QAspire Blog: 10 Key Lessons On Leading Virtual Teams Effectively
All of Vora’s points are accurate, but one stuck out at us more than others: “Lack of trust is one of the biggest killers in a virtual team environment. The way you manage a team tells a lot about how much you trust them.”
Tells a lot? It tells everything.
When a team is away, leaders tend to get insecure and start micro-managing. They just push decisions to their teams, rather than involving them in the decision making. This works against building a culture of trust and empowerment.
We’ve talked about the people process before and just how important it is to model the right behaviors in your own leadership to facilitate a strong team, whether virtual or not. Remember, though, the other legs of the stool; modeling positive leadership for your people is directly supported by team-friendly processes that communicate clearly, and technology that supports communication and strategic objectives. The strongest teams emerge when all three — the people, process, and technology variables — are functioning at their strongest and supporting the weight of the project equally. With strong teams comes respect and trust, not only in leadership, but in one another.
Thanks for adding to the conversation on effectively leading virtual teams. I am glad the ideas in my post resonated well with you.
I loved the last sentence: “With strong teams comes respect and trust, not only in leadership, but in one another.” It is not just a leaders job to build trust, but of each individual on the team to ensure that they are trusted by others and that they trust others. It is only when a team pulls it all together (as one unit) that projects succeed. Leader’s job is merely to act as a catalyst who fosters trust amongst team members through right communication and examples they set.
Regards,
Tanmay Vora
http://www.qaspire.com/blog