Program Introduction

Virtual teams provide unique advantages for an organization as well as raise special kinds of challenges that their leaders must address. With the widespread advances of COVID-19, companies and organizations around the world have been thrust into working remotely. But as many are discovering, having a virtual team is very different from working face-to-face—and requires a new set of leadership skills.

This is particularly trying for managers because they tend to be hard on themselves. Only 15% of managers feel they’re very effective, while 53% say they’re only moderately so. That’s during normal times, and now they’re trying to lead a remote team with no training on best practices.

Conceptually, virtual teams are the same with traditional teams, but managing virtual teams requires additional skills like dealing with time related issues, communication barriers, diversity and team building. Because of these differences, managers of virtual teams should know how to create practices and activities that result in the success of the team. This Managing Virtual Teams training course will equip you with the knowledge and abilities essential in leading virtual teams to higher levels of efficiency, hold effective meetings, handle poor performing employees and use tools to build trust and confidence among employees.

Who should attend

Anybody supervising a team should attend the program. This program covers challenges of first time managers as well as senior managers managing global teams across time zones. However the focus can be customized as per client requests.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand and develop the skills required to effectively manage a virtual team
• Build engagement and trust with members of their virtual team
• Effectively use technology and tools to support communication within the team
• Improve their communication and feedback approach with their virtual team
• Track progress and performance management of team members to achieve success

Workshop Contents

Introduction and Overview

• Identifying the differences between co-located and virtual working
• Dealing with the realities of effective  teamwork
• Assessing the impact of management in a virtual environment

Creating a Model for Effective Management in the Virtual World Overcoming the challenges of working in virtual teams

• Planning to meet the individual and team challenges of operating virtually
• Meeting the motivational challenges of individuals and teams
• Proactively adopting a model that focuses on relationships, communication and tasks

Analyzing the impact of distance on collaborative working

• Comparing working together with working apart and plugging the gaps
• Factoring in the effect of trust among team memberss

Establishing the foundation for effective collaboration

• Providing what team members need to be successful
• Focusing on the needs of a virtual team

Proactively developing a team with a common goal

• Identifying key staff competencies and qualities
• Balancing an individual's technical and virtual contributions
• Mapping the key relationships to enhance team success
• Analyzing the perspectives and priorities of stakeholders
• Assessing the impact of current communications with stakeholders

Managing dynamics

• Running effective virtual team start-up sessions
• Start-ups sessions: face-to-face or virtual?

Enhancing the benefits of virtual collaboration

• Developing proactive communication approaches
• Generating structured processes for selecting the right medium for key team activities
• Auditing the communication landscape

When things go wrong at a distance

• Proactive approaches to conflict pressure points
• Developing an empathetic approach to energy levels of team members

Taking a proactive approach to daily leadership

• Refocusing leadership actions using a three-level model
• Practical tips for successfully managing virtual work
• Shifting to a new set of management priorities
• Adopting a proactive vs. reactive management approach to virtual operations