Virtual Team

Leadership
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Virtual teams face the challenge of separation and leadership is an essential

element to ensuring that there is a strong working relationship with fellow
workers. According to (), teams succeed due to a leadership, a defined set
of roles, clear task direction and a culture of interaction. In the context of a
physical team environment many of these behavioural characteristics can
be observed and reacted to. In contrast, a virtual team does not have the
benefit of a physical environment and therefore to be successful the
behavioural characteristics need to be managed differently. The key is the
leaders ability to provide good communication and feedback to the virtual
team and build a set of core strengths that are unique to a virtual
arrangement. The leader is also responsible for linking all members of the
team and ensuring there is adequate resources and technology so the team
can share information and contacts.

In addition, according to (), a team leader within a virtual environment

must be able to demonstrate a set of attributes that vary from managing a
traditional team. The major impact upon the virtual environment is the
tyranny of distance. Distance challenges the team leader and therefore they
must hold a separate set of competencies or the team will fail. Indeed, one
significant area is the method of control. In a physical space team leaders
are acutely aware if team members are not performing and can control
outcomes at regular intervals during the day. In the case of virtual teams,
control is far less important (due to the ability to directly oversea
performance) than actual commitment of the team member. Furthermore,
communication and interaction is more important than commanding.
Finally, virtual team leaders must have the ability to connect, inspire and
develop a resource network of information that is shared amongst each
team member rather than being the gatekeeper of important information.

In summary, leadership is vital to the outcomes achieved in virtual teams.

Without a clear leadership strategy the team will flounder and in many
cases the virtual team concept will be deemed as a failure, rather than
consider the unique attributes that a leader must hold.

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The report highlights two examples that illustrate the structure of virtual
teams in global organizations and importantly the value a leader, in terms
of direction and communication, is to the virtual team.

In first example, Valdivia (2007), Valdiva is a team member within an

online school for learning. He suggests that a leader that is able to
articulate a set of team objectives and delegate key team tasks to be
achieved within a deadline is critical to the success of virtual teams. In the
example of Valdiva, the team leader has strong, reliable and fast
communication that allowed each member to know where the team was up
to in achieving the goals. Furthermore, the team leader was flexible and
was able to changed and adapt to external environmental pressures. This
meant individual expectations and team expectations were always fluid
and each member understood what their fellow team members were doing.
Another example is, Hansel (2015), working in a global IT company as a
leader with long distance. The key to Hansel was the leaders ability to
empathize and understand the challenges of a virtual team member. This
demonstrated that the leader had experience and respected the virtual team
environment and could gain respect in return. The most relevant point for
Hansel is that the team leader must engage, be personal, and be truly
committed and connected to the virtual team member. The distance is a
challenge and often virtual team members can feel alone and not part of a
team, the team leaders role is to make certain that this does not take over
the team atmosphere. To do this, Hansel suggested that the virtual team
needed to become a social environment where team members supported
each other, shared information and helped each other to achieve what

needed to be done. Communications is the central attribute to a successful

virtual team and the ability to build a set of team intelligential core
competencies. The leaders role is to facilitate this communication every
day and engage in formal and informal meetings to keep all team members
involved. In this way a team leader can share the team goals and build
different smaller goals so the team feels as if achievements are being
constantly made. Success breeds success and this is nevermore important
when challenged by distance.

Reference