Posted: December 16th, 2022

Virtual Team Leader

Virtual Team Leader

A virtual team is a group of people who work together and are from different locations. They rely on communication technologies and nowadays there are different modern applications to collaborate and give good performance. There is a virtual team leader whose work is to supervise the team members to ensure that work is well-coordinated and done efficiently. To ensure that the team produces a good performance, a team leader must have good characteristics that are determined through his/her skills.
Communication is the most important skill required for a successful virtual team leading. For example; looking for new technologies that aid in the communication of team members, like instant messaging application. These will help in discussing the way forward and setting and resetting goals and priorities. The ability to manage change effectively is another characteristic. For example, if a leader can express himself, engage people affected by the change by discussing the affected areas, they will come to terms easily. The ability to create an atmosphere open to collaboration is an important character. For example; emphasizing on building relationships with others and trusting each other to create a firm bond. With this bond, everyone will be willing to work together. (DeRosa, D.,2010).
The authors of this book have stated the importance of characteristics of a good virtual team leader which I agree with. This is because these characteristics help the team to gain trust among members which encourages collaboration. If its two products doing well in the market, the stakeholders can produce merged items that will perform much better. An effective virtual leader will also ensure members have communicated on goals and priorities to ensure that they are getting the expected results. Team members will also be able to accept and adapt to changes easily and take it positively to get better performance. Although all this is done virtually, a good team leader will make it possible.
Virtual team leaders also face challenges in delivering a good job. Building a collaborative atmosphere virtually is hard because creating trust among members virtually is close to impossible. managing poor performers virtually can be very difficult. Having very rare face-to-face contact is challenging since communication done virtually is not as effective as the one done face-to-face. Virtual leaders also lack time to focus on leading the team because some of these virtual jobs are taken as part-time. To ensure these challenges are resolved, I would provide coaching and support to team members, respond quickly to any arising problems, hold team members accountable and delegate work to members effectively.
Virtual team-leading can be challenging especially when you have it as a part-time job. It is important to provide the necessary skills to team leaders and members to be able to assess their personal and general performances. Strategies used to balance the execution-oriented factors with the interpersonal and communication factors are very critical for the success of a virtual team.
Reference
Lepsinger, R., & DeRosa, D. (2010). Virtual team success: A practical guide for working and leading from a distance. John Wiley & Sons.

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