“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth was referring to the sport of baseball when he gave this famous speech back in 1935, fast ward to 2018 and his words have been used to describe any endeavour that involves a congregation of people. Be it a sports team or work force, successful teams produce desired outcomes; however, it is critical that team members demonstrate effective processes to achieve these outcomes.
According to a recent survey conducted by Deloitte across 130 countries and over 7,000 participants, the number one global workforce trend is teamwork (Kaplan, Dollar, Melian, Van Durme, & Wong, 2016). Based on these findings, employees are expected to work more collaboratively than ever before due to the increase in technology-related working environment and tools. The rate of teamwork and collaboration within the workforce has multiplied over the years, and the use of teams is expected to continue to increasing. With the rise of teamwork comes the need for interventions designed to enhance teamwork effectiveness.
In an era of increasing globalization, international trade, and fast communications networks, multicultural team-based structures may consist of members that are located in different cities, continents or buildings. Teams that operate in this way are called "virtual teams." (Kimble, 2011)
Team development interventions (TDIs) increase effective team competencies and processes, thereby leading to improvements in proximal and distal outcomes. (Lacerenza, 2017) The effectiveness of TDIs is apparent across many sectors (e.g., education, health care, military, aviation), and they are applicable in a wide range of settings no matter the climate. Specifically, organizations whereby projects are assigned to groups of individuals who work interdependently, employ high levels of empowerment, communicate freely, and either disband following project completion or continue collaborating. (Lacerenza, 2017)
1. Promote a Team Culture
Though virtual workers aren’t working side-by-side in an office, it’s important to make them feel as though they’re still part of team. According to a survey by Harvard Business Review, remote employees are far more likely than on-site employees to believe that their colleagues don’t like them or care about them. Such concerns by remote workers should not be overlooked because it could lead to difficulties fostering trust between team members in such a negative environment.
Building and promoting a positive, inclusive culture within the team can help improve morale and make employees more invested in each other’s success. Virtual leaders need to take proactive measures to help their team members become more comfortable with one another. Regular physical meet-ups, whether work related or otherwise, are an ideal solution. If meeting in-person isn’t feasible, remote leaders can organize virtual meet-ups to help team members get to know each other a little better. Even taking a few moments to share personal details during a conference call can help employees form better relationships with each other.
Effective Virtual Team Leadership
Leadership is the foremost important factor for the success of virtual teams. OnPoint’s study, as well as other research, shows that effective leadership has a statistically significant correlation with higher performance on virtual teams. To be effective, team leaders in a virtual environment must be especially sensitive to interpersonal, communication, and cultural factors so they are able to overcome the limitations imposed by distance.
Some warning signs of an ineffective virtual team leader include:
1. The team consistently failing to meet performance objectives—and deliverables are often late or of poor quality.
2. Relationships between team members and the virtual team leader are characterized by stress, delayed communication, and best described as “dysfunctional.”
3. The leader is unclear about the team’s direction, purpose, and objectives.
4. The team leader pays more attention to co-located team members than to remote team members—or team members who are their “favorites.”
The best way for organizations to avoid this particular performance problem is to select team leaders not only based on technical skills, but on their soft skills as well. In a virtual team environment, soft skills can have a major impact on team performance.
If you’re a team leader on a virtual team, it’s important to make a self-assessment to determine whether you might be the cause of poor performance on the team. This can be a hard thing to confront, but it is necessary. However, should you find that you, as a team leader, are facing this particular performance barrier, there are a few things you can do:
Organizations that “get it right” know that there are stark differences between their virtual teams and their co-located teams. Unfortunately, all too many organizations have yet to effectively act on this critical insight.
There are many well-intentioned companies that have failed or have been harmed because of the tendency to treat virtual teams and co-located teams in the same way. Worse yet is when virtual teams are started on a whim without the necessary planning or follow-up—this is never a recipe for success.
However, with better planning and follow-up, organizations can dramatically improve the success of their virtual teams—achieving a better ROI for their investment.
Interdependence: Team members are dependent on each other to accomplish tasks and/or results. Clear goals and objectives: Team has a central focus and a significant purpose which provides a major
source of energy and commitment.
Cohesiveness: Team members feel connected and work together; they subordinate individual interests to the purpose and goals of the entire team.
Trust: Team relationships show openness and confidence towards each other; team members can rely on each other, and they are motivated to cooperate.
Potency: The team believes that it can be effective; it possesses the ability or capacity to achieve or bring about a particular result.
All teams go through sequential stages in their development, characterized by a rise or fall in collaboration and teamwork. Some go faster than others, and some cycle back through stages. A leader’s role is to recognize that this path is normal, identify where the team is at the moment, and guide the team through its development.
Forming: members get to know each other and lay the basis for project ground rules Storming: conflicts begin as members come to resist authority, demonstrate hidden agendas and
prejudices
Norming: members agree on operating procedures, seek to work together, developing close relationships and commitment to the implementation process
Reforming: team regroups and makes adjustments Performing: group members work together to accomplish their tasks Mourning: group may disband either following completion or through reassignments