It is hard to believe the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic has been influencing our lives for over eighteen months, with the fallout remaining with us for many years to come.
We are never the same after a crisis as before it hit. This is what it is to be human: We evolve.
But times of significant disruption offer up opportunities for great development, and although virtual teams have been with us for some time, this way of working remotely is fast becoming the new norm.
So how do you ensure your remote team continues to perform to the highest level?
Here are a few suggestions on where to start.
Share The Vision, Share The Purpose, and Share The Goals
It can be all too easy to assume that your experienced and hard-working team know where they are heading, and they understand the deeper purpose of the organisation and the results everyone wants to achieve.
Not so.
The casual chat at the coffee machine, waiting for the lift together or bumping into someone at lunch isn’t happening anymore. And consequently, neither is the reaffirming and confirmation of why we work for our company.
The last year has thrown people off track to where many of our employees are drained, burnt-out, feeling undervalued, and even considering a move.
A colleague of mine in the recruiting sector with a substantial international network created a LinkedIn poll that revealed approaching half of the respondents were considering taking a new role somewhere else.
Not surprisingly, as people did not move last year, the pressure has built based on the ONS data that 9% of people change jobs every year. Of course, not every employer embraces remote working-which is making employees consider developing their career somewhere else.
On the upside, employees are less likely to leave when they understand the organisations’ vision and purpose; the foundation for your high performing team starts here.
Prioritise Communication
I alluded to this earlier that the challenge of leading a virtual team is the lack of ad hoc opportunities to communicate and connect.
If ad hoc is the challenge, then systematise the process.
When you formalise effective communication patterns, this will need deeper levels of connection and, of course, trust. The upside of the last couple of years has been improved access to software and technology that gives us no excuse to not jump online for a quick catchup. For example, we now have:
- M.S. Teams
- Zoom
- Slack
- Messenger
- ….. and of course, the grandfather of them all, Skype
The challenge is not necessarily around the technology; it’s how we put the system to good use in the way we communicate.
Communication on virtual teams, despite the pandemic, is generally less frequent, and the lack of physical presence and contextual clues and reactions does have an impact.
The only way to avoid challenges like this is to be precise and disciplined about how the team will communicate. Create a list of principles that establishes norms of behaviour when participating in virtual meetings, such as limiting background noise and side conversations, talking clearly and at a reasonable pace, listening attentively and not dominating the conversation, and so on.
This could also include guidelines on which communication modes to use in which circumstances, for example, when to reply via email versus picking up the phone versus taking the time to create and share a document.
Let’s talk about another connected topic which is a vital aspect of the virtual team puzzle, and that is around developing our behaviours.
High-Performance Behaviours in a Virtual Setting
Teams that produce consistent results have a specific set of agreed behaviours. Though this process starts in the role description, it also continues during the onboarding process and follows through to how projects or team objectives are delivered.
Continuous performance improvement raises performance levels over time by fine-tuning the way people work and the behaviours they embody.
A virtual team is still a team and defined as a group of people with a high degree of interdependence geared towards achieving a goal or completing a task. The challenge for a virtual team is goal achievement when the group is often diverse in culture, geography, and language. Yet, behaviour is behaviour and can be understood across diverse boundaries.
If you want to develop a high performing virtual team, we have something for you.
How Can We Help Your Virtual Team?
Now more than ever, developing a high performing virtual team is a business-critical objective. Here at Zestfor, developing a high performing team has been one of our most requested programmes.
Managers and their teams will improve vital communication, collaboration and influencing skills over six months – developing all participants into high performing virtual team members. Click here for a full programme description or call one of our team on 0845 548 0833.
Until next time,
Julia
About Zestfor
Zestfor specialises in developing leadership Training programmes and resources scientifically tailored for technical markets – including Pharmaceutical, I.T., and Life Sciences.
Our blend of in-classroom, online, and virtual live-stream delivery methods will engage and assure even the most introverted team members from the first meeting – whether face-to-face or virtually. So, to have a brief chat, call us on 0845 548 0833.
