A survey taken since the emergence of COVID-19 revealed that only 46% of respondents had access to basic collaboration technology, 64% had no remote work policies, and only 41% had a clear understanding of their role and priorities. When the face-to-face interactions that helped bond a team all became impossible they became challenges for leaders to address. Many suddenly found themselves needing to ensure that their employees had access to not only obvious things like support systems, reliable internet, appropriate computer interfaces, remote access to firewall protected databases or even a quiet place to work at home but, also, to less obvious things like learning Zoom or other group collaboration technology in order to hold impromptu brainstorming sessions, conduct interactive meetings to problem solve, sustain the culture, and enable informal discussions. The suddenness of this change made it difficult or impossible to adequately prepare leaders to lead in a virtual work environment. However, challenges can be more daunting for both leaders and employees who have had to suddenly shift their work patterns from an office to a home environment. Previous studies of virtual teams have documented how challenges for both leaders and employees working remotely can be daunting. Clearly, the transition has not been a smooth one for many. As an indication of how well this was working, the same survey reported that only 19% of the respondents wanted to continue working from home full time in the future. were working from home for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2020 survey of 2,865 employees by Global Workplace Analytics found that 67% of those surveyed in the U.S. This trend has grown exponentially with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic when many organizations went from having a modest percentage of team members working virtually, to the entire staff working from home. The good news is that over the last 20 years, there has been a trend of employees moving to increasingly virtual work environments and much has been learned about how to lead virtual teams. The question he was facing was the same one many thousands of other managers like him were asking: “How can I be effective as a leader of a virtual team while keeping my team safe in this COVID–19 world?” The face-to-face contact that was a key part of his leadership style was now denied to him and it looked like it would continue to be unavailable for some time to come. His team was working from home and so was he. All these steps start with the realization that managing a team is going to be different when the members are dispersed, and new leadership strategies, communication routines and tools are required.Īfter Fred finished his fifth Zoom meeting of the day, he sat for a few minutes and reflected on this new world of managing. The five steps are: first establish and explain the new reality second, establish and maintain a culture of trust third, upgrade leadership communication tools and techniques to better inform virtual employees fourth, encourage shared leadership among team members and fifth, to create and periodically perform alignment audits to ensure virtual employees are aligned with the organization’s cultural values including its commitment to mission. By taking specific actions and ensuring the organization has a culture to support their virtual workforce, leaders can improve the performance output and engagement of their teams. ![]() ![]() Although many managers have been learning how to lead their virtual teams over the last several months, we offer five steps for leaders to follow for how to maximize the effectiveness of a remote workplace. ![]() For many reasons, managing virtual teams is different than managing employees in a traditional face-to-face office environment. The emergence of COVID-19 has presented employees and employers new challenges as many employees and managers were forced to work in a remote environment for the first time.
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