Sue, a lady I’ll call Sue, just bought a Mexican team to her virtual team. Her team includes people from the US, Canada and Mexico. She works in the tech industry. Sue has been a leader for many decades, but it was only in the last year that she switched to remote team management.
She was recently in a leadership workshop that I conducted and shared her frustration with the nuances and dynamics of cultural fusion and maintaining motivation among the team.
The workshop will share three methods to be a great manager of virtual teams. These are the three ways I share with you.
#1- Make sure you take the time to get acquainted with everyone on your team by having one-on-one Skype meetings. This is especially important when a team is formed or a new member joins. After the Skype meetings, you can arrange a group meeting via Webex or Go to Meeting to introduce your team members to one another. The group virtual meeting should open with an icebreaker to bring everyone together around the group’s vision and goals. The biggest challenge of managing a remote team is keeping in touch and avoiding the “out of state, but not of mind” syndrome. Regular one-on-one meetings are a great way to keep in touch and discuss how things are going. Texting is also a great way to quickly send encouragement and messages.
#2- Use technology that facilitates collaboration between remote teams. Groupware like Google Docs is a great example of this. This is a great way to allow everyone to access and be able to collaborate with a live document without having to email them around. Encourage team members to communicate with one another via conference calls, Skype or Webex.
#3- Develop your emotional intelligence in relation to leadership across cultures and generations. Sue, who was present at my workshop, said that her leadership style had to change when she added a Mexican team to her group. She was a leader who preferred to direct, but she discovered that Spanish speakers are more empathic and prefer to talk about their families and lives before moving on to the work discussion. So she learned to be patient and ask questions about her family and personal life before getting into the work discussion.
You can also use an IM service like Skype or an internal one to keep in touch with your team. It will be on all day, so your team knows if you are available. Your ‘away’ indicator can be turned on if you don’t want to get interrupted.
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