I’m writing this blog while wearing my fuzzy socks and sitting at my kitchen table. I am lucky to live within
While on site with a client recently, I was asked, “How can I drive, influence and coach my team for results when they don’t talk to me until I come into the office. I want them to talk to me virtually as though they met me in the hallway.” A common pain we hear from new clients is “I feel like my team can do much better, and I don’t know how to help them get better.” When you start asking more questions, you find out there’s typically a virtual component here as well.
In recent years, my only guarantee for face-to-face interaction was on a flight or at a client site. I not only had to learn how to succeed in a virtual work environment, but I had to lead a team to do the same. If you sense your virtual team isn’t executing as you feel they should, you may have to take a step back before they can move forward. I’ve learned managing a virtual team is different than a co-located one. You can be successful in both environments if you are willing to adjust your virtual swagger.
In order to get your virtual swagger on, you must adjust the way you…
Kick off a month/quarter/project
Use the face-to-face card whenever you can in order to prevent your team from feeling ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ To expedite alignment while building the sense of team, try to bring your team together quarterly and at the start of major projects. If you can swing it, monthly would be even sweeter.
Communicate
A Unify study finds that “highly successful virtual teams engage more often on a personal level, with team members speaking their minds and contributing openly regardless of their location.” Virtual leaders don’t have the water cooler or passing hallway opportunities to get to know your team personally. Here are some ideas to create a similar atmosphere:
Assign Work
Virtual work requires self-discipline, motivation and an extraordinary amount of focus. In order to get traction in these areas, you can no longer rely on traditional roles and high-level goals. Instead, you should provide the framework of your team’s goals and priorities, and, maintain motivation by working with each team member to define their own individual priorities and action items.
Ensure Accountability
Be clear and consistent with your communication, collaboration, processes and dashboards on how success towards goals will be tracked, discussed and adjusted. Repeat this process (dare, I say establish a rhythm?) to take out the guess work.
Lead Meetings
Clearly defined processes are key so you can take the back seat on meetings.
Grow Your Team
You can’t physically be there when needed, so, you have to cultivate shared leadership.
It’s fair to say any of the above tips could also be used with co-located teams as well, which is why I talk about adjustments rather than sweeping changes in how you lead. If you notice your team talks to you more in the hallway than on the phone, you may want to ask yourself:
Slip on your fuzzy socks, make some adjustments...and get your virtual swagger on.