Team Leader Breakfast Cafe - Year End Retreats

Many of you have joined me over at the Teams365 blog this year. Throughout 2014 I have been posting
daily on Team Leadership issues. In case you have missed it, you can check out the year of posts

here. I've looked at core leadership topics ranging from coaching skills for leaders, to trust, to critical things to do during your first 90 days in post, to virtual teams and feedback. If you are a team leader I hope that you will follow along! The Teams365 blog is hosted at our main Potentials Realized site.

One of the monthly events have been hosting for team leaders is the Team Leader Breakfast Cafe which is held by phone on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:15 am ET. Over the past few months we've explored team culture, the six factors of high performing teams. This month I talked about creating high-impact year end retreats for you and your team. I thought you might enjoy it. You can access the call here.

I hope that you enjoy tapping into a year of resources at the Teams365 blog. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have enjoyed, which can support the direction for 2015. We're also looking at offering a membership site for leaders so you can access on-demand resources real-time when you need it. Please comment and let us know what you like about the Teams365 blog, as well as what other support would be useful to you as a leader.

Best
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC, CHRL
Potentials Realized - Leadership | Teamwork | Coaching Skills Training for Leaders
Supporting Team Leaders One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Join us for an upcoming Teams365 Team Leader Coaching Group
OR The next cohort of the Team365 Leader Foundations program
(416)996-8326

Ideas for Your Year End Retreat Processes - Leadership a-z is I

Year end team building or retreat programs can be a great idea, but often are not as leveraged as they

SWOT Planning - Photo Britton

could be. If you are planning a year end retreat, here are some things to consider:

1. What's the purpose? What's the purpose of the program? To start building connection amongst team members, to undertake some strategic planing or goal setting for the next year? To build skills in areas such as conflict resolution? To get to understand each other better? These areas are not exclusive to each other, however, you will want to be clear in your engagement of a facilitator what's the focus and what emphasis do you want to place?

2. What's the follow-up? Many great ideas are left at the retreat site. Build into your 2014 programming time to revisit and follow-up on your retreat learning, actions and commitments. When do you want to schedule a follow-up to continue the conversation?

3. What venue will be conducive to your event? Event venues can range from boardrooms, to specific retreat sites. What location will be conducive to your team? What is the environment you want to create? How easy will it be for participants to get to and from the venue? What transportation and other office arrangements need to be made so everyone can "leave" the office for the day?

4. What type of activities do you want to include? The range of activities offered in today's retreat programs can vary from ropes-courses to strategic planning. How active do your staff expect to be? What are the three or four main areas you'd like to include in a day long program? Looking back at the purpose of the program, where would you like to place the main emphasis?


For more tips and ideas for your retreat programming, you may want to read an article I wrote years ago entitled "Six Essential Design Principles for Your Corporate Retreat" here.

Wishing you a successful retreat process!

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author of Effective Group Coaching and From One to Many: Best Practices of Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Phone: (416)996-TEAM
Read more about our retreat and leadership programming

As an author Jennifer Britton is known for her thought leadership in the area of group and team coaching. She is also a former leader and team builder who spent the first 13 years of her career working within the United Nations as well as the international aid sector. From Boardroom to jungle, beach and forest to mountains, Jennifer has worked to develop teams and leaders in more than 18 countries, and virtually many more. She founded Potentials Realized in 2004 and focuses on leadership, teamwork and coaching skills training

Corporate Retreats - Four Things to Consider

Corporate Retreats can be a great opportunity for teams and entire organizations to get away and FOCUS on things that are important. Unfortunately, retreats are not always as productive or fruitful as they can be. In planning for an upcoming corporate retreat, here are four things to consider:

1. What is the purpose of this retreat? Is it for strategic planning? Team building? Unplugging and focusing on what's really important in our business? Skill building? Time taken to get clear on the purpose of the retreat process is invaluable in ensuring the FOCUS is right. Once you have selected a facilitator to work with your team/organization, ensure that the purpose is clearly articulated.
Consider: What is the purpose of our retreat?

2. What approaches will work best for us? Choosing a facilitator that can bring a style and approach that matches your needs is critical. Are you looking for a planner? A team builder? Someone who can work at the strategic level? Do you have someone internally who can support this work, or do you need to look externally?
Consider: What is it that we are looking for in terms of the retreat approach?

3. What do we want as outcomes and takeaways? Consider what tangible takeaways will be best. Is it the core of a strategic plan? Annual workplans? Resource lists? New skill development? Each team/organization will have different needs. Keep these outcomes and takeaways front and center as you move through a retreat process.
Consider: What do we want as outcomes and takeaways from the retreat process?

4. How will we sustain the process? For many years I ran retreats internally for organizations I worked with. A key challenge was always around how we sustained the process. Great ideas were often left at the retreat site. For the past eight years as I have worked as an external facilitator of retreats, I have encouraged my partner organizations to consider how do we sustain the process, and keep the conversation going? It may involved dedicated staff meetings for follow up, several conference calls to keep the conversation flowing, or even a couple of shorter off or on-site "tune-ups" throughout the year.
Consider: How will we sustain the process? What will work best with our organization?

Have a wonderful week!

Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Potentials Realized - Coaching, Training and Consulting Services
Corporate Retreats - Read about some of the retreats we have developed with partner organizations, and download a retreat planning checklist
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com
Phone: (416)996-8326

High Performing Teams: What Will Move You?

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)

What do you think? Small Business Marketing

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

HR Potporri - Team Coaching, Corporate Retreats, Interviewing

One of my earlier blog posts, Interviewing 101 - Part II, was featured today on the AboutHR.com blog in this week's HR Blog Carnival. The interviewing tips I include are specifically for employers. It was a follow-up to an the first part of Interviewing Tips for Employers, which you can find here.

Every two weeks the HR Blog Carnival is hosted by a different HR blogger. As a Certified Human Resource Professional myself, it's wonderful to see the amount of resources available online for HR professionals around the world. For many years while I was working globally, About: Human Resources was a treasurechest of resources for me as a manager. I love the fact that Susan now blogs regularly on different HR related topics. You can check her out at http://humanresources.about.com.

A new article of mine - "Corporate Retreats: Six Essential Design Principles" is now available for free distribution through EzineArticles.com. You can link to the article here. If you are an HR manager planning your next retreat, I hope that you will find some valuable tools. If you are looking for a facilitator, or facilitation team for your next retreat, please feel free to contact me toll free at 1-866-217-1960.

Yesterday, I was a guest panelist speaking on Team Coaching for the International Coach Federation Relationship Special Interest Group. I joined Phil Sandahl, Co-Active Coaching Co-Author, and Principal of Team Coaching International (which provides an excellent team assessment for organizations). Kathy Hay of Kathy Hay Worldwide and Integra Leadership Inc. Is your organization leveraging team coaching? How are training results sustained within your company? Do you have a team that's just forming or is undergoing transition? Are you getting the most from your team building resources. If you are interested in learning more about team coaching, and what it could do for your organization, please feel free to contact me, or visit this webpage where I have with more information on what team coaching is all about.

What are your biggest HR questions right now? Please feel free to comment below -- I'll feature them in an upcoming blog post. I look forward to hearing from you!

Have a wonderful week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, CPCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized ~ Group Coaching Essentials
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com