The Top 3 Skills You Need to Effectively Lead Virtual Teams

Nowadays, we’ve all been pushed to work virtually from home. Mostly, we responded well. 

We have developed good digital skills and an effective way to collaborate with other workers. However, the longer this period extends, leaders and teams have started to face long term challenges. 

This short article will help you identify the three primary skills managers and team leaders must have to lead remote teams successfully. I will also aim to show you how you can begin to adopt these into your workplaces and begin to build highly effective virtual teams for years to come.

Let’s get into it.

1. Overcommunicate

A while back, I was speaking at the “Running Remote” conference in Bali where the question came up; 

‘What is the number one skill to lead remote workers?’

We used Mentimeter to run a vote, where if the results increased for a particular word or skill, that word would enlarge itself on-screen, showing it had the majority vote. At the end of the ballot, this is the phrase that dominated the screen:

OVERCOMMUNICATE

Now, this may sound like a negative thing at first, but let’s take a look at what it means in the remote working context.

Show them the bigger picture

If you have a remote worker, don’t just give them a particular task without showing them the bigger picture. Tell them – Why we do, what we do!.If you don’t, they may become puzzled and confused and you do not see their reaction while reading your message. They may start questioning you or your colleagues to get clarification or even worse start working on the “wrong brief“. These problems can be easily avoided if you provide the “The bigger picture”, “The Big Why”. This is the first important part of over-communication – providing purpose and clarity to a task. 

Secondly, it’s key that when delegating, you make sure people in your team fully understand what you mean. For example, have you ever given a task to someone and been unable to recognise the deliverable? When this occurs, it is because the individual didn’t fully understand the brief. It is your responsibility as a leader to make sure people have a crystal clear picture of what you want from them. 

Ask your team to rephrase the briefing back to you and repeat what they understood so that absolutely nothing gets lost in translation, and you aren’t disappointed with the result.  So over-communicating is number one. Let’s move on now to our second essential skill.

2. Promote virtual engagement and co-creation

Now, these days, it’s easy to run a Zoom meeting or host an MS Teams, but to what level are you engaging your team members? 

How many of you have teams who have logged onto these meetings and have zero input? Or worse, multi-tasking with their cameras turned off? Remember, the more engaged your team is, the higher their performance. So to what extent can we increase engagement? 

 I like to break this part down into 4 levels of virtual collaboration:  

2.1 Update Meeting

Update meetings are key to Building trust in your team but please make sure you do not go into details. All detail goes into the Pre-Read. Use the update meetings to share personal experiences (e.g. weekly highlight) , key milestones achieved and flag opportunities to help each other and collaborate. I discussed how to build trust in your teams in my previous blog, How to build trust in Remote and Virtual Teams.

2.2. Brainstorming with your teams

The more we have to work remotely these days, the more we will have to make crucial decisions and develop long term strategies out of the office. Because of this, we must be having the same or higher level of collaboration and co-creation in our remote teams as we do in an office environment.

We must become comfortable with brainstorming ideas remotely with input from the whole team. You as a Manager can support this by setting clear expectations to the level of contribution of every participant in the virtual meeting. For many of us, the good news is that remote presentation software is much better now than presenting on a flip chart e.g. people can simultaneously write on a shared whiteboard and then “vote” for the top items. Thus the topics with strongest resonance will emerge much faster than “queuing on the flip chart” or waiting to post your “sticky note”

Everybody, especially during crucial decision-making meetings, should be expected to make contributions. You can consider introducing the role of the “Gate keeper” who will call on people and make sure everyone has contributed, particularly relevant for working in “breakout rooms”.

2.3. Decision-making

When making decisions, we need to create a clear, safe space for our teams to contribute. 

The best way to do this effectively as a manager and leader is to post a Blog – explaining the decision that has to be made and listing several options to choose from. You may also list some of the pros and cons of each option, but not too much, and invite your team to contribute within the next 24-48 hours.

Keep these blog up online for everyone to view and comment on for 24-48 hours (particularly if you have global teams). By the time you go into your decision meeting, a great deal of valuable input is ready to view and the option that prevails has already emerged.

The meeting then becomes a discussion about the options. As they all have had a chance to have their opinions taken into consideration, they will feel much more comfortable and committed to the decision. By allowing co-creation into the decision-making process, you will be amazed at the level of input your teams can contribute. Let’s move on to the fourth part of co-creation.

2.4. Product Development

The product development level is a combination of brainstorming and decision making.

The key here is to have a well designed and facilitated workshop so you can “arrive” jointly at the product roadmap. It’s about well designed individual contributions, then breaking into small groups and co-creating. Then moving to a larger online forum where everyone assesses all of the options presented and can make a final team decision. 

But make sure you design these interactions in advance. Have individual contributions submitted beforehand so you can split the various aspects of the task up, and based on personal input, come up with a thorough analysis, so everyone is on board with the final result.

3. A culture based on recognition and fun

I think there is a strong connection between virtual teams and large families when it comes to leadership.

Being a father to five girls, one valuable lesson I have learned that can be applied to remote teams is making people feel recognised. If there is one secret to lead a family with 6 women it is: Praise, Praise, Praise!

What to praise? Remote work can be lonely work. and so you need to make people feel recognised, and part of a family. If an individual has got a result, then praise that result in front of all the team. Even if there isn’t a result yet, but a team member has shown a good attitude, asking the right questions, or taking on extra roles – praise the behaviour. The point is there is always something to praise if you look hard enough.

Otherwise, you may find your team members fading into the background and feeling neglected, a bit like some siblings in a larger family can if one is always getting the attention!

So build within your teams a strong culture of recognition. And make it fun, too! Think of creative ways you can create a culture of fun within your virtual teams and allow them to show their funny sides when working. Gamify it! For example – a client of mine decided to have an online competition of the “coolest desk” and people were posting, liking and commenting in the team room The winner was a colleague working with his laptop on the front lid of his “Jeep Grand Cherokee” on a mountain top.  Just let your team members choose the topics and you will be amazed at the results it will have.

So those are the top three skills you need to lead remote teams. First, over-communicate so people can fully understand the big picture of the tasks they are performing. Next, you need to promote virtual engagement and build a habit of co-creation.  Do this by designing your meetings with the individual in mind and following my four levels of collaboration. Finally, we must instil a culture of recognition and praise to foster the gravity in the virtual team maintain the Winning Team Spirit!

I hope this has been useful, and I would love to hear your thoughts too, so drop a comment in the box below and subscribe to my latest tips by clicking here.