Virtual Teams Resolving the Dilemmas of Teamwork

Virtual Teams

Resolving the Dilemmas of Teamwork in Virtual Teams

The continual adoption of virtual teams by enterprises globally are making the dilemmas of teamwork more challenging than ever, exacerbated by cultural, distance and time constraints. These dilemmas are made all the more challenging based on the pace of change accelerating, uncertainty over economic conditions and the continual turbulence in global economies. Further complicating virtual teams is the lack of transparency within and between virtual teams. Virtual team leaders have to contend with all of these dilemmas and challenges in order for guide their organizations towards the attainment of their goals and objectives.

Overcoming the Dilemma of Virtual Teams Through Leadership

The continual adoption of virtual teams continues to completely re-order the culture, nature and trust levels across organizations (LaBrosse, 2008). This dynamics Is happening in companies with just 200 employees and a subset being virtual vs. large corporations with thousands of remote or virtual employees. There are many factors that contribute to this, and the most dominant is the innate ability of virtual teams to form and quickly function, often in highly targeted, specific areas of a business (Purvanova, Bono, 2009). The preferred model of expansion fro high-growth businesses is to first rely on virtual teams to gain the essential expertise they need first, and then scale out in a given geographic location when and if the economics of the business model warrant it. The leading consultancies of the world have been able to use the virtual team model for decades to quickly create and assign virtual teams to complex projects. Large system integration companies including Deloitte, IBM, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) and others typically populate their virtual teams with individual contributors who have deep expertise in a given field or specialty (Shriberg, 2009). The reliance on virtual teams to scale out and gain access to these experts is essential for the business models of these larger system integration companies that often must produce results within weeks of an initial project beginning. The time pressure these teams are under force each contributor to become highly collaborative and trusting, despite having never met in person (LaBrosse, 2008). Without trust an entire virtual team would stop functioning and would eventually lead to a project ceasing to be completed on deadline (Shriberg, 2009).

The most urgent dilemma of virtual teams then is leadership (Purvanova, Bono, 2009). It takes leader with strong emotional intelligence (EI) skills, and the ability to transform a diverse group of professionals into a team with a common objective to succeed. Regardless of how interesting a virtual team project is to the participants, without trust there will be little accomplished in the short timeframes these teams often have to work within.

For the leader of a virtual team they need to quickly define strategies for overcoming the innate lack of trust in their organizations while also seeking to galvanize the virtual teams to exciting and challenging goals. The best virtual team leaders concentrate on the four attributes of transformational leadership including individualized consideration, providing their subordinates with chances to grow intellectually, providing inspirational motivation and continually pursuing idealized influence as a role model for the team (Purvanova, Bono, 2009). Exceptional virtual team leaders rely on these four attributes and create a high level of trust between team members. Creating a unified team can be accomplished using these techniques, accelerating trust between team members and creating a strong bond between all of them. Insightful leaders will also create events for all team members to get to know each other face-to-face, further solidifying the bonds within the team (Shriberg, 2009).

One of the most stressful aspects of virtual teams is having a manager or leader champion them at corporate headquarters as well. The lack of visibility virtual team members have to corporate headquarters can cause strong political overtones throughout a virtual team. It's imperative that the leader of a team continually use their influence in an organization to underscore their contributions, while also showing how well the team is working together. If a leader can do this within headquarters, there will be significantly less anxiety, infighting and stress within the virtual team itself. When an organization is undergoing slowing sales or stressful times, the fears and anxiety often get amplified throughout virtual teams. A capable leader of a virtual team will often step in and protect his team in headquarters, even having them in for a series of updates and face-to-face meetings as well. All of these factors are essential for the development of an effective virtual team.