major challenge for business owners. When was the last time you sat down to plan and strategize about your goals for the quarter or even the month? As we know from time management 10 minutes of planning can save an hour of unfocussed effort.

When will you spend time creating your plan for the next month?

5. Schedule It! What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done. What are your main business priorities right now? Have you scheduled them into your calendar. If it's not written down or blocked off chances are it may get lost.

Request:

Take 15 minutes this week to identifiy one or two main priorities for your business and schedule in time in your calednar to get these things done.

6. Be strategic - We can't be all things to all people? Consider the Pareto Princple, or 80/20 rule, which states that we get 80% of our impact from 20% of our efforts. What activities are going to give you the most impact this month?

Enjoy!

Warm regards,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC

Potentials Realized

90 Day BizSuccess Program: Next program starts September 10th

2010 Virtual Business Planning Retreat: October 2010

Phone: 416-996-8326
Follow me on Twitter @jennbritton for the next 99 days during the 100 Day Biz Success Questions

Join me on Twitter for the 100 Days of Biz Success Questions

2010-08-31T06:58:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, September 1st, I'll be starting a Twitter exercise of my own which I hope that you will join me for. For the next 100 days I'll be posting a Biz Success Question of the Day - 100 questions in total. You can follow me @jennbritton.

Many of you know that I've offered the 90 Day Biz Success program for the last few years. It's a program designed to support business owners in their own business growth. We meet over a 3 month period as a small group and 1-1 to look at core business areas (systems, marketing, social marketing) and take forward action on your business. We cover topics such as:
- Developing (or refining) your business vision and values
- Identifying and movning through limiting business beliefs
- Developing core business sytems (bugeting)
- Identifying your competitive advantage (what your strengths are and what makes you stand out)
- Creating your marketing strategy for the next 12 months
- Leveraging social media and networking for your benefit

The next 90 Day BizSuccess program will start on Friday September 10th (11-12 noon Eastern), with registration currently open. There's space for 8 business owners to join me. Will you be one of them?

I hope that you will enjoy the 100 day Biz Success Questions whether you are a leader of a team, a professional or a business owner. Log on to http://www.twitter.com/jennbritton to follow me this fall!

Looking forward to your comments!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching
Phone: (416) 996-8326
Email: info(at)potentialsrealized.com

Mentoring and Leadership Development

2010-08-18T06:35:00.000-07:00

Many readers will know my affinity to boosting leadership development programs with additional mentoring and/or coaching support. One of the mentoring training programs I developed has won an industry award in the financial services sector. Over the past two years a number of my client's programs have benefited from stuctured mentoring components. As we look out on the landscape, it's interesting to note how many leadership and succession intiatives are now being supported by a formal mentoring process.

You can read some of my earlier posts on mentoring here.

There was a terrific article recently published on the Reliable Plant blogs by Debbie Zmorenski entitled "Developing Your Leadership Skills Through Mentoring" . In the article she defines mentoring as as makes the distinction between coaching and mentoring.

In particular she identifies the following 7 tips for maximizing your mentoring experience:

"If you are considering seeking out a mentor, here are seven tips for maximizing your mentoring experience:
Know your goals.
Choose the best mentor to meet your goals.
Begin your mentoring relationship by discussing mutual goals and expectations.
Practice the highest standards of professionalism.
Learn to accept and give feedback.
Practice good communication.
Recognize that your success is your responsibility."

Definitely check out Debbie's article for many more useful tips on how to avoid the pitfalls of mentoring!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching
Potentials Realized
Phone: (416) 996-8326 (TEAM)

Work Life Issues Back In Focus?

2010-06-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since work-life issues have been on the front page of the news, but this week, a recent Canadian study - the Canadian Index of Wellbeing - pointed to new research which finds that 25% of Canadian workers are working around the clock. As an article in this week's Globe and Mail states "We're more stressed, less rested and have less time to devote to our kids"

More Canadians are working non-traditional hours - weekends, evenings and nights - and many Canadian families are running from extra-curricular activity to extra-curricular cutting into traditional " family time" and leisure time. National parks in Canada are facing their lowest attendance rates in 15 years.

Some of you may be familiar with the work I've done in the area of work life over the years, stemming from my own 80-100 out of balance work weeks as a former manager. I blogged for several years regularly on tips, tools and ideas for work life issues at the Your Balanced Life blog. I continue to run the Your Balanced Life! Virtual Retreat and Group Coaching program, as well as delivering customized programs for organizations. Later this summer, I will be releasing a resource guide/workbook for managers and leaders entitled Leaders in Balance(TM) with fellow coach Lynda Monk.

Are work-life issues showing up on your radar screen these days?
What's your biggest work-life challenge at the moment?
How are you planning to unplug this summer?
What renewal strategies are you using in your work, or with your team?

Have a recharging weekend!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Phone: (416) 996-8326
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

6 Key Ingredients for Mentoring Success

2010-04-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Solid Mentoring Relationships do not just sprout up overnight. In fact, several ingredients can contribute to making a mentoring relationship GREAT.

6 Key Ingredients for Mentoring Success include:

1. Think about what you want out of the mentoring relationship - Both mentors and mentees can gain from doing some pre-work and thinking about what they want out of the mentoring relationship. It's often thought that the mentee gains the most, but in fact, mentors also benefit.

2. Establish clear boundaries - How frequently are you going to meet? When? Where? How can you be contacted and When? It's amazing how some of the snags that mentoring relationships meet are caused by lack of clarity around boundaries.

3. Focus on building your relationship: Spend time in your first meeting talking about how you are going to work together, and what your expectations are for the relationship.

4. Follow through. Follow through works both ways - as a protege what have you committed to following up on? As a mentor, what do you need to follow up on?

5. Create a Mentoring Roadmap. Having an agenda, or a roadmap, of where you want your conversations to go, will help maximize the time you have together. In your first converstaion it may be beneficial to identify several themes/topics the mentee wants to have insights around.

6. Check In Along the Way - At the end of every mentoring conversation discuss what was useful, what next steps are, and any changes you want to make for the next conversation.

Having worked to support hundreds of mentoring partnerships across industries over the years, I have found that ensuring these six ingredients are present typically make the mentoring relationship that much stronger and more effective and beneficial for all parties involved.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Phone: (416)996-TEAM

5 Tips for Managing The E-Undation

2010-04-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Did you know that many professionals spend up to 40% of their day managing email? How much time to do you spend on email every day? Does the time you spend, match the payoffs you receive.

Email is an essential part of business today, but the question has become who is running the show - you or email?

If you have found that your inbox has run amok, here are 5 tips to support you in getting it under control:

1. Check email at regular points throughout the day. Many organizing experts suggest checking it two or three times a day only, and turning it off in between so you are not tempted to see who just emailed you.

2. Communicate to others when you will be checking. If people are expecting a response right away and don't know that you are only checking at selected points of the day, it may cause even more problems.

3. Unsubscribe from lists you really don't need, or read.

4. Colour code/flag emails of different priorities so you know which ones are urgent (red), of medium importance (yellow), or low priority. This visual map can help you quickly identify what is really important to respond to.

5. If you don't need it DELETE it! If you really don't need an email, delete it. Microsoft has some great tips on helping you decide what you may want to do with your email box. Known as the 4 Ds, do you want to do it, delete it, delegate kt or dump it? (Note: the 4D tool is a great tool for time management as well).

Question:
What's the one thing you are going to do today to tame your email box?

Have a terrific week!

Warm regards,
Jenn

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Potentials Realized
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

5 Benefits to Mentoring

2010-04-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

Mentoring continues to be a popular informal learning approach to enhance internal learning, knowledge and skills transfer, across industries.

Earlier this year I spoke about how Mentoring is an Essential Component to any Talent Management Strategy to the HRPA Annual Conference. The next week I was in Senegal, West Africa, working with an incredibly talented group of professionals in delivering a Coaching and Mentoring Skills Train the Trainer program. Last month, I was involved in running the third year of training for mentors (and this year for the first time, proteges) for a financial services organization.

So why mentoring? What is mentoring re-gaining popularity?

Here are five benefits to mentoring:

1. Helps to Build institutional or industry knowledge - Mentoring is an essential strategy to building organizational knowledge, as well as industry capability. A critical type of informal learning, mentoring can help to share the unwritten knowledge that exists.

2. Mentors Share real How-tos - From how to navigate amongst the realities of an organization to the practicalities and the politics, mentors can help less experienced employees understand how an organization operates, and how to navigate.

3. Enable more junior staff to hear about organizational/industry realities from someone who is not their boss or their peer. Mentors often share insights about what the real opportunities and roadblocks are in an industry or organization.

4. Provide a place for more junior staff to ask questions they might not otherwise surface. Sometimes employees are hesitant to take their questions to their manager for fear of performance reprisal or other factors. Being more removed, mentors are often seen as a more unbiased source.

5. Mentors can act as a sounding board. Given a mentor's greater level of experience, the mentoring relationship can be a place where a mentee uses the mentor as a sounding board.

Whether a mentee brings 1 year experience or 2 decades, we can all benefit from a mentoring relationship with someone in our organization or industry. Who would you like to have as a mentor?

Have a great week!
Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching
Phone: (416) 996-TEAM (8326)
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Time to Virtualize Your Global Training?

2010-04-19T12:58:00.001-07:00

Some of you may know that global travel was a huge part of my former life as a manager and early business owner. The recent air travel chaos caused by the Volcanic eruption in Iceland, has had me thinking on a number of different levels regarding the impact - to communities, as well as to learning.

My first thoughts took me back to my work asa project manager for several development projects in the Caribbean island of Montserrat. The volcano has been active in Montserrat since the mid-1990s and I know first hand how destructive volcanic ash can be for everything - humans, animals, agriculture and even buildings. In recent days there has been a lot of focus on the impact on travel because of the volcano, but how about the impact to the geography and communities affected in Iceland?

My second thought was what about the thousands of professionals stranded on either side of the Atlantic. Many of us, myself included, still take forgranted the ability to cross the ocean swiftly and be able to attend to business, or lead training the next day. A few months ago as I passed through Paris on my way to Senegal, I had fleeting thoughts about what if we are delayed? What will happen to our training?

The volcano is another indication of how quickly events can take over business as usual, and how it is an opportunity to look proactively at how we can more effectively bring together global professionals for training.

Virtual Training - by phone and web - is becoming an increasingly popular modality, and even the standard in many global organizations. It may never replace the impact of face to face environments, but used effectively can enable ongoing learning and dialogue amongst dispersed groups. Virtual training has been a keen interest area of mine since 2005 when the arrival of my son pushed me to virtualize most of my training programs. Over the last 5 years, I've seen more and more organizations embrace virtual training, as well as more and more facilitators learn to adapt their skills for the virtual environment. One of the chapters in my book, Effective Group Coaching, addresses the issue of virtual program delivery for facilitators, tips and ideas, as well as a check list to help you identify whether you are ready to lead training programs virtually. If you are a facilitator, I'll also invite you to check out my Group Coaching blog at http://groupcoaching.blogspot.com which has lots of other tips and tricks for facilitators.

On Wednesday last week I met again with the team in West Africa - this time luckily by web. If not, I might have been one of the thousands stranded in Paris for the weekend. Yes, there could be worse places to be stranded, but it sure was nice to spend the weekend with my family.

Have a great start to the week!

Warmly
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC
Potentials Realized
Phone: 416.996.TEAM (8326)
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

We're in the top 150 Management and Leadership Blogs

2010-04-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

I found out a few days ago that we've been honored to be included in the listing of the Top 150 Management and Leadership Blogs pulled together by Jurgen Appelo. We've joined the ranks of Steven Covey, Tim Ferris and many other great writers, leaders and speakers. You can see the complete list here

The blogs were scored according to their Google Page Rank, Bing hit count, Alexa Ranking, Technorati Authority, Twitter Grader, PostRank and FeedBurner count.

I am looking forward to getting back to more regular posts here at the BizToolkit in the coming months. The first 4 months of 2010 have been wonderfully full with great work with clients here in Canada, the US, and West Africa, as well as a lot of speaking on my new book published in January by Wiley and Sons - Effective Group Coaching - which continues to be snapped off the shelves by coaches, educators and HR consultants around the world. Thanks for your support!

I look forward to being in touch in coming weeks.

In closing, what are your favorite management and leadership blogs? As always, feel free to share your thoughts below

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Group Coaching Essentials
Phone: 416.996.TEAM (8326)
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com
Follow me: twitter.com/jennbritton

What's Happening with Creativity in Your Team or Organization?

2010-02-23T12:38:00.001-08:00

What's happening to creativity in your team or workplace these days? Is it increasing, or decreasing?

There was a terrific article last week in the Globe and Mail entitled Workplace Creativity Shrivels on the Vine by Jennifer Myers

The article includes 3 quick questions to stimulate creativity, creativity by the numbers and a look at what CEOs are doing to bolster creativity.

Click on over - I think that you'll like it!

Warmly
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Email info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

What Skills are Employers Looking For?

2010-02-08T02:59:00.000-08:00

I am just back to the office after a week spent in Senegal, West Africa, delivering a 5 day Coaching and Mentoring Training of Trainers for UNICEF. It was a wonderful experience! More on this later.

World at Work published "Employers Rank Communication Skills First Among Job Candidate Skills/Qualities" last week about what employers are looking for in terms of skills in the workplace.

Based on the NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) 2010 Outlook, the top 5 skills employers are looking for are:

communication skills
analytical skills
teamwork skills
technical skills
strong work ethic.

How is your skills training in these areas? What are you noticing about new applicants and their level of competency in these areas?

What would you rank as the top 5 skill areas needed in today's economy?

Have a great week,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP

Potentials Realized

Author of Effective Group Coaching

Manager Shortage Ahead?

2010-01-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

I read about some interesting research put out by Randstad (2009 World of Work Report) in an article in this month's HR Professional magazine. Chair of the HRPA Board of Directors, Antoinette Blunt writes:

"The report, draw from a survey of 2199 employees and 833 managers in the US, found that only 49% of employees aspire to be managers, and, specifically, only 42% of generation Y employees (aged 18-29), 47% of generation X (aged 30-44), and 50% of baby boomers (aged 45-63)."

Pretty interesting findings from Randstad. Blunt continues that the research also found that "sharing knowlegde with others, being responsible for the success of an organization, and able to influence decisions in an organization" are motivators for employees

What are you noticing about the enthusiasm of succession into management in your organization? Does this reflect what you see? Is stepping into management positions motivating in your culture? What are the implications, if any?

Have a terrific week! For those who may be attending HRPA's Conference this week I look forward to connecting with you. I will be presenting on Thursday afternoon on Mentoring: An Essential Ingredient for Any Talent Management Program, followed by a 4:30 booksigning of my new book Effective Group Coaching at the Conference bookstore.

See you there!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Group Coaching Essentials
Potentials Realized

How to Find the Right Mentor

2010-01-04T17:42:00.000-08:00

The New York Times ran a great article over the holiday season regarding some practical tips about what mentoring is and to finding the right mentor. You can view the article "Finding the Right Mentor Can Bolster A Career" here.

As we are seeing on both sides of the border, mentoring is increasingly being turned to by individuals and organizations alike, as a cost-effective and impactful way to build capacity, networks and knowledge.

If you are in the Toronto area later this month I hope that you will join me at the HRPA 2010 Conference as I speak on Mentoring: An Essential Ingredient for Any Talent Management Strategy. I will be presenting on Thursday January 28th at 3 pm, follewed by my book signing on Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) at 4:30 pm. My presentation will include practical tips for designing and implementing your own mentoring strategy and program internally.

I know that many of my corporate clients across industries and sectors have added, or are considering adding, mentoring into their learning, succession planning or leadership development approaches and programs.

What role can mentoring play in boosting your organizational capacity this year?

Have a terrific week!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP
GroupCoachingEssentials and Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

What's your meeting style?

2009-11-27T11:24:00.000-08:00

I'm sure that many readers here at the blog participate in virtual meetings. Prehaps maybe even too many! As a facilitator, I am always interested in seeing "who" participates in meetings, and what their style is.

There's a terrific article on The Top Ten Meeting Personalities which Jackie Yearney over at FastCompany.com has posted. Take a look. She's cut to the core archetyping some of the key personalities that show up on virtual meetings.

Which meeting personality matches yours?

Have a terrific week!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton

Potentials Realized

Infusing Coaching Skills into Managers

2009-11-10T04:01:00.000-08:00

Coaching skills are critical for managing in today's ever changing landscape. Equipping managers with enhanced coaching skills is an important piece of building internal capacity, strength and resilence within organizations.

Dan Kennedy over at the Great Leadership blog wrote the following article on Infusing Coaching Skills into Managers. He proposes four solid tactics to start equipping your management team with enhanced coaching skills.

I appreciate Dan's comments, especially as I am working right now with a number of corporate clients on enhancing coaching skills and/or developing internal mentoring programs. Several months in to many of these medium term iniatives we are starting to really see tracking and a changing landscape of business relationships with is having an impact on the bottom line.

How are you building coaching skills with your management team?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Phone: (416)996-TEAM (8326)

Team Building Critical for Smaller, More Virtual, Teams

2009-10-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

There was a great article last week by Marcia Heroux Pounds entitled, "Go team! Need for collaboration greater when there are fewer employees". Click here to read the entire article.

Whether it's conflict resolution, getting to know one another better, or learning to leverage new roles, this fall's focus really seems to have moved to the team environment. I must admit that the requests we've been getting for team retreats, team coaching, and team assessments has increased quite significantly this fall. I hope that you will enjoy reading through the Team on Thursday column from the last year and a bit.

How have the recent economic and workplace events shifted your organization's value on team work?

What's the most burning issue facing your team - virtual, or intact - right now?

How would an investment into your teamwork transform business issues you are facing right now?

Questions about what support might benefit your teams right now? Please give me a call or drop me an email.

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Phone: (416) 996-TEAM (8326)
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

How to Develop a Leadership Development Strategy

2009-09-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Dan McCarthy, over at Great Leadership, wrote a fantastic post last month on How to Develop a Leadership Development Strategy. He goes through 7 key steps/stages which are essential in developing a leadership development strategy.

Regardless of economic situations, leadership development is still seen as a critical investment for many leading organizations. Staff and teams may be getting leaner, and in these times GREAT leadership is imperative.

I really enjoyed Dan's post given that I have been very involved in developing several leadership development strategies with partner organizations in the year. A number of them are now rolling out in pilot and secondary phase, and it is amazing to see how seeds planted are starting to sprout within these teams.

Dan's really got a handle on the importance of a holistic, structured approach, one that is grounded in competencies.

What do you see as essential ingredients for GREAT Leadership development?

Warmly
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized.com

Team Productivty and Conflict

2009-07-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

What happens to your team productivity when there is conflict?

There is a wonderful article recently published by the Vancouver Sun "Productivity affected by conflict management" which highlights research looking at the impact of conflict on team productivity.The article states,

"Researchers Kristen Behfar at the University of California, Randall Peterson at the London Business School, Elizabeth Mannix and William Trochim at Cornell University, say there are three types of teams that get bogged down in conflict and suffer as a result.

In their recent study in The Journal of Applied Psychology, they observed that rule-bound teams, equality-focused teams and unresolved teams paid dearly when conflict was not handled well. They noted that productivity declined as did team morale."

Conflict is inevitable for teams. What conflict is showing up in your teams? What is the impact of it? What approaches are supporting the team(s) to successfully navigate the conflict?

Have a great week,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP

Potentials Realized

How adept is your workforce to change?

2009-06-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

A recent survey from Right Management found that"employees of nearly one-third of North American companies — 31 percent — adapt poorly to changes at work, hurting their productivity", as reported by Carrie Mason-Draffen of Newsday.com. The survey also found that only about 1 in 4 employees had the "agility to change". Read the whole article here.

How adept is your workforce to change?
What support are you providing to employees?
What vehicles are you using to support changes (training/coaching etc)?
What areas are you providing support in change management for?

A number of readers have emailed me regarding the silence here at the BizToolkit blog -- thanks for asking how things are going. It's been a very busy 2009 -- providing support to teams and inidividuals throughout the change process through team coaching, workshops and offsite retreats. It's also been a busy spring working on establishing and building a number of mentoring and leadership development programs with clients. On top of it, I am also working on the completion of a book which will be published in early 2010 by Pfeiffer Wiley.Needless to say, as much as I would like to be keeping up with regular posts...my creative juices have been somewhat overstretched. I do hope to be able to return to regular posts in the next few weeks when a number of these projects are onstream and/or completed.

With all the changes that are happening these days a huge competency for teams and professionals is around resilence. This is a topic that's been quite popular with clients. Consider the following questions:
What is your own professional resilience these days?
Which employees and teams are the most resilient in your organization?
What support do you need to shore up your resilence?
What action steps can you take to boost your resilence this quarter?

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments...please feel free to comment below.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

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

BizTip: Creating Boundaries

2009-04-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

What are the boundaries you have established with your business? Many business owners only realize their boundaries once they have been encroached on.

The ability to be your own boss and have greater flexibility and self-direction are characteristics which often lead people into self-employment.

Take a few moments and ask yourself:

What are your current boundaries for you and your business?
How are you respecting these?
How are your boundaries being encroached on?
If boundaries are being encroached on, what's acceptable?
What needs to change?

Some boundaries that you might want to consider are:

* The times of day that you work (i.e. you don't work before a certain time, or after a certain time)

* The times of day that you meet with clients

* The amount of money you are willing to invest in ....

* The amount of time you are willing to invest in .....

*The number of interruptions you are willing to have

* The amount of time you are willing to give things

After you have looked at these questions, select one that you want to focus taking some action on. What specific change will you commit to? Start developing a habit around this new area through ongoing action.

Jenn

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
BizSuccess Group Coaching

Virtual Team Leadership: Resource

2009-03-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Virtual Teams and Leadership are two ongoing themes for this blog, stemming out of my earlier work as a leader with virtual teams globally through my work in the international development sector. I continue to be amazed at how virtual team leadership skills, along with project management and global/cross-cultural management skills continue to be some of the most important skills for this decade, and unfortunately, skills that many organizations are really needing to improve.

There was a great article this month in CLO Magazine which addresses this increasingly important area of virtual team leadership:

Virtual Leadership for a Virtual Workforce by Jerry Fjermestad as featured in CLO Magainze, March 2009.

Jerry mentions that

"Leaders are responsible for the vision, planning, engaging the team, coaching, training, team learning, networking and promoting, among other skills".

He also mentions that

"The results are that virtual teams are at least as effective as face-to-face teams, and according to Powell, Piccoli and Ives, under some conditions, they are even more effective. Leader development leading to high-performance teams leads to successful organizations in this new virtual environment".

How are you developing your leaders for the virtual realm? What's working? What's not?

What are the challenges you are experiencing as you move forward with leadership development for these leaders?

What else, beyond strong leadership, is needed to enable virtual teams to florish and really perform optimally?

Have a great week,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP

Potentials Realized

Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Ph: (416) 996-TEAM (8326)

Teams on Thursday: Teams in Transition

2009-03-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

With change becoming the new constant in today’s workforce, more than ever teams are now in transition – sometimes with new leadership, sometimes with new team members, often with both.

How do you create an environment for the team to go from 0-100 (or at least 60) with limited budgets, resources and time?

I am in the process of writing an article on essentials for teams in transition in which I explore six essential ingredients:
1. Creating a Common Vision and Goals
2. Clearly defining roles and responsibilities
3. Looking at Common Values
4. Identifying Trust and Respect
5. Looking at Individual and Team Strengths and Capabilities
6. Developing Effective Communication Strategies

How does your team rate on these? How much attention are you giving these factors?

Without a firm foundation teams cannot meet, or sustain, their optimal productivity.
What other ingredients do you see as essential for teams in transition?

Have a great week!

Warmly
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Ph: (416)996-TEAM (8326)
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Succession Planning: Cause for Panic?

2009-02-04T05:10:00.000-08:00

Succession Planning continues to be a hot topic in the world of talent management. Even with current economic conditions, organizations are realizing that they may not be well equipped to address changes within their workforce.

A recent study, "Ensuring Leadership Continuity: Currrent Trends In Succession Planning for C-Suite Executives", by Acheive Global found the following:
* 49% do not have an established succession plan for C-level exectuvites
* 16% have an executive vacancy
* 37% expect to have a vacancy this year

So what are some of the barriers identified?

*31% - doesn't seem urgent
* 26% - time investment
* 21% - Complexity of What Needs to Happen
* 7% - Budget Expense
* 6% - Not Applicable
* 6% - don't know

Many of you will recall that last year at this time I participanted in a webinar series for Succession Planning for Small and Medium Size Businesses in York Region, Canada. The estimates in early 2008 were that approximately 75% of business owners would be retiring within the next 10 years, with a limited number having succession plans in place. The importance for York Region, like many regions across Caanda is that small and Medium Size Businesses make up a significant proportion of the economy. In York Region, this has been estimated at 97% of all businesses. Even with the current economic conditions, while many business owners, and C-Level employees are delaying retirement decisions, ulitmately succession plans will be needed by small, medium and large businesses.

A major barrier identified by the AcheiveGlobal program is that many organizations don't know how to implement succession planning approaches effectively.

Questions? Please feel free to give me a call as I have been working on the development of several succession planning strategies with SMEs as well as larger companies, at C level and middle management over the last year.

Warmly
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPT, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Phone: (416) 996-TEAM

90 Day BizSuccess Program Starts Fri. Jan 16th at noon (ET)

2009-01-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

Where could your business be in the next 90 days with some focus, tools and accountability? Join me and a handful of other business owners for a 3 month group coaching program which focuses on giving you the tools, structure and focus to take your business from where you are to where you want to be. This program is specifically designed for solopreneurs and service based providers.

The program includes:
7 x 1 hour group coaching calls
36 BizTips delivered into your mailbox 3 times a week for the 90 days
Monthly lazer 1-1 sessions with me
The BizSuccess Manual (sent out as a weekly modules)

During the program you will:

* Create Your Business RoadMap for the year
* Explore your core strengths and abilities as a business person, identifying areas for leverage
* Acquire knowledge of core marketing principles to help you develop a marketing strategy and budget
* Bust through limiting beliefs you hold about your business
* Learn how to leverage partnerships with other business owners
* Investigate how your business can leverage technology to build client base and increase sales through an introduction to blogs, podcasts and other social networking platforms liked LinkedIn and Twitter

You’ll leave each group coaching call with some new ideas, insights and also action steps before we meet next.

Details:
We’ll be meeting on Fridays from 12 - 1 pm (Eastern) on Jan 16, 23, Feburary 6, 28, March 13, 27, April 17, 2009 (by phone)

Cost: $347 US for the 3 month program

To register, or for more information, please visit here or call Jennifer at (416) 996-8326/Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Warmly
Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC

Widely known for her work in group coaching, Jennifer is also a widely recognized busienss coach. Since 2004 she has coached (and taught) a wide number of budding entrepreneurs through college and government sponsored programs. She’s also a contributing author to Starting Your Own Business in York Region: A Woman’s Guide (2006) and was part of the 2008 Succession Planning Webinar Series for Small Businesses. Throughout the 90 Day BizSuccess program, Jennifer weaves together her passions for group coaching and business development work.

10 Signs it's Time for a Team Tune Up

2009-01-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

10 Signs It’s Time for a Team Tune Up:

Even in a downturn, teams - like cars - need a tune-up to keep running along at peak performance. For many organizations right now, with the changes that are happening, teams may be the most stable entity in a company.

Here are 10 indicators it's time for a team tune up:

1. The team needs a new vision/plan to achieve your business results (or needs to reconnect with your old ones)
2. The team has new leadership
3. The team is unclear about their roles (which often leads to conflict, things falling through the cracks or toes being stepped on)
4. Staff feel undervalued - and performance is going down the tube
5. Gossip is flourishing…as are the water cooler discussions!
6. Team is undergoing, or emerging from, a change management process or a merger and acquisition
7. The team is operating in silos (one part isn’t talking to the other)
8. It’s been a while since you’ve stopped to recognize and celebrate your achievements
9. You need to get from 0 – 100 given the current business climate
10. You want to be proactive!

What tune up does your team need?

Click here for some of our current team support programs (assessments, coaching, training, retreats) or download our Team Services brochure here. We bring 20 years experience of working with teams face to face, as well as virtually (to reduce costs - and the carbon footprint), with teams in 20 countries around the world.

Warm wishes,

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Team Services
Phone: (416)996-TEAM (416.491.8326)
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized.com

New Year, New Predictions

2009-01-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone! It's an exciting time of year -- new year, new resolutions and possibly some new habits.

I love all the predictions that are made at this time of year -- it always seems to open up new possibilities and new perspectives.

It also seems like a lot of different issues are hitting different people's radarscreeens - depending on where you live and what you do.

However, two of the most common themes wherever you are, are the ECONOMY and CHANGE.

Here are some of the trendspotting articles I have enjoyed lately:

Career Builder's 7 Hiring Trends to Follow in 2009

US News Top 30 Careers for 2009: With all the change that's going on in the world of work, this is an interesting list of project top careers for 2009. Which ones would you like to explore?

US News Best Small Businesses to start in 2009: Ready to take the plunge into the world of self-employment? This article may stimulate some new thoughts!

Hot Fitness Trends for 2009 from WebMD: Is anyone else seeing a spike of attendance at the gym? The pressures of the economy seem to be supporting many to find better balance and stress management.

ASTD's 2008 State of the Industry Report: The ELearning Council has a nice summary here of some of the major workplace learning trends last year.

What trends are you watching this year? What are some of your new resolutions?

Have a great start to 2009!

Warm wishes,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC

Potentials Realized

Teams on Thursday - Why Teams?

2008-12-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

The Conference Board Review just published a great article "Think Horizontal: The Case for Organizing Your Company in Teams". Bringing forth the business case for teams, this article looks at a number of perspectives about the benefits of teams - including the essential of SPEED.

You can download Think Horizontal here.

How are teams playing a different role in your organization right now? What leverage are they providing you?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Mobile: (416) 996-TEAM (8326)

Creating a Powerful Business Vision

2008-11-26T04:55:00.000-08:00

As we move into late November, a lot of business owners are starting to turn their attention to plans and strategies for 2009. Last month I held a special call on Creating a Powerful Business Vision - designed to get business owners reconnected with their vision for their business 1, 5 and 10 years down the road.

When was the last time you revisited your business vision, or even your own personal vision for your career if you are an employee?

As we move into the end of the year, there are going to be a number of opportunities to join me for some reflection time virtually. I will be holding several virtual retreats to provide you with the space and structure to take stock of the year that was, and plan for 2009. I hope that you will consider joining me for:

2009 BizSuccess Virtual Business Planning Retreat (by phone)
Friday December 5th and 12th, 2008 (1-4 pm Eastern both afternoons) OR Saturday December 6, 2008 (10-4 pm Eastern)

Join me for a high impact 6 hour business planning retreat where we focus in on your business, your goals and what you want to achieve in 2009. This business planning retreat is suited for small business owners, solopreneurs, coaches and trainers. Retreat from your home or office (or anywhere else you'd like!). The program includes the 6 hour phone based program which includes group calls online (15-20 min/hour) and individual planning time offline, as well as the 2009 BizSuccess Virtual Planning Manual, and a group follow up call. Space is limited to 15 business owners. Cost: $150 US. Click here for more information.

Leverage Your Time for 2009 Personal Planning Retreat (by phone):
This personal planning retreat is designed to support you to renew, recharge and refocus while creating a powerful plan for 2009. A major focus of the retreat is in supporting you around time management tools and creating some space to reflect on what's important. The program includes 5 hours of structured group and invidual exercises. You will also receive the Leverage Your Time Retreat Manual (by email) and a group follow up call in January.

Choose from 3 different dates:

Saturday December 13: 10-3 pm (Eastern)
Friday January 2: 10-3 pm (Eastern)
Saturday January 17: 8-1 pm (Eastern)

Click here to register or for more info. Cost: $125 US

I look forward to having you join me this holiday season virtually!

To get you started on creating your own personal or business vision, please consider the following questions. 5 or 10 years from now:
* What are you doing?
* What are you known for?
* What are you excited about?
* Who surrounds you?
* Who are you influencing? Who are you being influenced by?
* What are you especially good at?
* What do others say about your work/your business/your life?

Warm wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

6 Essential Skills for Today's Marketplace

2008-11-26T04:41:00.000-08:00

I spoke last week to a group of financial services professionals on essential skills to navigate today's marketplace. I wanted to share a few of these skills with you this week at the blog.

In today's times of unprecidented change, developing your change muscle and learning to thrive in a highly complex, interconnected, unpredictable marketplace often requires a shift in the way most professionals have been doing business.

One school of thought which I was initially introduced to as a graduate student years in the early 1990s was systems theory. Systems theory really pervaded my work in the realm of international development, ecology and the environment given the interconnected and complex nature of the problems being addressed (poverty, climate change etc). I'm finding it very interesting how discussions around systems theory are now becoming quite mainstream, and influential, in the dialogue around the current economic situation. One of the gifts of systems theory is the ability to deal with these highly complex, interconnected processes/systems.

One author who have been writing on these subjects in the last few years includes Peter Senge (MIT Professor and author of The Necessary Revolution, Presence). I heard Peter speak a few weeks ago in Montreal and his message was powerful, and taken from his work in The Necessary Revolution. Peter also tied in the concept of sustainability, an older environmental adege from the early 90s, AND one that is resurfacing as a core concept for 2008.

What are some of the core skills and approaches you are seeing as essential in today's marketplace? For individuals? For Teams? As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts....

Warmly
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

Teams on Thursday - Teams in the Downturn

2008-10-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of discussion lately about what role teams play in the current business context given the recent volatility in the markets.

I have found it interesting to see clients continue to invest, proactively, to team based intiatives, in part recognizing that the only way they will get their work completed is through their teams, whether the team is established, or is newly forming, given the organizational changes.

Here are 5 reasons teams why teams continue to remain a driving force of organizations throughout this downturn:

1. The Power of Collective Wisdom - Psychologists have demonstrated for years that group decisions are better than decisions made one off.

What does the collective wisdom of your team know that the individuals don't?

2. Reducing duplication --When teams function well, team systems can reduce a lot of the duplicaton and time spent with tasks being repeated by individuals.

What systems do you have in place as a team that reduces duplication? Any new systems needed to address duplication that is going on?

3. A diversity of approaches to services, products and support to clients/customers -- one of the greatest gifts of a team approach can be the diversity of approaches and philosophies it's individual memebers brings.

What new ideas live in your team which could support you in doing things differently?

4. The Power of Collaboration: Collaboration in and of itself often also leads to new ideas and approaches.

What step can your team take this week to enhance collaboration, or remove barriers to collaboration?

5. Enhanced Sustainability: While team members may come and go, teams in and of themselves usually have a footprint or essence greater than its members.

What's the essence of your team? What's the footprint it leaves?

Have a wonderful week!

Warmly

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPT

Potentials Realized

Cell: (416) 996-TEAM (8326)

Team Coaching: Including the Team Diagnostic Assessment

Calling all Small Business Owners - Last Chance

2008-10-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

Last call to all small business owners to join me for the 90 Day BizSuccess group coaching program starting this Friday (11-12 noon Eastern). There are 2 spaces remaining for entrepreneurs/small business owners to join me for an intimate group coaching experience for the next 3 months. Join myself and a maximum of 7 other business owners for an intensive virtual (phone based) program with accountability, resources and best practices to GROW your business.

The 90 Day BizSuccess program is designed for new and experienced business owners who are looking for a supportive, action-oriented group coaching program to intentionally focus on their business development.This 3 month program includes:

7x 1 hour group coaching calls with a maximum of 8 participants (Fridays from 11 - 12 noon Eastern, 8-9am Pacific) over a 3 month period
Bi-weekly modules delivered full of tools, resources and exercises to grow your business
36 E-Biz Tips delivered to your mailbox 3 times a week for the program length
15 minute lazer coaching 1-1 session with me on a monthly basis at no extra cost!

During the three months of the program you will:

Create Your Business RoadMap: Develop or refine your business vision
Explore your unique strengths and abilities as a business person, identifying areas for leverage and competitive advantage
Get clear on your niche (or niches) - Who are your clients? Who do you serve?
Identify what unique products and services you offer and how this sets you apart from other providers
Explore Your Web: Identify opportunities for collaboration and partnerships with other business owners and service providers
Develop your marketing strategy and budget
Investigate how your business can leverage technology and social media to build their client base and increase sales through an introduction to blogs, podcasts and other platforms
Develop a concrete business action plan for the next year

One session will be dedicated to additional topics that matter most to participants

Cost: $347 for the 3 month program.

There are still 3 spaces remaining in the program. To register and reserve your spot you can visit us online or contact me directly by email/phone at jennifer(AT)potentialsrealized(dot)com/ 1-866-217-1960 (toll free across N.America) or at my mobile (416) 996-TEAM. Curious about how the program may benefit you? Please give me a call.

Some of the recent work I have done for busienss owners include: "Starting Your Own Business - A Guide for Women in York Region" (2006) and the Succession Planning Webinar Series early this year.

I look forward to hearing from you and having you join me for this incredible journey of action, learning and accountability as you take your business from GOOD to GREAT! This will be the last 90 day Biz Success program offered before the end of 2008.

I look forward to having you join me!

Warm wishes,

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPT

Potentials Realized

Coaching for Small Business Owners

Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960 ~ Mobile: (416) 996-TEAM

Skill Sets for Mentors

2008-10-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

Mentoring continues to be an essential element for many talent management programs across industies. Lower in cost than many other learning intiatives, mentoring programs can provide powerful opportunities for junior employees to learn from those that have gone before.

This year, I have been involved in providing coaching support to a number of mentoring programs across industies and often get asked, "What type of skills are useful for mentors to have?"

Think about any opportunities you have had to be mentored, or provide mentoring. Some of the core skills I see as essential for great mentors include:

1.Listening - Mentors are often seen as a sounding board for proteges/those being mentored. How effective are you being at listening to your protege and what they are looking for from your relationship.

2.Feedback - Proteges are often very eager in learning what has worked/what hasn't from mentors. As such, mentors are often called upon to provide feedback/insights in terms of industry trends, what's worked/what hasn't in their career, professional development options - - to name a few.

3.Creating Powerful Questions : Powerful Questions rarely start with WHY? They are open ended and often start with WHAT?

4.Coaching: Creating opportunities for Accountability, Acknowledging your protege, and Encouraging them towards their goals

5. Relationship Building: The mentor/protege relationship can be a very powerful one and often requires intentional design. How much attention have you put towards your mentoring relationship?

What do you see as essential skills for mentors? Feel free to comment below.

Warmly,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Potentials Realized
Coaching, Training and Consulting Services
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at} potentialsrealized.com

Teams On Thursdays: Intergenerational Team Management Issues

2008-06-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

Teams on Thursday: Intergenerational Team Management Issues

Intergenerational management issues continue to be a hot topic in the world of management and HR these days – whether it’s getting in touch with how employees of different generations get along, or how mentoring relationships between different generations can be fostered.

What intergenerational Team Management Issues are showing up on your team?

Here are a few questions to consider

* Who is on our team? Is it GenX, Millenials (Gen Y) or Boomers?
* What are our preferences in terms of communication? Leadership? Teamwork?
* What common ground exists amongst all of us regardless of generational membership?
*What is the biggest challenge our team faces due different generational membership?
* What is the biggest opportunity our team faces due to different generational membership?

Here's a link to a blog post I wrote last year on Managing across Generations, with a number of tips from CCL for managers and leaders to consider.

What resources or articles do you like/refer to when looking at this issue of intergenerational management?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Succession Planning Web Seminar Series Launched

2008-06-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Many of you will remember that one of the projects I was working on this winter was a Succession Planning Web Seminar series for Entrepreneurs and SMEs in York Region. As a business coach, I was one of four professionals who led a 15-20 minute seminar series on steps and tips to creating your own succession plan as a business owner.

The series has now been launched by the York, South Simcoe Training and Adjustment Board (YSSTAB) and you can now view the web seminar series online here.

Succession planning continues to be a hot topic for both corporate North America and also SMEs. What steps have you taken to ensure business continuity within your team or organization. I hope that you will take a few minutes to view my web seminar entitled 8 Steps for a Successful Exit. Many of these tips are just as applicable to leadership succession wtihin larger organizations. I hope that you will take a few minutes and click on over to view the web seminar series.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Coaching Services for Business Owners
Toll free: 1-866-217-1960

Six Team Challenges for Project Management Teams

2008-06-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Six Team Challenges for Project Management Teams
by Jennifer Britton, Potentials Realized
Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved.

By their very nature, project management teams are unique, and face unique opportunities and challenges. This article examines six unique team challenges facing project management teams, along with some questions project managers may want to consider with respect to their team.

Challenge #1: The Team’s finite timeline
Project Management exist for a finite period of time, with a fixed beginning and end period. This may be days, weeks, months or sometimes years. Teams outside of the project world, theoretically are forever.

Questions:
What challenges does your team’s finite timeline pose? What do you notice about the team process and their needs as you move from kick-off to implementation and finish?

Challenge #2: Different roles and responsibilities of different Team Members

Project teams often involve a fluid mix of different team members coming in and out of the project.

Questions:
How much time have you spent clarifying the different roles and responsibilities of the different team members in your project. Where is the overlap? What are the gaps?

Challenge #3: Different team members belong to a series of different project teams:

It is quite common for staff members to belong to multiple project teams at one time.

Questions:
How strong is the association/membership to your team? What steps can you take to boost team members association to your team?

Challenge #4: Possible Virtual Nature of the Project Team:

A very common challenge within project teams is their virtual nature, where members of the team are either M-Workers, or actually located in different venues. Virtual teams can pose a wide range of challenges as they may operate across time zones, distance and cultures. To see what else I've said on virtual teams, click here.

Questions:
If we have a virtual component to our team, who is on it? What obstacles exist due to our nature of the virtual team? What steps can we take to ensure that those needed are involved in our team process and communication?

Challenge #5: Unclear Vision for the team
Unfortunately, it can be common for the vision of a project to held tightly by a few members of a project management team, and not widely shared by all.

Questions:
Who has contributed to the overall vision of the project? Who shares this vision? What steps can you take so that all team members share the vision?

Solution:
Spend time with the team creating a common vision of the end result

Challenge #6: Unclear on the strengths of the team

Given the often transient nature of project teams, it is quite common for the time together to be spent on action (which can often be unfocussed) rather than preparation and planning. Remember, every 10 minutes of planning can save 60 minutes of unfocused effort.

Questions?
What strengths does each team member bring to your team? What are the strengths of your team system as a whole?

Solution:
Look for an assessment such as the Team Diagnostic Assessment to measure the strengths of your team system, or StrengthsFinder 2.0 to look at the strengths of individual team members.

Jennifer J. Britton is the founder of Potentials Realized. Jennifer works with teams, organizations and business owners to achieve the success and impact they desire in teamwork, business, and performance issues, through the provision of coaching, consulting and training services. She regularly facilitates team building and team coaching sessions and retreats (virtual, on and offsite) with governmental, nonprofit and corporate clients. As a performance improvement specialist, she works with leading edge organizations across North America and the Caribbean. Visit Jennifer online at http://www.potentialsrealized.com/ . Jennifer worked as an international project manager from 1992-2004, managing projects across the Americas, Caribbean and Europe.

Teams on Thursdays: Risk Taking

2008-06-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

“Real teams don't emerge unless individuals on them take risks involving conflict, trust, interdependence and hard work.”
- Katzenbach and Smith: The Wisdom of Teams

What risks have you been taking within your team recently?

Is your team risk-sensitive or risk-adverse? What does this say about your team?

How does your team measure on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being low and 10 being high) in terms of:

* Conflict
* Trust
* Interdependence
* Hard Work

What's the one action step you could take this week to take a risk in service of the team?

Have a wonderful week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Potentials Realized
Team Coaching
Toll free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Time Management: An Alternative

2008-06-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

An Alternative to Time Management: Manage Your Energy, not your time

“Managing Energy, not time is the fundamental currency of high performance. Performance is grounded in the skillful management of energy”
- Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement

A few weeks ago I spoke on time management tips and high performance to a group of managers and staff. As part of our session I challenged participants to consider looking at managing energy, rather than time as a key to "great" performance. A wonderful book on this topic, which you may in fact find a real paradigm shifter, is Loehr and Schwartz book - The Power of Full Engagement. It is worth checking out!

“Great leaders are stewards of organizational energy. They begin by effectively managing their own energy. As leaders, they must mobilize, focus, invest, channel, renew and expand the energy of others”
- Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement

What steps have you taken this week to manage your energy?

If you are a leader, what steps are you taking to mobilize, focus and renew the energy of others?

Teams on Thursdays: Leverage Your Team's Strengths

2008-05-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Gallup organization and researchers such as Marcus Buckingham and Tom Rath have been leaders in the field of strengths based leadership. Many of you will have probably read, or heard of books such as Now, Discover Your Strengths (Buckingham), Go Put Your Strengths to Work (Buckingham) and Rath's StrengthsFinder 2.0.

Here are 3 conclusions from Gallup’s research on conversation, engagement, and strengths:
If your manager primarily ignores you, your chances of being actively disengaged are 40%
If your manager focuses on your weaknesses, your chances of being actively disengaged are 22%
If you manager focuses on your strengths your chances of being actively disengaged are only 1%

What a difference when you look at strengths!

I saw Tom Rath speak last year in Atlanta and was really struck by one of the business metrics that he shared about how important employee engagement, and a strengths based approach can be:

An engaged workforce has 2.6 x the Earnings Per Share (EPS) than a disengaged workforce. That's a pretty significant figure.

What are the strengths present in your team? As individual team members? As a whole team or system?

How easy was it to answer these questions?

There are some fantastic leading edge assessments available to measure and map your team strengths. One that I stand fully behind, and use with teams that I work with, is the Team Diagnostic Assessment. The Team Diagnostic Assessment has also used in companies including Johnson and Johnson, McDonalds, ING, Unilever, Hilton, Bank of America. The Team Diagnostic Assessment provides a mapping of 14 key strengths of a team. Part of the uniqueness of this tool is that it looks at the team as a system (rather than a collection of individuals). As we all know, any change affects the system -- how often do you take a look at your team as a system? The tool was developed by Team Coaching International.

If you would like to learn more about the Team Diagnostic Assessment, I would invite you to contact me.

Let's discuss how this assessment can provide invaluable insights about your team as a system, its strengths and how these can be leveraged to create, or sustain, a high perfomance culture and results. The assessment also includes a one to two day offsite retreat process with the team, grounded in team coaching. I am presently booking presentations (virtual/webinar or onsite) with corporations who are looking for cutting edge tools and processes to support their teams and results later this year.

Global team? No problem -- the assessment can be delivered in 12 languages, and the retreat can be held virtually. Multiple global (intact) teams? I work with a global network of practionners who can also deliver the program in your languge and culture.

Contact me by email or toll free (1-866-217-1960) to learn more about the Team Diagnostic Assessment and how it could support your team(s). I look forward to hearing from you.

Have a wonderful week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Email: jennifer{AT}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Teams on Thursday: Creating Quality Communication

2008-05-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

I led a seminar yesterday on time management strategies and was reminded of the importance of taking time to reflect on the quality of our communication within teams. Communication is not just about the frequency, it's really all about the quality.

Ask yourself the following questions:

On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being really, really terrible and 10 being exceptional), how would you rate your communication with team members overall?

How frequently do you communicate with your team members face to face or by phone (rather than text or email)?

What's the impact of face to face or voice to voice communication over your email communication?

Overutlization of email continues to be a huge barrier to performance within teams. The time that a series of back and forth emails takes, can often be resolved in a five minute phone call.

Exercise:

Over the next week observe what patterns of communicaton are present in your team.

Which communication patterns or activities support the team, its' results and purpose? Which ones aren't effective?

What is one specific action step you can take this month to create quality communication within your team.

Have a great week!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT

Potentials Realized
Team Coaching
Coaching, Training and Assessments for Team Peformance and Results

Teams on Thursday: Synergy

2008-05-07T05:11:00.000-07:00

Teams on Thursday: Synergy

"Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people."
- Stephen Covey

What synergies exist within your team?
How does synergy support you team?
What are the new alternatives which are created from synergizing with others on your team?

Teams allow the principle of "the whole is great than the sum of its parts" to exist in part because of the synergistic nature of the relationship between individuals.

Take note this week of how your team is working together. Is it synergistic or something else?

Have a great week.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Team Coaching
Toll free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Solid Foundations for Mentoring Relationships

2008-05-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Art of Relationship : Mentoring
Copyright 2008 - Jennifer Britton. All Rights Reserved

Great Mentoring is all about building strong relationships

Studies have shown that mentoring fails because:

1.Lack of commitment to the relationship
2.Unclear expectations
3.Lack of trust

"For a Mentoring relationship to be effective, both parties must commit the time and energy to work with each other” – Murphy and Ensher

What energy (time and focus) have you invested to your mentoring partnership?

Whether you are a mentor or protege/mentee, create a solid foundation for your mentoring relationship, by holding a first meeting to discuss your expectations, groundrules etc, and consciously shaping your relationship.

Some of the questions you may want to consider discussing include:

What are your goals for this relationship?
What role do you want me to play?
What do you expect from our relationships (for mentor, for protege)?
What are our boundaries?
How frequently will we meet?
If there are milestones or success measures for the protege - what do these look like?
What are we committed to?

Even if you've been working together for a while it's never too late to discuss these questions. The stronger your relationship, the more powerful your mentoring experience will be.

Warm wishes,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT

Potentials Realized

Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Would you like to reproduce this article? Please do with our contact details and copyright intact along with the bio below. We would ask for a link to our site and that you provide us a link or copy of where it is published.

Jennifer Britton supports organizations on teamwork and performance issues as a coach, trainer and consultant. She also helps professionals build stronger relationships for enhanced results in the areas of teamwork, leadership and mentoring. She regularly delivers talks, workshops and gruop coaching on these topics to professional associations and organizations. Visit her online at the BizToolkit blog for more tips on mentoring or at her website: Potentials Realized.

Teams on Thursday: Essential Team Reads

2008-05-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of my favorite books on teamwork and team issues:

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team -Patrick Lencioni

The Speed of Trust - Stephen Covey

The Wisdom of Teams - Kazenbach and Smith

Mastering VIRTUAL Teams - Duarte and Snyder

The Leadership Challenge - Kouzes and Posner (more about leadership in a team envrionment)

You can pick up several of these at the bookstore I've set up with Amazon here.

A couple of these I am particularly biased about (The Leadership Challenge and the Five Dysfunctions of a Team) as I deliver workshop programs from these models to teams, AND I also know how powerful the models can be for teams.

What are some of your favorite team reads right now?

Warm wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com

Mentoring

2008-04-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

A short while ago I delivered a series of seminars for a wonderful organization which was just launching their own mentoring program. It's been interesting for me as everywhere I am turning these days I seem to be seeeing something about mentoring.

What's been your experience with mentoring? Does your organization have their own mentoring program in place? What exactly is mentoring?

Mentoring itself is receiving a lot more attention these days as more and more organizations and professional associations are recognizing the value of both formal and informal mentoring programs.

From my experience effective mentoring programs recognize the value of the mentoring relationship and invest time into creating a strong relationship between mentor and protege.

Some great resources you may want to look to if you are new to mentoring include:

Ellen Ensher and Susan Murphy. Power Mentoring: How Successful Mentors and Proteges get the Most Out of Their Relationships, 2005.

Robert Tamasay and David Stoddard. The Heart of Mentoring, 2003.

and two excellent online resources:

The Coaching and Mentoring Network (UK) : http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk/ResourceCentre/Articles/Default .asp

Peer Resources: http://www.mentors.ca/

In addition to my Teams on Thursdays columns, I'll be doing a series on mentoring so keep posted. If you know of other resources for mentoring, please feel free to post below

Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com

Teams on Thursday: Tapping Into Your Collective Wisdom

2008-04-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

"None of us is as smart as all of us."
- Ken Blanchard

Today's team post is all about the collective wisdom and knowledge that resides within the entire team.

Questions to consider:
What's the collective wisdom of our team?
What are we able to do only as a team and not as individuals?
What is our unique team "smarts"?

You may want bring these questions into your next staff meeting. And if you do -- please let us know the impact of the questions using the comments below.

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Toll free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized.com

Executive Coaching in the news

2008-04-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

There was a very interesting article and accompanying video yesterday in the Wall Street journal online entitled "Executive Coaching - Worth the Money?". The video looks at the actual impact of one company's experience with employing executive coaching services.

The Wall Steet video discusses how the owners have benefitted from a series of offsite coaching sessions (4/year) supported by regular ongoing 1-1 phone based support work. It's a great practical example of how executive coaching is supporting businesses - large and small - from many different industries.

Many of you will recognize that this is quite similar to some of the coaching work which I undertake including Shadow Coaching, 1-1 executive coaching, or a team coaching approach which involves all business partners, owners or senior managers.

Curious about what executive coaching might do for your managers, or teams? The most recent 2008 Sherpa Executive Coaching survey has found that at least half of executive coaching is currently being used for leadership development purposes.

What's your biggest leadership challenge right now?

I'd welcome speaking with you to see how coaching services could support your managers and teams performance, retention and productivity measures.

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll free : 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Teams on Thursday: Roles within a Team

2008-04-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

I’m going to be starting a weekly column here at the blog on teams - a central passion of mine and a huge part of the work that I do with organizations.

As more and more organizations are realizing the critical role teamwork can play in their organization, they are also looking for more resources to support the development of their excellence.

Today’s teamwork quote is from H.E. Luccock:

"No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.”.

This quote reminds us of the critical interconnected and important role of different players within a team.

Within the context of matrix management, virtual teams and other organizational approaches, the roles that are present within a team are no longer as straightforward as they used to be.

Creating an environment where all team members are clear on their role(s) and how they are evolving can play a key role in enhancing productivity, job satisfaction and overall business results.

As you look at your team here are some questions to consider:
What are the different roles present within the team?
What roles are not present? What can you do to fill them?
What roles are overpopulated?
What roles serve the team?
What roles hinder the team?

If you are a team leader or manager, consider spending some time looking at this during your next team meeting or offsite. As a team member what do you notice? What do you think the team needs?

Have a great week,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT

Potentials Realized

Four Years, Four Lessons To Live By

2008-04-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 4th anniversary of Potentials Realized. It was 4 years ago today that our door, and phone line opened.

I’ve intentionally built some time in over the last few days to reflect on where we’ve been and what some of our goals are for the future. As a business coach, I love doing this work with my clients, and it’s been great to walk my talk and use my own tools for my business.

I’ve also boiled down four of the lessons that have served me best during my first 4 years in business.

Business Lesson #1: Be clear on what you want as well as what fuels and passions you

Keeping clear about what I love and want to create has been quite instrumental in building a business and a model which enables me to enjoy the best of the city during the winter, as well as the best of Muskoka during the summer. My time up north renews me on an annual basis, providing the opportunity for more strategic thinking and program/product development.

Coaching Questions: What do you want to create in your business? What's going to give you energy? What can't you live without?

Business Lesson #2: Don’t be afraid to create your own path

When I first started coaching four plus years ago, one of the only models available was one-on-one coaching. From the start of my business I was eager to create and design coaching experiences for groups. I've loved being a pioneer in an emerging area of the coaching profession - group coaching. Rather than feeling like a renegade I created my own path. You can read more about group coaching over at my Group Coaching Ins and Outs blog.
Coaching Questions: What's your path? What unique contribution can you make as a business owner? What's the unique path of your business?

Business Lesson #3: Persevere
Strategic perseverance has played an important role in growing my business. If it didn't work, I asked why? If it didn't work, I tried again and refocused. If that didn't work, I tried again.

Most of us know the stats on marketing -- it may take 7-11 times for a consumer to purchase, so why do so many business owners give up after the first try?

Coaching Questions: Where do you need to persevere? What needs to be refocused?

Business Lesson #4: Learn from all experiences, the good and the bad
And finally -- reflection and learning has also played a key role. Whether it's been a great experience or one that's not been so great, identifying the learning and applying in the next step has been critical.

Coaching Questions: What can you learn from your most recent success? What can you learn from your most recent failure?

Some interesting facts:

The US Small Business Association states that only 2/3 of small businesses survive after their first 2 years in business and less than half make it to 4. WOW!

What have been some of the lessons which have served you best in growing your own business?

In closing, I want to thank all of you who have supported myself and Potentials Realized as we've grown. I look forward to many more years of serving you -- and if we haven't had the opportunity to meet - I'd love to connect to see how we might synergize.

Have a fantastic week,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton PCC, CHRP, CPT

Potentials Realized

Group Coaching Essentials

Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

Email: info{at}potentialsrealized.com

PS- Stay tuned for some of our anniversary month specials and announcements! I'd also invite you to visit our re-freshed Potentials Realized site (our original 2004 site was wonderful, AND it was time for a facelift - I'd welcome your comments on our new one!).

Gearing Up for Earth Hour

2008-03-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

I’m gearing up for Earth hour tomorrow evening here in Toronto from 8-9pm. Toronto like dozens of other cities around the world will be undertaking an hour of voluntary “lights out”

Originally started in Sydney, Earth Hour seems to be growing exponentially. Last year over 2 million people and 2100 businesses took part.

For a quick overview of what Earth Hour is, check out this Toronto Star article: http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/EarthHour/article/35072

Some of the cities we will be joining tomorrow evening include:
Montreal, Vancouver, Bangkok, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen. The Toronto Star reports that over 150 cities in Canada alone will be participating this year – giving Canada one of the highest participation rates around the world.

What will you be doing for Earth Hour?

My own roots are intially in the environmental sector, and as such this initiative has captured my attention. Some of you may know that I hold a Masters degree in Environmental Studies, and a significant part of my work globally involved support to community based initiatives such involvement in establishing the Santa Elena Rainforest Reserve in Costa Rica, sea tutle research and environmental education in Guyana, and then support to the countries of the OECS (Eastern Carriben) on the GEF funded work around biodiversity and climate change initiatives, legislation and education. That's why when I do get to write about environmental issues and corporate social responsibility on the part of businesses - I get so excited!

I think that this is a great initiative and my hats off to WWF to finding an initiative and message that is really getting people inspired and fired up (especially little children). What steps will you take today to do your part?

With Earth Day also a few weeks away (April 22nd ) keep your eyes posted for more on what what you, your team and your business can do for the environment.

Have a great weekend!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Group Coaching Essentials
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer(at) potentialsrealized(dot)com

Succession Planning for Business Owners

2008-03-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have noticed that I've been a little quieter than usual on the blog. It's because I've been involved in a number of pretty large pieces of work, one which revolves around Succession Planning for Business Owners. Later this month, YSSTAB will be launching the Succession Planning Webinar series for SME's (Small and Medium Enterprises) for York Region. York Region is just located north of Toronto and is Canada's fastest growing census division.

You can read more about the Succession Planning Webinar series over at YSSTAB's website. Approximately 70% of business owners will be retiring in the next decade or so and surprisingly a very small proportion have a succession plan in place. This has the potential for profound impact on the labourforce (for places like York Region especially where 95% of the labour force is employed with a SME), as well as the economy.

As a Business Coach, I am joining 3 other experts (a business valuator, a lawyer, and a financial planner) on this hour long webinar series, designed to provide SME's more information about sucession planning and what to consider when creating one for your own business.

It's been a very exciting process for me over the last few weeks and I am looking forward to keeping you posted as we move into the launch of the webinar series. In the coming weeks, I'll be sharing with you a number of the 8 strategies I talk about during the succession planning webinar.

Do you have a succession plan in place for your business?

Stay tuned!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer@potentialsrealized.com

10 Ways to Get to Know Your Team

2008-02-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

Strengthening Your Team Relationships
10 Ways to Get To Know Your Team
Copyright 2008 - Jennifer Britton. All Rights Reserved

We can spend a majority of our waking hours at work. But how well do you know other members of your team?

This month's blog focus is all about strengthening relationships in your work and life. Here's a list of 10 things you could do to strengthen relationships within your team by getting to know each other a little better:

1. Create out of the office/off-hours opportunities to connect. It may be as simple as a luncheon out, or a walk through a nearby park.

2. Create a job shadowning day where you get paired with a fellow colleague and learn about what they do you. If a full day is just too long, make it a half day process.

3. Pair staff members together as team supports or buddies. These support teams can be rotated every month or so, enabling all team members to get to know each other.

4. Create special project teams which will foster closer working relationships.

5. Create an environment of trust. Trust is essential in order to facilitate close working relationships and create the foundation of for . How we create trust? Through transparency. Walking our talk. Creating shared leadership opportunities, practicing integrity.

6. Create opportunities for loved ones or family members to attend team events. These people know your team mates best. You might be surprised at what you learn about them, and what you learn about yourself based on discussions.

7. Instead of bouncing that email to your team mate, get up, go over and speak to them!

8. Invest in opportunities for the staff/team to "get away" from the office to focus in on team issues and get to know one another. Bring in an external facilitator to boost the process (Click here for an article I wrote on what to consider when designing your next team retreat).

9. Make sure that your team meetings are working for you as a team. Are they sapping energy? or boosting morale? Have team members suggest short activities or ideas that could be brought into the meetings to avoid the Death by Meeting syndrome.

10. Look at what everyone brings to the table. As a team, you should have a shared vision of what you want to accomplish. How does each team member see their role in contributing to the team's vision and accomplisments?

What are some approaches that have worked well for your teams? As always, I look forward to having you comment below.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized.com

Looking for some additional ways to strengthen your team. Read my article: Team Building Tips: Take Your Team From Great to Extraordinary

Strengthening Your Relationships At Work

2008-02-05T12:16:00.000-08:00

My theme for February is all about relationships in honour of Valentine's day. As a relationship systems coach I tend to do a lot of work with business partnerships and teams (as well as some intimate couples) who want to move their relationship from great to extraordinary. In honour of this, most of my blog posts here, along with my sister sites Your Balanced Life! (all about work-life balance) and Group Coaching Ins and Outs (all about group facilitation) will have a relationship flair to the end of the month.

When was the last time you focused on your relationships at work? It's funny how we spend a majority of our waking day at work, and yet many workplaces suffer from a clinical team detachment. How often do you get together with your team mates to communicate? Or do you work for a company where your communication with your next door neighbour is by email? Please don't laugh -- this really does happen in some workplaces.

So....regardless of what your commuication mode is...here's some food for thought as you consider strengthening your relationships at work.

Creating Positive Workplace Relationships - a great article from Peter Vajda over at management-issues.com

Why Genuine Dialogue is the Key to Workplaces - Tammi Lenski

Creating Positive Intentional Business Partnerships -- a blog post I wrote last week on questions to consider when you are looking at creating any business partnerships -- joint venture or business model

Building Solid Work Relationships: Developing Rapport with Co-Workers - Deborah S. Hildebrand

So here's a question for you - What is one thing you could do this week to strengthen your relationships at work? What impact would that have?

Stay Tuned later this month as I'll share a list of intentional activities you can do to foster stronger working relationships with your co-workers and business partners.

Have a great rest of the week,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT

Potentials Realized

Coaching for Teams and Business Partnerships

Come - Get Organized with Me Next Week

2008-02-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

Was one of your New Year's Resolutions to get organized? Is it still sitting on your new year's list? Ready to check it off?

Come join me, world class organizer Hellen Buttigieg, and a small group of other individuals, next Monday night for the Get Organized Virtual Intensive . The program will be held on Monday February 11 AND 25th from 7-10pm (EST) by phone. We are hosting a group coaching program for individuals who are READY to GET ORGANIZED!

It’s going to be a very interactive two evenings of information and action -- to support you in getting things in order. We are holding the program by phone, so that you can tackle your closets, your drawers, your desk during our time together…no excuses! The program is a mix of time spent on the phone as a group where you will get tips, tools and other resources for organizing (15 minutes every hour) and then structured individual exercises offline to apply these new tips at your home right away (the next 45 minutes of every hour). Hellen and I will be there throughout the two evenings to support you to bust through any obstacles that may pop up!

For more information about the program please click here.We still have space for a few more individuals to join us for these two evenings of fun, organizing, coaching and tips so if you’ve been sitting on the fence about joining us, I hope that you will email me at info@potentialsrealized.com to reserve your spot. Cost: $250 US or Canadian( a fraction of the cost of what it would be to work with Hellen and I individually for the same amount of time ~ approximately $4000). Registration forms are available here.

Get a head start on your spring cleaning and check it off on your list!

Questions? Please give me a shout at 1-866-217-1960 or drop me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

Warm wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized

What do you think? Small Business Marketing

2008-01-29T12:10:00.000-08:00

A number of my small business clients have been spending the month focusing on creative ways to get the word out about what they have to offer. I always love looking at just how the internet is creating new opportunities to small business to get the word out at no, or low cost.

Walking my talk is very important to me, and throughout the 90 Day Biz Success Program, I too undertake a number of the assignments my clients work on.

A neat tool that I have just started exploring (and I mean just started) is Smilebox, which allows you to create a slideshow with music at no cost.

I thought that I'd try my hand at putting together some photos for my spring through fall programs up in Muskoka which I run with my colleague Sharon Miller. This year, in addition to our couples and women's retreats, we are also offering customized executive and team retreats in Muskoka. You can find more information at our Retreat2Muskoka site.

You can view my Smilebox creation here:

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

It's a very basic slide show, and is just a quick filler for the moment but it was really neat to be able to put this together in less than 15 minutes.

What do you think? There's space for you to comment after you've viewed the slideshow, and as always, feel free to comment below.

Have a great week!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Email: jennifer@potentialsrealized.com
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

Employee Engagement in the new year

2008-01-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

Employee engagement continues to show up as a critical issue for many managers and workplace learning professionals. You can read earlier posts I've written on the topic here.

The 2007 ASTD Employee Engagement Survey has just been released and answers some of the following questions:

How many workers are engaged?
How much does it matter to the learning function?

This study looked at link between learning and employee engagement and involved 750 respondents in an online survey. ASTD collaborated with i4cp and Dale Carnigie and Associates for the study.

You can listen to a podcast about the survey and its results here.

ASTD has also published an interesting article this month by Cris and Mel Wildermuth of The Effectiveness Group entitled the "10 Ms of Employee Engagement". I saw Cris present on this model back in June at the ASTD Conference in Atlanta -- it's a great model! I hope that the model will be able to spread more into the mainstream in coming months. Cris - if you do read this, I'd love to have you as a guest blogger or interviewee here.

For an additional mneumonic approach to Employee Engagement, check out the 10 Cs to Employee Engagement, originally published in the Ivey Business Journal.

What employee engagement issues are showing up for you right now in your organization?

Warmly,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

5 Tips for Effective Virtual Team Meetings

2008-01-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

5 Tips for Effective Virtual Team Meetings
Copyright 2008 - Jennifer Britton. All Rights Reserved

Is one of your new years resolutions to ensure that your virtual team meetings are more effective? Today’s post includes 5 tips for Effective Virtual Team Meetings. Perhaps you work with in-person teams - not to worry, many of these ideas will apply to you as well.

Tip 1 – Establish Ground Rules or Ways of Working for the Group

This is an essential for any group process. Spend time at the start of your work together to develop common ground rules or ways of working to frame how you will work together. These should be written down and circulated to the group as a reminder.

Number one rule -- Don't assume! It's very dangerous to do when you are in a room together, and even more so for when you are working across time, geography and cultures!

Some examples of ways of working for a virtual team might include:
* Start and end calls on time
* Rotate call times to meet the needs of different team members in all time zones
* Respecting all team members ideas and perspectives (which does not mean agreeing with all of them, rather respecting them)
* 100% Focus on the meeting at hand (and not surfing the net, reading other materials, sending emails during the call)

What else would you include in your group’s groundrules?

Tips 2 and 3 – Be respectful of time
A major challenge, and opportunity, of holding team meetings across distance and timezones, is that participants may be calling in at different times of the work day (or even before or after work). Some team members may be gearing up for the work day, others may be winding down.

Virtual Team meeting management requires respect of time on two levels:
1. Start and End the meeting on time. If the meeting is set to 60 minutes, make sure that the meeting is 60 minutes
2. Set calls at times convenient to the group -- for example, setting a 10 am call Toronto time, would mean 7am for someone in LosAngeles, 4 pm in Germany, and midnight in Japan. Take a look at where your team members are located, and if necessary, rotate call times to make the convenience equal for all members. If a majority of members are based in a similar time zone, ensure that the call has enough leverage and substance to warrant different time zone team members calling in in their pyjamas.

Tip 4 – Have an agenda - and one that works!
A really common pitfall for most teams today is the Death by Meeting syndrome, so wonderfully captured in Patrick Lencioni's book of the same name.

Lack of an agenda or roadmap for in-person meetings can be deadly, and for virtual teams exponentially so!

Some quick tips for virtual team meeting agendas include:
* Circulate the agenda a day or two before the call (keeping in mind the impact of weekends in different time zones)
*Recap at the end of all calls: agreed action points, who will be accountable, next steps
* Time at the start of meetings for a short update from all callers
* Ensure that there is enough time for all essential items to be covered. If you find that meetings consistently go longer than 60 minutes and you just can't squeeze it all in, what about going to a 75 minute, or 90 minute format?
* Circulate the key meeting points or a recap next steps as close to the end of the meeting (within hours,not days of the meeting end). A simple template approach can be quickly used for this.

Tip 5 – Build connections outside of the meeting
Virtual Teams often start off with great gusto and energy. The lack of face to face meetings can make it difficult for some teams to sustain the inital energy over time.

Wherever possible, create opportunities for team members to build connections outside of the meeting. Whether it is holding formal face to face meetings on an annual basis (strongly recommended, and in great frequency than every year!), or creating informal virtual networking functions outside of the usual team meetings, time spent by the team outside of the formal meetings can help to support the team's development and sustained performance.

There's a lot more on building connections outside of the virtual environment, so please stay posted.

Hope that 08 has started off great for you and your teams! As always, I welcome your comments.

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC
GroupCoachingEssentials
email: jennifer{AT}potentialsrealized{com}

PS - What's your team's stretch going to be this year? What do you want to look back on in December of this year and say "Wow! We did it!". What support do you need to make that happen?

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! And welcome back to the Biz Toolkit blog. I hope that you each had a wonderful holiday and got some well deserved rest. Are you ready to make 2008 great?

For those of you who like New Years predictions, I've come across some great blog posts that are already out there including:

Amit over at How to Manage Human Resources : 60 HR Predictions for 2008

Inside Retailing: Top 10 Business Predictions for 2008

Business Week's Innovation Predictions for 2008

Queen's University's (Canada) Predictions for 2008

What other posts have you read about New Year business predictions that you've liked? What are yours? Feel free to comment below.

Do you want to make 2008 great for your business?

If you are looking to make the new year great and you are a business owner, I hope that you will consider joining me for the 2008 Biz Success Virtual Planning Retreat. If you haven't had the chance to do your business planning for 2008, here are three chances to join me for a six hour structured business planning retreat by phone.

No need to leave your office and all your resources. Each hour we will meet for 10 -15 minutes by phone as a small group to focus in on a new area of business planning, and then we will spend the remaining part of the hour offline doing our own work on our own business. This program will be of interest to new and experienced business owners -- anyone who wants to ensure that business will be great in 2008! See my earlier post on December's programs here.

You have three sessions to choose from:

BVR-081: Saturday January 5 (10 - 4pm EST) OR

BVR - 082: Sunday January 13 (10 - 4pm EST) OR

BVR - 083: Thursday January 17 and 24 (7-10pm EST both evenings)

In addition to the retreat, each group will have a follow up call, and each particpant will receive the Biz Success Planning Manual by email. This is a resource for the retreat and for the year ahead.

Your investment - $150 US or Canadian. Space is limited for each virtual planning retreat so email me if you'd like to reserve your spot. You can also call me toll free at 1-866-217-1960. Download a registration form here.

Have a wonderful start to the year!

Warm regards,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT

Potentials Realized

Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

A Great Change Management Resource

2007-12-18T09:02:00.000-08:00

Is change in the air for you at your workplace? In your business? In your life?

I've come across a great change management online resource that I wanted to share with you - whether you are a business owner, consultant, manager, staff or individual. The New Change Management Toolbox has an extensive collection of resources (online and offline) for doing work at the individual, team/organization and systems level. You can also connect with others working in the field of change management and contribute to the knowledge base.

I hope that you will check it out!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Group Coaching Essentials
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

My Top Book Recommendations for Books this Year

2007-12-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

I love books (even though I don’t get enough time to read having a toddler in the house)! These are some of the Top 10+ books I have been recommending to clients this year:

Team Issues:
5 Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
The Relationship Cure - John Gottman
StrengthsFinder 2.0 – Tom Rath

Management/Business Issues
First things First – Stephen Covey
Good to Great – Jim Collins
7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey
10 Steps to Be a Successful Manager – Lisa Haneberg
Mass Career Customization – Benko, Weisberg

Small Business Building:
Building a Dream – Walter Good
Never Eat Alone – Keith Ferrazzi (About Building Relationships)
Get Clients Now! - CJ Hayden

Relationship Issues:
7 Principles for Making Marriage Work - John Gottman

Many of these books are available at the Potentials Realized bookstore I host with Amazon here.

What books have you been reading or have found useful this year for business? What books are on your recommended reading list?

Have a wonderful weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Group Coaching Essentials.com and Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized.com

Year End Review and 2008 Visioning - Audio

2007-12-09T16:57:00.000-08:00

Every year at this time I send out to my clients a special exercise, to help them reflect on the past year and do some planning and visioning for the year ahead.

This year I am pleased to provide you with a link so you can listen to it:

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I hope that you enjoy it! I know that you will find this useful, whether you are a business owner, manager, virtual team leader or team member.

I'd welcome your comments -- as always, please feel free to comment below.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at} potentialsrealized.com

PS - Stay tuned for a number of special virtual retreat programs to wrap up 2007, and kick off 2008! Space still remains in Tuesday's Biz Success Virtual Planning Retreat for Small Business Owners (7-10 pm EST on Dec 11 and 18/07)

Business Owners - 2008 Virtual Planning Retreat

2007-11-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

Haven't had the chance to do your business planning for 2008 OR to develop a vision for what you want to create with your business next year?

If you are a business owner who reads my blog you will know my thoughts on how important taking the time to plan for your business really is.

I am pleased to be offereing the 2008 Biz Success Virtual Planning Retreat(TM) for Business Owners next month. This is a virtual business planning retreat for small business owners, so you can dedicate time to planning, without having to leave your office. We'll be meeting by phone for an intensive 6 hour planning retreat, held by phone, over the course of two weeks.

So, you get tools to apply immediately to your business and your planning efforts, dedicated space to focus on your business (we meet for 15 minutes of every hour as a group with the rest of the hour spent off line working on individual planning), and the support of a group environment.

Business owners who attend will:
* Develop their vision for 2008 for their business;
* Explore or reconnect with their business values;
* Set their major Business Objectives for 2008;
* Develop a Business RoadMap for 2008;
* Develop their 2008 Marketing Strategy and Plan;
* Develop an operational budget and partnership strategy for 2008.

The Biz Success Virtual Planning Retreat will be of interest to new and seasoned business owners who are committed to conscious, intentional action and planning for their business.

Retreat participants will receive:
* 6 hours of structured retreat time (combination of group work and individual planning time)
* A virtual retreat manual with exercises, tools and templates for their business planning
* A one hour group follow up call in January
* Individual follow up coaching sessions (Gold and Silver packages only)

Space is limited to 12 business owners per session.

Space is still available for the business planning retreat held on:
Tuesday December 11 and 18/07 from 7 - 10 pm (EST)

For more information or to register, please visit the dedicated web page on the program here. You can also email me at info@potentialsrealized.com if you would prefer to pay by Visa (by phone).

Your investment?
Gold Package: $550 for retreat plus 2 hours of follow up 1-1 business coaching

Silver Package: $350 for retreat, materials plus 1 hour of follow-up 1-1 business coaching

Bronze Package: $150 for retreat, materials and recording

It's a win-win for you and your business. Remember for every 10 minutes spent planning, you are going to save at least 2 hours on effort. So imagine the impact of 6 plus hours of dedicated focus on your business planning? I look forward to having you join me!

To your continued business success,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP

Potentials Realized

90 Day Biz Success Program

Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

Mobile Workers (M-Workers) Part II

2007-11-26T16:17:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I did a posting on mobile workers - those professionals who spend at least 10 hours per week away from their office and need to remain connected via technology. I've had some great comments off line from readers who wanted to know more...so here's part two.

Several people have asked, " What are the typical characteristics of an M-Worker?"

Returning again to Cisco's Study "Understanding and Managing the Mobile Workforce" the study found that mobile workers tend to be:
* Male (Women 67% less likely to be mobile workers than men)
* Those with a degree level education
* Self employed workers are almost twice as likely to be mobile than paid workers -- in part because we need to be, especially when we serve multiple clients

The study even looked at personality characteristics which are dominant in mobile workers, including the need to be an independent decision maker, being a disciplined achiever, and embracing curiosity and exploration. Flexibility and adaptability go hand in hand with the personality of an MWorker (and interestingly the characteristics that I always hired for for many years as a manager).

Another interesting part of the study points to the fact that work-life balance and stress management are key concerns for the mobile workforce. For any of you MWorkers reading this post, how many briefcases/suitcases do you have packed, ready to go by your front door? A few weeks ago, I was joking with a colleague that rather than having a fixation on purses, when I worked as a virtual manager and had staff in 10 countries, my fixation was on briefcases that I could take on and off planes. I certainly know first hand the stress that can be created by living and working on the road. If you are looking for some work-life balance tidbits, I hope that you will jump on over to my Your Balanced Life! blog.

So what are some recommended management approaches for mobile workers? The Cisco study has some great recommendations including some of the more common sense ones (which take on new meaning for M-Workers:
* Providing space for M-Workers to do their job -- so avoid micro-managing
* Aim to understand the context of the M-Workers working world (and their realities)
* Build a high degree of trust with your M-Team
* Ensure that communication is clear, to the point, unambiguous, and delivered at a convenient time
* Reward and recognize M-Workers within the organization (even if they spend more time on the road than at their desk)
and finally, my favourite - invest in team building for your M-Team, ensuring that staff do get to know one another and are able to build relationships with their managers and peers.

I do hope that you will check out the Cisco study -- it's right on the mark and will be of great benefit to any organization with M Workers.

As always - I welcome your comments -- what is your take on M-Workers needs, management strategies and team support? Feel free to comment below or drop me an email.

Have a wonderful week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Are you an M-Worker (Mobile Worker)?

2007-11-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

Are you a mobile worker? IDC predicts that within the next two years one quarter of the global workforce will be mobile workers. Wow!

And what is a mobile worker?

“Mobile workers are those who work at least 10 hours per week away from home and from their main place of work, e.g. on business trips, in the field, traveling, or on customers’ premises, and use online computer connections when doing so”
– Electronic Commerce and Telework Trends, 2000

Cisco published an intriguing study earlier this year entitled, “Understanding and Managing the Mobile Workforce” (July 2007).

In it they found that some of the key competencies for mobile workers are:
* Adaptability
* Communication
* Planning
* Organizing and
* Relationship Building

Mobile Working is a trend that is expected to grow. The report also notes that M-Working can enhance productivity, motivation, flexibility and staff retention – key issues facing most organizations today.

How many mobile workers comprise your workforce? What changes in management style are required for managing mobile workers? How are their support needs different than office based employees? What impact do M-Workers have on your team enhancement strategies?

These are some of the issues I’ll be addressing in future blog posts. What are your thoughts on and experiences with M-Workers? As always, please feel free to comment below.

Have a great start to the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: info{at} potentialsrealized{dot}com

Who are the connectors in your organization?

2007-11-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

Influencing skills play a key role in leadership, virtual team building and also small business growth. I've been reflecting a lot lately on the exponential power of working to effect change by harnessing the power and influence of connectors in organizations.

Connectors are people who are well connected within an organization, whose influence in the informal organization and network is powerful and diverse.

A great example of a connector in my former role as a manager was my assistant. She brought an incredible depth of institutional memory after being in her role for 20 + years, and an even wider network of contacts, allies and colleagues. The success of my work would not have been possible without tapping into her wisdom and having her become an influencer amongst her networks. She never failed to have some imperative contact in her network which opened the door for project success

What's the value of finding connectors in your organization, or organizations you work for?
1. In change intiatives : Ability to transmit information quickly via the connectors to their multilayered networks
2 As influencing skills become an even more important leadership and management trait for teams which are virtual and global, connectors can often bridge the gap between formal chains of command and formal networks.
3. To provide mentoring opportunities for newer staff members, especially if they are not sure if the traditional career development path is for them
4. For small business owners, connectors may often be able to provide an alternative path for approaching an organization you wish to do business with
5. In collaborative, participatory learning initatives, connectors can play a key role in becoming a conduit for information flow and perspectives from different stakeholder groups.

These are just a few -- what role do connectors play in your organization or work you do with organizations? Feel free to comment below.

Have a wonderful start to the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Email: jennifer(at)potentialsrealized.com
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

Looking for a tool to boost your virtual team collaboration?

2007-10-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

Many of my clients often ask me what is a great software/platform for virtual teams. I’ve recently learned of a great solution which I really want to share with you – Mercury Grove’s Web Groups. It’s an amazing platform!

Originally launched in September of this year, Web Groups provides a collaborative platform for virtual team members to connect and collaborate. Members can share files, share calendars, create lists and create an internal discussion board. Thousands of users globally are taking advantage of this new tool, which you can try for free!

I met with Mercury Grove’s Scott Annan last week and had a delightful conversation about what the platform can do. There’s amazing customer service and support as well! I can’t recommend it enough.

The platform can be used by enterprises, small business and groups of professionals or consultants.

One company that is leveraging the platform is Team Floral.

Here’s an exerpt from a recent newsletter from Mercury Grove about how Team Floral is using the platform:
"TeamFloral is a network of the brightest minds in the floral industry who provide consulting services to flower shop owners. Their services include profit analysis, business coaching, benchmarking data, and business solutions. They provide a unique combination of consulting services and peer collaboration to make each flower shop a success.

Also unique is that TeamFloral delivers 100% of their services remotely through Mercury Grove Web Groups and group conference calls. Members collaborate on discussions and share files online - even their conference calls are recorded and made available through Web Groups. "Web Groups is fabulous." says Sherri Roberson, "Our members use it for the member directory, to post messages, check-in for meetings, and listen to the meetings they miss. We use it every single day."."

Click on over and take a free test drive of Mercury Grove Web Groups right now. What possibilities can you see for your virtual team?

Have a wonderful weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Group Coaching Essentials
Email: jennifer(at) potentialsrealized.com
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

Blog Action Day for the Environment

2007-10-15T04:20:00.000-07:00

I've joined over 15,680 other bloggers today for Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers have united to blog on issues related to the environment, in order to raise the awareness of environmental issues.

To regular readers of my blog, you will know that my professional roots are in the environmental sector. Back in 1995 I completed a two years Masters of Environmental Studies degree at a time when the environment was not so fashionable. In fact, I very vividly remember teaching a first year undergraduate environmental studies course which included a one month module on climate change. In those days we were considered "radicals" espousing an incorrect science.

Flash forward to 2007 when climate change has now reached the media mainstream. Just last week the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Al Gore (for his work around climate change including An Inconvenient Truth) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Given my former experience of supporting several across the Caribbean on their climate change policies and legislation, it is very encouraging to see this issue come centerstage for many.

Another encouraging result that the "green" voice is entering the mainstream, are the results of the Green Party of Ontario in last week's Ontario elections. The Green Party had its best results yet receiving 8% of the popular vote. For the first time, the GPO (Green Party of Ontario) put forth candidates in all 100+ ridings. They still hold no seats in the Provincial legislature, but as the popular vote shows they are gaining ground. I hope that their voice will be included in the next election debates and media coverage in four years time!

What are the environmental issues resonating with you these days? Is it conservation at the office? Carpooling? Telecommuting? Recycling more? What action can you take today to lessen your ecological footprint?

Have a wonderful start to the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer@potentialsrealized.com

BNet's How to Manage Employees in Remote Locations

2007-10-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

I just came across a great article for any readers who are following my posts on virtual teams. Today's business environment is exploding with virtual teams, where employees are managed remotely. As a former virtual team manager myself, I am well aware of the challenges which virtual teams pose, as well as the new management skill sets it requires.

To get a handle on some great tips on how to manage employees in remote locations, or virtual teams, I urge (not just recommend) you to check out Kelly Pate Dwyer's article "How to Manage Employees in Remote Locations". You can find her article on BNET here.

It's a comprehensive article in which she shares a number of super tips including:
1. Build a Strong Team Starting with You
2. Gather the right people
3. Put technology to work
4 Master the Art of Communication
5. Build a Sense of “We”
6. Manage by Results

I really appreciate how the article has placed responsibility on the manager, and also organizational systems needed to enable a virtual team to succeed and thrive. What skills sets do you see as essential for virtual team management? I would welcome your comments.

If you don't read BNet already, it's a fantastic online resource! Check it out.

Have a wonderful week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer@potentialsrealized.com

How To Use Your Website to Disqualify Your Prospects

2007-10-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a few silent weeks for me on the blog, as I have been juggling a number of projects with clients -- a business planning program for entrepreneurs, some corporate work around virtual teams and my regular executive and team coaching client work. I should be here a little more frequently in the coming weeks!

I wanted to share with you yet another great post from Donna Gunter, the Online Biz Resource Queen. I love Donna's writing and information - you can check her out at http://www.onlinebizu.com/.

If you are a small business owner this should be of interest to you:

How to Use Your Website to Disqualify Your Prospects
by Donna Gunter, The Online Biz Resource Queen (TM)

How many hours have you spent this week with prospective clients who are great at draining your time and energy but can't seem to find the money or desire to hire you? I've had my weeks when the number is larger than I'd like to admit. Consequently, several years ago I implemented one strategy that has been my secret weapon in my client cultivation process -- I use my website to disqualify as many prospects as I can.

You may be saying, "What kind of addle-brained strategy is that, anyway?" Simply put, I don't want to work with everyone, as everyone is not my ideal client nor in my target market. A business owner who belonged to the same networking group to which I once belonged was completely flummoxed by what he read on my site. He told me that he had never visited a site in which someone very clearly stated who she was, what she does, and with whom she works. Of course, he thought I was very foolish to be so rigid and turn away clients and "leave money on the table." I confidently told him that I didn't mind leaving money on the table, as there was more than enough to go around. He didn't get it then, and probably doesn't to this day.

Deciding to use your website to disqualify prospects is a very liberating experience. Without a doubt, it shows the world that you know and understand your target market, and that target market feels right at home when visiting your site. Those who don't feel at home leave and find another provider who is a better fit for them. When you disqualify prospects, you:
1. eliminate the tire kickers who have no intention of ever hiring you;
2. create customers who call and say, "When can we get started?" rather than have to be sold on the merits of your service;
and3. decrease the number of information collectors who only want to take your time and energy and, and when they have sucked you dry, move on to the next victim.

To best disqualify prospects, I believe that full transparency about your business is key. When a prospect visits your website, she should fully understand all that there is to know about doing business with you, and have no questions about how you work with clients.

Here are 8 pieces of information that you can include on your website to make doing business with you as seamless, transparent, and easy as possible:
1. Target market. Who comprises your target market? What gender are they? Where do they live? How old are they? How much money do they make? What do they do for a living? Where do they hang out on- and offline? To what civic and professional groups do they belong? Use as many adjectives as you can brainstorm to describe them. If you can actually visualize this group of people in your head (and personally know people who fit this description), then you've got an accurate portrait of your target market. Describe your target market in enough detail on your site so that members of your target market recognize themselves when they arrive at your website.
2. Ideal client. What are the characteristics of the clients with whom you most enjoy working? What are their beliefs? What values do they hold dear? What industries are they in? What are the traits and qualities of great colleagues/bosses/friends that made them enjoyable to work with or be around? Are there foundational issues that need to be in place before someone is ready to work with you? Sometimes it's easiest to generate this list by thinking of the traits of your nightmare clients. This strategy isn't always foolproof, as many prospects can't objectively judge themselves (i.e. they refer to themselves as "totally involved" in a project when most people might experience that as "micromanaging").
3. Know their problems. What keeps your clients up at night and causes them great anxiety and stress? What are the reasons that they seek your assistance? If you need to get a better understanding of the problems of your target market, set up 30-minute interviews over coffee or over the phone with people who fit your ideal client profile and ask them a series of questions about things you want to know more about that will give you insight into their daily lives. Or, join in and participate in their online discussion lists, forums. or blogs and research the kinds of questions being posted. On your website, convey that you fully understand their struggles and difficulties and have walked in their shoes.
4. Solution to their problems. Once a visitor understands that you work with others like him who struggle with same types of issues, that visitor wants to know how you can help him solve his problems. Do you have a process, method, program, or strategy? Is that solution delivered via information products, a consulting contract, a service call, or a service purchase? Do you offer various ways at varied price points to help your target market solve their problems?
5. Demonstration of your expertise. Prospects want to know that you've successfully helped others like them. Scatter client testimonials throughout your site, or post case studies or before-and-after scenarios to show how you helped others in this target market successfully solve a particular problem. Information-rich content also serves to help you demonstrate your expertise, so don't be timid about telling your visitors what you know by posting articles you have written that showcase your knowledge. Don't be afraid to give away your knowledge -- 95% of your visitors won't be able to do it on their own, and you'll be the top-of-mind pick when they are ready to take action.
6. Post prices. Don't assume your visitors will want to call you to discover what you charge. If there are no prices listed, many will leave and go to another site where fees are listed. Post your fees on your website so that prospects can tell if they are easily able to afford what you charge. Conventional marketing strategy says that you should have a conversation with prospects and demonstrate your value before you talk price. I think that's hogwash, and quite frankly, I don't have the time to have these conversations. Use your website to give your prospects a clear idea of what it's going to cost them to hire you or buy from you.
7. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Are there questions you answer time and time again? Instead of taking your valuable time to do this, create a FAQ page on your site that answers these commonly-asked questions, and provide a contact form for other questions that someone might have.
8. Barriers to Enrollment: If you offer a consulting-type service, you may offer a comp consultation to prospects who are interested in hiring you. Many times this session simply turns into a "brain drain" session, and the prospect is there only for what he can get without paying from you. Make sure that your prospect is serious about taking action by making him take some action in order to speak with you. You might require him to complete an online assessment or survey before you agree to speak with him. A fellow business coach requires prospective consulting clients to show up with a check for $1000-$5000 and business plans, marketing plans, financial documents and every other document that is relevant to the project they are discussing. The prospects who balk at this are immediately disqualified, and the coach moves on to the next prospect.

Don't let the task of qualifying prospects drain you of your time and energy. As a service business owner, your time is your greatest asset. Use your website to your advantage and screen out all of those prospects who are not qualified prospects.

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FR*EE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com.

Mass Career Customization

2007-09-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

Today marks the publishing of a fantastic new book from Harvard Business School Press - Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace with Today's Nontraditional Workforce. Written by Deloitte execs Cathleen Benko and Anne Weisberg, the book explores how the workforce is changing and provides a framework of options for workers and organizations to adapt to the changing needs of today's workforce.

Benko and Weisberg explore six workforce trends that have shaped the new workforce landscape including:
1. Knowledge Worker Shortfall
2. Changing Family Structures
3. More, Better Educated Women
4. Changing Expectations o Men
5. Gen X and Gen Y
6. Technology

All of these forces have led to a new landscape where workers are changing professions, employers, and even opting out of the workforce.

The publication of this book is extremely timely. For those doing business in Canada, you will have most likely been inundated with the latest Census results, which underscore some of the other demographic changes the nation and workforce is going through. You can access the Stats Canada Census site here.

I'll be blogging more on MCC - Mass Career Customization - in coming weeks, as the book is packed with useful information and implications for the workforce today.

The Chicago Tribune recently featured MCC in an article. You can read the article here here.

Warmly,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CHRP, CPCC, PCC
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer {at} potentialsrealized{dot}com

Are you drowning in a sea of paper?

2007-09-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that I will be hosting a one hour call with TV host and professional organizer, Hellen Buttigieg, this Wednesday evening (September 19th) from 8-9pm (EST) entitled "Help! I'm drowning in a sea of paper". If you are looking for some quick and practical tips to get your office in order and emerge from the pile of paper that may be hanging around, I hope that you will join us. There is no charge for the call, other than your own long distance charges to the bridgeline.

Click here for more information about the call, and to reserve your spot email teleclass@potentialsrealized.com -- you'll receive an automatic email with the bridgeline information. We are almost at our capacity of 250 callers for the event, so register quickly.

Hellen and I will also be holding the Get Organized Virtual Retreat later this month - Thursday September 27th and October 4th from 7-10pm (EST). Originally launched in May of this year, this group coaching program will give you practical tips and tools to Get Organized in your home environment. We'll be undertaking hands-on exercises during the 6 hours of the retreat, so you will leave the retreat having made major headway in some of your own personal organizing tasks. Space is limited to 15 and is filling quickly. The cost for the 6 hour retreat, plus a group follow-up call, and a Retreat Manual is $250 US -- a fraction of what it would cost to work individually with Hellen and I. I hope that you will join us!

Sign up for the Get Organized Virtual Retreat and payment is available by PayPal at the website or you can call me this week toll free at 1-866-217-1960 to pay by Visa by phone. Feel free to email me at jennifer{at} potentialsrealized.com if you have any questions. We won't be offering this program again this year.

Have a great rest of the weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at} potentialsrealized.com

Employee Engagement Revisited

2007-09-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

The concept of employee engagement has been on my mind over the last few days and has passed through a number of conversations I have had with organizations. It's almost been a year since I last blogged on the topic, and obviously is still very pertinent to today's workforce.

For those not familiar with the Gallup Research on Employee engagement, approximately 29% of employees today in the US are actively engaged. These employees are more productive, more profitable, have a better safety record, create stronger customer relationships and stay longer with the company.

Anywhere from 54-56% of employees are not engaged. These are employees that are "checked out" - showing up for work, but really not connecting or contributing significantly to the company's bottom line.

The third category from Gallup's research are the 17% of employees who are actively disengaged. The cost of disengagement to the US economy is $350 Billion dollars a year, a very significant amount. Actively disengaged employees are not just "checked out", but they are the toxic employees, whose dissatisfaction has the possibility of spreading to the rest of the workforce.

You can read my earlier blog posts on employee engagement here. In June, I saw Tom Rath, one of the Gallup Researchers, and experts on the topic of employee engagement speak in Atlanta. It was a great presentation and when I get back to my office next week, I'll follow up with some additional research that it coming out, as well as what organizations can do to boost employee engagement.

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer {at}potentialsrealized.com

Resources for Going and Staying Green

2007-09-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

I'm travelling this week on work to the Western Coast of Canada, and on my flight today I came across the mention of a terrific initiative - ZeroFootprint. In fact, travellers with Air Canada can purchase carbon offsets for their flights.

Given my own professional roots in environmental management, and having worked with countries of the Caribbean on climate change issues a few years ago, I am pleased and amazed to see explosive momentum and visibility that climate change and other environmental initiatives are receiving at the moment. It's a very different environment than 10 - 13 years ago. I remember teaching a module on climate change in 1994 at York University for Undergraduate students, and when climate change was seen as a unfounded concept of radical environmentalists. It really does seem that people are now starting to understand and embrace the small changes that they can make on an individual level. It's very encouraging.

Here are some of my favorite environmental educaton initiatives and products right now in Canada:

ZeroFootprint - purchase carbon offsets, and also calculate your ecological/environmental footprint
The Green Shopping Bag from Loblaws - a great deal at 99cents, touted to replace 100 plastic shopping bags. It is amazing to see how the bag is becoming a fashion statement in Toronto. This link will take you to other PC green initiatives
Toronto's Green Box System -- our household has gone from a large bag of garbage a week to a two small shopping bags of garbage every two weeks thanks to the GreenBox system, where everything from diapers to food scraps to dirty papertowels can be diverted from landfill
GreenlivingOnline - great resources

One of the intiatives my business, Potentials Realized, launched back in the summer of 2006 to do our part for the environment has been to move the retreat process to a virtual fora (using telephone conferencing). It might seem a little strange to participate in a retreat without being with people physically, but it is a great option, saving you time and money, and also helping the environment. I'd be happy to speak with you about our upcoming virtual retreats which include:

Get Organized Virtual Retreat (with Professional Organizer and TV Host Hellen Buttigieg): Thursday Sept 27 and October 4 (7-10 pm EST)
Your Balanced Life! Virtual Retreat - Monday October 15 and 22 (7-10pm EST)

Later this fall I will also be holding a Virtual Business Planning Retreat for Small Business Owners, and a new virtual retreat for couples. If you'd like me to send you more information on either of these programs, please feel free to email me and I'll make sure I send info once the dates are confirmed.

What are your favorite "green" products or initiatives right now? Please feel free to comment below.

Have a wonderful week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer{at}potentialsrealized.com