How to lead virtual teams

 First of all, Shuib, who himself just became the “remote” father to his first daughter Kwan, born in his homeland Malaysia, stressed that the fundamentals of leading were the same whether it is leading a virtual or face-to-face team: It all starts from the pillar of good human relations. However, it is “not the same per se” because the contacts are different. For example, when applying the rule of “giving appreciation”, doing it via e-mail is obviously different from expressing it face to face.
“Then other concepts follow,” continued Shuib. “Because if you don’t have people skills with other persons, there is no way you can create connection, confidence, communication, collaboration, and commitment with others.”
Shuib suggested that leaders read the 30 principles pinpointed in Dale Carnegie’s “Golden Book” (excerpted from Carnegie’s all-time best-seller “How to Win Friends and Influence People”). These include rules such as don’t criticise, condemn or complain; give honest, sincere appreciation; arouse in the other person an eager want; and become genuinely interested in other people.
Another crucial factor is that a leader does not only see the success of his team in terms of giving himself benefit, he said. Their success must also benefit the team.
“The team will not succeed if it’s not for the team’s glory, but it’s for the leader’s glory.”
Shuib spelled out the three major challenges of leading virtual teams. The first is the feeling of isolation. Because people are working remotely across different locations, he said, it is important that the leader creates a strategy to build “connections” among the team members.
“Because people in a virtual team are isolated, there is a need to build community to ensure people connect to each other.
“For example, we can use e-newsletters, enterprise virtual networks (such as Yammer) or social networks to make them feel that they are not alone. People know what’s going on. They must feel they belong to the community.”
The second challenge is “restrictions in human touch”. This comes into play because team members are away from one another and that they can’t really tell how other people react as with face-to-face communication. To build trust and confidence in a virtual team amid this restriction, Shuib admitted, will take a while.
“This is a process. It won’t be overcome overnight. To build trust and confidence, you must show them: I am always there to support you. Your success is my priority.”
The final challenge is commitment. Shuib said this was a bit tricky, because unlike in a face-to-face team where the leader can easily find if someone is in the office, a virtual team member gets an assignment on a specific time frame, but no one knows if that person is working on it. This also requires establishing trust and guidelines from the start of the project. Setting out clear expectations and sharing them among the team members can help improve their accountability on a particular project.
Similarly, career advancement has become a tricky issue in remote management because many intangible issues come into play, unlike when the leader is in charge of a team he sees every day in the office. These include such issues as work ethics, the way staff talk to clients, etc. In a virtual team, key performance indicators tend to be very result-oriented.
“That’s why you always need to combine it [virtual communication] with physical meetings, quarterly or half-yearly,” he said.
At the “Leading Virtual Teams in the Digital Age” workshop, held this month as part of the Dale Carnegie series of Digital Age workshops organised throughout this year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founder, Shuib emphasised the “5 C’s”, or five success factors for leading virtual teams. These are connection, confidence, communication, collaboration and commitment.
One of the best ways to facilitate “connection” or building a community is by having a fun kick-off meeting where the project is explained, team members are introduced and goals are set.
To establish mutual trust and confidence, the leader might employ some “virtual icebreaking” techniques such as holding a short ritual at the beginning of every meeting where members report “good news” in their personal or professional life, or use online gaming to facilitate trust-building, he said.
One leader, for instance, had pizzas delivered to each location and encouraged his team members to play Hangman together on Skype after clarifying the project.
According to Dale Carnegie, the important skills of team leaders include building trust, giving feedback, creating cooperation, and cultural competency. Team members need communication, motivation, teamwork and technological proficiency, among others. To lead virtual teams successfully also requires close attention to these issues:
On connection: Build community
-Be sensitive to differences
-Promote participation and collaboration
-Encourage social interaction and humour
-Acknowledge birthdays and special occasions
-Celebrate success
On confidence: Establishing mutual trust
-Ensure the team’s vision and purpose are understood
-Encourage the team to share successes as well as missteps
-Choose trust-building activities based on members’ comfort levels and personalities
-Trust, credibility and respect are all connected
On communication: Communicating effectively
-Listen carefully
-Convey positive messages
-Focus on constructive feedback
-Choose technology that will help express a clear message
-Tips for using technology: Discuss options with team members, use several tools to address different needs, help team members feel comfortable with the tool, establish guidelines for each tool
On collaboration: Coordinate and collaborate across boundaries
-Encourage trust and respect
-Promote sharing of information
-Emphasise teamwork
-Focus on visible contributions
On commitment: Lead by example
-Determine vision and purpose cooperatively
-Set the tone based on the team’s vision and goals
-Make “out of sight” contribution visible
-Guide communication and agenda using performance expectations
-Recognise members’ contributions

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