How to Be a Virtual Leader
Two important things to keep in mind when you work in a remote team.
Today, smart working is the only way we have to go on. We need to learn in a short time how to manage our work (and eventually the work of other employees) at home with the help of the technology. Once again we need to use our soft skills: fast learning, multitasking, and high adaptability.
Thinking about my experience and the current situation the main question I had in mind was: how to work together if we are NOT together? Consequently, I thought about a soft skill that I didn’t pay attention to before: Virtual Leadership.
A Virtual Leader could be a CEO, a Manager, an employee… each member of the team could give a contribution and personally, I think that everyone needs to understand more about the skills to manage this new reality.
History shows us that the species that survives is the one that better adapts to its environment.
I thought about some insights that can help to better manage this particular moment and the results are two important points:
1) Communication
I can divide this point in two ways:
Respect for Time — Everything is online, every moment could be a good one to call a colleague, ask something to the manager, send an e-mail to an employee, text on the job chat, organize a video call. If we don’t organize the communication, we will lose a lot of time. A good Virtual Leader promotes a good communication flow giving feedback about how, when, and what kind of tools we need to use. Everyone needs to feel comfortable with the team’s communication but, at the same time, be respectful of the colleagues’ time.
As when we are at the office we know the “right moment” to knock on the boss’ door, as when we work online we need to understand the “right moment” to interrupt a colleague. It seems easy but is not and this took me to the second point:
No Body Language — As human beings, we use different ways to show up our thoughts and feelings. Our body is one of those. More or less we know that Verbal Communication is 30% of the interaction and Non-Verbal Communication is 70%. Maybe through a cam this interaction is more complicated to feel, but I am pretty sure each of us can understand if our colleague has a bad day, just listening to his/her voice on the phone. We need to pay attention to a new communication system: Online Non-Verbal Communication.
Personally, I believe that one way to avoid misunderstanding is trying to be most honest as possible and here we are to the second pillar:
2) Trust
I will divide this topic into two parts too:
Be clear — This is without any doubt the worst crisis that our generation faced, so it is not necessary for a Virtual Leader to look like “everything is okay”. Remember that 70% of the communication is Non-Verbal, for this reason, if I said something that is in contrast with my thoughts and feelings sooner or later somebody will understand it. Talk honestly with our colleagues has never been so important to create a compact team where members trust each other. This doesn’t mean be catastrophic or negative but faces the facts with teamwork and transparency.
Be human — A good Virtual Leader doesn’t loose his emotional side only because he is not physically with his team, everyone is far but we must remember to celebrate success and overall share the failure.
A good team also consists of little acts of kindness. We can show our humanity, even if we are far.
Comments, shares, and discussion about the topic are always accepted and I’ll be glad to answer any of your questions.
Thanks for reading the article.
