Rudeness When Jim Morrison of the Doors
When Jim Morrison of the Doors famously sang, "People are strange," what he should have sang is, "People are rude!" Two articles, one published by ABC.com and another published by CNN.com (via the Oprah Winfrey Show),…
Leading the Organization Insights From
In creating an effective team, every person involved needs to realize that it is their commitment and willingness to stay fully engaged, involved and committed to the common goal that matter most. To be only partially committed is to invite mediocrity and failure. The foundation of any effective virtual team is active involvement and participation, including a willingness to collaborate and a decision to trust. All of these factors don't exist in a vacuum however. A strong leader is essential for any virtual team to succeed. The intent of this memo is to define the key success factors your virtual team will need to succeed.
Key Success Factors For Virtual Team Performance
Based on the readings, case analysis and continued studies in this course the following key success factors emerge as most important in creating and leading a virtual team. The first and most important is to create a shared sense of purpose and a common goal. Everyone involved on the team must share this commitment, and the leader needs to show by example why the goal and the broader vision are worth sacrificing time and effort for.
It is often on this initial phase of a team formation that transformational leaders emerge. Their ability to inspire others on the team to make sacrifices, stay focused, and attain complex objectives that matter the most. A transactional leader, often relying on short-term rewards and punishments, often fails to gain the necessary support and buy-in from team members and teams often falter as a result. Instead the focus needs to be on creating a compelling vision and series of challenging goals for the team. Compelling, challenging goals are just the first step however. Inherent in this step is also the need for creating a team that has a high degree of ownership for these goals. An effective team leader will be able to clearly communicate how the unique strengths of each person on the virtual team make the challenging goals and vision of the group achievable. Further, best practices in this are concentrated more on allowing each virtual team members flexibility and freedom in how they do their jobs. While transactionally-driven managers will often rely on immediate punishments or rewards, transformational leaders motivate more through the use of explaining where each person fits in the overall team and its attainment of a broader goal or objective. This is a critical best practice and one the book brings up both directly and through a series of examples as well. The selection of a leader is crucial for a team to attain its objectives.