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About this lesson
It is common in today’s business environment to be a member of or lead a virtual project team. There are several unique challenges with these teams that the project leader must be prepared to address.
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Quick reference
Virtual Teams
It is common in today’s business environment to be a member of or lead a virtual project team. There are several unique challenges with these teams that the project leader must be prepared to address.
When to use
Use these principles when leading a virtual team.
Instructions
The problems with virtual teams are the same as with other teams, but the fact that the team members cannot quickly get together to work things out has a tendency to delay resolution which amplifies the problem once it finally comes to light. Expect confusion and misunderstanding. And expect even more if there are multiple languages and cultures involved. These problems are not insurmountable; they just require work by the team leader to address them.
Challenges with Virtual Teams
- Motivation – team members often feel isolated so the team leader should ensure their effort is recognized and they are included in team activities.
- Collaborative Leadership – some team members’ personal characteristics limit collaboration so the team leader must proactively include them.
- Communication – reliance on technology instead of interactions leads to confusion or misunderstandings, especially with multiple languages and cultures.
- Commitment – unclear description of roles and responsibilities that often drifts over time. Use the responsibility matrix to clarify what the virtual team member is leading and what they are supporting.
- Conflict Resolution – virtual aspect complicates conflict resolution because it often delays the recognition of conflict so the team leader should quickly react whenever conflict rises to the surface.
Virtual Team Relationships
A team is a group of people, but a group of people is not necessarily a team.
- Relationships take longer to build trust. Trust is developed through a series of positive interactions and interactions normally occur less frequently with virtual team members. Team building activities can help to overcome this challenge.
- Normally, virtual relationships are heavily based on job performance. Since virtual members do not share common connections within the community or even meet informally in normal business operations, the relationship interactions are project or work-related. Therefore, each individual’s project performance is the dominant factor in the interaction.
- New virtual team members must be deliberately onboarded. It is difficult to embrace the project team’s norms by observing what other team members are doing. Effective onboarding accelerates the development of team relationships.
Influencing Competencies
When a virtual team member is not performing as needed, the team leader should first try to influence a change in behavior before more serious actions are taken. These competencies work well with virtual team members:
- Establish a communication plan – use normal team data collected through the communication process to address the issue.
- Leave personal agenda out of the interactions –seek for team success.
- Rise above politics, but don’t ignore them – relationships with stakeholders are important but should undermine the team member.
- Engage with emotional intelligence recognize the emotions on both sides.
- Be tenacious – ensure decisions become actions and show support for the change.
Hints & tips
- Proactive communication is critical to the success of virtual project teams.
- Project leaders should frequently interact with virtual team members to identify and correct issues.
- If you can’t do periodic face-to-face sessions, encourage the project team members to do virtual meetings with cameras on.
- 00:00 Hello, I'm Ray Sheen, virtual teams create an additional
- 00:05 set of communication issues and challenges.
- 00:09 Let's take a look at how we can address those.
- 00:12 Before we get started, let me explain what I mean by virtual project team.
- 00:16 This is a team where individuals are working together on a project goal, but
- 00:20 they're not co located.
- 00:22 They could be in a different nearby facility, working from home, or
- 00:25 they could be located on a different continent.
- 00:27 They must function as a team, but
- 00:30 they do not have the ability to regularly interact face to face.
- 00:34 So let's talk about some challenges.
- 00:36 One challenge is to keep everyone motivated.
- 00:39 Team members often feel isolated and forgotten,
- 00:41 they wonder if anyone knows what they are doing.
- 00:44 To meet this challenge, team leaders need to provide regular recognition of
- 00:48 achievement and ensure the virtual members are included in team activities.
- 00:53 Another challenge is collaborative leadership.
- 00:56 Project teams often rely on close collaboration between team members to
- 01:00 achieve project goals.
- 01:01 However, some people have difficulty collaborating from a remote location.
- 01:05 They need to be with others and where the action is located.
- 01:09 When a friend of mine with this characteristic took a job where she had to
- 01:12 work from home, she said that she felt like she was always in the timeout chair.
- 01:16 To meet the challenges, the team leader must proactively include virtual team
- 01:21 members in the collaborative sessions.
- 01:23 Virtual conferencing applications have made significant strides forward and
- 01:28 they can be used to address this issue.
- 01:31 Another challenge is that interaction becomes technology based rather
- 01:35 than interpersonal.
- 01:37 This is especially true if there are very different time zones involved.
- 01:41 The strong reliance on technology can mask or amplify misunderstandings
- 01:46 especially when different cultures and languages are involved.
- 01:50 Try to create times of actual personal interaction,
- 01:54 either face to face in a team virtual conference or on the phone.
- 01:59 The next challenge is commitment.
- 02:01 The virtual team member often becomes unsure of their role or
- 02:05 the team's progress towards the goals.
- 02:07 Use the responsibility matrix to clarify with them not only the tasks that they
- 02:12 lead, but also the ones that they are supporting.
- 02:15 Finally conflict resolution is challenge with virtual team members.
- 02:19 A small problem can stew and fester until it becomes large.
- 02:23 In face to face meetings, you might detect through body language or
- 02:27 other actions that a conflict is building.
- 02:29 With a virtual team,
- 02:31 the team leader often is not aware of the problem until it blows up into a crisis.
- 02:35 To meet this challenge, the team leader needs to be prepared to quickly address
- 02:40 any conflict that arises recognizing that if it has made it to them,
- 02:43 it's probably already a big deal.
- 02:45 Due to the geographical dispersion of virtual teams,
- 02:49 there are some team activities that are more challenging.
- 02:52 Two big ones are communication and integration activities.
- 02:55 These are activities where the team members and their actions must intersect,
- 03:00 if there is going to be a problem it will show up here.
- 03:03 The project leader needs to ensure there's time and
- 03:06 resources dedicated to both of these areas.
- 03:09 The project leader can expect that there will be some confusion and
- 03:12 misunderstanding.
- 03:13 A key email was missed, a comment on a teleconference was garbled, or
- 03:17 the various team members interpreter requirement that comes across on
- 03:22 a text message differently.
- 03:23 It's absolutely vital to create and follow a communication plan with virtual teams.
- 03:29 The team leader must proactively manage the communication process and
- 03:33 track both status and issues.
- 03:35 If possible get some face to face time between team members
- 03:38 by bringing the entire team together for selected activities.
- 03:41 And when there are language and cultural differences,
- 03:45 there will be misunderstandings, so expect it and manage it.
- 03:49 To help the virtual team members know what is happening,
- 03:52 I will often put the detailed plan in writing and document any action items.
- 03:57 This essentially creates a contract of expectations between everyone.
- 04:01 I don't use this as a hammer to beat people up or to create legal issues.
- 04:05 I just use it to ensure clarity of expectations.
- 04:08 Let's look at the impact on team relationships in a virtual environment.
- 04:12 There's an old saying that applies.
- 04:14 A team is a group of people, but a group of people is not always a team.
- 04:19 For that group to become a team, they must be aligned and cooperating together.
- 04:23 A key element of effective teamwork is trust, which is harder to develop in
- 04:27 a virtual environment than in a face to face environment.
- 04:30 Trust is based upon a track record of interactions.
- 04:33 The opportunity for lots of interactions is often
- 04:36 easier with a colocated team than when the team is virtual.
- 04:40 A great way to accelerate the creation of trust in a virtual team is with the team
- 04:44 building activities that allow for multiple interactions.
- 04:48 Since there are fewer opportunities, to stand around the water cooler and
- 04:52 talk about areas of common interest,
- 04:54 the interactions for virtual teams are almost always project performance related.
- 04:58 A major factor with respect to building trust then is the reliability
- 05:02 of the individual on the project.
- 05:03 When they say they will do something, can they be trusted?
- 05:06 Do they actually do it on time and do they do it well?
- 05:10 Also what type of attitude do they show when they're talking about the activity?
- 05:14 A critical activity that the project leader must do is manage the handoff
- 05:19 to new team members.
- 05:21 In a virtual team, the new team members cannot easily observe the others to know
- 05:25 what is normally expected.
- 05:27 The project leader or a team member must actively coach and
- 05:31 onboard the new team member.
- 05:34 Another challenge with virtual teams is to keep those team members on track and
- 05:39 performing.
- 05:39 Here are a few influencing competencies that work well with virtual team
- 05:44 members who are not performing as needed on the team.
- 05:47 Establish a communication plan, this may be starting to sound like a broken record
- 05:52 on this point, but it's absolutely fundamental.
- 05:55 Have clear communication channels for setting expectations and
- 05:58 tracking performance, then discussions about performance or
- 06:02 just normal data collection actions.
- 06:04 When dealing with an issue leave your personal agenda out of the discussion.
- 06:09 Focus on the goals of the team and the role of the individual.
- 06:13 It's not about an individual winning, it's about the team winning.
- 06:18 Another competency is to rise above politics, but be aware of them.
- 06:23 The virtual team member may have to deal with power struggles and politics at their
- 06:27 location or in their function that don't impact other locations and functions.
- 06:32 As a team member strive to establish relationships with the stakeholders and
- 06:36 power brokers at the virtual location.
- 06:39 So that you can assist the virtual team member in their activities, but
- 06:43 be careful with this.
- 06:44 Don't use those relationships to undermine your team member.
- 06:48 Next is to engage with emotional intelligence.
- 06:51 This means recognizing both your emotions and
- 06:54 the virtual team members emotions when dealing with the issue.
- 06:57 Try to stay focused on facts which are less emotional and
- 07:01 work at truly listening to the team member.
- 07:03 You should also try to understand what's behind the words that are being used
- 07:07 whether it's spoken words or written words.
- 07:10 Finally, be tenacious, ensure project decisions become actions.
- 07:15 The concept of trust me isn't enough.
- 07:17 You want to work on the principle of show me, so
- 07:21 that there is a foundation for trust.
- 07:23 You may also need to provide obvious support and encouragement for the actions
- 07:28 and changes, so that your virtual team member knows that you are serious.
- 07:32 The challenges of communicating with virtual teams are the same as those with
- 07:37 other teams, but the virtual nature will amplify them.
- 07:40 Team leaders must be prepared for
- 07:42 the extra work associated with leading a virtual team.
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