Being a part of a virtual team is not a new concept and dealing with one requires a pragmatic approach. Advances in technologies, organizational structure, globalization and working approach over the last few years have facilitated remote workforce over the last few years.
Communicating methodologies, techniques and managing a virtual team to get the best out of each other requires an entirely different approach from the one which sits with you in the same room.
The concept of a consolidated remote workforce is contradictory. Communicating with the virtual team can create obstacles at times and is a challenge to establish a well-defined network between them. To overcome these hurdles and have a hands-on over building a relationship with your team and imparting knowledge, make sure you follow these simple steps.
Clear Communication Strategy
To manage a virtual team, it is important to establish the best means of a communication network and keep this communication frequent. Persistent conversations will enable you to convey goals and objectives and keep your team skills upgraded. This will secure team spirit and unity within each team member.
Emails, by default, are a great way to establish links among team members in certain instances. However, a constant mail throughout a widespread project is that you may end up with an endless trail mail, people forgetting to copy others and common objective being side tracked.
To overcome this issue, you can schedule calls where you can effectively lead a real-time conversation with a clear and unified objective. Prepare an agenda and send it across your team beforehand and encourage everyone to add on to it. Give each attendee a chance to put forward their point and provide updates and make sure everyone is on the same page, aligned and informed about the process going on. After the call ends with uniformity, shoot an email stating minutes of meeting with all the major topics of discussion and initiatives that are to be taken up next.
Minimize Absences
For a remote workforce these calls are equivalent to meetings for you and your team, so avoid absence. You need to be heard by each team member and similarly, each team member needs to be heard by each one of you. This is the only way to keep your team intact, in a loop and develop the essence of being a part of the team.
If scheduling a conference call turns out to be a tricky task then try scheduling it with an automated email or calendar software as an alternative. The time difference may be a factor for your team so a standard office time can be an option or scheduling a call with rotational time to make sure each worker gets their preferred slot is also possible.
Improve Intra-communications
An office is a place where the team members can develop both professional and personal relationship with each other and build an environment where ideas can be discussed over a desk or in an elevator. These kinds of improvised interactions between team members can encourage working relationships and open up the scope of bringing your team together.
This may be hard to replicate when it comes to a virtual team. In this case, a conference call can be an escape as it provides an opportunity for small talks and builds a relationship amongst the team. However, there may be instances when a conference call is not at all necessary. In these cases, you can set a group chat to ensure no one is lagging behind with anything, not so important yet necessary prevailing in the process.
Encourage Knowledge Sharing
Till now we have discussed only one factor that plays a major role for a virtual team. There are various other components that may cause your team to shatter like their strengths, weaknesses and skills. So in this scenario, all you can do is encourage a culture of knowledge sharing. Webinars and podcasts are amazing mediums where you can get your entire team under one roof and share views.
This will help to unify your team and encourage them to appreciate one another’s value and purpose.
Be Perceptive
When you are having an audio call it is difficult to identify any tension, possible conflict or some issues prevailing within your team as compared to a roundtable meeting. So whenever possible, try to arrange a video conference.
A video call may be a boon but at times it is little problematic as here also you cannot read people’s body language and facial expression as here the factors are camera quality and angle. Therefore to mitigate this problem you have to be extra attentive to identify any change in voice tone or pitch and have a check on their voice modulation.
Summarizing it all, uniting a virtual team requires a proactive approach and an insignificant amount of focus. The hindrances which include location, time zone and skill can lead to miscommunication.
Apart from these, you need to look for other technological solution for these barriers, such as video calling, instant messaging and scheduling technologies while remaining perceptive, inclusive and communicative. With all these practices you can achieve the contradictory goal of a unified remote workforce.