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Chapter Five
How to Lead Virtual Teams — Tips, Techniques, and Best Practices
for High Performance
‘‘Out of sight, foremost in mind. How do you
manage people whom you don’t see regularly?’’
— Charles Handy1
We’ve already established that quality leadership is essential for a virtual team’s success. And that it’s not an easy job. Virtual team leaders face challenges similar to those of leaders of co-located teams. However, for the former, many of those challenges are exacerbated by distance and time zone differences.
As Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar, vice president of talent man- agement at Gap, Inc., suggests, ‘‘The things that are good for virtual teams are the same as with traditional teams, but they become even more important in virtual teams.’’
However, virtual team leaders also face some challenges all their own.
Challenges Virtual Team Leaders Face
In OnPoint’s study, we asked 150 virtual team leaders to identify the top challenges they face when leading from a distance. They pinpointed the following challenges as the greatest barriers to their performance: infrequent face-to-face contact, lack of resources, difficulties in building a collaborative atmosphere virtually, lack of time to focus on leading the team, shifting team and organizational priorities, and difficulties in managing poor performers. Let’s explore them further.
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Chapter Five
How to Lead Virtual Teams — Tips, Techniques, and Best Practices
for High Performance
‘‘Out of sight, foremost in mind. How do you
manage people whom you don’t see regularly?’’
— Charles Handy1
We’ve already established that quality leadership is essential for a virtual team’s success. And that it’s not an easy job. Virtual team leaders face challenges similar to those of leaders of co-located teams. However, for the former, many of those challenges are exacerbated by distance and time zone differences.
As Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar, vice president of talent man- agement at Gap, Inc., suggests, ‘‘The things that are good for virtual teams are the same as with traditional teams, but they become even more important in virtual teams.’’
However, virtual team leaders also face some challenges all their own.
Challenges Virtual Team Leaders Face
In OnPoint’s study, we asked 150 virtual team leaders to identify the top challenges they face when leading from a distance. They pinpointed the following challenges as the greatest barriers to their performance: infrequent face-to-face contact, lack of resources, difficulties in building a collaborative atmosphere virtually, lack of time to focus on leading the team, shifting team and organizational priorities, and difficulties in managing poor performers. Let’s explore them further.
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84 VIRTUAL TEAM SUCCESS
Challenge 1: Infrequent Face-to-Face Contact
OnPoint’s study, which surveyed virtual team leaders and team members, focused on the primary challenges that virtual teams commonly face. Infrequent face-to-face contact was the top challenge reported by team members and — perhaps not surprisingly — 43 percent of the leaders in our study concurred.
Even though leaders recognize that these challenges come with the territory when working virtually, they still often struggle to fully overcome them. Virtual team leaders report that the lack of face-to-face contact makes it tougher to build trust within their teams, engage their teams, and monitor their team members’ work.
Mark Gasta, senior vice president and chief human resource officer of Vail Resorts, believes these challenges require leaders to change their approach when managing virtually. ‘‘To expect that you can build trust and relationships on a conference call is naı̈ve,’’ Gasta says. ‘‘Simple things are important. Calling on your way home just to say hello and check in with people can have a big impact. It is like popping into people’s offices if they were on-site. You need to figure out how to apply the same type of behaviors effective team leaders do when they are face-to-face.’’
Challenge 2: Lack of Resources
Thirty-nine percent of leaders reported challenges associated with a lack of resources. And although co-located teams must also deal with this problem, virtual team leaders frequently suffer from the lack of a specific type of resource — technology.
Since virtual teams do not meet in person around a conference table, they must have the technology to effectively communicate and transfer information. It’s not optional. And yet many teams are forced to make do without it.
One leader reported that it was difficult to gain access to his company’s TelePresence (a video conferencing technology)
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 85
room, which was frequently booked months in advance. Other leaders were not able to use instant messaging because of company policy or videoconferencing because of restrictive security and firewalls — even though both technologies would have enhanced their teams’ effectiveness.
In addition, many teams lack the resources to cover travel expenses so they could periodically meet in person, a practice that would help them compensate for their technology shortfalls.
Challenge 3: Difficulty Building a Collaborative Atmosphere Virtually
How do you create a high-touch, interactive environment when you are not physically present with your team? How can you build an atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation? Achieving these factors can be especially challenging when you have a large virtual team and must work around time zone differences.
At the heart of this problem lies a fundamental question: Are human beings more inclined to be cooperative or competitive? As with most matters of human behavior, the answers aren’t always clear-cut. There is plenty of disagreement on the subject.
Economic and rational choice theory point to our competitive nature and a propensity to put our own self-interest ahead of the well-being of the group. Of course, not everyone behaves the way economic and game theory models predict. In fact, there is evidence that people cooperate more often than theories of self-interest and maximizing personal benefit might suggest.
Many social scientists believe that cooperation may be soci- ety’s more natural state.2 This idea derives from the fact that for much of our history we lived in hunter and gatherer societies, which tend to support cooperation for both efficiency and for maximizing individual good.
However, research has found that, although cooperation may initially be a more common response, it seems that we are quicker
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to stop cooperating than we are to stop competing. And once cooperation has stopped, it takes longer for us to forgive and trust in order to resume cooperating.3
With self-interest and the fragility of cooperation working against you, encouraging and sustaining cooperation and collab- oration in a virtual team environment is a daunting challenge. However, it is not an insurmountable one.
Gasta uses a strategy to help enhance collaboration in his virtual HR team: ‘‘One technique that I use is to break the team into smaller sub-teams called passion groups, which are areas people are interested in,’’ he reports. ‘‘The larger team then becomes a steering committee that provides ownership and ensures the sub-teams stay connected.’’
Group size isn’t the only critical factor. There are cer- tain conditions in which cooperation is more likely to trump competition — namely, when communication is clear, when transparency exists, when people understand what they can expect from the other person and how they will work together, and when the interests of individuals or groups are aligned. We’ll say more about what you can do to create and sustain an environment that supports collaboration later in the chapter.
Challenge 4: Lack of Time to Focus on Leading the Team
As we’ve mentioned before, team membership and team leader- ship are responsibilities that employees often take on in addition to their daily work. Consequently, team leaders are already pulled in multiple directions and have little time to effectively manage their virtual teams.
In many cases, virtual team leaders may be managing several teams (or are members of several teams), which can be both time- consuming and overwhelming. In our interviews, we frequently heard examples of leaders who had more work than they could handle. This reality, coupled with the fact that many team
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 87
members are stretched too thin as well, often leads to missed deadlines and a lack of productivity.
Tom, a virtual team leader, indicated, ‘‘I really do not have the time to focus on this virtual team, yet there is no one else to take over. Unfortunately, this negatively impacts the team’s ability to achieve its goals.’’
Challenge 5: Shifting Team and Organizational Priorities
While some virtual team leaders communicate goals up-front, they may neglect to update them as priorities shift. According to Moldenhauer-Salazar, ‘‘The financial services industry has been highly dynamic, so it is much harder to communicate informa- tion and keep people informed about changes and decisions. This becomes particularly challenging when you are leading a geographically dispersed team.’’
A common complaint from team members is that they aren’t properly informed about changes in priorities and goals. One person we interviewed stated, ‘‘Our leader does not make sure that we know about changes to initiatives that affect our work, which is very frustrating. We often waste time and resources because we were not aware of a change.’’
Another team member indicated, ‘‘My team leader does a better job updating team members who are in the same geographic location as he is, but he neglects to communicate key changes to team members in other locations.’’
Challenge 6: Difficulty Managing Poor Performers
In addition to our study on virtual teams, OnPoint recently conducted a survey of over four hundred leaders. Forty percent of them reported that employees in their organizations are not being held accountable for results. In addition, 20 percent reported that managers in their organizations don’t deal with poor performers.
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So why don’t leaders deal with performance issues? One of the most common reasons leaders fail to hold team members account- able is that they don’t effectively communicate expectations — or for that matter, what ‘‘good’’ behaviors or deliverables even look like.
In addition, when leading a team of people who are geo- graphically distributed, timely feedback also poses a challenge. Time zone differences or infrequent contact can increase the ‘‘lag time’’ between when the problem occurs, when the leader becomes aware of the problem, and when the opportunity to provide feedback arises.
Conflict avoidance is another reason. Many leaders would rather attempt to wait out a problem than risk getting into a potentially contentious conversation with a team member.
And dealing with poor performers is particularly difficult when you can’t regularly observe your team members. How can virtual team leaders regularly monitor team members’ work when they have limited or no physical contact? To make matters worse, how can a virtual team leader provide timely feedback and/or hold team members accountable when leading a team whose members do not report directly to him or her?
Raygen Company Slump: How Would You Handle It?
Before we introduce the factors that separate the best virtual team leaders from the rest of the pack and provide some practical tips for enhancing your effectiveness, take a few minutes to assess how you would deal with a virtual team that is having performance problems.
Read the following case study and think about how you would handle it. Write down how you would approach each situation. After you complete that process, use the scoring guidelines to evaluate how you did. Then when you’ve reviewed the tips and guidelines for leading from a distance, revisit the case study to determine what you might do differently.
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 89
Case Study: Raygen Company Raygen Company is a global professional services firm that pro- vides consulting services to its clients. One key to Raygen’s success is its innovative marketing strategies.
Three years ago, the SVP of marketing formed a cross- functional virtual team made up of ten geographically dispersed employees from marketing, sales, consulting, and finance. Throughout this three-year period, the team was extremely successful in generating and implementing new marketing strategies.
However, it appears as though the team has hit a plateau in terms of its performance. Both the quality and the timeliness of the team’s deliverables seem to have declined over the past several months. While performance isn’t currently below standard, it is mediocre — something that this team never seemed to tolerate in the past.
Ted Jones, the current team leader, has announced that he will be leaving the organization next month and has asked that you step in, at least on an interim basis, to fill his role. In addition to describing the team’s current performance issues, Ted explains that its members are busy with other job responsibilities and do not seem to be fully engaged with the team.
In order to prepare for your new leadership role, you’ll be meeting with Ted to review your initial ideas for enhancing the team’s performance. What ideas do you have?
Evaluating Your Response Check each of the factors listed below that you considered as possible solutions:
� Conduct a face-to-face (ideally) or telephone interview with each team member to solicit their opinions on what factors are currently supporting or inhibiting teamwork.
� Distribute a brief, anonymous survey to all team members to collect data on what factors support or inhibit team work — summarize data and distribute it to team members to facilitate a discussion around key strengths and areas for improvement.
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� Solicit input from team members about how to measure and monitor progress against goals (ideally during a face-to-face meeting).
� Review and prioritize shared goals with the team.
� Clarify performance expectations for each team member. Ensure individual goals and priorities are aligned with team goals and supported by all team members.
� Acknowledge the team’s track record for success and ex- press confidence that performance will improve in the future.
� Review how team and individual performance are being recognized and rewarded to ensure alignment with desired behaviors.
� Proactively manage the change associated with a new team leader — create forums for team members to express their concerns, ask questions, and share information.
Use the guidelines in Table 5.1 below to determine how effectively you evaluated the case.
Table 5.1 Evaluating Your Responses
Number of Interpretation Items Checked
6 to 8 You have considered the majority of the factors required to successfully lead a virtual team.
5 You have considered most of the factors required to successfully lead a virtual team.
4 You have considered some of the factors required to successfully lead a virtual team.
3 You have considered a few of the factors required to successfully lead a virtual team.
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 91
Virtual Team Leadership Self-Assessment
Before we talk about what it takes to be an effective virtual team leader, assess your own level of effectiveness. Read each item in Exhibit 5.1 and, using the rating scale provided, consider how each item describes your behavior as a virtual team leader.
Exhibit 5.1. Virtual Team Leader Self-Assessment
1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Almost All of the Time
Item Rating
1. Take steps to foster collaboration among team members.
2. Ensure that there are adequate resources to support the team.
3. Delegate work effectively to team members.
4. Empower team members to make decisions.
5. Resolve team conflict effectively.
6. Inspire team members to do their best.
7. Respond quickly when problems arise.
8. Provide timely feedback to team members.
9. Provide coaching and support to team members.
10. Hold team members accountable.
How well did you do? If you scored between 25 and 30, you have a good handle on what it takes to lead a virtual team. If you scored between 10 and 20, you may not be using as many of these key strategies as consistently as you should.
In the next section we’ll discuss the factors that differentiate the most effective virtual team leaders. Compare yourself to this
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profile to better understand how well prepared you are to lead a virtual team (even if you scored above 25 on the self-assessment).
What Makes an Effective Virtual Team Leader?
We asked virtual team members, leaders, and stakeholders (cus- tomers or recipients of the team’s output) what they believed were the most important competencies for a virtual team leader. They overwhelmingly selected communication as the most important skill required for success.
Gasta agrees, ‘‘Communication is essential for leaders and is also a critical success factor. Leaders need to create a two-way conversation that keeps people engaged.’’
Building relationships, building trust, being personally ac- countable, and being results-driven were also cited among the top competencies. Team members and leaders also chose the abil- ity to motivate others and action planning as being important, whereas stakeholders identified coaching and strategic thinking as key competencies for team leaders.
While these characteristics are perceived as being important for virtual team leader effectiveness, we wanted to determine which behaviors are directly connected to highly effective virtual team leadership. However, we did not seek to compare vir- tual team leaders to co-located team members. Instead, our objective was to understand what separates the most effective virtual team leaders from the least effective.
In general, we found that the most effective virtual team leaders are able to balance execution-oriented practices with the interpersonal, communication, and cultural factors critical to the success of virtual teams. Specifically, we found that the following five practices separated the most effective leaders from the least effective: the ability to effectively manage change, the ability to foster an atmosphere of collaboration, the ability to communicate team goals and direction, strong interpersonal communication skills, and the ability to empower team members.
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 93
Differentiator 1: Ability to Effectively Manage Change
Managing change and leading teams through transitions is partic- ularly difficult when team members are geographically dispersed. Top-performing virtual team leaders had an average score of 4.2, based on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘‘Poor’’ to ‘‘Out- standing,’’ on their ability to effectively manage change, whereas low-performing team leaders scored a 3.47.
The most effective leaders develop a process for helping their teams adjust to change. They are also sure to involve team members in decisions that affect them. Doing so increases the quality of the team’s decision making and helps maintain high levels of enthusiasm and commitment for the duration of the change. The most effective team leaders use a three-step process for managing change, described below.
Step 1: Envisioning Change. Articulating a vision of what your team needs to accomplish helps to communicate the im- portance of change initiatives in a way that’s understandable, meaningful, and inspiring. A variety of elements may be included in the vision, such as strategic objectives, key values for the company or team, general approaches for attaining the vision, slogans and symbols, and a description of what the vision will mean to people when it is attained.
In times of great change, people look to their leaders for direction. That’s why it’s essential to communicate personal con- fidence that the vision can be achieved and that the benefits will be worth the short-term sacrifices — a task that’s more difficult when you have limited in-person contact with your team. There- fore, it’s important that leaders convey a message of confidence and optimism by consistently demonstrating their conviction and support of the vision.
Step 2: Building Support for Change. Although most people would agree that change is essential if an organization is to adapt,
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grow, and remain competitive, the process often produces anxiety and resistance within organizational teams.
Many of us try to convince people to change by asserting our views and trying to talk the person out of his or her viewpoint. But this approach rarely works. Direct argument, in fact, often causes the other person to more vigorously support his or her position. A reflective and empathetic style, rather than an authoritative one, seems to be the most effective approach when we want someone to change his or her behavior.4
To help people deal with their resistance to a change, effective virtual team leaders encourage people to make the arguments for change themselves. This self-persuasive dialogue is called ‘‘change talk.’’5
Change talk encourages people to talk about their confidence in their ability to change, their desire to change, the importance of change, and their reasons to change. When people engage in this type of discussion, they are more likely to achieve higher levels of readiness to change than when the leader explains the reasons or advantages to them.6
For people to support change, they must see it as necessary and feasible. Virtual team leaders can build such support by discussing the urgent need for change, creating a broad coalition of supporters, identifying likely opponents and reasons for their resistance, and taking action to deal with resistance.
Step 3: Implementing Change. It’s impossible to anticipate all the potential problems that could arise during a major change initiative or to prepare detailed plans for carrying out every aspect of the change. Perhaps surprisingly, a change is less likely to be successful if a leader tries to dictate in detail how it will be implemented. That’s because involving others in decisions helps ensure we have access to information and perspectives that might not otherwise be available to us and decreases the likelihood that we’ll take irrational action or make choices based solely on the
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 95
familiarity of the situation (‘‘I’ve seen this before and I know what needs to be done’’). In addition, involving others increases decision acceptance, which is critical to effective execution once the decision has been made.
When a change is underway, effective leaders fill key posi- tions with competent change agents, help people adjust to and cope with the change, provide opportunities to celebrate early successes, keep people informed about the progress of the change, and ensure that they demonstrate continued commitment to the change.
Following are a few general tips to help virtual leaders manage change:
• Express enthusiasm for the benefits of the change and confidence that the change will improve the current situation.
• Identify the people whose commitment is essential to the change effort and involve them in making key decisions.
• Identify people who might resist the change effort and make a special effort to bring them on board. Involve them in planning and in identifying and solving potential problems.
• Engage in two-way communication throughout the change by holding conference calls with the team or making yourself available for phone conversations with individual team members. Balance ‘‘telling’’ and ‘‘informing’’ with ‘‘asking.’’
• Encourage people to talk about why they think the change is important and how confident they are about making the change. Use this information to determine their level of readiness and what approach to take to move them to the next level.
• Discuss what will change and when it will change, what team members will need to do differently, and what you will do differently.
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• Make the change objectives concrete by clarifying what the change looks like in terms of behavior and performance expectations.
Differentiator 2: Ability to Foster an Atmosphere of Collaboration
Effective virtual team leaders are able to use strategies to make up for the lack of human contact. They continually look for new ways to infuse team spirit and trust into their teams and to boost productivity.
Zeller stated, ‘‘I have realized that I put much more emphasis on building trust and relationships with others. This is much harder to do when you are working virtually. I also have to be purposeful about this since I am a task-first type of person, so I need to focus on trust.’’
The high-performing leaders in our study had an average score of 4.23 on the prompt ‘‘Fosters an atmosphere of collaboration among team members,’’ compared to a 3.58 average for less- effective leaders. The message is clear: Less-effective leaders of virtual teams find it especially difficult to build relationships and develop collaboration among team members.
Moldenhauer-Salazar believes, ‘‘The lack of face-to-face con- tact makes building trust very difficult. Leaders need to reinforce the message that people can rely on one another. When virtual team leaders become the ‘hub’ of all communication, it causes problems which likely stem from a lack of trust.’’
Effective leaders of virtual teams help build an environment that supports collaboration by finding ways for team members to interact and communicate informally. For example, ‘‘same- time’’ technologies like instant messaging will help increase more spontaneous communication.
Another important component of promoting collabo- ration is productively managing the conflicts that emerge. Top-performing virtual team leaders score a 4.03 on their
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ability to handle conflict effectively, while low-performing team leaders scored a 3.39. Because conflict can often initially go undetected in virtual environments, leaders must proactively look for signs of it and take steps to resolve it in a timely manner.
Following are a few tips on how leaders can build trust and manage conflict to enhance collaboration in a virtual environment:
• Acknowledge and respect cultural differences related to communication and recognition norms.
• Identify ways to stay in touch with team members and determine which methods are most effective with specific individuals.
• Reinforce shared team goals and the role each team member plays in the successful achievement of those goals
• Clarify performance expectations so everyone knows what to expect from the other members of the team
• For critical team activities and decisions, clarify when cooperation is necessary; agree on who needs to be involved and the level of each person’s authority
• Ensure that virtual team members are comfortable giving feedback virtually; teach and model good communication and conflict management skills.
• Encourage participation and reinforce an environment of constructive debate.
• Keep in mind that ‘‘trust’’ can mean different things to different generations, cultures, and individuals. Focus on moving from task-based trust to interpersonal trust by communicating openly and honestly, leading by example, employing consistent team interactions, and being accessible and responsive.
• Deal with conflicts quickly so they don’t fester over time.
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• To keep problems from becoming personal, focus on the problem not the person.
• ‘‘Stand in the other person’s shoes’’ and try to see the issue from all sides.
• When situations escalate, return to the facts of the problem and avoid personal issues.
• Periodically check in with team members who may otherwise begin to feel isolated and believe they lack support.
• Create a shared virtual space for informal team communication.
Differentiator 3: Ability to Communicate Team Goals and Direction
Successful leaders of virtual teams clearly articulate team goals and direction to ensure that everyone has a shared target. They also periodically revisit these factors both to reinforce their importance and to make adjustments as necessary.
Top-performing leaders in our study were more effective than low-performing team leaders at communicating team goals (average score of 4.12 compared to 3.48, respectively).
Clearly communicated, shared team goals are especially cru- cial for virtual teams because they give members a sense of purpose and meaning that sustains them when they are working alone or without regular direct contact with the team leader or other team members. Clear goals also help to unify the actions of a geographically dispersed team and keep members focused on execution.
Effective virtual leaders also communicate how their teams’ goals align with the broader organizational strategy so members know in no uncertain terms how their work impacts the orga- nization. Here are some tips for developing and communicating virtual team goals:
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• Early on in a team’s formation, provide a clear sense of purpose. Explain how the team’s work contributes to the organization’s overall goals and revisit these goals as things progress.
• Invite key stakeholders to v-meetings to discuss how the team’s work impacts the organizational strategy.
• Involve team members in discussions about setting or prioritizing goals to increase commitment.
• Ensure that the virtual team’s goals are mutually supportive of other functions and teams.
• Periodically revisit goals to ensure that, given changes in the internal or external environment, they are still appropriate and feasible.
• Put a process in place to set and reset priorities; frequently revisit priorities and recalibrate as necessary.
• To be effective, goal statements must be SMART:
◦ Specific: The goal should be expressed in terms of a specific outcome or result for which the team will be held accountable. This outcome should be linked to a specific business objective.
◦ Measurable: The goal should be expressed in terms of an outcome that can be measured or otherwise verified.
◦ Aligned: The goal should be challenging but realistic given the current environment, available resources, and the team’s experience and skill level.
◦ Realistic: The goal should be consistent with the organization’s/team’s strategic objectives.
◦ Time-bound: The goal should include a target date or deadline by which it will be met.
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Differentiator 4: Strong Interpersonal Communication Skills
It’s no secret that team members who work virtually sometimes feel isolated and find it more difficult to tap into the office grapevine. This feeling of isolation can negatively impact morale and productivity. Therefore, the most effective leaders establish informal and formal communication methods to ensure that people have the information they need to do their jobs and to feel ‘‘plugged in’’ and engaged.
Moldenhauer-Salazar, who emphasizes the importance of ef- fective communication for virtual team leaders, said, ‘‘I think they have to be over-communicators and also very good com- municators. They have to make sure that their messages were heard. They know how to match the technology to the task. For example, email communications should be clear and succinct.’’
When we interviewed team members and stakeholders, they consistently mentioned responsiveness and follow-up as critical elements of communication. Our study also found that top- performing virtual team leaders had higher ratings on several items related to communication effectiveness. For example, they scored significantly higher on responding effectively, providing timely feedback to team members, and sharing information in a timely manner.
Despite the lack of regular face-to-face time, effective virtual team leaders create a two-way dialogue so members feel comfort- able giving constructive feedback. Doing this over the phone, a primary communication option for virtual teams, is particularly challenging because members have no visual cues to gauge the reactions of others. That’s why effective leaders learn to choose their words wisely and to use a more neutral tone of voice when asking for and responding to feedback.
To determine your own communication skills strengths and weaknesses, participate in the self-assessment in Exhibit 5.2. Then use the tips included here to outline steps you can take to enhance your skills.
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 101
Exhibit 5.2. Self-Assessment: Interpersonal Communication Skills
Part I Using the scale provided, rate yourself on each of the following items:
1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Almost All of the Time
Item Rating
1. I clearly communicate and explain what I need/expect from others and why.
2. I consider the impact of my message on the receiver(s).
3. I help people maintain a positive self-image. I avoid statements or actions that make people ‘‘lose face.’’
4. I listen effectively to others (even if I don’t like what I’m hearing, disagree, or am extremely busy).
5. I restate what others say in my own words to show that I heard their ideas.
6. I restate others’ feelings to show empathy.
7. I ask open-ended questions to gather information and to clarify information.
8. I provide helpful feedback on others’ performance and ideas.
9. I ask others for feedback on my performance and ideas.
10. I welcome feedback rather than becoming defensive.
11. I think through what I’m going to say and how to say it.
12. I plan a communication strategy to accomplish my goals.
Part II Based on your assessment of the items in Part I, identify two or three of your major communication strengths:
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Identify two or three things you want to focus on (do more frequently or more effectively) to develop your communication skills.
What two or three things can you do to improve your communication skills? Be sure to revisit this once you finish reading the chapter.
Following are a few tips to help improve your communication skills when leading from a distance:
• Ask others for feedback on your listening and communication skills. Ask them what works well and what you can do differently to put your ideas across more effectively.
• Identify the best way to share information with virtual team members. For example, what situations are more appropriate for phone calls, emails, etc.?
• Provide team members with status reports on upcoming changes.
• Confirm important communications, such as a complex new assignment or key policies, in writing.
• Present an overview of your team’s activities, capabilities, and achievements to upper-level management.
• Before you send a report, email, or memo, ask yourself: ◦ Is the purpose clear and up-front? ◦ Have I avoided unnecessary words?
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 103
◦ Do my ideas flow smoothly and logically? ◦ Did I use bullets and subheadings for visual appeal? ◦ Is each step clearly communicated?
• Participate in a writing skills workshop, review a self-study audiotape or video on effective writing, or talk with someone you regard as an excellent writer to ask for tips.
• For each message ask:
◦ What is the overall purpose or main idea I want to communicate?
◦ Why is it important to communicate it? ◦ To whom will I communicate it? ◦ How will I communicate it (face-to-face, in writing, an
email, at a meeting)? ◦ What impact is the message likely to have on the
receiver(s)? ◦ How will I respond to the receiver’s anticipated reaction
to the message?
• Ensure two-way communication. First, listen to make sure you heard what the other person said, then paraphrase what was said to show others that they have been heard and understood. This helps reduce defensiveness, promotes self-esteem, and defuses emotional exchanges, which, in turn, enables people to engage in productive problem solving.
• Actively listen when people come to you with a concern, a question, or an idea.
• Ensure that you are comfortable giving feedback to team members virtually.
• Model the behavior you want from others.
• Provide team members with a framework for giving effective feedback.
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Differentiator 5: Ability to Empower Team Members
A research study discussed in the Academy of Management Jour- nal7 investigated the role of empowerment on virtual team performance. The study found that, in virtual teams, empower- ment was significantly connected to process improvement and customer satisfaction. Because people are often expected to work more independently in virtual teams, finding ways to delegate work, to give team members freedom to make decisions, and to monitor work become particularly important for success.
While delegating work and checking on the progress of work are important facets of empowerment, they’re more difficult in a virtual setting. Top-performing leaders in our study were more effective at delegating responsibilities than less-effective leaders were (average score of 4.0 to 3.5, respectively). They also encouraged team members to come up with creative ideas more consistently (average score of 4.21 compared to 3.71), which is another way to motivate team members and encourage process improvement.
Once they delegate assignments, monitoring progress can be difficult for virtual team leaders. The best leaders set up processes for monitoring progress and follow up, but avoid micromanaging their members.
According to Kevin Squires, director of payroll administration at Saint-Gobain, ‘‘Successful virtual team leaders manage the balance between independence and micromanagement. They also take steps to engage people who may feel isolated.’’
Monitoring makes it possible to identify potential problems early on, prevents disruptions in team activities and service to customers, and ensures that people are held accountable for the quality of their work. This information is then used to formulate and modify team objectives, strategies, policies, and procedures.
In addition, monitoring provides the information needed to solve problems and make decisions effectively, to evaluate team members’ performance, to recognize achievements, to identify performance deficiencies, to assess training needs, to provide
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 105
assistance, and to allocate rewards such as pay increases or promotions.
The appropriate degree of monitoring required depends on the specifics of the situation, for example, the kind of work being performed and level of experience of the team members. Naturally, monitoring is more important when virtual team members are inexperienced or apathetic about the work. Likewise, it’s essential when mistakes or delays will significantly impact the success of the project and have to be quickly remedied.
So, given the lack of face-to-face contact, how do effective virtual team leaders monitor their team members’ work? A common method for monitoring progress on assignments and projects is to obtain update or status reports from team members based on the tasks they’ve been given. The type of information and level of detail in progress reports should be agreed on when a new project is initiated or a new assignment is made.
However, in lieu of status reports, many team leaders choose to frequently follow up with individual team members to ensure they’re on track. This proactive approach can be more effective when managing remote teams, but to avoid the perception of micromanaging, team leaders should determine the frequency of these check-ins with each team member.
Some virtual teams use online support tools to track projects and initiatives, which allows the leader to assess progress in a non-intrusive manner. Establishing clear reporting requirements in advance is also an effective approach, and it helps leaders avoid monitoring too closely and communicating a lack of trust.
Most importantly, the success of monitoring depends on obtaining accurate information from people who may be reluctant to provide it. For example, team members may be hesitant to inform their team leaders about problems, mistakes, and delays. People who aren’t responsible for a problem may be reluctant to report it if they are concerned about becoming the target of an angry outburst — otherwise known as ‘‘kill-the-messenger’’ syndrome.
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Therefore, it’s essential that the reaction to problems be constructive and non-punitive. Questions should be open-ended and non-evaluative to encourage people to respond and provide a more complete picture of the situation. Questions should be phrased so as to communicate the leader’s concerns and expectations to team members, in addition to seeking to obtain information. To determine your own empowerment strengths and opportunity areas, complete the self-assessment in Exhibit 5.3.
Exhibit 5.3. Self-Assessment: Empowering Others
Use this assessment to help you evaluate your effectiveness at delegating and empowering others. Read each item and, using the rating scale provided, rate the extent to which each item describes your behavior.
1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Almost All of the Time
Item Rating
1. I consider the skills of my team (their competence level) when delegating tasks.
2. I give team members a variety of challenging assignments that will strengthen or develop their abilities.
3. I ask team members to represent me in meetings/events as developmental opportunities.
4. I generally delegate work, even though it may be faster/easier to do it myself.
5. When delegating, I provide time for people to ask questions.
6. I provide specific feedback about an individual’s performance on a delegated project.
7. I delegate tasks but follow up to make sure that team members have the resources/information needed to be successful.
8. When delegating, I provide the big picture and the relevant facts needed to achieve the desired outcome.
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How to Lead Virtual Teams 107
Item Rating
9. After delegating something, I check in periodically but avoid ‘‘micromanagement.’’
10. I delegate parts of a project when I cannot delegate the whole thing.
11. I encourage team members to make autonomous decisions when appropriate.
12. I encourage team members to generate creative solutions to solve problems.
Obstacles at a Glance: A Quick Reference Guide
Virtual teams frequently face common obstacles that impede their performance. We’ve outlined these in the following Quick Reference Guide (Table 5.2) to allow leaders to diagnose a team’s problems and view several recommended solutions.
Table 5.2 Leader Quick Reference Guide
Problem Solutions
Team members are not collaborating effectively to achieve team goals.
• Identify what deliverables the team needs to collaborate on and come up with a plan to ensure that team members are working on things jointly.
• Clarify roles and levels of authority so team members know what to expect from each other.
• Assess what barriers are preventing communication and collaboration.
• Once a plan is in place, set milestones to periodically assess performance.
(continued overleaf )
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Table 5.2 (Continued)
Problem Solutions
Team members do not trust one another.
• Take time to assess what factors are leading to a lack of trust. Is there a problem between certain team members or subgroups?
• If appropriate, have a candid discussion with individual team members or as a group to discuss how the team will move forward.
• Confirm that goals and roles are clear and agreed on. Lack of trust can result when people are working at cross purposes and mistakenly appear to not be supporting each other.
• Ensure that virtual team members have time to build relationships with one another.
Team members are not meetings goals/objectives.
• Take time to diagnose the problem to see what is getting in the way of effective execution.
• Consider the following: – Does the team have clear goals with due
dates and assigned responsibilities? – Do team members have clear roles? – Are sufficient resources available? – Do people have too many commitments? – Is everything Priority 1? – Are team members being held
accountable? If not, put a plan in place to monitor the work.
– When people do not deliver on commitments, follow up with them to understand why.
– As priorities change, ensure that everyone knows what to focus on.
The team does not handle conflict appropriately.
• When a conflict occurs, clarify the situation by identifying the individuals involved in the conflict, defining the issues in question, and gathering facts and perceptions of the people involved.
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Table 5.2 (Continued)
Problem Solutions
• Use a seven-step process for managing conflict:
1. Describe what’s important to you and why it is important.
2. Make sure you understand what’s important to the other person and why it is important.
3. Identify common ground and look for points of interdependence.
4. Invite alternatives that address your needs/goals and the other person’s needs/goals.
5. Use active listening (paraphrase and repeat what you are told, ask open-ended questions, give balanced responses) to evaluate alternatives, resolve concerns, and improve ideas.
6. If an alternative isn’t immediately available, temporarily remove constraints to invite and propose new alternatives.
7. End the discussion by summarizing key points and stating next steps.
Team performance seems to be stagnant.
• Assess the objectives of the team to determine whether it still serves an important purpose. (We often see cases where team members have been together for several years but no longer have common objectives.)
• People often lose interest in the team’s work, particularly when teams have been together for a long period of time. Reinforce the sense of purpose by reminding people how their work contributes to the ‘‘big picture.’’
(continued overleaf )
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