How to Manage Virtual Teams

• Tweet
• Pin It

Twenty years back when we are talking about teams, we are generally meaning team within the same organization. Today with the globalization and offshore production houses, the scenario has changed like anything. Today a team may comprise of coworkers, partners, clients and vendors.

Today a single team member might be working on multiple projects and following different set of hierarchies. Thus managing these virtual teams has become very crucial and significant task.Communication is the key to for managing virtual teams. Most of the misunderstanding, lack of coordination and problems occurred because of lack of communication. Different set of teams should be encouraged to talk more. Audio/Video conferencing is an excellent tool to communicate. Regular presence is always a better option but when the distance is the hindrance then more and frequent communication through phone, emails, audio/video conference calls, voice chat increase warmth in the professional relationship thus increasing the mutual trust and reducing conflicts.

Changing management mindset is also important for effective management of the virtual teams. The thought that the face to face communication is the only effective way of communication and learning to manage virtual team means learning to use the technology only! These mindsets should be changed, one need to understand that there are other ways of communication which are equally effective. Learning to manage virtual team is about understanding team, collaborating processes and meeting the desired goals.

Promoting self leadership and team work are some of the skills which are very effective for virtual teams. A manager might not be available with the team members physically all the time or in all the locations. So a team member should self sufficient to complete his/her task at the located time. Encouraging self leadership and team work helps the organization get the desired results.

Sharing knowledge is an integral part of managing a virtual team. Creating mechanisms where there is an effective method of sharing the knowledge should occurred amongst the team members.

Effective usage of technology is also very effective for managing virtual teams. Emails, telephones, chats, voice mails, video conferencing, groupware (intranets), computer aided meetings etc are useful tools for making the virtual team a success.

Virtual teams have become a part of life so it’s high time to stop considering them as special cases and start treating like another effect method of increasing your overall productivity for your organization.