“To master the virtual equation and make all the elements work together, you have to become the connector … You may need to shift gears, perform ream tune-ups, realign, and refuel your team’s energy along the way.” – Yael Zofi
It is believed that being a leader is something innate and can’t be learned. In my own opinion, it’s a little bit of both, but more of a choice. Skills, experience, and exposure won’t even matter if you don’t have the utmost interest in being one.
Handling an average of 12-20 Team members with face-to-face interaction has already been considered as a norm for most people managers and team leaders. But, managing a virtual team would be a different case.
Since the pandemic outbreak, most of our corporate professionals are now keen on continuing their careers in remote teams either as Virtual Team Leaders, freelancers, and some have even opted in being included among the high paying freelancers in our community. (see perfect job descriptions for freelancers)
Furthermore, the majority of our well-known corporations have encouraged their workforce to work from home to keep everyone safe. This has paved the way to test everyone’s resilience, and most importantly, our leaders and management team.
With that being said and In connection to the upcoming webinar this Friday, @itsease will be sharing with you 5 Keys to Successful Virtual Leadership. (P-R-I-M-E)
1.People Skills
This will include behavioral patterns and interaction with other people. It is how you will be able to build virtual relationships with your colleagues, most especially to with your subordinates.
One of the barriers to an open and sincere relationship with your team is not personally seeing their reaction, body language, and even realtime feedback which really matters in keeping a healthy connection with the rest of the group.
People skills are directly interrelated to how the leader communicates. Keeping open communication especially with what is happening right now will keep the team engaged and productive.
2.Resilience
It is about the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or changes, has back up plans, and the eagerness to move forward.
Considering the work restrictions that most of us have right now, working for clients with different timezones, dealing with dispersed teams, and as well as facilitating Team Meetings through Video conferencing are now considered the “new normal” for different organizations.
This demonstrated how flexible the workforce is right now. It somehow introduced the idea of freelancing/remote jobs which originally began back in the 1800s.
This quality is very important not only to our Virtual Team Leaders but to the rest of the virtual team. It will prepare them for any unforeseeable challenges that the organization might face.
3.Innovation
This is similarly defined as the process of being a catalyst, advocate for change, or introduction to a new method or process.
The Virtual World started from someone’s idea of Innovation. It is believed that people have started getting comfortable with the advancement of technology. Without these ideas, we won’t be able to utilize different means of Virtual Communication as specified below:
- Social media
- Instant Messaging
- Web conferencing
- Text Messages
- Virtual Meetings
Working remotely won’t even be possible if these virtual leaders or catalysts have not worked hard towards these objectives.
4.Manage
This is our core role. We ‘re not considered as an Individual contributor since there’s already a team to look after. It’s all about leading and being the person-in-charge. You are not expected to manage individuals, rather a team. A virtual leader should stay connected with the team, should look after everyone’s welfare. We should not order anyone to improve the performance but to encourage the team in taking the initiative to do so.
In cases like this, our leaders should have all the support they need from the management since they are the one who directly handles the workforce.
A Leadership Development training or workshop will greatly assist and guide these virtual leaders on how to handle their team effectively.
5.Expertise
Another key quality to have is the range of expertise of a leader. Sufficient experience and skills will make an effective leader. This will hone the people managers to deal with other risks of the virtual world.
Some of the things that a virtual leader should consider are the distribution of remote work amongst its team members and make use of their Leadership skills accordingly. It should be used towards productivity and alignment of goals. Whereas, effective communication skills must be used in keeping the team together and be the most successful virtual team in your organization.
These are the 5 keys that will lead result in effective and successful virtual leadership. Be the PRIME leader in your organization.
As mentioned above, we’ll be having Zoom Webinar this Friday and we would like to invite you all. Please feel free to click the link to register.
If you want to hear more about Successful Virtual Leadership, this is the event that you shouldn’t miss!
