Page 24 - 2nd Newsletter - Jan - Sep 2020

Expert Corner by Doris Martin, Head of Advisory – BBS,

CEO DMartin Business Consultancy – “Crash Course”

on virtual leadership: Team Success at a Distance.

Since Covid 19 has disrupted the world, the reality of working from
home presents a new challenge for most leaders: how to ensure team
success when working virtually? At the same time those same leaders
and managers, as well as their team members are increasingly feeling
the stress of this new reality. The challenge to perform professionally
with the added responsibility to home school our children, alongside
being cooped up at home and not being able to have the kind of social
interaction that we humans desire. This crisis can impact our mental
health. Leaders need to ask themselves how they will manage to achieve
their targets, how to maintain their trust base and keep their teams
engaged. As it will take months before we return to any kind of “Normal,” we need a practical crash
course on virtual leadership: “Team Success at a Distance.”

Team success relies on the following four layers, ranked according to importance.
1. Strengthen the mutual trust base:
a. Call and care for your colleagues and check in without an agenda
b. Ask colleagues to make a video of their home office and share in a team call to gain
understanding of their current situation
c. Indicate a conversation about team norms and agree on ways of working
2. Keep the team engaged:
a. Prepare online meetings well in advance by sending reminders before hand and to make
sure there are clear tasks to each part
b. Ensure enough time in the meeting for a check in moment
c. Have fun together by inventing virtual tea/coffee/lunch breaks, and organizing games that
create energy
3 Ensure constructive interaction with more dialogue:
a. Share personality profiles more actively to ensure a common language in understanding
each other
b. Invite and elicit open dialogue and feedback
c. Use online surveys and polling tools
4. Action result by writing clear targets, rules and responsibilities
a. Reiterate the goals that bind the team and prioritize targets and tasks
b. Create smaller defined task/milestones and celebrate success more often
c. Be overly explicit about rules and responsibilities
Practical prerequisites:
1. Structure the process transparently: Agree on online meeting etiquette; Have rotating
leadership of online meetings and agree what each role entails and agree on video to
ensure presence and required focus.
2. Be proactive in organizing online meetings: Organize a daily kick –off and check out call with
a set agenda; Make sure everyone is in their own comfortable environment for online calls;
Establish online team rituals.