Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - 30: Questions

Welcome back to the 30th in this series of Expanding your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit. This week we're exploring one of the core coaching skills which is at the heart of any great coaching conversation - Questions.

If you've been a reader here at the Group Coaching Ins and Outs blog for a while, you might be familiar with one of the more popular set of posts around Six Questions a Day. Take a look at them here.

Questions are at the heart of coaching conversations - and are a transferable skill we can also pass on to the groups and teams we are working with.There is an important layer of capacity building in the work that we do with many groups and teams, helping to transfer skills in key areas with the entities we work with. For many organizations the additional focus of helping teams and groups build the skills we use, is an important part of culture change.

As you think about the questions which might frame out the coaching conversation, it's likely that they will be:
* Short in length - powerful questions usually are only about 5-7 words in length;
* Mirror the language of the client/team/group - each group or team will have it's own language - is it direct, flowery, detailed, concise? What are key words being used by that group?
* One at a time - Watch for stacking questions! When we ask more than one question, it can confuse people and they may not know what to ask?
* Adjusted for different learning styles - In a group or team coaching context, it's not uncommon to see when questions do not resonate. A blank stare may signal this.  The question - What does that look like? may get reframed to What does that feel like?

A few more tips when thinking about boosting the impact of your coaching conversation:
Leave enough time for discussion around the questions. It's not about quantity, but quality.

Use breakouts if you are working with a group. Rather than always going "Around the room" pair people off so they can have a deeper level of conversation with one or two others. Provide them with a question or two.

Some of my favorite questions which I find are often transferable across conversations are:
What's important about that?
What's the 30,000 foot/meta view of that issue?
What's not being explored?
What's helping? What's hindering?
What's an enabler?
What's going to magnify that for you?
What's the flipside?
What else?
What next?

Just a reminder of the What? So What? and Now What? sequencing of questions - you can read more about that on page 73 of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching OR take a look at this blog post here.

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer


Jennifer Britton - GroupCoachingEssentials | Potentials Realized
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Author of Effective Group Coaching (2010), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Check out my author page on Amazon for all publications.
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com

If you are looking for  coaching skills development through CCE approved programs - The next Group CoachingEssentials CCE approved program starts on Monday February 3rd from 9 - 1015 am ET - group calls will be held on February 3, 10, 24, March 2 and 9, 2020. This 8.75 CCE program also includes weekly 1-1 time with me (15 min each week). Is 2020 your year to get your groups going or expand the number of groups you are doing? Whether you are new to group coaching or stepping into your next year, there’s always something to learn – I hope you’ll join us. Reserve your spot here.

Starting up again soon is the  Virtual Facilitation Essentials - for those that want to expand their conversations to the virtual domain. We'll be meeting on March 1, 8,  15, 29 and April 5, 2020.

Next Mentor Coaching Group will start Mondays 12 - 1pm ET on
February 3, 10, 24, March 9, 23, April 6 and May 4, 2020. 10 hours for ACC and PCC renewals.

PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training (24 CCEs) begins Monday February 3rd - six sessions on Mondays from 6-9 pm Eastern/3-6 pm Pacific.

Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Fluidity (28)

This week's Group and Team Coaching Toolkit focuses on the topic of Fluidity. Operating in an era of VUCA, where things are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, means that what worked

yesterday may not work today.

In supporting our clients, one of the skills we may explore is the concept of Fluidity. I often liken fluidity to be a combination of flexibility and adaptability.In my former role as a leader of teams, I often said that this was one of the hardest skills to hire for, but one of the most important. It's difficult to teach flexibility and adaptability, and this may require a mindset shift as well as a change in terms of how we operate. Learning to become comfortable with the unknown, learning to become comfortable with not knowing, and learning to embrace change and what might appear to be chaotic, can all be elements of work in this space.

What does fluidity mean and look like for each person we work with? I like to start the conversation here  and generally have people use questions and possibly visuals to enter into the exploration of this.

Questions to consider:
1. What does fluidity mean to you in your work/life?
2. What is important about being fluid?
3. What's the opposite of fluid in your work/life/team? What does it look like? What impact does it have?
4. What would make you/your work/your systems be more fluid or flexible?
5. What can you do to cultivate more fluidity?
6. What else is important in exploring this topic?

This is an area where using visual cards or images can create new awareness and insight. You might have people draw or sketch out what FLUIDITY, or Flexibility or Adaptability means to them.

Like the water metaphor in this week's photo, you could also have them sketch out bodies of water, or the voyage down a river with key spots along the way (i.e. eddies, rapids, slow turns, bays, coves etc).

Coaching around this area can be a very creative conversation. Join me next Monday, January 13th from 11 - 11:30 am ET as I explore different approaches for working with visual cards in one of my community calls this month. You can join me live in zoom room 270-302-0415. The call will also be recorded and you can catch up with it at my YouTube Channel as well.

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

If you are looking for  coaching skills development through CCE approved programs - I’ll be kicking off the first Group CoachingEssentials CCE approved program on Friday January 10^th at 1015 am ET. This 8.75 CCE program also includes weekly 1-1 time with me (15 min each week). Is 2020 your year to get your groups going or expand the number of groups you are doing? Whether you are new to group coaching or stepping into your next year, there’s always something to learn – I hope you’ll join us. Reserve your spot here.

Also starting in January is the Virtual Facilitation Essentials - spaces are still open in the Monday group starting on Monday January 13th from 130 - 2:45 pm Eastern - 5 weeks, 8.5 CCEs.

The Winter 2020 Mentor Coaching Group starts on Friday January 10th - Fridays 2nd and 4th weeks of the month from 9 - 10 am Eastern. Reserve your spot now in this 10 hour program which meets the requirements of the ICF.

Finally, starting this month with the first live call on Monday January 6th - calling on coaches who want to focus on growing their coaching business. Reserve your spot for the 60Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator where you will be focusing on taking daily steps and consistent action around your coaching business. This program is based on my 2018 work, Coaching Business Builder.

Expanding your group and team coaching toolkit - Team Effectiveness (27)

Team Effectiveness

This week’s Expanding your group and team coaching toolkit brings us into the topic of Team

Effectiveness. In addition to participating in team coaching, it can also be extremely valuable to help a team understand the elements which make them successful. This landscape has been dominated by many excellent researchers and writers including:

Katzenbach and Smith – Wisdom of Teams

A Theory of Team Coaching – Hackman and Wageman

Patrick Lencioni – The Five Dysfunctions (or Behaviors) of A Team

And I really enjoyed Phil Sandahl’s new book – Teams Unleashed

What are the elements which makes teams excel? I like to refer to these as the Six Factors. They often create the backbone for a team to self-esteem the areas they require further attention and focus around, as well as isolating and identifying what they are great at.

I’ve written quite a bit about this topic already over at the Teams365 blog so let me share this high level overview  from this post: #TEAMS365 #1920: Team Development: Revisiting the Six Factors  

“This month's theme here at the Teams365 blog is Team Springboards. Where do you start the conversation about how the team is doing?

​​One of the frameworks I continue to share with teams is what I call the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. These are six things that teams need in order to excel. The ingredients come from the research of professionals including: Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams), Hackman and Wageman (A Theory of Team Coaching) and others.

As you step into the new month, as a team you’ll take the pulse of where you are on a scale of 1- 10 in each of these six areas:

1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)
What is your purpose? Your mission? Why do you exist? Does everyone hold the same understanding? What does this mean practically for your work? What priorities does your purpose or mission naturally create?

2. Shared behavioral norms
How do you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team? What behaviors and habits exist? Which ones are supportive of exceptional performance? Which ones aren't?

3. Shared commitment
What are team members committed to? What will you get done, no matter what? Is there anything that needs to be dropped off the list?

4. Shared performance goals
What are key goals for the team this year? What are key individual goals? How do your goals align? Overlap? What does success look like for each member? For the entire team? Does everyone have an understanding of the key goals of others on the team and how they feed into them?

5. Shared team practices
Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event. What practices support your relationships?

6. Clear Roles
How do our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities?
___________________________________________________
If you are interested in learning more or sharing different resources with your team, check out this past Team Leader Café Call I did on the topic of the six factors.

Check out this short video about the six factors.

If you have a copy of my book, Effective Virtual Conversations, check out chapter 11 (Virtual Team Development).”

What might you explore with your next teams or groups?



Enjoy the conversation,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Group Coaching Essentials

Thrree things you might be interested in this week -
PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training starts Tuesday at 6 pm Eastern (24 CCEs)
Four hour Year End PlanDoTrack Business Planning Retreat - Friday from 1030- 230 pm ET
The 15th annual year-end group programs call - this Friday from 230 - 3 pm ET. Complimentary - join me in my zoom room 270-302-0415. We'll look at some of this year's trends and future opportunities for 2020 programming around group and team work. Hope you'll come and celebrate!

Join us for a winter 2020 program including:
Virtual Facilitation Essentials (renewing for 8.5 CCEs) - create more engaging and impactful virtual conversations - from coaching, to team development to education and webinars.
Group Coaching Essentials (8.75 CCEs) - starts again Friday January 10th at 1015 am ET
Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs) - starts Friday January 10th
Mentor Coaching Groups - for ACC/PCC : 10 hours (meets ICF requirements) - starts Friday January 10 at 9 am ET

Questions? Reach out by email and/or give me a call at 416-996-8326

Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Systems Part 2

Welcome back to another Expanding your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit. This week we're
exploring the topic of SYSTEMS as a part 2.

When we hear the word Systems it can take on several different meanings - from systems that help us scale and create consistency (the focus of my last post), to systems as in the context of being part of an interrelated complex environment.

As a graduate student in the early 1990s, exploring the intersect of community engagement, facilitation and environmental studies, one of the most influential voices of the time was Peter Senge's writing around the Learning Organization, of which systems theory was one part. His book, The Fifth Discipline, was released in 1990, with five different "disciplines" forming the foundation of a learning organization:

Personal Mastery
Mental Models
Building Shared Vision
Team Learning and
Systems thinking
Reference: Peter Senge, Fifth Discipline, 1999

As a leader within the humanitarian sector throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, incorporating these elements became a large part of team success as we worked to support complex, national, regional and global issues. Being based for most of those years throughout Central and South America, and the Caribbean, systems theory was also influenced by many of the Latin American writers and critical educators of the time. For example, Paolo Freire's writing around PRAXIS, and the intersection of Practice and Theory.

Today, as a coach, sharing these resources with teams has become second nature.

Systems thinking challenges us to think in dynamic, not static terms. It encourages us - as team members, group members, and coaches - to think about the interrelationships, and connections, of ourselves as a team, as ourselves as a team in  an organization, and as ourselves as a team in a larger macro-context. Many times it may evoke a need for a paradigm shift, especially if our current mental models do not support the dynamic context we operate within.

As a coach what is your level of awareness around systems? Paradigms you operate within? What are the tools you have available to explore any of the five areas outlined above by Senge?

This is a rich area of exploration and many coaching programs are now incorporating this. I would personally direct you to the work of:

Peter Hawkins, whose Systemic Team Coaching framework is grounded in a systems model. You can learn more about his work, models and practices at this Podcast he recorded as part of the Team Coaching Podcast Zone -  

Center for Right Relationship and their work around Relationship Systems Coaching.  Find out more about their training at CRRGlobal.com

In a group coaching context systems are also present, given that we as individuals are always part of a larger whole. What are you doing to help people explore the systems they are part of?

Questions to consider:
1. What does systems mean to you?
2. What does systems mean to your client?
3. What approaches and questions could help people expand their thinking around systems?
4. What is the paradigm I operate from?
5. How does that help and hinder?
6. As a coach, what's important for me to explore further?

Enjoy your exploration this week,
Jennifer


Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development)
Final 2019 programs include the Group Coaching Essentials Monday/Thursday group starting December 2nd meeting on  Mondays and Thursdays 1:30 - 245 pm ET: December 2, 5, 9, 12, 16 (8.75 CCEs) and the PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training - Monday and Tuesdays 6-9 pm ET December 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 and 17 (24 CCEs)
Join us for a Year-end PlanDoTrack Retreat on Friday December 13th from 1030-230 pm ET. Plan - Create your 2020 vision, Do - Take some action on a key task, and TRACK - set your metrics for next year.

Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Systems at the Heart of Your Business

Systems are at the heart of any business. The word systems means a lot of different things to different

people. In one of my current writing projects I was curious how many different definitions there are around systems. I took a look over at vocabulary.com who provided these nine different definitions. From systems as a method or set of practices, to working with a system such as an ecosystem.



Over the next few weeks of Monday posts we’ll be looking at systems in several of these ways. First, systems for your business as a group of team coach. Next week, systems in terms of working with the system of a team or group.

Why are systems important for business.

They help us scale and grow

Systems help with replication and ensuring that things are done similarly across a business.

Over at the Coaching Business Builder blog, I have included a variety of posts around systems, including a Systems Checklist for you to use. Be sure to check it out:

There are several main areas coaches will want to explore for their own business including:


Financial Systems:

o What needs updating?

o Cash Flow review

o Review sales

o Review expenses

o Invoicing

o Accounts Receivable

o Review cards and credit -what are rates like?

Marketing Systems:

o Review website – about page

o Review website – current offerings up to date

o Marketing material up to date

o Marketing/promo material in stock (cards, post cards etc)

o Consider 15 – 20 different titles. Pick the best one.

o Graphics updated

o Identify how this will be shared? (i.e. other channels)

o Consider graphics

o Draft graphics

o Links are current?

Social feeds up to date (FB, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In)

Communication Systems:

o Include photo of you

o Schedule posts for Facebook

o Schedule posts for Instagram

o Schedule posts for ______

o Is the content mentioned in your newsletter?

o Let current clients know about the resource

Client Systems

o Files up to date?

o Logs up to date

o Agreements/letters

o One thing I said I would do…

o Onboarding materials

o Other: _______________

o Other systems:

o Write down ideas and/or draft repurposing while it is fresh

o Back up completed

o Content created

o Networking

o Publishing

o Plans up to date

Trackers up to date?


When coaching many (coaching groups or teams) it’s important to get systems in place before your work expands too much. The number o different clients you work with can warrant a focus on systems early in the process.


When working with groups

When working with groups, especially groups of entrepreneurs, it may be useful to take a look at the five areas of systems listed here. Which ones need attention? Which ones are well established?

Are there best practices which group members have emerged which can help each other?


When working with teams:

When working with teams, business systems can play a key role in ensuring consistency and alignment across the team. Systems play an important role in sharing information, pointing to resourcing required, and ensuring access to key information.

What systems does the team have in place? What’s working? What’s not?


Six Questions:

What systems exist?

What role do systems play in terms of supporting the team or group?

What’s working?

What’s not?

What needs attention?

What best practices can people tap into so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel?

Enjoy your reflections,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development)
Final 2019 programs include the Group Coaching Essentials Monday/Thursday group starting December 2nd meeting on  Mondays and Thursdays 1:30 - 245 pm ET: December 2, 5, 9, 12, 16 (8.75 CCEs) and the PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training - Monday and Tuesdays 6-9 pm ET December 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 and 17 (24 CCEs)

Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit (25): Execution

This week brings us to the 25th week of the Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Tookit. This

week's focus is all about EXECUTING, getting things done, and DOING!

One of the core coaching competencies with ICF is designing actions. This goes hand in hand with creating awareness. Doing without being grounded in what's important, our values, our visions, our beliefs, may not get traction. It may not create the momentum needed for results in today's context.

This week's blog post gets you thinking about the different things you can be doing with teams and groups to support execution. This may involve getting the important things done that people put off (individually or collectively) as well as creating an accountability support, either real-time, peer lead or after the fact.

As we approach the end of the year (or even the end of a quarter, or month), clients are often yearning for "closing the open loops" on projects. This is where immediate support on DOING can be of value.

Over the last decade the Virtual Business Planning Retreats I have hosted have always been given huge thumbs up by clients. They have appreciated the time earmarked for them to do both PLANNING and DOING. It was the many years of experience in leading these Virtual Retreats first as the 90 Day Biz Success VRs and then the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Retreats, that ultimately laid the groundwork for my 2018/2019 publications  - PlanDoTrack (for virtual and remote professionals) and Coaching Business Builder.

If you are a group coach, consider how you might incorporate bursts of DOING during your calls or as part of field work. As stated earlier, be sure that this is grounded in people's values and vision. Earmarking even 10 minutes of a regular call can start making inroads for people on things that they are stuck on. In a group context, this might involve:

 providing the group with a series of reflective prompts so they can write out an introductory brochure they have been putting off:

Putting people in breakout to speak through and work through together an introduction they are crafting about their services

OR earmarking 10 minutes of a call for people to take action real time in doing the thing they've been procrastinating on - filing, making a call, drafting a blog post.

What could you add in, in short bursts with your groups to hold more space for getting the important things done?

The power of peer accountability can be significant even in the virtual space This is where participating in longer virtual retreats - 4 hours - focusing on planning and doing can be a great support.  Check out info below about upcoming PlanDoTrack Virtual Retreats to support you in planning for 2020!

I've been seeing how valuable real-time working sessions are for several years now, from the Getting Organized Virtual Retreats I co-hosted a decade ago, to the upcoming PlanDoTrack virtual retreats. This month is also National Novel Writing Month and I've been hosting a series of Friday afternoon writing sprints for fellow writers. Two more are scheduled for November 15 and 22 (130 - 215 pm ET in my zoom room - check out the first two here).

If you are working with teams, execution and getting things done are also important. Some of the most powerful tema coaching work I've done in recent years has involved me being embedded as part of teams, where I join them (in the shadows or as a partner) as they move through high stakes events and programs. The spot coaching and rapid implementation they can undertake is very powerful. 

Teams will always benefit from a clear, shared plan, and one that is visible. How are you ensuring that accountability around their action steps is not only part of your coaching process, but also part of their ways of working back at the office.

In your team coaching work, what can support for EXECUTION and getting the important things done look like?

Note, I'll be hosting several year-end PlanDoTrack virtual retreats throughout November and December for those who are looking for a virtual pause and planning session. The four hours focuses not only on your PLANNING for the new year, but also DOING -Getting into action around an important project which will be the foundation of your work next year, as well as spending some time on TRACKING - looking at your metrics. Check out the CoachingBusinessBuilder.com blog for a recent post on metrics. The 4 hour retreats are a deal at only $129 US. Join me November 14th, 29th or in December. Reserve your spot now.

What do you want to put into practice with your work? Enjoy your week,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development)

Expanding your group and team coaching toolkit (24): Metrics that Matter

My October monthly article for my PlanDoTrack newsletter recently focused on “Metrics that

Matter”. What are the guideposts that are helping the teams you are working with track and understand their metrics?

In launching the PlanDoTrack workbook and planner late last year, and the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner eighteen months ago, a significant focus  in conversations with individuals, groups and teams, has been on tracking, and noting data. As we reflect on data gathered there can be some interesting pictures, and patterns that emerge. Data is data and when we track it on a regular basis, it’s easier to see what the “True picture” is.

Throughout the workbook planners there are many different ways for people to track data on a daily or monthly basis - through the Monthly Daily Trackers, the One Line a Day or in the Monthly Content trackers.

As a coach, some things you might want to track on a regular basis are:

• Sales
• Website visits
• Downloads
• Revenue
• Reads
• Sample Sessions
• Products Developed
• Speaking engagements
• Likes
• Numbers of clients
• Hours Billed
• Net Profit
• Social visits
• # of books sold
• Operating Revenue

What else do you have metrics around? What else might you want to note?

With groups, consider what types of trackers will help them. Could a wheel of life or leadership included at the front end of coaching, be revisited mid-point and/or at the end, to help the team understand what progress they are making?  Would a daily tracker help to capture lessons learned? Would a journal provide the written story for them?


If you have a copy of Coaching Business Builder or PlanDoTrack, check out the Monthly Daily Trackers I’ve included in the Content Planning Section (Section 5). There’s one that will provide you with space for capturing key activities, and one where you can capture key thoughts of the day.

With teams, the starting point for a team coaching engagement may be a team assessment providing them with data they can incorporate throughout their coaching, and work, journey.


At the team level, helping people note where they are at so they can make the small micro-shifts which are needed. Have discussions with the team around what they want to track - collectively and individually.


Questions to consider:

What do you want to track?
What data do you have available?
What do you notice about patterns, changes, etc?
When will you dedicate time to note and review your data?
What story can you make up about the data you have available?
How can this inform your decisions and priorities?

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development)

Join us for an upcoming ICF CCE approved program - Group Coaching Essentials (8.75 CCEs) starting Friday November 1st at 1015 am ET (running to December 2nd), Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum ( 10 CCEs) starting Monday November 4th at 3 pm ET or the PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training Program (24 CCES - starts Friday November 15th at 530 pm ET - virtually!)