How can you manage virtual teams in an international organization?

My own experience managing Global Teams and diverse / international Team co-workers, shows the following priorities list: 1) In a NUTSHELL: provide clear goals, expectations (target, best in clear numbers and figures), and communication rules, straight at the beginning, e.g., one speaks after the other, and needs to raise the "digital hand" before opening the microphone in online meetings. Important: respectful, short and appropriate tonality are a must; 2) NO MEETINGS if no clear point and decision to taken. Agenda and recommendations for decisions/scenarios to be sent in upfront; 3) LESS IS MORE: we invite co-workers and Team members, only if they have a clear function or role there - time is the most important asset we have.

Clear goals and expectations are essential for any team, but I've found that in a virtual, or particularly a hybrid team, it's essential to co-create these. Involve your team in setting those goals and expectations, particularly around frequency and duration of meetings. Some people need more contact and others need less - you will need to balance those needs. A team charter that explicitly defines areas of responsibility and decision making rights is crucial as a virtual team is by nature more likely to be siloed, so ensuring each person knows who is doing what, who should sign off tasks and the accountability lines will save a ton of unnecessary communication as well as giving confidence that each person is valued and heard.

Trust isn't built is social events; it's not built by clever words or charismatic motivation. Trust is built and maintained by your actions. Empower, rather than instruct; coach rather than demand; amplify rather than interrupt. Managing a virtual team requires a manager to rethink their approach to measuring success and engagements. Rather than measuring by process, we must measure by results. Not ascribing being online at a certain time as engagement, but by looking at outputs. If you can get that right, trust will come.

The most impactful way to build trust with team members is simply to listen to them. As we don't have the opportunity in the virtual work environment to pass someone in the hall or have a chat over the water cooler, taking a moment to learn a bit more about the person on the other side of the video call is a great way to earn their trust. By showing curiosity and lending a listening ear, you demonstrate that you value the team member you're talking to, earning their trust as part of you team.

I've been working with culture and cultural differences. Adaptation in this context, doesn't mean being subservient to another person's style, but ensuring that when you adapt it is intentional and purposeful. It adds value. The cultural intelligence model helps here: Awareness: be aware that your understanding of what is normal is not shared by any one else - your thinking and logic is yours and is not clear to anyone else Knowlege: learn the cultural styles and values of others and understand how it impacts you and them in their thinking and relationships Skills: flex your communication, leadership and trust-building skills to incorporate the needs of others.

I'm specially happy to contribute herewith, since the topic diversity (also, inclusion) is one of my main Leadership & Management focus points, starting with my own background; German, born in Brazil, son to Japanese and Italian parents: 1) The BASIS: diversity means more EXPERIENCES and KNOWLEDGE to me and to my Team, according to my Global Leadership experience; 2) The KEY: to transform this power and knowledge into concrete deliverables and Team performance, my advise is to (2.1.) don't stereotype or "tag" people, products or situations and (2.2.) practice and learn how great it is, to have the diversity giving the broadest and deepest spectrum of INPUT, so that the output, well guided and managed, give us the best OUTPUT, really.

Tsedal Neeley wrote a great book called the Remote Work Revolution - and one concept I really love is the idea of categorizing all the tools available to us. Our tools range from low touch (chat, text) to high touch (in person gatherings) and the trick is to be clear with your team on when to use each tool. Things like zoom fatigue happen when we use a tool incorrectly (eg, we are using video calls when a phone call might suffice). While Zoom fatigue is just one example, it really helped me to go through all the tools available to my team and articulate a clear expectation on when each tool is most appropriate. This helped us collaborate far more efficiently (and joyfully!) overtime.

When managing virtual teams feedback and recognition must be clear, frequent, and multi-channeled to ensure team members remain engaged, and understand how to thrive and grow. As individual team members have unique ways of interpreting and processing feedback, a mix of live video conversation, and written evaluations will give team members the best shot at comprehending feedback. Frequent cadence is also key. By combining periodic formal reviews and real-time feedback virtual managers have the opportunity to reinforce feedback and recognition to their teams in different formats. Finally, and no different from the in-person work environment, feedback must be clear and actionable to contribute in a constructive way to team member growth.

Happiness, wellness, self-esteem, self-confidence and trust, are proven elements of our satisfaction as workers and human-beings. It's proven that constructive feedback and recognition are, even statistically, way more important than the salaries, benefits and anything material regarding a job or employment (not underestimating the fact that, of course, the material side is fundamental; actually, part of basics): 1) be passionate about what you do; transmit and share genuinely this passion with your Team, and as many other Teams and people you can reach; 2) Don't wait too long to provide feedback - it's good, only as long as it is "fresh"; 3) Appreciate and recognise good people, actions and results. Celebrate them! We all need it.

Each year we launch an engagement survey to our virtual team, with consistent questions so that we can track progress over time. We then interpret engagement survey results and find areas to build into our annual initiatives for the upcoming year. As we strive for perfection of our firm, team member feedback is a key driver of goal setting.

There have been four virtual revolutions in the workplace which we underestimate: Co-located to hybrid - we need to break the co-located mindset and not just try to emulate it when working virtually Synchronous to asynchronous - we aren't working the same hours as our colleagues, so we need to reframe our expecations around time Verbal to written - we use IM, WhatsApp, Teams messages and email more than we speak to people. Accidental conversations can move to this format too Process to results. We no longer need to obsess about how we do things, but can focus on results with a specific set of parameters. To join the revolution we need to evolve and not recreate a virtual version of in-person working.