SHAPING A CULTURE WHILE MANAGING A VIRTUAL TEAM
Many believe that great culture emerges organically in teams that share the same office space, but this is a misconception.?Co-located?or not, amazing culture is planned strategically and built with effort.?
Small?culture-building moments like sharing a new idea with the person sitting next to you or casual conversation over lunch happen naturally for teams that work in the same office space.
Leaders managing virtual teams can cultivate their versions of these culture-building moments but should think outside the box.?Modern problems demand modern solutions, and when it comes to building culture virtually, technology can be a manager’s best tool.
Tips to Virtually Build Culture
We just share tips for building culture on a virtual team. Especially when applied in combination, these tactics can help energize your virtual workforce with the same sense of shared culture that unites more traditional workforces.
Emphasize Culture
The virtual onboarding process should also place a heavy emphasis on the culture that defines your organization including the systems, traditions, and behaviors employees use to uphold it.
Especially in organizations where all or a significant part of the team works remotely,?core values?become the vital force driving company culture. They are so important that the entire subsequent section is devoted to discussing how to live by?core values?when working remotely. But to exercise maximum impact when managing a virtual team, you need to set the stage at onboarding with a thorough discussion of what your core values are and the behaviors you see as exemplifying them.
Create it by Your Values
The process of building a team that truly embodies your?company's core values?starts at onboarding. From there, it never ends. After sharing your core values at onboarding comes the process of creating a?virtual work environment?where those ideals?define the way employees behave.
For all leaders, but especially those managing a virtual team, having a strategic system in place to do this is essential. Without a way to reinforce company core values, they remain inaccessible concepts that employees (at best) think of as vague behavioral ideals or (at worst) don’t remember at all.
By reinforcing the values you want to define your company, you transform core values into active (rather than passive) goals. Employee?recognition?programs are a reliable way for leaders managing a virtual team to reward their most value-driven employees and include the whole team in celebrating what living by core values looks like in practice.
Emphasize Shared Goals
Nothing builds team spirit like a shared?sense of purpose. Although this is a best practice for all effective workplace leaders, leaders managing a virtual team should?be especially transparent with their team about what the group’s high-level goals are and how each member plays a role.
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Whether this happens through quarterly meetings or is reinforced during weekly company updates, you should broadcast your virtual teams’ most important initiatives loud and clear. Once you’re confident that everyone is well acquainted with these goals, shift your focus to calling people out for the?individual contributions?they make towards them.
More visibility into how employees’ contributions drive team progress and how their colleagues’ work aligns with the same goals increases team collaboration.
Communicate Thoughtfully
Everything from experience to?emotional intelligence?to the unique dynamics of individual relationships dictates the quality of?communication?that takes place at work, and we won’t attempt to unpack all of that in the span of a few paragraphs. Having that discussion could (and has) filled multiple books.
If the usual rule is to always think one step ahead, virtual teams need to think three to five steps ahead.?
When you’re managing a virtual team, be conscious of the fact that last-minute requests and changes can be a?lot?harder to respond to when people don’t work physically side-by-side. The moment a team member in New York steps out for lunch could be the same second a West Coast colleague realizes they urgently need a report pulled before a call with a prospect — and that seemingly minor delay could be the difference between a happy customer and a lost opportunity.?
Taking extra care to plan and communicate clearly about timelines can help prevent these kinds of incidents and minimize stress.
Casual Communication
Provided that your virtual team practices?ultra-considerate?communication for work-related projects, a place for colleagues to discuss more than work can do a lot to build culture. It lets team members get to know one another better which creates chances for them to connect over more than just work. Whether you support this through unstructured banter at the beginning of virtual meetings or?chat channels?devoted to anything but work, the best company cultures have strong?social bonds?running through them. One study even indicated that colleagues who had 15 minutes a day for?unstructured socializing?showed 20% higher performance than those who did not. Virtual or not, it’s important to ensure your team has the chance to form social bonds with one another.
Final Thoughts
By implementing these suggestions while managing a virtual team, you can transform a group of remote employees into an organizational powerhouse that runs on company culture.
Although perhaps counterintuitive, virtual teams and rich company culture are not necessarily at odds with one another. While many leaders still find it difficult to reconcile the modern workforce’s demand for both, the solutions we’ve outlined above demonstrate that it’s well within a strong leader’s capabilities to facilitate both.
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