Written by Melissa Hammer, Joy Leach & Tina Jackson
The world as we know it has been turned upside down. People need practical tools to lead virtually NOW. We offer below some of the best practices for leaders we’ve discovered over the last decade and expanded them to include insights from the last two weeks. These tips apply to anyone leading remote workers and are required in this challenging and uncertain time.
Our best practices sit inside the Virtual Web of Success™ framework which we originally developed in 2014 to support global clients with geographically-dispersed teams. The research on high-performing virtual teams continues to be relevant – and we’re hearing from clients that COVID-19 has amplified their team’s needs and challenges, making these best practices even more impactful.
Within each of the 5 areas (Clarity, Commitment, Communication, Collaboration and Cutting Edge), we have highlighted in bold a recommendation which is most essential now. We have included additional recommendations to support leaders stepping into this virtual space for the first time and leaders who are more experienced yet want to hone their virtual leadership skills.
We invite you to consider these tips, experiment with a few that will elevate your leadership, and pass this article onto other leaders who are seeking resources/guidance.
Clarity – this represents the foundation of virtual teaming and the web. Leaders need to take time to create clarity for the team, each individual and the broader community or organization.
Clarify and model how you want people to participate in each virtual meeting (e.g., cameras on, use of chat, okay to be dressed casually or be un-showered).
Clarify when the team/organization can expect to hear from you (e.g., we’ll be holding an all-hands every Friday to share everything we can with you) and expected working patterns (e.g., tools, timing, priorities, shifting schedules to meet customer needs).
Clearly define roles and responsibilities of each person, including the interdependencies between each team member and each stakeholder.
Clarify what is essential to focus on right now – and even more important what is NOT essential to focus on right now. Your hyper-prioritization can help people focus and manage the chaos.
Stay open and curious before making judgments about people or situations.
Commitment – trust is built through connection and reliability. Help your team understand the many directions commitment flows on a high-performing team – and what impact that creates.
Create structures for meetings that incorporate vulnerability
Get to know one another (e.g., have each team member create a slide with pictures representing their life and take turns sharing them on regular calls; hold virtual coffees and happy hours; share virtual walks).
Hold “Take 5” sessions during the first five minutes of team meetings to discuss non-work-related items (favorite restaurants, foods, hobbies, colors; people’s computer backgrounds).
Commit to being compassionate with yourself and others when mistakes are made. Acknowledge them and move on. Don’t beat yourself or others up. Many of us are already feeling pretty knocked about by the world around us.
Commit to being on video and invite others to do it with you. Seeing people’s faces helps create more emotional connectivity, which we need in the absence of physical connectivity.
Commit to continuing to foster people’s development and growth.
Point people to virtual resources (virtual training for new managers; virtual presentation and facilitation skills; building a virtual brand) that can help them increase their skills.
Hold regular check-in conversations with people around their development & needs.
Model healthy boundaries to sustain energy for the long-run - and ask the same of your people.
Take care of yourself physically through rest/sleep, nutrition, water, exercise.
Get dressed in the morning to make a distinction between work and home.
Push away from work for healthy chunks of time to replenish.
Be fully present in each interaction, come prepared and follow-through on what you say you will do (e.g., send out follow-up information, start and end on time). If you need to renegotiate something (a deadline, a meeting), be transparent about that and offer a counter-proposal.
Communication – this is a crucial skill, as communication relates to your words, voice and body language; both what you offer and how you receive. Leaders must be aware of how their communication partners with each of the other C’s for congruency and understanding.
Communicate with your team more regularly than you traditionally have: e.g., do a 10-minute stand-up meeting each day, a video blog, or virtual office hours to keep the communication lines open. Use these frequent touch-points to orient people, prioritize, check-in with people and/or and share something inspiring.
Use micro-meetings (5 – 15 minute-meetings) with team members, colleagues and customers to connect and address top concerns. With so much stress and anxiety right now, people’s energy and focus is requiring shorter meeting times.
Communicate in ways that will work for different learning styles. For example, many people are Kinesthetic and/or Visual learners and will be able to absorb your message if you deliver it in a way that they get to DO something (e.g., write on a whiteboard or put something in chat) or SEE something (a compelling visual; seeing colleagues’ faces). Fewer people learn through sole auditory modes.
For more effective virtual meetings:
Assign a facilitator to help frame and guide the conversation. Select someone who is able to be present with the group and skilled in reading non-verbal cues. Know it does not always need to be you.
Cue people up before dialogue/feedback (“Ali, in a moment I’m going to ask for your feedback about x.”)
Use people’s names and call on people as necessary – set and implement an expectation of full participation.
Ask clear questions (one at a time) and then pause. Wait an extra drum beat or two so people have time to come off mute.
If the team is new to virtual meetings, help people learn the basics (how to set up video calls; how to set up their screen so they can see everyone; how to use the chat function). Consider having an expert join one of your meetings for training.
Collaboration – high-performing team members have real conversations – the hard ones and the celebratory ones. Leaders need to model direct and developmental communication with people to support effective and efficient collaboration.
Know that you, as the leader, need to initiate and model collaborative behaviors, especially if this is a different way of being for the team.
Offer affirmative feedback and celebrate individual and collective wins, even small ones.
Give timely feedback to people who are not fulfilling their responsibilities – and support your team members holding similar conversations with one another.
Hold a curious, growth-oriented mindset – experiment with new ways of collaborating and adapt as you go.
If you want collaboration, be intentional about the design of meetings and/or work flow to support dialogue vs. monologue.
Cutting Edge – all of the C’s of the Virtual Web of Success rely on cutting edge technology to bring them to life in an efficient, focused manner; the key is to leverage tools that meet needs in the simplest format possible. Additionally this C represents cutting edge thinking which supports innovation.
Invite cutting edge thinking and encourage experimentation. Create expectations and space for people to share innovative ideas and approaches to how work gets done.
Empower people with cutting edge technology to support people working flexibly (anywhere, anytime) and collaborating productively.
Experiment with different features, apps and technologies to collaborate in new ways. For example, chat, polling, and whiteboards are all options that give you the opportunity to work simultaneously (vs. sequentially) and hear from many people at once.
When picking tools, consider how you can use them synchronously (real-time, in-the-moment collaboration) or asynchronously (people accessing the tool when it works for them and their schedule).
Ensure people have access to technology support during their work hours (which may be different than traditional business hours).
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