WITI LEADERSHIP

Leadership Skills: Leading Global Virtual Teams (Part 3 of 3)
By Marian Cook

This is the third and last in a series of articles with quick tips and tools for increasing performance on international virtual teams. We are all feeling stretched at work because our days have been stretched across the globe. While technology has increased our productivity, it seems that our productivity expectations and responsibilities have increased at a faster rate. How then can we move these teams forward smartly?

We work with our clients to improve project performance and find that there are additional issues on these international teams. It is more than just project management. It is building global leadership skills. To help, in previous articles we have covered practical, actionable tips around trust building, communications tools, managing response times, and leading effective global virtual meetings. We close this series of articles with a discussion of where to spend your time, and understanding, recognizing and aligning the team.

It is easy to stay in the pattern you are already in: building relationships, sharing information and spending time with those already in your location. Global virtual team leadership requires you to go beyond your comfort zone. You must not just reach out, but instead focus a disproportionate amount of time on those that you cannot easily communicate with. Schedule one on one conversations for feedback and focused conversations.Just as with any team, you want the members to have the requisite skills and to use the project as a way to grow them. With a team that is in your location, you may have a better understanding of what the team’s skills are. You very likely also share a foundational cultural understanding. With team members in other locations, special effort needs to be made to understand the team’s skills, and where and how to improve them. This includes not just technical or functional area skills, but also soft skills like negotiation, conflict resolution, and understanding cultural differences. Use not just the training resources available through your company’s training resources (internal and external), but also integrate peer mentoring and knowledge sharing within the team. Once you understand your team and their different expertise, you can put cross training on the agenda.
This is critical for any project, and the location gap between team members exacerbates it. When colleagues are in the same building, conversations naturally occur about the project and how it relates to other work. Miscommunications and misunderstandings may go undetected longer. If we aren’t co-located, most discussions only happen if the topic is on the agenda. Put linking project work to the larger organization’s (department, division, company) strategy on the agenda. It will surface any issues and misalignments, plus build a team that is motivated because they understand the context of their efforts.We are not just digital work units. We work, in part, to satisfy our need as social creatures. A constant diet of electronic exchanges is not enough. Build in social interaction time into the agenda. We have a client that is considering Second Life as a way to create a virtual environment for project team members to interact in. You can, at the start of a project, include pictures and bios of team members, and include appropriate personal information. You can, at the start of each meeting, when it is time to take roll call, ask each person to say their name and something personal about themselves. Be aware of and compensate for a lack of body language by actively probing for and dealing with conflicts. Outside of team meetings, put in time for one to one coaching and feedback sessions. Which leads us to the next tip...People don’t get enough feedback in any situation, and this is particularly true when working over a distance. When someone has done something well, don’t treat it as business as usual. According to the top 10 things employees want (Ken Blanchard), recognition is number one. Don’t be stingy! How to deliver it? The top 5 ways, according to Blanchard, are via:
  1. Personal thanks from the manager
  2. Written thanks from the manager
  3. Promotion for performance
  4. Public praise
  5. Morale-building meetings
You may not have control over promotions, but the other 4 items as you do. This can then contribute to someone getting promoted.

At one company we worked at, meetings always ended with participants volunteering verbal ‘roses.’ For example, Juan may say to the project team, “I would like to give a ‘rose’ to Alana for her ideas on the cost / benefit analysis.” This is a simple, strong and upbeat way to end the meetings.

Part 1 | Part 2

International virtual teams are our new reality. As the trend accelerates and we grow in our career, being a competent global team leader is critical. In these three articles we have shared a few of the tips we use to help our clients successfully reach their global project goals. If you have tips and stories to tell, please contact us at mcook@ageos1.com. And happy virtual globe trotting!