Virtual leadership: The advantages
- Increased independence of employees
- More trust in the team
- Stronger relationship with customers
- Lower fluctuation
- Involve employees everywhere
How do you manage a virtual team?
It is important to agree on goals that motivate your employees. Because challenging goals can help the team develop.
A key success factor in leading virtual teams is trust. Due to the distance, the manager receives fewer insights or detailed information. This means that constant control is not possible in all areas. In plain language:
It takes trust for team members to take on more responsibility.
Great digital managers therefore have certain personality traits:
- Positive image of man
- Low need for control
- Clear & motivating vision
- Fundamental core values
- Constructive feedback
- Open communication
Build trust
The most important component for virtual teams to function is the presence of trust. This also applies to conventional teams. In virtual teams, however, it can be much more difficult. Because building trust when you may not know your team members or see them regularly works differently.
Precisely because the team members are “further” apart, the common trust must weld them together even more. The need for control is counterproductive here.
Trust always develops over time and through regular communication. Feeling well informed is an important prerequisite for this. It is also helpful if the team has a platform for informal communication. This can be done via social networks, chat tools and similar instruments.
Ensure communication
A core task of the manager is to ensure regular, open and comprehensive communication. It is important to introduce communication and information routines that are supported by all employees. Regular virtual team meetings are just as much a part of this as one-on-one meetings. How open and trust-based the communication is depends heavily on the team leadership.
Regular and goal-oriented communication needs the right technique. There are already numerous tools for synchronizing schedules, tools for video conferencing, moderation tools, file sharing or even brainstorming tools.
Informal communication is more difficult. For private use, there are many apps that enable informal communication at a distance. Such solutions are also becoming increasingly widespread in the business sector. This is because companies are increasingly recognizing how important informal communication is for good collaboration in virtual work environments.
Virtual team development
Like traditional teams, virtual teams go through dynamic processes. The four phases of development according to Tuckman:
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
With virtual teams, however, there is a greater risk that the team will get stuck in the storming phase – especially if the conflicts that now arise are not dealt with in a sustainable manner. Dealing with burgeoning conflict is the linchpin of team effectiveness. In virtual teams, existing or emerging conflicts are often only noticed by the team management at a late stage.
It is therefore important that a culture of openness, constructive feedback and respect exists within them. Because when a healthy basis of trust exists, conflicts, as well as differing opinions or perceptions, are addressed more quickly. This way, fewer misunderstandings arise. Or rather, they can be eliminated more quickly.
Notwithstanding this, the manager must be very sensitive to disagreements, because these often show up more hidden in virtual teams.
Digital, agile tools like teamecho make it possible to know the mood in your team on a daily basis. Furthermore, teamecho supports you in finding out about ambiguities, problem areas, successes and fears of all employees and in being able to react to them.
With teamecho you give your employees the feeling of being heard.
Sources
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