Do You Know What It Takes to Lead Virtually?
With all the change and uncertainty surrounding our lives today, if you’re lucky, you’re working from home and are either being led through a virtual environment or you are the leader, leading others through a virtual environment.
I still remember the very first time I was thrown into the deep end to lead a fully virtual team, it was in January 2011, during the Brisbane floods. To provide some context, I was already leading a team in a ‘flexible work’ environment. Put simply, a flexible work environment is a mix of team members working co-located in the office and work from home on a rotation. So, when we were required to pack up our things and all head home to work remotely, honestly, I thought it wouldn’t be very different to how the team already operated.
I was wrong.
It was very different.
And I learnt quickly.
Firstly, to state the obvious, you and every single member of your team are working from completely separate locations – permanently! This alone brings various challenges, however, add to this the fact that we were experiencing one of the worst natural disasters at that time. With many staff either being directly impacted or knowing someone who was directly impacted by the events. There are many similarities between what I experienced then and what we are experiencing today.
I lessons I learnt were I needed to change my mindset, my skillset and my focus.
When I look back, I realise the way I was leading my team in those initial days/weeks was like trying to merge onto a highway attempting to accelerate to 100 km per hour in second gear. As you can imagine, driving a car this way would be very inefficient, ineffective and I would most likely have burned out the engine if I had continued for too long. This is exactly what it is like if you attempt to lead a virtual team the same way you lead a co-located or flexible-working team; very soon they will quickly become inefficient, ineffective and you may possibly even burn them out at worst or completely disengage them at best.
To effectively and efficiently merge at 100 km per hour, you need to shift gears and that is exactly what is required to lead virtually; you need to shift your mindset, your skillset and your focus.
Mindset
According to the Oxford Dictionary, mindset is a set of attitudes or fixed ideas that someone has and that are often difficult to change. So, essentially your mindset is your belief or set of beliefs that determines the way you handle different situations, including how you make sense of what's going on around you and how you decide what to do next.
Historically if you are used to leading in a certain way, with your team located in the office; then you have a particular set of attitudes, ideas and beliefs around how to lead your team effectively - perfect for the environment you are used to and know. But suddenly, as a leader, you find yourself in an environment that you are unfamiliar with and if you continue to lead as you do today, you are likely going to experience misunderstandings, frustrations, you will make mistakes, mis-communicate, and make assumptions.
Your mindset will be the difference between successfully leading your team through this change to create a new world of stability … or not.
“In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I’m going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here’s a chance to grow.”
There are many different mindset predispositions and underlying each of these are a different set of beliefs, attitudes and behaviours based of your individual perspective. For example, if you have a predisposition towards a fixed mindset, then you will have a set of beliefs and attitudes that you and your team are unable to change and adapt to the skills and technology required to work and lead virtually. Similarly, you may have a predisposition towards performance and being recognised for your work; or an implemental mindset, only focussed on implementing the decisions and changes required to get set up, closing yourself off to other ideas and perspectives. Perhaps you are more deliberative and responsive to new information and perspectives, allowing you to think and act according to the needs of the situation. Or your predisposition may be driven by promotion, wholly focused on winning and being the best, at all cost.
You can easily begin to see that underlying these predispositions lies another layer of beliefs and attitudes, as they relate to leading your team, on trust, accountability, responsibility, empowerment, agility and adaptability, responsiveness, etc.
How aware are you of your current mindset? Will it serve you well when leading virtually? With an increased clarity and awareness of your current mindset and the shift required, your next area of attention is skillset.
Skillset
Mindset was my first lesson in leading virtually, my second was I required a different skillset, or at a minimum I needed to ‘uplift’ my existing skillset.
Why? When you work in separate locations permanently, you remove significant frameworks that allow your team to function effectively eg communication, accountability, and daily structure. So, it’s no surprise that with this change you need to ‘uplift’ your skillset to a completely new level of capability. And in some cases, learn completely new skills.
Research conducted by Dr Will Felps from the University of New South Wales, Australia, on best practice in leading virtual teams found that the rules that apply to face-to-face teams do not apply to virtual teams. In his research Dr Will Felps found leaders must be more disciplined in their approach to leading virtual teams, paying particular attention to:
Redesigning and co-creating new team frameworks: resetting the team’s vision, mission, and success; a new way of working charter, team values and expectations, and clear roles and responsibilities.
A need to accelerate accountability: be specific and clear on who is accountable for what, what success looks like, and timeframes.
An emphasises on responsiveness: who is available when, agree response times specific to different methods of contact.
New ways of creating connection, including social connection: between your team members, you, the wider department and the organisation as a whole; both in a professional and personal sense.
Intensified communication: be strategic and over-communicate. What’s the best method of communication for the message type, repetition of messages via different communication methods, and keep side conversations to a minimum.
Create of a culture of shared leadership: shared leadership will increase engagement through empowerment. Find ways to involve your team in shaping their new world by assigning responsibility, eg identifying and sharing best practices, training in areas of expertise ie new technologies or ask them to run virtual team-building exercises.
New methods of motivation: for many their motivational drivers will be further removed in a virtual environment. If you are not aware of the drivers of your team, find out and find ways you can recreate and drive motivation within the team.
Appropriate use of technology: you will need to rely on technology more than ever, replacing what you take for granted in a physical world with digital alternatives. Find fit for purpose alternatives to facilitate different objectives, eg creating social connection is more effective over group video than via a conference call.
Complete a gap analysis on your skillset; what needs an ‘uplift, what are the new skills you need to develop? With this knowledge in hand and a personal development plan in place, you can then determine your focus.
Focus
At this very moment in time, where are you focussed? Are you focussing on yourself, on others or on what’s happening in the wider world? Very easy to be distracted and focussing on the latter given the current world.
Or do you feel yourself focussed wholly on others ie your team and family; making sure they are ok, giving them your time and attention, at the detriment of your own well-being and needs Or you may find yourself solely focussed on outcomes and results, oblivious to how your team is experience the turmoil and change?
Wherever your focus is, the shift to leading virtually will require you to make a change.
A survey of over 60,000 employees completed to see which leadership characteristics made leaders “great” in the eyes of their employees found that leaders who focussed only on people are considered great leaders only 12% of the time and leaders who focussed only on results are considered great leaders 14% of the time. But leaders that focus on both results and people are considered great leaders 72% of the time.
So, what should you be focussing on? There is no right or wrong answer, it’s about getting the balance between self, people and results right, based on the current environment at the time. As a virtual leader how do you get that balance right? You need to work progressively through each element discussed and complete a pulse check:
Firstly, you. Where is your mindset? Have your carved out some time each day for your own wellbeing? Have you set clear boundaries around work and home? Have you created a routine for the working day/week?
Secondly, your team. Where is their mindset? How are they coping with the changes? Are they clear on your expectations? Do they have the frameworks, structures, skillset and technology in place to support them in this new way of working?
Lastly, results. To quote Richard Branson “if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients”. And when you take care of your clients, the results will follow.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.