By Prof. Sebastian Reiche, Professor of Managing People in Organizations at IESE Business School
As companies continue to expand globally, the number of people working in teams with colleagues and managers separated from them by many miles (and often different time zones), is growing. This virtual team strategy has many advantages, but it presents its own set of managerial challenges; working online is less formalized, and companies frequently lack clear policies on how to manage virtually.
Here are 10 tips for managers to get the most out of their virtual teams:
Tip 1: Be available
It can be isolating working virtually. Don’t make team members feel you are absent; be in regular contact to talk not just about their day-to-day duties, but beyond that to general queries about their day, mood and social life.
Tip 2: Organize regular meetings with both individuals and the whole team
This should be done both online – through IT technology such as videoconferencing, social media or Skype – and face-to-face, at least once or twice a year. Even if companies are cutting costs, it’s a cost well spent on building relationships.
Tip 3: Encourage informal conversations
Humans are social animals, and people tend to assume the worst if they don’t know what others are up to. To help build relationships and trust between members, encourage your team to share their feelings and chat informally whenever they can.
Take this example - Pete to Maria: “I hate coming in on rainy days, traffic is awful and I feel I am wasting precious time, plus it stresses me out.” Maria thinks: this explains why he is so cold and to the point some days… Not good that he lives in London. Maybe we can be a little more flexible with his working times.
Tip 4: Rotate
To further break down barriers between team members, try to ensure at least one team member spends a short period of time in another location.
Tip 5: Be creative with team bonding
For example, after your team achieves a particular goal, organize a virtual reward ceremony. Send a small present to all team members and get everyone to open it at the same time during a video call.
Tip 6: Treat time zones fairly
With teams spread around the world, you may have a very short window to meet some members or the whole team. Rotate every week the times for meetings to make sure one member is not always waking up early for meetings and that another is not going home too late.
Tip 7: Prioritize cultural sensitivity
Being culturally aware in a virtual environment, where people are based around the world, is even more important than in face to face settings. It´s crucial you have an awareness of the cultural differences in your team and promote cultural training for all members. For example - Susan sends short and “very direct” emails to other team members. If they don’t know that’s part of her culture, others may feel uncomfortable and feel she’s treating them poorly.
Tip 8: Invest in socializing pre-existing teams
If you inherit a strong pre-existing subteam (everyone knows each other and works excellently together) - bear in mind that these teams may create even more barriers if they begin working virtually with other, unfamiliar, team members. People in strong pre-existing teams are more reluctant to share information as they have a method that ´works´. Invest in building relationships between the whole team or, recruit someone new in every location and start from scratch.
Tip 9: Look for shared understanding when recruiting
If recruiting, look for people that have worked internationally and who share previous experiences and similarities. Not necessarily in terms of culture, but in terms of shared training activities, having worked on similar projects, education background etc. The aim is to have some diversity but to make it easy to build trust with some point of contact.
Tip 10: Manage expectations
Team members might be expecting certain global opportunities (like moving to headquarters at some stage). How do you motivate your team? What happens if the team goes well? You need to deal with this along with HR – so you should know from the beginning what you can offer them.
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