Virtual teams: Check and check again
Virtual communications offer many advantages to businesses and other organizations: speed, cost savings, scale, and the opportunity to leverage the talents of distributed teams.
But using tools like e-mail, Skype, and teleconferencing in virtual teams means that we can lose key nuances of communication such as voice inflection, facial expression, and body language.
This makes it easier for important details or key questions to ‘slip through the cracks’ and reduce the cohesion and productivity of the team.
The upshot of all this: clear instructions and confirming understanding are even more important for virtual teams than they are for on-site cohorts.
So here are five leadership tips to improve alignment and productivity in your geographically-dispersed teams:
· Ensure that instructions, requests, and messages in general are crystal-clear, both orally and in writing.
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· Confirm understanding and alignment frequently. This does not imply a lack of trust in your people: you are doing this because of geographical distance and the resulting lack of opportunities for face-to-face supervision.
· It is not enough to simply ask “Do you understand? Are there any questions? Is this clear?” Many people will be reluctant to ask questions or seek clarification for fear of appearing ‘slow’. So you as the team leader need to find subtle ways to ensure that they have understood you correctly.
· Be clear and explicit about expectations: don’t assume that they will know what you expect in terms of their work. This can be a particular challenge across cultural and linguistic boundaries, so anticipate this.
· Finally, guard against cultural stereotypes in virtual teams, as these can silently damage motivation and productivity. Keep an eye on this and model the appropriate behaviour.
In sum, leaders of distributed teams need to pay particular attention to questions of trust and collaboration, and should confirm understanding, alignment, and expectations frequently.
Click on the link below to learn more about leading productive virtual teams.
Mark Brown is a leadership educator and author based in Lisbon, Portugal. He likes to swim and play the piano, but not at the same time.
Contact Mark at www.time4clarity.com.
