Leading Your Virtual Team to Success

Chances are, you or someone you know has become intimately familiar with the term “teleworker” in recent months. But even before the onset of COVID19 quarantines, virtual teams were growing in popularity. With WFH (working from home) becoming a standout in our acronym arsenal, it’s now more important than ever to understand both the art and the science of leading virtual teams toward success.

Though you may manage an existing team, leading members who are newly dispersed poses a unique set of challenges. As such, it’s important to establish ground rules for your unfamiliar environment. Ground rules include your expectations of employee behavior and may address issues such as:

• Employee respect: Respect comes in many forms, such as responding to emails within a given timeframe, minimizing the tendency to interrupt others on a conference call, and eschewing emails with so many caps, colors, and emoticons that they resemble an art project rather than an office correspondence.
• Contact procedures: Specify if it’s permissible to call a peer’s personal cell phone. Determine how you will conduct formal meetings and impromptu conversations. Whatever methods you select, don’t assume that all team members are comfortable with the technology. If you use an online platform, be sure every team member is comfortable with its functionality by offering jobs aids or quick tutorials prior to use. 
• Employee schedules: Clarify if employees are expected to work core hours and adhere to prescribed break times. Determine if the virtual environment impacts how many people can be off at once. Indicate if employees must clock in and out daily.

In crystallizing your expectations, you reduce stress and increase productivity. Employees can tackle their work with confidence, knowing they are operating safely within acceptable parameters.

Meetings help remote team members stay focused, engaged, and accountable. Balance is key, however, as you run the risk of micromanaging.

When you host meetings, create a clear agenda. Share it with the team beforehand and solicit additional topics. Disseminating your agenda prior to the meeting allows the team to research topics and formulate opinions in preparation; it prevents any unwelcome surprises. On video calls, display the agenda throughout the meeting. For conference calls, recap agenda highlights prior to broaching the first topic.

While providing quick status reports can be an effective use of time, it’s not the primary focus of your meeting. Typically your goal is to generate discussion. This is your opportunity to share ideas, debate differing viewpoints, ask questions, and ask for assistance – all in real-time. It’s a chance to champion the same free-flowing dialogue you’d encourage in a face-to-face space.   

Finally, shore up a smooth, productive meeting with a set of sturdy virtual bookends. Open your meeting with personal greetings such as, “I see Dwayne is online. Welcome, Dwayne.” Conclude with a round-robin so every member has a chance to speak. Call attendees by name from A to Z one week and Z to A the next; that way, the same members are not rushed each week if time runs short.  

Whether your virtual team is a temporary alternative to office interactions, or it’s a permanent forum for your geographically dispersed workforce, leading your team remotely requires a special set of skills. To support your journey, the Ease & Flow Leadership Academy (EFLA) is pleased to offer the web course Virtual Team Building and Management.

Join Associate Certified Coach Cary Campbell (“Coach Cary”) as he explores foundational tenants for building a new virtual team and guiding an existing team toward success. You’ll learn to conduct effective meetings, build trust among employees, address performance concerns, and much more. The course includes a 90-minute webinar and a comprehensive participant guide. It is ASL-interpreted.

Visit the EFLA to learn more!

Be well and see you in class!

Sophia