VIRTUAL TEAMS

How To Build & Manage Virtual Teams? 

Now a days we are finding that maximum employees are working virtually, where few are facing challenges as managers and latter are facing challenges as subordinates/team. Every circumstances have its own pros and cons. From this blog, I would focus on five steps to empower teams.

    VIRTUAL LEADERSHIP 

 Be a leader not a traditional boss.

Leader role is to focus more on their needs  The approach is to run around making sure  that they have everything in need and answer their questions to be successful. Communicate with them as a co worker rather than boss. Try to take a SERVANT LEADERSHIP approach as everyone is there in the organization to contribute to business. Use the appropriate cadence when communicating with employees. Leaders must see this as an opportunity to serve their team. Try to share power with team drive engagement with in team.

 TEAM EMPOWERMENT

Flexibility + Responsibility =Freedom

Flexibility : Leaders should try to give people the flexible hours to complete the work. If there is a specified projects with deadline, ask and give employee a day to complete it. Meanwhile other projects can be on hold or may be another timeline can be comfortable. Give them the control of their work that would lead to Job satisfaction.

Responsibility:  Leaders must provide ownership to the team, more and more people feel responsible people will feel pride in their work. Nobody likes to be micromanage.

As rightly said by Steve Jobs : 

It doesn't make sense to hire smart people to tell them what to do. We hire smart people so that they can tell us what to do".

Make & own high performers people to utilize their own skills to let leaders know how to solve problems in business, instead of leaders dictating everything. This would lead to a positive environment.

Make sure the work experience is great, even if you cant afford the Highest rate.compared to some of your competitors.

CLEAR COMMUNICATION

When you’re leading remote teams, you lose that face-to-face interaction. This means your tone, instruction, and feedback can become lost in translation if you’re not careful. To avoid this, be clear and concise. Provide enough detail and direction to avoid being ambiguous and eliminate any confusion.

As you already know being a leader, your calendar can fill up fast. Make sure you dedicate time and set up structured meetings with individuals and teams. The structure will allow everyone to fall into a routine, and it won’t feel like you’re micromanaging them with random check-ins.

Encourage collaboration! It can be easy for remote team members to become withdrawn from the group and push through tasks alone. You can promote teamwork by collaborating yourself. Leading by example is a great way to get your fellow team members onboard. Building strong relationships is one of the most important things you can do as a virtual leader. Stronger connections will improve culture, collaboration, and engagement levels in your organization.

DEVELOP HIGH PERFORMERS

There are different methodologies to develop high performers.Lets focus on how to focus on long term impact.

Assigning a project: 

When you assign challenging projects, let the high performer take full ownership and feel fully responsible for the outcome. Work to make each assignment you give a high-performing employee a stretch assignment. That can mean giving them a project that’s just outside their comfort zone or setting larger-than-normal goals for the projects.

Opportunities to speak: Instead of sending high performers for training or conference, ask them to speak to polish their skills.

OPERATING PROCEDURES

Take Action

1) Weekly checkins: To understand the status of the activities.

2) Growth Path: Making individual develop their skills

3) Set Communication Norms: Project communication time with team and even if team miss out, you can anyhow tell team that we agreed upon.

4) Create office hours for different time zone

5) Use emojis in your communication : There is no body language when you are typing. It becomes easy to express by using emojis in typing.

   

Author: Prerna Thakur