Decision Making

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In our last article, we looked at the different types of leadership styles used to manage virtual teams and what situations each style is best suited for. Today, we explore one of the fundamentals of leadership: decision making.

Decision making is an effective ability utilized to make decisions that deal with varying degrees of uncertainty or risk based on rational, disciplined thought.  Everyone, not just leaders have to make decisions everyday; some of decisions are straightforward and simple while others are more complex. What qualifies as a complex decision? Here are some factors we believe to be associated with difficult decisions:

-          Uncertainty; many relevant facts are not known

-          High risk consequences; the cost of failure and the impact of the decision

-          Internal and External Impact; it is difficult to predict how people will respond and react to a critical decision

-          Lack of alternatives or limited alternatives; each alternative may have its own set of strengths and weaknesses

Speaking from the virtual perspective, it’s not just about the risks and complications involved with complex decisions but ensuring you have genuine, uninfluenced input from your virtual team free from the constraints of fear and nonconformity.  It’s very easy for a team member to simply agree with a proposed decision then risk confrontation about their opinion. One way to counteract this is to invest time with each team member; this guarantees everyone has a chance to speak their mind privately with the leader. This is especially important for your team members who may be reticent to speak up during meetings.

To effectively lead a virtual team, a leader must adapt their leadership style to the situation and decision they are currently facing. Leaders of virtual teams need to invest time in maintaining clear goals, performance standards and constant communication. This helps virtual teams avoid misunderstandings as it is vital to replace implicit assumptions with explicit protocols that everyone understands and agrees on.

When making a decision, start with what you want to achieve; what is the objective? Once an objective has been agreed on its time to determine the most appropriate way of making the decision; this relates back to the different leadership styles, as different styles each have their own process.  However, we don’t want to be making autocratic decisions where team input is critical for a successful outcome. Nor do we want to be involving the entire team for every decision the leader makes as that is an inefficient use of time and resources.

It is important to remember when a decision needs to be made; your style and the degree of participation you require from your team are largely affected by three main factors:

1.       Decision Importance – how important is the decision to the team? Who else will it impact to what scale? The more important the decision the more a leader should involve others in the decision

2.       Team Commitment – Does the decision call for your teammates and others to buy into a decision? When the input of others is needed to reach a desirable outcome, a leader should increase participation levels by adapting a participative leadership style

3.       Time Restrictions – How much time do you have to make a decision? The more time you have, the more people you could include in your decision making process

Uncertainty and risk are part of everyday decision making, leaders often have to make quick decisions without enough time to systematically go through an effective decision making process. In these situations, keep an eye on what you ultimately want to achieve and let your intuition guide you to the right choice. In our next article, we will focus on another key element needed to lead a successful virtual team: building virtual relationships.

Click here to listen to our podcast about decision making, to learn more about effective decision making.

Leadership necessary for leading Virtual Teams

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The success of a virtual team largely depends on its leadership and management. We often hear the words “management” and “leadership” used interchangeably but what is the difference between the two?  The biggest difference between managers and leaders lies in how they motivate the people that work for them. Leadership involves doing the “right” thing; creating a compelling vision for the future, determining the direction of the firm and most importantly communicating their visions/ motives to ensure it is understood, committed to and creating a work culture that ignites genuine engagement from all employees.  Management revolves around “doing things right”;  managers ensure the vision is implemented successfully as well as getting work done no matter what the situation. In a nutshell, “Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.” [1] The roles of a manager and a leader overlap and to effectively lead a virtual team, you need to fulfill both roles.

Delegation of duties is a critical task as it gives direction and assigns responsibilities to yourself and fellow team members. No matter how fast your able to produce results on your own, having an engaged, dedicated team that know their roles and responsibilities can help you achieve so much more.  Successful delegation starts with purpose and matching people with tasks that reflect their strengths. A “team operating agreement” (TOA) is a solid first step to effective leadership and team building. A TOA is a set of rules and behavioral norms that the team agrees to abide by; it serves to guide the team’s actions and interactions.  Virtual teams not only require a well established purpose but ongoing motivation and engagement.  It is all too easy to feel a disconnect working with team members you have never met before, separated by vast distance with little to no face to face communication.  The “TOA” is what binds the team and the motivation aspect is the glue that holds the team together. Although you do not have to become best friends with your employees, building a virtual environment that fosters mutual respect, recognition and honesty allows people to open up at their own pace.

It is important to remember as an effective manager or leader that you admit to your mistakes.  Admitting mistakes is what makes one human, it shows honesty and integrity. It is hard admitting to mistakes but doing so has its benefits; it shows that you are down to earth, honest and accountable.  There is no concrete way to become a “successful leader”; it is a process of adaptation to find the leadership style that fits for you and your team.

Interested in learning more about leadership within virtual teams? Listen to our podcast (click here)

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What Causes Disengagement?

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What Causes Disengagement?

This week, we will be focusing on disengagement and what causes disengagement in the workplace.

Based on the current business environment, it has really developed into an employer’s market. Many employees tend not to change companies due to the fear of the unknown and the lack of opportunities. Many employees would rather stay at their current company even if they recently had to suffer cutbacks.

With the employer’s market in mind, continued waves of downsizing, increasing employer demands, general disenchantment with jobs, and technologies capable of keeping employees connected 24/7 to their work are taking their toll. Recent surveys indicate more than half the workforce is fed up, and the problem is global in scope.

For example, the Gallup Poll 2009 National Q12 Employee Engagement Survey, showed that:

  • 24.7 million workers, roughly one fifth or 19% of the U.S. workforce, are almost completely disconnected from their jobs. They don’t like or care about their jobs and probably under-produce on the job.
  • The estimated cost of this disengagement to the U.S. economy is approximately $292- $355 billion annually (or $2,730 per worker per year).
  • The majority of workers are only partially engaged, which further adds to the cost to the U.S. economy
  • Only 12 per cent of American workers are feeling “fully engaged” with their jobs.

These statistics lead to three main reasons that cause disengagement within both the collocated and virtual workplace:

  • The job or workplace was not as expected. About 35% of American workers quit in the first six months. Why? Many workers have an unrealistic expectation about the job or workplace. More than six in 10 turnovers begin with some kind of post-hire shock, the employee realizes she has to report to a different boss or won’t be advancing to the next position as soon as expected, for example.
  • There is a mismatch between job and person. Every team leader should know by now that getting the right people on the bus and into the right seats is a prerequisite for business success, yet 60% of U.S. employees are not using their best talents.
  • There is too little coaching and feedback. Lots of companies talk about making their managers better coaches, but more than 60% of employees, especially younger ones say they don’t get enough feedback. Lack of feedback is the primary reason for performance problems. We know that many managers just give feedback once a year at performance appraisal time, which is like a basketball coach telling his players at the beginning of the season, “You’re going to go out and play 30 games, and at the end of the season, I’ll evaluate your performance.”

With these causes of disengagement taken into consideration, it becomes easier to isolate the primary reason for disengagement amongst your team or organization. This way, the appropriate response can be taken to counteract the problem. Disengagement is like a virus that spreads throughout your organization and if it is dealt with earlier rather than later, you could tremendously improve your team work potential.

Click here for this week’s podcast

How to engage your virtual team: communication

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How to Engage Your Virtual Team: Communication

This week we will be going into detail about one of the elements of virtual engagement. The element that will be focused on is communication.

With the constant bombardment in the media about the global movement of transitioning businesses or a part of businesses virtual, you might be wondering what is next. Well, the next step is to effectively manage your virtual team. The most crucial aspect of managing your virtual team is to ensure that your team is engaged.

Psychologist Tom McDonald stresses the need for engagement and thinking out of the box in an article in Successful Meetings. “Ironic as it may seem, virtual teamwork starts with a high emphasis on individual responsibility, rather than on group thinking,” McDonald argues. “Team members are very clear about what their individual jobs are, and, frankly, want to be left alone to do them. Achievement is uppermost in their minds. They take their jobs seriously and expect each team member to do the same.”

This type of behavior creates a pitfall for disengagement among team members where they start to only do what is told to them and nothing beyond expectations. However, this issue has exponential ramifications on a virtual level.

What is virtual engagement? If you were to ask that question to a sample group of ten, I assure you that each response will be completely different from one another. However, if this were to be asked to a group of IT members, the response would likely be vastly different to a team of HR professionals. There are many elements that affect engagement including accountability and trust, employee and manager relationships, the opportunity for growth, the nature of the job itself, the company size and pride, and communication. Keep in mind that these are only a few factors that affect engagement. Let’s focus and concentrate on communication. At the virtual level, communication becomes even more of a crucial matter to handle due to the fact that all projects, deadlines, schedules and tasks requires constant and effective communication. There are three essential aspects of effective communication. They are:

1)Clarification: This is one of the biggest issues that people are facing. When you assume that you know what a person is saying, even if you know them well, it can create misunderstandings which can lead into major problems in the future. You can avoid these issues by repeating what someone had just said in order to clarify the message that they were trying to convey. This eliminates confusion among the team as well as clearly defining the objectives for the team members. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

2)Feedback: Giving open and honest feedback to each team member is important. This allows each member to share their opinion. It engages each member by making them feel as if they are contributing and that their input is making a difference. This will in turn bridge that geographical gap between your virtual team members and it could potentially solve any rising issues before they occur.

3)Building Trust: Contractual trust is the stepping stone to a successful and long-term team. Fundamentally, contractual trust is doing what you say you will do. You need to honor your agreements, delegate appropriately, and maintain expectations. This type of trust enables the birth of a well-synchronized virtual team by building a comfortable atmosphere where your co-workers become both your teammates and friends.

With these aspects taken into consideration, it becomes crucial to follow these guidelines to successful communication. With successful communication, engaging your virtual team is naturally simpler to accomplish. Think of a company, team or even organization as a living organism, where each member operates and contributes to function as one. However, the whole organism is only as strong and effective as its weakest component. Effective communication will engage each member and strengthen the organism as a whole.

Click here for this week’s podcast!

Accountability: Who, Me?

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Fast-paced and unpredictable are all words that can be used to describe today’s society. In such a fast-paced world, it is easy to get left behind and overwhelmed if you are not prepared. This is where the notion of accountability plays a huge role in keeping individuals as well as teams afloat and is one of the keys that allow them to operate effectively and efficiently. Accountability is what builds trust in relationships, no matter what kind of relationship you have, whether it is a personal or a business relationship; mutual trust is what allows a relationship to thrive. But what exactly is accountability? Does showing up on time and meeting deadlines automatically make one “accountable”? Not quite. Consistency is the other corner stone to building accountability, consistency is one’s ability to steadily perform and maintain a good work ethic no matter what the situation; this demonstrates to the people you are responsible to and for that you can be relied on. This in turn builds trust which leads to accountability.

For a virtual team, building accountability and mutual trust amongst its members takes substantially more time than collocated teams and thus can pose a challenge. Working in a virtual team entails there is little to no face to face interaction with other team members or any non-verbal clues to rely on. Most people would be hesitant to work with others they have never met in real life, let alone completely trust them to get work done to a high standard. This is one of the reasons why accountability is so vital in virtual teams; responsibilities between members are interconnected. More often than not, one task may depend on the completion of another task; if one team member falls behind in their responsibilities, it may end up causing the whole team to fall behind in their responsibilities as well. From the authors of Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace: Building Effective Relationships in Your Organization, Dennis S. Reina and Michelle L. Reina [1], the underlying issue in virtual teams is the foundation of a solid, trusting relationship. Without trust, working virtually is virtually impossible. Their book identifies three types of trust that any team must address in order to achieve success, the three types of trust are:

1. Contractual trust – contractual trust is essentially due diligence, “are you doing what you say you are doing?” This type of trust requires one to establish clear boundaries, manage as well as clearly communicate expectations, keeping your word and being consistent in your words and actions. In today’s workplace this type of trust is especially lacking due to the global economic crisis bringing massive layoffs, downsizing and the belief that people are easily replaceable from the lack of jobs.

2. Communication Trust – communication trust is about honesty and divulgence; admitting mistakes, giving honest feedback and sharing sensitive information to employers or fellow employees. Communication trust is ultimately about finding the comfort zone which encompasses “the right balance between openness and company confidentiality”. [2]

3. Competence Trust – competence trust involves respecting the skills and abilities of your teammates as well as your own. This also means solid teamwork, involving others instead of trying to do it all yourself.

There are many benefits to be reaped and challenges to overcome when it comes to building a virtual team. The three cornerstones of trust, consistency and accountability should never be compromised in any team, especially in virtual teams where relationships are hard to foster and ever more fragile.

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