Five Keys For Mentoring Virtual Team Leaders. The internet has made a lot of things possible. Movie streaming, Telemedicine, e-commerce, and music streaming are all powered by the internet. Virtual teams are one of the great benefits of the internet. You can now work from anywhere in the world and be led by a team leader who will oversee all your work. This is great because you could be a Ukraine developer and work with a software company in the US.
Team leaders of such virtual teams need to know how they can effectively manage these teams to bring out the best in them. Managing people virtually can sometimes be much more tasking than doing so physically. In this post, we will discuss five keys got mentoring virtual team leaders. This post hopes to help virtual team leaders unlock their abilities and lead their teams to successful project completions.
Trust
Trust is a vital part of working in a virtual environment. Developing trust is no easy feat. When team members are building virtual relationships, they build them on individual levels. It is not as easy as chatting in person or grabbing lunch together as applicable in physical work relationships. The special needs of each member need to be taken into account when virtual relationships are involved.
Feedback is also important to ensure all team members are on the same page. It creates an open and honest relationship when team members freely interact and share their views and ideas with the group. As a virtual leader, you must be ready to take up responsibility and be available to all your team members. You can also build trust by paying attention to team members. Marking birthdays, praising individual achievements, and announcing successes, is a good way to start.
Communication
Communication is key in both physical and virtual relationships. Team leaders and their members may not be in the same physical location but communication is an important key to their success. We do not just mean communication, we mean effective communication. Effective communication is when the message that is passed across is received as intended. Virtual Teams have a lot of means by which they can communicate. Email, Text messages and video conferencing are just some of the ways they communicate.
Team leaders should set communication guidelines for members of the virtual teams. The guidelines might include the accepted mode of communication, appropriate channels to discuss important issues, and call scheduling. Effective, frictionless, and prompt communication would help virtual teams get along properly. It will also help with getting team members in sync and on track.
Support
Support is one thing that virtual workers need the most from their team leaders. Working with a virtual team in a virtual environment can sometimes be lonely for team members. The energy and morale that can be derived from working in a physical office aren’t present when working virtually. It is important as a virtual leader to effectively monitor your team members emotional state. You should share support for those who you suspect aren’t so motivated for work.
You need to assure your team members of your willingness to help despite being geographically separated. Team leaders need to pay attention and monitor the amount of work being done by each team member and ensure the workload isn’t too much on one person to prevent burnout. Support us critical to getting the best output out of your team as a virtual team leader.
Clarity
Team leaders need to explain in detail what they expect from each team member. This would enable team members to have a clear understanding of the task they have to do. When a virtual team is working on a project, especially large ones, it is always better than all members are aware of their roles in bringing the project to completion. As a team leader you need to ensure that at every stage in the development of your project, there is no friction between team members.
There are various questions you can ask to determine how clear your instructions are. For example, is there a clear division of tasks? A clear division of tasks enables everyone to know where they are supposed to do. Have deadlines been clearly communicated? Clearly communicated deadlines would ensure your projects are completed when due. These questions are a means to ensure there is total clarity between you and your team members.
Empowerment
Authority to execute ideas independent of you is important for your team members. As a team leader, you need to enable your team members to tackle problems they might encounter while working on their tasks. Requiring all problems to be brought to your knowledge might hinder the team as a unit. Empowering your team members to take decisions would give them a sense of control over their immediate tasks. The important part of this is supporting the decisions your team members have made. As a team leader, you need to support the choices members might have made in order to bring their tasks to completion.
Final word
In today’s world, virtual teams have become more and more common. Remote working has enabled a lot of workers to be part of teams with only a laptop and a desk. Leadership roles would need to be learned by virtual team leaders the same way physical team leaders at the head office would need to learn leadership. The five keys covered in the post are key to enabling a virtual team leader to have a better relationship and output from their teams.
Many attributes that make people effective leaders can also make them effective virtual team leaders. The important thing to always remember is that you are dealing with people. The more effective you are at handling your virtual team, the more you’ll be able to get the best out of them. We hope we have been able to set you on the path for virtual team leadership success. Try and incorporate these attributes into your virtual teams and see how it transforms the way your team works.