Adjusting to Virtual Teams

  Communications Management   Talent Management   Teams   ProjectsAtWork  

Even very good project leaders will run into difficulties when they are called upon to manage a virtual team. What might have worked well in an office setting doesn’t always translate to a distributed environment. Here are five adjustments that can help you better manage your team from afar.

I have always prided myself on my ability to manage and motivate my team as well as to get many of my employees promoted. I took the time to get to know their business and personal goals, to clear roadblocks, and to coach and develop them. However, it is a little different story when your team is completely virtual.

When I moved to the role of managing virtual team members, some aspects of my old management approach still worked well while others fell woefully short. Even the aspects that worked, though, had to be modified. For example, I couldn’t walk around and casually talk to everyone to see what they were working on, where they were concerned, and understand the daily nuances of the work at hand.

This made a difference when communicating with my new virtual team. I found that much as I tried, I couldn’t relate to everyone as well as I used to. I started to be taken by surprise by things that happened (or more often, what didn’t happen), to hear of obstacles that I didn’t know were presenting themselves, etc.

What did I learn from managing a …

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