Virtual Team Strategies

Naomi Caietti, PMP is managing editor of NaomiCaietti.com. She launched her own consulting company to provide global, on-demand virtual services for clients that need a speaker, author or coach.

  Communications Management   Leadership   Resource Management   Teams  

Welcome to the 21st century! Are you a virtual leader of diverse teams and multiple projects across various time zones? Do you find it challenging and want to learn more about some strategies to address some of them? We live in a virtual world, and the global economy demands that project managers lead virtual projects team differently than traditional ones.

Let’s review what defines a virtual team, along with challenges, opportunities and tips for strategic approaches for leadership from leading expert Penny Pullan.

What is a virtual project team?
Author of the book Virtual Leadership, Pullan describes virtual projects teams as ones where at least one member of the team is remote from the others. Virtual teams can also be referred to as a geographically dispersed team, distributed team or remote team.

PMI research
Last year, the research paper “Leading Virtual Project Teams” by Pullan and Evi Prokopi was presented at the 2016 PMI Global Congress in Barcelona. A survey was done to identify a deeper understand of the challenges of virtual teams, with recommendations of strategies and best practices for virtual project leaders.

Based on a survey of over 350 respondents from 24 countries, just over half were members of virtual teams—and under half led virtual teams. These were the key shared challenges and opportunities amongst the respondents:…

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.