Tag: #virtualteams

Summer coaching inspiration
I’ve put together three ideas to try out whether you are having a busy summer or taking a break. So if you are looking for some inspiration and ideas to recharge for the next academic year, have a go:

Tips for a week of complete rest

It’s taken me a long time to be able to step away from all types of work all together, and for me, having a complete week off is a big achievement.. as well as a reflection of how busy I have recently been. I took some practical steps to ensure that I had a complete break, and I wanted to share some tips that worked for me:
- I completed a holiday handover, with my amazing colleagues and deputy, and then logged off all work systems completely on my last day at work;
- No laptops came on holiday, and all computers at home where switched off when work ended;
- I deleted all work-related apps from my phone or switched notifications off completely, included direct messaging, emails, and task management apps;
- I logged out of/deleted all social media apps, like Twitter and LinkedIn, that I only use in a professional context;
- calendar notifications were switched off or paused
- A simply note to make a list of anything that I thought of, which were work related and which I wanted to pick up upon my return;
- I intentionally packed books, audiobooks and other entertainment that would help me focus on things other than work.
>> Longer read

How to make a milestone map

Many of my clients are looking to make progress in their work or personal lives: to make a change, develop their career path or build personal habits. Many of us have goals like ‘progress in my career’ or ‘be happier’… but it can be hard to break down exactly what to do in order to achieve our aims and define what ‘success’ means to us. In this post I share practical steps to help you put your goals on paper and break them down into achievable chunks, including:
- How to choose a format that works for you
- How to pick your goal(s)
- How to turn goals into milestones
- How to check your map
>> Learn more

List of 100 Dreams

I am always on the look out for new tools or resources for coaching, and I want to share this one I came across in a blog post by Laura Vanderkam: It’s called a ‘List of 100 Dreams’. If this is a new concept, then head over to Laura’s blog to read more about the original exercise from Career coach Caroline Ceniza-Levine and how Laura has used this exercise as part of her work on productivity and time management. The ‘List of 100 Dreams’ is exactly that: a long list of things you wish to do, have or devote time to. In essence, it’s a very long bucket list.

I felt this was a lot of fun to try out, so if you are curious to learn more and try this for yourself, here’s how to get started.

>> Get Started

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21/07/2023
Top 5 listens on the Leading Virtual Teams podcasts
It’s July and time for a mid-year top 5 review, helping you catch up on the most popular episodes on the Leading Virtual Teams Podcast!

No. 1 – S02E12 – How to Lead Virtual Teams: Part 1

The most popular episode so far this year is the intro to my How to Lead Virtual Teams Course. In the first course podcast, I introduce the topics of the course and show you how to take part. For the orientation session, we’ll be focusing on the introduction chapter of Leading Virtual Teams.

No. 2 – S02E11 – OER23 Special: What’s so important about open practice for hybrid leaders?

This episode shares a lot of excitement about OER23, an event which I have been fortunate enough to help organise since 2015 and which is always a great highlight of my year. This year, I was especially looking forward to the conference, partly because it’s in one of my favourite parts of the world, the Scottish Highlands, and partly because it gave me a chance to catch up with many friends and colleagues I haven’t seen in a while, including long-time collaborator, Lauren Hanks.

Lauren and I have been talking about hybrid working and leading virtual teams for the past few years, and at least year’s OER Conference we even ran a session together: As leaders of virtual teams, we critically examined what lessons we can learn from open approaches to learning and teaching and how we can use that knowledge in an increasingly virtual workplace. Since then, I have been thinking a lot about why open practice is so important for knowledge workers, and particularly managers and leaders who work in hybrid, distributed or fully virtual team: Read the blog post.

No. 3 – Special Episode with Martin Weller

In this episode I welcome a special guest, Martin Weller, as we talk about writing books, virtual learning and virtual working and what we are learning along the way.
No. 4 – Book Preview: Introduction to Leading Virtual Teams

In this episode I read an extract from the introduction of my book, Leading Virtual Teams.
- Download your free digital edition
Leading Virtual Teams – Field Notes from a CEO by Dr Maren Deepwell, was published 1 December 2022 as an open access publication by the Association for Learning Technology, UK.

No. 5 – S02E19 – Meditation and mindfulness for hybrid and virtual teams

During the recent Mental Health Awareness Week, I looked for new tips and ideas for virtual and hybrid teams keen to embed mindfulness and meditation into their ethos. In this episode I share ideas and practical approaches. You can find more information in the episode blog post.

Listen to the podcast

Each week, I share ideas and strategies for creative and fun approaches to help you succeed and lead in the hybrid workplace. Each episode includes tools, resources and strategies for different aspects of hybrid working, and links to blog posts and further reading. On this page, you can find links to the all episodes and further resources in the show notes.
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07/07/2023
Meditation and mindfulness in a virtual team
During the recent Mental Health Awareness Week, I looked for new tips and ideas for virtual and hybrid teams keen to embed mindfulness and meditation into their ethos.

I’ve previously shared tips, which I have updated and included again below. This year my focus has specifically been on finding resources for meditation and mindfulness.

Sometimes it can be most helpful to bring in external facilitators to lead this kind of work, and run live sessions for teams. One of the challenges however is to schedule these sessions at a time when everyone can attend and also find a format that meets the needs of diverse individuals.

So instead of looking for a specific course or facilitator, I have been looking to find approaches that are easily available and accessible in a flexible way, so that colleagues can engage as and when they wish to. There are a lot of free resources online as well as specialised apps such as Headspace, Calm Business and Insight Timer for Work.

We tried Insight Timer for Work and offered colleagues the opportunity to explore resources such as meditation recordings in a huge library of content available in 44 different languages. We are a small team, and as such as weren’t focused on creating a particular level of engagement or meeting goals. We don’t use the analytics that the platform can provide.

Instead, we started to share content we came across that was helpful to us, and we organised an informal meet up for staff to spend 15-20 min online. To make this as flexible as we can, the format we adopted brings us together in a video call at the start of the session, and we say hello and check-in with each other. It’s encouraged but not required to share what 5 or 10 min track you are planning to listen to. Then cameras and mics are switched off, and everyone engages in their meditation or mindfulness activity. At an agreed time, we return to the video call, and reflect a little on how we got on.

Scheduling the meeting provides a way to stay accountable to the intention to take a mindful break for those who want it, and is opt-in only. We decide each time if we want to meet again, and then put another date in the diary.

It’s a small step, but a welcome reminder to take a breath in what is a very busy time indeed.

More Tips for hybrid and virtual teams:
- Create time and space to talk: For many people working from home seems to be a never ending marathon of back to back meetings in Teams or Zoom. That’s a tough context in which to create time or space to talk about mental health. I’ve often blogged before about different ways of working, around a document, whilst walking, offering time to reflect and write together… and you really need to find pockets of time and space that suit your team(s) in order to get meaningful conversations.
  In addition to weekly group meet ups, make time to have one to one catch ups and wherever possible don’t schedule meetings back to back for the whole day or week. Consider how you might use informal and formal spaces which are always there, such as chat channels, for meet ups, chat and conversations.
- Read the signals: For some, what works for everyone else isn’t a good fit. That applies to in person management just the same, but I feel working virtually increases the danger of missing obvious signals. If you have just come from one meeting and the other person has done something different, it’s easy to talk at cross purposes. So if you are talking about personal stuff, asking about wellbeing or mental health, you need to be prepared to look out for subtle signals, including tone of voice or chat, body language and even emoji.
  It’s helpful to have a communication channel in which discussing sensitive topics is safe and personal. Or rather than changing how you talk, consider what else you can modify to create a different atmosphere: go for a walk and talk; or have a phone call with cameras off. We don’t always feel the same, so our working practice shouldn’t always be the same either.
- Talk about mental health: aim to normalise talking about mental health in an appropriate way and check in on how everybody is doing regularly. Clearly sign-post ways to seek expert or confidential advice such as via HR professionals, at appraisals, through organised coaching, therapy and other support.
Enjoyed this post? Then listen to my podcast episode on mindfulness and meditation:
10/06/2023
A party without a cake is just a meeting…
June is my birthday month and inspired by my upcoming celebrations, I thought I’d share some ideas about celebrating occasions like birthdays or milestones at the home office. You may prefer to ignore these all together or not celebrate with work colleagues, and I share some of the reluctance. However, during the pandemic especially, celebrating birthdays became a welcome focus for our virtual team, an excuse to spend an hour or two doing something other than fire fighting. And so, I came to enjoy and value moments of connecting with colleagues and spending time having a few laughs more and more.

Like many people I prefer not to work on my actual birthday, and take a bit of time off. Alongside the time away from work, I make it a point to have some celebration at work, and to share something that I am comfortable to with colleagues as a way to get to know each other a bit better.

In 2020, when I turned 40 having moved to a new city just months before, at the start of lockdown here in the UK, my colleagues organised a surprise birthday party, dropped off by a safely socially distanced colleague who lived close enough to make it both legal and practical to visit me in my garden. We ate cake, with other colleagues joining via video call, and I received lots of small, thoughtful gifts and cards that brought a huge amount of cheer to me during a dark time.

As a manager or a leader it’s especially important I find to spend some time with colleagues informally, and when you are based at home or a hybrid worker, then those opportunities can be few and far between. More often than not, team days or long planned meet ups don’t happen with everyone involved, and although interacting online can feel less connected, it is often more achievable.

So here are some ideas to help make that moment of celebration stand out a little, and create memories:
- Switch away from your usual platform: switching platforms can be a really powerful way of changing the tone of your interactions with your colleagues, especially if you have a less formal alternative to the usual Teams or Zoom calls;
- Experiment with backgrounds: if you can’t step away from the habitual online space or even if you can, consider have a bit of fun with different backgrounds. You can pick a theme (Tropical Island, Outer Space) or just encourage people to pick something fun and off beat – it really makes a difference when you are not staring at the same old corporate backdrops for a bit;
- Play some tunes: play some music as you are all joining, so people coming into the space immediately have a different experience from usual. You can invite suggestions for songs, make a themed playlist, and of course birthday tunes or similar could be fun, too (if not necessarily to sing along to);
- Have a plan for the session: I’d advise against inviting folk and simply hoping fun will happen as it probably won’t. Have a loose plan for the session, and limit the time from the start. 20-30 min is probably enough, depending on how many people are coming, and have an activity such as sharing a snack, unwrapping gifts, presenting a card or saying a few words, planned for the start and end. If you expect folk to take a picture with everyone waving (I would recommend against it), then warn everyone in advance;
- Consider going off camera: Lots of fun can still be had on voice only or even text chats when you are celebrating or socialising, and it offers a lot more flexibility. Setting up a dedicated chat space can offer options for everyone to take part from wherever they are and work especially well later in the working day or first thing;
- Don’t take up breaks: Many home and hybrid workers have strong routines around their breaks that they value. So wherever possible don’t assume that folk will want to give up their lunch hour or meet after work. Connecting socially is an important part of team building, and well worth an hour during your work day;
- Engage the senses: Seeing and hearing are the senses we use the most in front of our screens all day long, so to make an activity more memorable, consider how you can engage more of your senses: if you can, share a drink or something to eat, either provided by post or brought by everyone themselves, and spend a bit of time focusing on that.
I’m very much looking forward to putting some of this into practice as I celebrate my birthday at my home office, and I’ll be sharing what we got up to in a follow up blog post.

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01/06/2023
Career transition update: May 2023

In this month’s update, I want to share how things are going now that we are entering a very busy period, both in ALT’s year and my coaching business.

Reflecting on the past month at ALT…

This month at work has been incredibly busy, but also included a wonderfully relaxing week of annual leave! May is the month in which we review progress made in Q1, finalise our annual accounts, start working on our Annual Conference in earnest and… a host of other activities that keep everyone across the organisation very busy.

May was also the month in which the recruitment process for my successor stepped up a gear, which added more tasks to the days of Trustees and staff alike. It’s been a very rewarding and illuminating process, which I feel very positive about. Thinking back to my own ordeal applying for this role, from the extensive prep, to the nerve-racking interview days, to extensive online tests and skills scenarios… I feel for everyone involved. It takes a lot of time and effort to prepare a CEO application and even more to be successful at the end. Hats off to all who applied and threw their hats into the ring.

I am very much looking forward to the public announcement introducing ALT’s next CEO, which will be coming out next month, so keep an eye out on all our channels 🙂

… in other news

I have been working hard on a brand new project that is concluding this week: How to… Lead Virtual Teams: The Course! It’s the first course I have developed for my new venture and it’s been a fantastic project. The course took place over seven weeks in April and May. As a podcast based offering it afforded a lot of flexibility and tailored support for managers and leaders and attracted around 50 participants from across sectors.

It’s been fantastic to wrap up the first successful run of the course, and interesting to read contributions and reflections from those involved. Definitely a project I am hoping to repeat come autumn.

My formal coach training is continuing this month, and investing in my own professional development is really important just now. Working with more and less experienced coaches and mentors is really helping me understand more about how to develop my own approach and what aspects of coaching I want to focus on.

I am still looking for clients for the summer, so if you’re interested in coaching with me, head over to my coaching page for more information or just get in touch for an informal conversation. I currently offer discounted packages and for professionals who are not supported by their employer and for whom cost is a barrier to coaching, I also offer pro bono coaching sessions.

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27/05/2023
Career transition update: April 2023

In February I shared the news that I will step down as ALT’s CEO this September to focus on my work as a coach. This is a monthly update on how things are progressing from my perspective, sharing some of the experiences along the way.

Reflecting on the past month at ALT

April had a very busy start indeed, as it was time for this year’s OER Conference. No matter how busy it was, OER23 was a blast, and I loved every minute of it. It was a special pleasure this year as this was my last big event as CEO. If you’d like to read more of my personal take on the conference, then head over to the dedicated post and, check out #OER23 on social media for lots of interesting conversations and folk involved in the event.

The recruitment panel who will appoint the next CEO of ALT is chaired by Professor Helen O’Sullivan. My part was to meet candidates for informal conversations about the role, and I enjoyed these meetings very much. With the interview process now underway, everyone has been involved in the preparations for these and you can feel the excitement, and nerves, mounting a little. The prospect of meeting the new CEO of ALT is now becoming a very real thing. ALT will be announcing the new CEO in early summer and you’ll have the opportunity to meet them at ALT’s Annual Conference this September. So look out for news #altc.

Other than that, my day to day work continues very much as usual. We are busily induction new members of staff, planning for ALT’s 30th anniversary and Annual Conference this September, and I have a lot of travel coming up, too. As well as attending events this month, I really enjoyed seeing my whole staff team in person for a site visit and lunch. It’s a rare pleasure for us as a mainly virtual team to get together in person, and I value those elements of blended collaboration and catching up very much.

What’s else is happening

With so much going on at work, I’m mindful of setting some goals and engaging in activities that aren’t work related: I’m finally getting back to regular running (having recovered from a serious injury last year) and thinking of signing up for some races to have additional motivation.

I’m also really looking forward to joining formal coach training from May, and spending my Saturday evenings with fellow coaches across different time zones. This is the final part of my formal training before I can apply for ICF accreditation, and I am excited about developing my practice further in the coming months.

And… not to forget my side project at the moment, a podcast-based course all about How to Lead Virtual Teams. It’s been fun designing something completely new to me and I am learning a lot as the course develops.

30/04/2023