Managing a Virtual Team
Leaders, Working in virtual teams is one key challenge in the digitization of companies today, both for employees and leaders alike. You may have a team that is spread over different cities, regions or even different countries. How can you ensure that this team will achieve the best results and satisfy your customers’ requirements at its best? This article will give an overview of challenges you as a virtual team leader face, and some tips as to how you get your leadership approach right. The good news is, if you manage your virtual team right, it can even outperform teams that share the same office space, according to the Aon consulting report. Effects of Distance As the Harvard Business Review (HBR) reports, distance is the greatest challenge in managing a virtual team. There are different kinds of distances, like geographic, temporal, cultural or linguistic. Mark Mortensen, an associate professor of Organizational [...]
How Effective Is Your Team?
I have a dream. Wouldn’t it be great if we all worked in teams that have no politics nor dysfunctions so that we can get our work done and focus on the desired results? Please be aware: If you want to make teams effective, it does require high levels of courage and discipline. Teamwork is the ultimate competitive advantage in today’s business world. Improving teamwork is not only a critical leadership endeavor, it also reduces the degree of stress and dissatisfaction of the people in organizations, which – if not addressed – can cost the company an extensive amount of money. How can you actually develop a team to be cohesive and operate functionally? What does it take to get to that state? While I was chewing on these questions, I discovered the book „The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni. The greatest take-away for me is that [...]
Hit the Spot Developing your Team
Back in th e 90ies, a typical phone call I got from a manager went like this: “I am calling you because I need a teambuilding activity for my team.” “Yeah, great, what do you need?” “Well, I thought you were the expert…” “I am but you need to know what you want. What is it your team needs?” “Eh, … teambuilding, that’s why I called you.” “Yep, but is it more about climate, low performance, leadership issues, processes, conflict…?” “That’s it! A bit of all!” Sounds somewhat familiar? From that conversation I could be sure that I had to deal with a “team in crisis”. Back then, a lot of managers only approached me when they felt that things got out of hands, and they could not deal with the situation in their teams anymore. Fortunately, these times are gone. Teambuilding has become a totally normal thing. It is no [...]
The Unique Dynamics of Senior Leadership Teams
Leaders, The Senior Leadership Team have the most overt power in any organization. Their decisions have implications for everyone else in the organization as well as for the future of the organization itself. Many people strive for admittance to that elite table. 95% of top managers are alpha people who made it to the top through absolute determination for performance. These alphas are deeply confident about their superior rationality, which is a great asset for their organization. Yet, under pressure they develop behavioral patterns that can prevent or destroy collaboration. Alphas then exhibit dominance, actionism, and rivalry. Senior Leadership Teams are solely connected via an abstract mission statement or financial goals. Their priority is the success of their own silos or functions. Their effectiveness is challenged by conflicts (some lasting for years), jealousies, reservations to participation, and various kinds of back- (and front-) stabbing. Alphas need to make a conscious [...]
Developing Strengths
Leaders, How much time and effort do you devote to developing your own and others’ strengths? And, conversely, how much time do you invest in fixing your own and others’ shortcomings? Does your staff have the opportunity to do what they do best every day? All leaders have their own unique talents, which they use in different ways to bring out the best in themselves and others. To lead high-achieving teams, you need to be able to recognize the unique strengths of each team member, optimize all those natural gifts, and bring them to work. Concentrating on your strengths leads to a better sense of fulfillment and forward progress. Research by the Gallup Organization found that building on employee strengths is much more effective in raising performance than trying to improve weaknesses. Gallup also found that when employees become aware of their strengths, they become 7.8 % more productive. Teams that [...]
High-Impact Leadership to Develop Winning Teams
Leaders, Are you continuously aligning the tasks and goals of your team with the overall vision and objectives of your organization? How important is team development in your organization? Are you creating an environment that allows people to be all they can be? The subject of high-achieving teams is nothing new. The output of organizations large and small is still driven by collective effort. More than ever before, collaboration is the crucial element leading to success in today’s fast-growing companies. Every day brings new challenges and no one person, however smart and educated, can possess the complete solution. Teams must form, innovate, execute and deliver complex solutions at continually increasing speeds to meet market demands. While the underlying key values of team performance – trust, commitment, engagement, communication, accountability, and results – remain unchanged, the environment that surrounds and influences team performance has changed a great deal. In any company, there [...]