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Leading a virtual team in an increasingly borderless workplace is no easy task. The chances for having a disengaged, fragmented and confused team are so much higher than when team members are co-located. Typically, a virtual team requires more leader initiative and involvement, more clarity and greater vigilance. This TMA World presentation gives practical advice, to help you maximize the performance of your virtual team(s). For more information about how to thrive in the borderless workplace, contact us today: [email protected]
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Leading Virtual Teams
Improve your virtual capability
Leading a virtual team in our
increasingly borderless
workplace is no easy task.
The chances for having a
disengaged, fragmented and
confused team are so much
higher than when team
members are co-located.
Typically, a virtual team requires
more leader initiative and
involvement, more clarity and
greater vigilance.
What’s a virtual team
leader to do?
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
5
The Six Cs, devised by Terence Brake, Head of Learning & Innovation at TMA World, helps distributed teams collaborate successfully. The Six Cs are:
Having trusting relationships in place across geographies, time zones and cultures to create high levels of virtual team member engagement
Having a shared sense of virtual team purpose and direction to minimize fragmentation of effort
Having shared understandings about how distributed work will get done efficiently and effectively
Having all the scattered knowledge and skills on the virtual team working together to maximize team capability
Having shared understandings within and across all team member locations to minimize confusion and wasted effort
Having an inclusive virtual team environment that uses differences to generate new and value-added ways of thinking and doing
Cooperation
Convergence
Coordination
Capability
Communication
Cultural Intelligence
By focusing
attention on these
six performance
zones before and
during a project,
a team can start
out on a solid
footing and
perform at the
highest levels.
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
6
Let’s take The Six Cs a step further and identify the leader roles needed to get the most out of this collaboration framework. The team mindsets, which the leader needs to develop when performing these roles will also be identified.
Leader Role Performance Zone Mindset
Partner: Creating the conditions to develop a strong sense of team and mutual obligation
Cooperation We help each other
A virtual team leader is very much an active rather than silent partner. As a partner, the leader must balance listening and team participation with advocacy. Without clear expectations and guidance a virtual team can easily become dysfunctional.
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
7
Let’s take The Six Cs a step further and identify the leader roles needed to get the most out of this collaboration framework. The team mindsets, which the leader needs to develop when performing these roles will also be identified.
Leader Role Performance Zone Mindset
Pathfinder: Guiding the team in defining and owning the teams; common purpose, plans, priorities and performance indicators
Convergence We pull in the same direction
Working with the team, the leader must take responsibility for ensuring that there are enough navigational markers in place to enable the team to reach a common destination. Without clarity around purpose, goals and objectives, etc. parts of a virtual team can easily come adrift.
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
8
Let’s take The Six Cs a step further and identify the leader roles needed to get the most out of this collaboration framework. The team mindsets, which the leader needs to develop when performing these roles will also be identified.
Leader Role Performance Zone Mindset
Synchronizer: Ensuring the assignment and flow of distributed work is optimal to produce best results
Coordination We work together smoothly
Members of a virtual team often complain about not knowing what others are doing, or that they find it difficult to understand how their work fits into the bigger picture. An important role for the leader is to ensure that these disconnects don’t happen and that everyone has a clear view of the whole.
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
9
Let’s take The Six Cs a step further and identify the leader roles needed to get the most out of this collaboration framework. The team mindsets, which the leader needs to develop when performing these roles will also be identified.
Leader Role Performance Zone Mindset
Synergizer: Creating opportunities for the sharing and integration of expertise to produce outcomes unattainable by individual members
Capability We share what we have
Team capabilities are not just the sum of individual capabilities, they emerge and develop as individual capabilities come into contact with one another and generate new possibilities. Virtual team leaders are not fully aware of the capabilities on their teams and do not create the conditions in which the whole can become more than the sum of the parts.
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
10
Let’s take The Six Cs a step further and identify the leader roles needed to get the most out of this collaboration framework. The team mindsets, which the leader needs to develop when performing these roles will also be identified.
Leader Role Performance Zone Mindset
Clarifier: Identifying differences in interpretation among team members and developing shared understanding
Communication We pay close attention to one another
Everyone on a virtual team must be alert to misunderstandings and differences in perception, but the leader must be hyper-vigilant. He/she must also be able to role model the uses of different technologies to generate and reinforce clear and shared meanings.
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
11
Let’s take The Six Cs a step further and identify the leader roles needed to get the most out of this collaboration framework. The team mindsets, which the leader needs to develop when performing these roles will also be identified.
Leader Role Performance Zone Mindset
Conductor: Creating the conditions in which differences among team members are treated as potential assets
Cultural Intelligence
We play well together
While creating the conditions in which differences are respected and valued, the leader must also pay attention to developing common working ground – particularly in those areas that are critical to team success. An example might be establishing a shared norm for attendance at virtual meetings.
The performance of each
role is important, but the
leader should always be
looking beyond the role
itself to the desired
outcome.
Is what I’m doing
in each role advancing
the development of
the critical mindsets
we need to be
successful?
“
”
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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Webinar Twitter Blog Viewpoints and articles
Publications Written by Terence Brake, Director of Learning & Innovation at TMA World.
Our new Borderless Working e-book series
About Us
Visit
www.tmaworld.com/insights
to discover the latest thinking
from our experts on global,
collaborative, cross-cultural
and virtual working. There
you’ll find links to our:
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
15
Above all we’d like to hear from you directly, so please don’t hesitate to send any comments, questions or feedback
to us at: [email protected]
Or visit our website:
www.tmaworld.com
About Us
Visit
www.tmaworld.com/insights
to discover the latest thinking
from our experts on global,
collaborative, cross-cultural
and virtual working.
