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About Virtual Team Leadership and
Effective Virtual Teams

A reality for more organizations and employees is the increased operation of virtual teams. In this age of global competition, mergers, acquisitions, mobile workers and distributed business operations, these teams face the critical challenge of achieving results in an effective and timely manner, in spite of time and distance barriers.

Equip your leaders with the right tool at the right time for effectively managing virtual teams:

How to Lead From a Distance

This quick-read booklet gives leaders the tools needed to build trust, communicate effectively, lead productive virtual meetings, and get results!

A simple description of a virtual team is: a group with a common purpose or goal where one or more members of the team are not co-located, and where most of the communication is via a technology medium, not via face-to-face.

Whether it’s individuals who are telecommuting as part of a team, project teams that span the globe, or organizations that are completely virtual, it seems that everywhere you turn you hear or read about the growth of virtual teams. But, what makes virtual teams successful and well functioning?

Critical Success Factors for Virtual Teams and Leaders of Virtual Teams

While there are similarities between traditional (co-located) and virtual teams, there also significant differences, which if ignored, can lead to the failure of the team.

Learn about the range of training programs, workshops and seminars available for virtual teams and virtual leaders:

Training

Developing the right skills to effectively lead and work in the virtual workplace is critical to the success of your leaders and team members.

It is essential that virtual team leaders and members pay attention to the dynamics of virtual teams, the communication challenges distance workers face, and creative solutions remote teams must employ to achieve superior performance.

Successful virtual teams:

· Identify factors that are critical to the effective functioning of virtual teams. At a minimum, this involves some analysis of what makes virtual teams different. This could also include establishing norms of behavior, communication standards or other factors critical to team success

· Apply appropriate communication skills and 'distance dialogue' techniques that are vital to the productivity of team members who telecommute or work remotely. Without thorough attention to communication skills, teams can fail. The virtual world is different, and failure to attend to those differences can lead to misunderstandings and loss of productivity. Simply assuming people will function well virtually because they did so in traditional teams is a recipe for failure.

· Recognize the best ways to leverage available technology options to achieve effective communication, team development and project completion goals.

· Build a foundation and establish a plan for working successfully as a member or leader of a geographically dispersed team.

Ensure that your virtual teams are built for success!

Learn about the range of training programs, workshops and seminars available for virtual teams and virtual leaders:

Training

Developing the right skills to effectively lead and work in the virtual workplace is critical to the success of your leaders and team members.

Order the practical guide for leaders, trainers, and members of virtual or dispersed teams.

Guide to Building Virtual Teams

Or, for quick resources for your team members, order:

Booklet:

Tips for Teleworking Effectively with Your Remote Team

Mini-Book:

Working Well with Your Team

Problems with Virtual Teams

There are a variety of reasons and imperatives for the existence of virtual teams. At the same time, there are potential problems with virtual teams, particularly at the team member level.

Most research studies report that members of virtual teams perceive or experience problems with:

· Isolation. Regardless of where you are working, it is easy to feel distant and remote when you are functioning as part of a virtual team. Silence or lack of communication can be interpreted as a lack of concern—which in turn, can increase one’s feeling of isolation.

· Trust. Remote workers need to feel that they can trust others to live up to their commitments, and that others trust them.

· Communication. Lack of communication or infrequent communication can be seen as lack of responsiveness or lack of caring. Remote workers can only do so much proactively—they need to feel others are proactive as well.

· Job Security. Often, those away from “the action” and working in remote locations feel extremely vulnerable. Their sense is that they will be the first to go in any downsizing situation because there is no one protecting them or advocating for them.

· Advancement. Much of what applies to job security also applies to career advancement. Remote workers can feel they are ignored or not considered when it comes to promotion or advancement opportunities.

Many virtual teams include home-based telecommuters. To help these remote workers be effective and successful, give them an excellent source of targeted, practical, and easy-to-use information for home-based virtual team members by providing the book, “101 Tips for Telecommuters,” a widely acclaimed resource for ensuring the success of virtual team members who telecommute.

Give home-based virtual team members the best-selling book on telecommuting.

Order:

101 Tips for Telecommuters

Schedule a training program today for your telecommuters. Learn how the

Successful Telecommuting

program can equip your home-based virtual team members with the skills, information, and mindset to be highly productive and highly motivated.

How an organization and its leaders cope with the potential problems associated with virtual teams is a critical determinant of the ultimate success of their virtual team/workforce.

In addition to those problems that can arise with team members, leadership of virtual teams can also be a challenge. It does require some different skills to lead a virtual team—not the least of which is the ability to let go of some control. Many managers battle with the notion that “if I can’t see you working, you must not be working.”

Virtual teams encounter a variety of barriers to traditional approaches to communication. Time zone differences, cultural diversity, and our increasing dependence on technology tools can complicate the communication process. In many instances, the lack of nonverbal cues and/or eye contact adds greater complexity to the situation. Further, the level of comfort with remote communication methods can negatively impact the dynamics of virtual teams, causing confused and delayed communication.
Another way to look at the communication issue is look at the distinctions. In the virtual workplace, some communication will be synchronous (everyone communicates with one another at the same time, e.g., Instant Messaging, and much of it will be asynchronous, e.g., e-mail. Both forms offer opportunities and complexities. Knowing when to use a certain medium (and when not to) is important for effective virtual teams.

Develop effective team skills for virtual team success and improved productivity. Our video-based team development program can be used for training, team meetings, or web-based events.

Improve the effectiveness of your virtual team now!

Order the video program:

Bridging the Distance: Virtual Teams on the Road to Results

Or schedule an in-house training program for your virtual team members and those associates who support them. Learn how the

Bridging the Distance

Skills for Virtual Teams

What can virtual teams do to improve their effectiveness, productivity, and rapport? Whether it's:

· a formal team or a loosely organized project team;
· a permanent team or a temporary one;
· an internal team; or
· a cross-functional team including clients, suppliers, or partners,

It's essential that your teams consider these elements and skills critical to virtual team success:

Know and Nurture Your Team

Identify all the members and key supporters of your team. Establish ways to keep in touch with all team members and support partners with a focus on building rapport, sharing information, and ensuring that everyone feels included in the activities and successes of the team.

Stay in Touch with Team Members

Certainly communication occurs when it's essential to job requirements, but it's also important to stay in touch with co-workers for non-task purposes. This not only strengthens the foundation of relationships, it assures co-workers that those team members who work remotely are indeed present (albeit in a virtual way!), available, and aware of them and their issues. Remember, team members interpret silence as a lack of concern.

Be Creatively Accessible

The demands of your job, pressures of life, and the distances that separate virtual team members make being accessible a triple challenge. Therefore, it's vital that virtual teams establish clear guidelines regarding accessibility. Agree on best ways to convey different types of information; frequency for checking e-mail, voicemail, and other sources of information; and expectations regarding responsiveness to messages.

Master Effective Interaction Skills

While traditional interactions in the workplace involve face-to-face meetings that incorporate eye contact, gestures, and body posture, virtual interactions can be supplemented in ways that minimize the negative effects of "distance dialog." Key communication and interaction skills for virtual teams involve effective listening, clarifying what was said and meant, establishing agreements, and checking for understanding. Effective planning, management, and follow-up in connection with distance meetings reinforce these skills.

Another interaction skill that deserves attention is disclosure—that is sharing your thoughts, feelings, rationale or something personal about yourself. While this skill has to be used carefully, it has a positive impact on building trust and developing personal relationships.

Deliver Results with Distance Delegation

Those who successfully work remotely or as part of a virtual team find themselves benefiting tremendously from the use of appropriate delegation skills. When delegating from afar, it's important to clearly communicate the task or process to be accomplished, listen carefully for confusion or concerns, discuss issues, clarify agreements and follow-up action, and establish communication points and accessibility guidelines.

Reach Agreements that Foster Commitment and Collaboration

Setting clear agreements regarding accountabilities and commitments with team members, supervisors, and support staff minimizes a plethora of difficult, unpleasant, and time-consuming problems. Agreements must sometimes be forged between co-workers who are peers, partners, or collaborators. In these cases, support and commitment are obtained through influence rather than through the assignment of tasks and responsibilities. In a nutshell, team members must be skilled at effective agreement-setting which involves stating needs; explaining importance; establishing expectations; listening for objections; discussing barriers and solutions; and ensuring adequate follow-up.

Establish a Foundation of Trust

Underlying every successful relationship is trust. Trust is established in working relationships through reliability, consistency, integrity, and familiarity. It is particularly vital that virtual team members establish trust in relationships with colleagues and supervisors since distance and the absence of day-to-day interactions creates pressure that can erode the fragile bonds of trust.

For more on building trust, please order the booklet:

Foundations of Trust for Virtual Teams

Research Notes on Trust

· Current research on virtual teams indicates that familiarity is the major contributor to building trust. In other words, if team members know one another—either through face-to-face interactions or virtually—they have a greater chance to establish trust over time. Therefore, if you have a long-term project, trust will occur over time. If you are faced with a short-term project, it may be wise to bring the team together initially to build familiarity with one another quickly.

· Mistrust seems to occur more with teams that are a mixture of remote members and co-located members. This does not appear to be the case when all the team members are remote. However, when a portion of the team is co-located and some work from a distance, mistrust can result because those who are co-located talk to one another more frequently and see one another working.

For more information, check out:

Virtual Teams Achieving Real Results

Help team members understand the critical role of trust in achieving success of the entire team.

Order the booklet:

Foundations of Trust for Virtual Teams

Develop effective team skills for virtual team success and improved productivity. Our video-based team development program can be used for training, team meetings, or web-based events.

Improve the effectiveness of your virtual team now!

Order the video program:

Bridging the Distance: Virtual Teams on the Road to Results

Or schedule an in-house training program for your virtual team members and those associates who support them. Learn how the

Bridging the Distance

program can equip your virtual team members and their support associates with the skills, information, and mindset to work together effectively to ensure high productivity and the best in collaboration.

Distance does not influence trust one way or another—familiarity does. In other words, the more familiar you are with team members, the higher the trust level will be. What does that mean you should do as a virtual team member? As the leader of a virtual team?

Leading Virtual Teams

Effectively leading the virtual workforce is a crucial task—for all levels of leadership. How frequently one communicates, how one communicates, and through what mediums become crucial questions that leaders must address.

Equip your leaders with the right tool at the right time for effectively managing virtual teams:

How to Lead From a Distance

This quick-read booklet gives leaders the tools needed to build trust, communicate effectively, lead productive virtual meetings, and get results!

Or schedule an in-house training program for your virtual team leaders. Learn how the

Leading in the Virtual Workplace

program can equip your leaders with the skills they require to effective manage from a distance to maintain productivity and morale.

Effectively lead home-based virtual team members with this valuable resource:

“Managing Telecommuters” is a comprehensive sourcebook for managers of remote workers. This book discusses effective leadership of geographically dispersed teams, coaching for superior performance, distance communication, and effective use of technology tools.

Order now:

Managing Telecommuters:
A Guide to Effectively Leading from a Distance

To some extent the adage holds true that leadership is leadership, regardless of the situation. The virtual world does hold challenges, however, that do not exist in more traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ organizations. Some of these challenges may be caused by technology, some by distance, some by culture, and some through the personalities of the people involved. Because of the differences in the virtual world, while one needs basic leadership skills to be effective, those skills alone do not guarantee effectiveness.

What can you as a leader do?

· Don’t forget the basics. While the medium may change, basic leadership skills are still required.

· You can’t over communicate. You don’t casually run into virtual team members, and they don’t have “water cooler” conversations with other team members. You need to communicate on a constant, planned basis.

· Set clear expectations. Be clear about what you expect people to do. Ambiguity can be extremely detrimental to virtual teams.

· Don’t worry about how they do their job or when. You can’t look over their shoulder; however, you can offer assistance and coaching.

· You can’t measure effort at a distance. Instead, measure results. You can’t look through the computer to see how hard someone is working. Evaluate people on their outputs and their contribution.

· Being technologically proficient is also a requirement for leaders of virtual teams. While effective leaders don’t have to be technicians, they do need to be able to use all of the available technology options.

· Encourage brainstorming. Too often virtual teams take the efficient route, quickly dividing up tasks and responsibilities to get the job done. Encourage teams to step back and brainstorm the best solutions. It may take longer, but it’s more effective in the long run.

· Know the cultures of your team. With the rise of virtual teams, there is a strong possibility that members of your team will be from other cultures or countries. Treat this as if you were visiting the country. Learn something about their culture – don’t assume they will adapt to yours.

While we believe the preceding comments on leadership are important, leadership in the virtual workplace boils down to three critical differences. These are: