The internet has led to something of a work revolution – at least in the US. More than 50% of workers do some kind of “virtual working,” meaning that many are being productive outside of the office. What’s more, the trend is growing fast, with thousands of new employees finding new remote roles every day. So how can you effectively display virtual team leadership in these changing time?
Virtual working provides both opportunities and challenges to leaders. The opportunities include things like a happier workforce, higher productivity, fewer commutes, and more time spent working on a given day. The challenges are behavioral and managerial. How do you inspire a team of people to work hard who aren’t in close physical proximity? It seems like a radically different way of doing things.
If you’re considering how your leadership role might change in light of remote working practice, look at the following infographic. It highlights some of the measures you can take to provide effective virtual management of your team and how to achieve higher productivity levels.
So far, research and trial and error have found several strategies that appear to work well. For starters, managers should make regular phone calls to their employees, checking in with them periodically to find out how they’re getting on. It can also help if you pool remote workers together in the same virtual location so that they can easily meet up to discuss work. If language barriers are an issue, resolving communication problems can help too. If you’re interested in changing leadership roles because of remote teams or being the best at virtual team leadership, read on.
Infographic by University of Alabama Birmingham