We now exist in a ‘new normal’ where we are leading and inspiring people virtually via video and have dispersed teams – some working from home, some out on-site, some back in the office, some you see and some you don’t – who would have thought this possible back in 2019!

Despite the obvious challenges, there are huge benefits – increased family time, shorter commutes, a positive benefit for the environment, the ability for applicants to apply to a larger geographical range of jobs, and employers to have access to a more diverse range of employees – what’s not to like?

Therefore, leaders need to balance these challenges and benefits in order to maximise the talent in their virtual teams. So here are some top tips for leadership in a virtual world:

1. Develop yourself as a Leader

Before you can ever have any hope of becoming a fabulous manager/leader of other people, you need to first understand yourself. If you are heading into a management role just because you want to earn some more money, tell other people what to do, and carry on doing the same sort of things you did prior to the promotion, I suggest you take a pause in proceedings! Great managers and leaders know there is a difference between management and leadership and tailor their approach to suit different situations, particularly in this virtual world. Most importantly they will have a good level of self-awareness, have high levels of emotional intelligence, and will model the behaviours they wish to see in the team.

High levels of self-awareness and emotional intelligence come from understanding your leadership behavioural preferences – in other words, knowing how we tend to behave, the language we use, how we perform under pressure, our workplace values, and how we need to flex to lead, inspire and motivate
others – and this of course needs to vary from person to person.

Recognising the importance of behaviours in a team, the leader will model the behaviours they wish to see, knowing if they demonstrate them, they’ll more likely see these repeated by others. These will be very specific things including for example, the use of positive
language and taking responsibility when things don’t go so well – asking how the team can learn or do things differently.

As a virtual leader, you may be under increased scrutiny on your ability to manage this ‘new normal’ so please do everyone a favour and show how important it is to invest in yourself and continue to learn and develop despite the challenges on your time – ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’….

2. Develop a Leadership approach

When self-aware managers know the difference between management and leadership and adapt their style to suit, they will know when it is appropriate to take a directive approach, but most importantly, they will not rely on this style and instead, will create an empowered team through the use of a virtual coaching and facilitative leadership style. They won’t have a desire to have all the answers but will look to the team for ideas and will encourage creativity and possibility amongst the team. This involves developing your coaching skills, suppressing judgment, and using high levels of curiosity. This is increasingly important when leading a virtual team as team members need to be far more autonomous, self-motivated, and resourceful. They need to develop high levels of confidence and self-belief and this cannot be done via a ‘command-control’ management style and on a bad day, this feels like ‘micro-management’ and I’ve yet to come across one person who loves being at the end of this approach!

3. Devise a Team Purpose and set of Values

Especially in a virtual world, the team needs to be absolutely clear on ‘why’ they are there and how they are going to achieve that ‘why’. To avoid straying from the ‘why’ they will require a set of ‘rules’ by which they go about it. These are the team values – for example, trust and integrity. The team will need to know the behaviours required to evidence these values and will hold each other to account in demonstrating them on an everyday basis – even when working virtually. These behaviours will create a strong culture within the team and will enable the team to lead itself. When new team members come on board, selection methods will have checked people can demonstrate these behaviours and, ongoing, people’s performance can be evaluated using them. Just because we might be working virtually, this isn’t an excuse to behave badly!

4. Proactive Communication

The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand… we listen to reply… – this may sound obvious but sit back and observe the space allowed in your conversations and in others. Do you pause to take in and process what another person has said or are you uncomfortable with the silence and want to press on regardless to make your point? Leading people virtually requires even more patience and time than if we were in an office and the chances for misinterpretation are even greater. We all filter information and hear what we want to hear so always check for understanding and communicate information in a style or using language which is going to be appropriate for your team members. Practice pausing and active listening, questioning and checking as you go.

5. Develop a feeling of trust in your team

I use the word ‘feeling’ quite deliberately – it won’t come out of the back of people knowing that you are checking their calendars, seeing what they’ve been up to every minute of the day or how many emails they’ve done! If you’ve worked on the other 4 top tips, this area will come more easily! Leaders who trust their team will inspire and motivate them by giving them responsibilities, asking for their ideas, giving them new challenges, and asking for headlines in reporting progress. The outcomes will be clear and team members will feel empowered to find their own ways to achieve these. Your job as an effective leader is to support them on that journey and you’ll witness people flourishing and growing into the best version of themselves! How cool is that!

If you’re inspired to learn more – find out more on my Managing & Inspiring People Virtually course which can be run entirely on Zoom of course! Interactive and packed with learning.