Managing Virtual Teams

There is a question which I get increasingly asked during my leadership seminars. ‘How do I manage a virtual team i.e. my team members are all over the globe, we don’t know each other personally?’

Well, let’s first look at the difference when managing virtual teams.

There is infrequent contact, often by phone / email only. That means you have less contact. Things going wrong cannot be picked up as fast. It is hardly possible that you can pick up the ‘finer points’ in communication like body language, intonation. These are all signals which influence us to like or trust a person, sense disagreement, are feel there is something wrong.

You don’t really know the person which again is important in building a working relationship.

As a result, you would need to do the activities at your disposal with extra care.

Transparency

Provide clear goals that need to be achieved.

Define working culture – How and how often will you communicate? Record of communication with clearly defined action items in measurable terms to be implemented by whom and by when. Who needs to be informed? Standard response time? What needs to be done in case of unforeseen obstacles? How are decisions being made? When do we talk and when do we write emails? Emails need to be answered thoroughly and not just with a quick comment only. Very often these quick comments serve more the purpose to pass on the issue to somebody else rather than contributing to the solution. Note – following the working culture is really the only way to build trust because going ‘for a cup of coffee and having a good talk’ is not an option.

Review frequently – Make this a stand alone event. Decide on the frequency. I suggest reviewing monthly. Share performance of the team, break down to individual performance, and ask for feedback during the review sessions. Finish with a clear activity list. Don’t forget to listen carefully and learn where you, as manager, can improve.

Jokes – No jokes via emails. Jokes in writing can easily be misunderstood. If you want to be humorous in a video conference, make fun of yourself, not of others. If somebody else takes your joke wrongly you may not even notice, hence there is often no chance to recover.

Communication Media

For discussions, I would prefer video conferencing or phone calls. Emails are good to record discussions, give a feedback, and communicate findings or results. If I have to answer an email twice and the subject is still not clarified, then I prefer to call the other party.

Social Interaction

Find a way to ‘get to know each other’. Have a video conference for the single purpose of getting to know each other. It is always good to ask team members to give a bit of family background. I like questions like ‘Tell me about the culture in your country’ ‘What is important to you personally?’ ‘What do people who know your very well say about you. What do they like about you and for what do they criticise you?’ ‘Tell us a story where you really made a fool of yourself?’ Have a special Facebook account just for the purpose to connect with the team.