Taking The Team Virtual
By Leanne Crain
As an organization, you have decided to take your team to the next level, and allow them to work virtually, especially during the H1N1 pandemic. Now what? There are some basic steps, such as making sure your team is fully equipped, that you must take first of course, but how do you make the actual leap once you're ready?
Leading a virtual team requires a little more diligence, and a few new ways of thinking, but it can be done very effectively when it is done correctly.
Before you send your team home with their laptops and wish them well, take some time to meet with them as a team, and individually, to communicate your expectations and clearly lay out their responsibilities.
You will not be able to monitor the team hours in the same way when they are not in the office in front of you, so you will need to change gears a bit and begin managing projects more effectively instead. Be sure to set up ways that you will be evaluating performance, and keep in mind that with a virtual team you will want to lay out many small evaluation points along the way, in order to ensure your team is consistently on track.
When your team is working virtually, your next focus should be on keeping the lines of communication open - not only with you, but also with each other.
Encourage instant messaging, regular emails, and phone calls, as well as virtual team meetings on a frequent basis. One of the challenges in a virtual team is maintaining open conversations, to avoid misinterpretations, misunderstandings, or work duplication.
As a leader, another element you must always keep in your mind is keeping the feedback flowing. When you are all in the same office together, it's easy to stop for a moment and celebrate each other's accomplishments, or drop by someone's desk to say thank you for a job well done. Sadly, when teams go virtual, this is often the first thing to disappear. As you probably remember from past articles we have done, effective feedback and expressions of gratitude are crucial in keeping a team motivated and happy.
It is true, things will be a little different this way, but it is not impossible to do, and can be quite rewarding. You may even find it works so well, you
keep the virtual option available for your team long after the H1N1 has come and gone.
For more ideas on leadership, please contact Gary Gzik at ggzik@bizxcel.com.
Leanne Crain is a Marketing Assistant for BizXcel. Her background is marketing and tourism, and she has over 12 years experience in the sales and marketing field.
