Best Way to Manage Virtual Teams
Have you recently been thrust into managing a virtual team? Or maybe your company had a few virtual teams but now most of your organization is working from home?
If so, you’re not the only one. You and your team worked hard to get to the success you had before all the craziness happened. Now, all that success could be in jeopardy if your team doesn’t continue to collaborate and perform well in this new virtual environment.
You might still be missing one thing – the guidance and direction on how to build a successful virtual team, what we call a Super Virtual Team.
As an experienced global change leader and creator of Super Virtual Teams, we give virtual teams the mindset and tools that they need to be high performing so that no one needs to babysit.
After 17 years at American Express, leading global programs, I started Metaspire and since then I’ve led my own global virtual team while conducting virtual team-builders and coaching for companies like Zoom, HP, MedData and smaller companies too. So, I’d like to share with you three keys to be a super virtual leader so you can lead and manage your virtual team with ease. It all starts with the acronym of “S-V-T.”
S stands for Sixth Sense
Access your Super Leader Within. Some people call this a gut feeling, or Higher Power, God, whatever you call it. It’s the part of you that leads you forward to focused positive movement. When you’re managing a virtual team, it’s best for you to tap into their Super Leader Within like never before! Think California Gold Rush in the 1850s. Your Super Leader Within is gold. If you think you need all the facts before making the decisions, I completely get it. The thing is that your team needs you to align with your Super Leader Within because that inside voice is going to help you know when to pick up the phone, when to make a call, send an email, or do nothing.
V stands for Vulnerability
The second-best way to manage virtual teams is to be appropriately vulnerable. You as the leader of your team get the awesome responsibility to lead by being appropriately vulnerable. It builds trust among the team and it helps you manage them less and less. The best way to do this is to be vulnerable when the time is right. One way you can do this is to simply ask your team to bring a meaningful photo for them to the next team meeting. You may have more in common than you think. Maybe you’ll see a picture of their cute kids. Maybe you’ll see a picture of their pet. You might learn about a new cool vacation spot. The more you get your team to share something appropriately vulnerable the less time you’ll have to spend managing them.
T stands for Thinking Business Owners
The third best way to manage your virtual team, and the most important way, is to build accountability in your team so that they think collectively and independently like business owners. When virtual team members think like business owners, they perform roles and tasks without even being asked. Every successful business owner learns to build their business around their strengths or what we call superpowers so it’s important for you to know about your superpowers and the superpowers of your team. When everyone’s using their superpowers, it makes the whole team work better like a Super Virtual Team.
That is it! “S-V-T” three keys to being a super virtual leader so you can have a Super Virtual Team of your own.
