Leading Virtual Teams
We have seen some major changes within Japanese corporates as they move overseas. In the old days, the Japanese headquarters would dispatch a generalist company man, as an expat to be posted for five years in a foreign clime. They would be forgotten for five years until they came back to work in Japan. Typically, to be sent to some totally unrelated business area than where they had been gaining valuable skills. This was the established logic of moving people around throughout the company, over many years, to make sure they understood how the whole thing operated.
With the predictions quite clear about the limitations to the market in Japan for good and services, many large companies have begun buying offshore companies in their industries, so that they can continue to make profits, even as the home market declines. In the new model, staff situated in Japan will be running virtual teams located around the globe. Foreign business heads will have Japanese staff here in Japan reporting to them. All of this is being done remotely, with few opportunities to meet.
Although the technology today for videoconferencing is pretty good, it is not perfect. When we go wide angle, to be able to see everyone sitting around the meeting room table, you can’t gauge people’s reactions because they are too far away from the camera. Add to this the sound quality, which is rarely good. Language barriers and cultural barriers, become intensified in this environment as well. Insider jokes in a foreign language are impenetrable to everyone else. People talking over the top of each other, makes it hard to hear what is going on. How do you successfully lead in this environment?
There are five C’s to concentrate on.
Connection
This doesn’t just mean the physical connection of upgrading the technology. It means connecting the people together and with the leader. We are all leading separate lives, operating in different cultures, so we need to build some bonds between us. Start the meetings with some good news – one piece personal and one piece work related. When operating virtually, the leader must make this compulsory. “I don’t have any” is not an acceptable answer. We need the team members to build bonds by sharing details of their lives with each other.
Confidence
When we play team sports, we depend on our team mates to do their job properly. We need to have confidence that they will be where they need to be, when they need to be, so that we can cover our own responsibilities. It is the same in business. Where this breaks down in a virtual environment are when the expectations and work norms differ. Timeliness for an email reply, being on time with a report, accuracy of the numbers, etc., all differ according to which country you are located in. The leader has to set the standards for the group. The norms must be stated and defended.
Communication
In a virtual leadership environment “over communication” must be the norm. More calls to team members than usual. More regular group meetings than usual. There should also be a number of meetings together each year, in person, to build the bonds deeper and further. Meeting notes must be taken and distributed so that language barriers are reduced. English is the standard international language and most non-native speakers are trained to read English better than to speak it.
Collaboration
Joint projects involving different locations are going to be the best way for people to learn how to work together. We have enough silo problems in our own countries already. To get around this silo issue on steroids, joint work, involving different international members ensures that people get used to working together and the trust gets heightened. The boss has to be the sheriff making sure everyone does what they are supposed to be doing. Without that overview, things will slip and slide for sure.
Commitment
Getting verbal commitment is easy. No one is going to tell the boss to buzz off and expect to keep their job. The real commitment is when the boss is not aware of what is going on and the team members are getting on with it. The way to build the commitment is through shared vision, mission and values. The virtual environment has to be self-policing as much as possible. If we are all signed on for achieving the vision and we clearly realise what is our mission, then the values will glue us together. The leader’s job is to keep pushing on these elements. They have to become part of the daily framework of cooperating together.
Operating across borders, in a virtual environment, won’t be easy or straight forward. However, if the leader concentrates on making these five factors work for them, then the whole operation will succeed.
Action Steps
Connections must be built amongst the people Confidence in each other must be established Communication that is clear Collaboration that is reliable Commitment that gets the job done