Succeeding with traditional face-to-face teams can be challenging enough, but succeeding with a virtual team can be just as hard, if not more so. Inspiring a team to create and meet goals, maintain motivation and work together are only a few obstacles when managing a team that you cannot see on a daily basis. But with effective communication and a little discipline, any virtual team can succeed.
Set Clear Goals
Setting goals are one of the most elementary processes that can lead to success. After all, you don’t know where you’re going until you determine what you want! Clear goals are normally set for the team as a whole as well as each individual teammate. The manager works with the team to determine what they want to achieve over a set amount of time while the employee sets their own goals about what they want to achieve as a member of the team. Setting goals with your virtual team can help them stay task-focused and can make them feel as though they are making a difference on the team.
Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
A Standard Operating System is generally a company’s process or procedure that it follows in the workplace. Sometimes a company does not feel the need to document these procedures, since many people may already know it. But creating these procedures and correctly documenting them allows the manager to share them with other employees and create them as a type of guideline and resource. As a manager, review some of the procedure and processes that have worked for you in the past and try to create them into an SOP. Although it can be time consuming, it will be worth the benefits in the end.
Build a Team Culture
Your virtual team is your family. Every member should take the time to know each other and familiarize themselves with someone else’s situation. After all, every member of the team is a human being and deserves to be treated with respect and friendliness. If employees are not able to socialize locally, allow them to have a chat room on a private server or virtual community they can come and go in to speak with other employees on a non-business level. If possible, assign projects or assignments in pairs or small groups to encourage further mingling and socializing.
Provide Timely Feedback
Positive or negative, feedback is a great tool to help employees at work. On a virtual team, giving timely feedback is important to the team’s overall success. Employees need to know how they are doing on assignments and need to know if they need to change anything. Since the manager cannot randomly approach the employee to give feedback as they would in person, it is best to set up regular, scheduled sessions to alert the employee of any negative feedback that needs to be addressed or any positive feedback that should be shared.
This post is from June’s topic on Virtual Team Building and Management, which is also a course on our Mini-MBA program online from Harvard Square.
Mr. Dan, I would like ‘Compassion”, Empathy and love to be included. Especially during trying times in view of the Corona Virus Pandemic and Storms, as leaders (who are also people), we need to standby each other. We need to have a lot of courage to sustain these calamities. People are finding it difficult to comply with social distancing’ norms, so we can well imagine how it would feel to be virtually connected with our own employees who are also expected to achieve targets etc.
Some people have great coping mechanisms also. These employees could share their experiences as well to our remote teams. Kind regards
Thank you very much Mr Dan for reading my Post and sharing this with your elite group of Professionals. Kind regards
Florence.
Mr Dan, the more I read this, the more convinced I am that we have lost our sense of ‘Humanity’. So this topic is a reminder to all of us to align and to have more hand-holding to those who are working for us, driving the productivity, whose faces we cannot see. Technology has brought the world to our bedroom,,,,, but how does it help when there is no one in the bedroom!!!! Its about LIFE. and we as Leaders have a responsibility and an opportunity to embrace our remote teams creating a Bonding of love and respect. Kind regards.
This topic is very vital and crucial in present situation now, and we all experience the challenges in our work place due to pandemic. However, the points highlighted in this post are essential and would help us to have a successful team.