After the Covid-19 pandemic forced most businesses to adapt to remote work environments to stay afloat during shelter-in-place, many leaders became aware of the numerous benefits that remote work has to offer. Even as life is beginning to regain a sense of normalcy, many organizations have chosen to stick with remote and hybrid work environments.
As executive clients embrace remote and hybrid work environments, they may need some help getting used to leading virtual teams. Below, 16 members of Forbes Coaches Council weigh in with their best advice for leaders who are tasked with navigating these new ways of conducting business.
Forbes Coaches Council members weigh in.
Photos courtesy of individual members.
1. Lead With Empathy, Authenticity, Trust
The last two years have shown us the importance of leading with empathy, authenticity, and trust whether in person or virtually. From experience, I have found that virtual teams require the same thing as physical teams, get to know the humans in the team, understand what gives them energy, understand when they may be challenged and understand how you can support them to achieve their goals. – Carol Brown, 109
2. Set Clear Expectations On Communication
Establish clear expectations on communication frequency and cadence to stay truly connected. Don’t be fooled into thinking there isn’t a culture just because the team is hybrid or 100% remote. Define and protect the culture. What are the values and how are they lived out in person, remote or in a hybrid situation? Most importantly, conduct one-on-one meetings with your immediate direct reports to know how they are doing. – Shelley Smith, Premier Rapport
3. Check In, Be Present, Inspire, Share Gratitude
Check in — now that people are working from home or in a hybrid setting there is a significant risk of not feeling part of the team, and not feeling part of the organization’s success. Team members need to continue to be engaged as part of the community. Be present — your team needs you more than ever to be the leader they respect and who keeps them safe and valued. Inspire and share gratitude. – Robert Gauvreau, Gauvreau | Accounting Tax Law Advisory
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4. Improve Level Of Connection With The Team
As an executive, one of the most important keys to leading a remote team, efficiently, is to improve the level of connection with the team, and between the members themselves. Connection is not granted and doesn’t come automatically. Similar to trust, we build it throughout actions and behaviors, and great connection brings smoother communication, stronger collaboration and higher productivity. – Karim Amri, HUMANA CANADA CONSULTANCY
5. Make The Team Feel Valued
Leaders must show empathy while leading remote and hybrid teams with clear expectations and goals. As a leader, it’s vital to have team-building events and make the team feel valued. My favorite is the DISC personality test — we share our results to learn more about our communication style, what type of projects we would excel in and how to succeed in the workplace. – Holly Lee , Holly Lee & Associates, Inc.
6. Take Time To Understand Team Impact
It starts with taking time to understand the impact on the team instead of leading from a place of knowing what the team is going through. Give teams a way to express their challenges working in a remote and hybrid environment that provides psychological safety and belonging. Provide the team with different ways to connect with the client through one-on-one check-ins or virtual group coffee chats. – Breshana Miller, Kairos Coaching & Consulting, LLC
7. Focus On Energizing And Empowering
Leaders should focus on energizing and empowering their followers by encouraging a high degree of autonomy for people to make decisions, innovate and get things done. Their authentic behavior and daily interactions should foster social cohesion and build trust through shared purpose and work meaning. – Zoran M Pavlovic, Heruka Health Innovations
8. Build Trust, Let Work Results Speak Loudest
It’s all about building trust-based relationships. Start with the mindset that your team members are professional adults that you don’t need to control if they’re really working. Let the work results speak louder than words. For that, you need to have a neat handshake about objectives and key results and their action plans. Have regular one-on-ones to talk not only about transactions but also about their dreams and challenges on a meta-level. – Ozlem Sarioglu, SparkUs Digital Coaching
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9. Get To Know Employees Personally
Get to know employees individually. Learn their partner’s and kids’ names, what’s going on in their lives and what they like to do outside of work. Set up regular one-on-one meetings and don’t cancel them. It’s your team’s time with you as a leader. Don’t ask, “How are you doing?” Ask, “What’s on your mind?” – Christopher Mullen, UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group)
10. Invest In External Webcam, Fix Your Setup
Fix your setup. You can’t open a laptop and expect to “connect” over virtual calls. To us, we’re looking up your nose and you’re looking elsewhere. Invest in an external webcam and position the lens at eye height so we see you square. Set the camera in front of the monitor and the speaker behind and slightly above your camera so when you talk to the speaker, you are looking into our eyes. – Cara Heilmann, Ready Reset Go
11. Rejoice With Employees When They Hit Goals
A positive leader rejoices with their employees when they have achieved goals and praises them for them. They give their employees positive feedback when something has been achieved, as well as constructive feedback when goals have been missed. Give praise and recognition. Set challenging goals that are achievable and give feedback, praise and recognition in a timely manner. – Cristian Hofmann, Empowering Executives | SUPERGROUP LTD
12. Ask For Full Attention During Meetings
This is going to sound trivial, but it isn’t. First, ask everyone to make a commitment to not do any other work while on team video meetings. No texting, no checking email. Full attention is required. Then ask everyone what could be happening in the meeting that would have them happy to do so? Have the meeting be engaging and energizing enough to deserve their full attention. – Joel M. Rothaizer, Clear Impact Consulting Group
13. Set Opportunities For Regular Interactions
Executive leadership of virtual teams is essentially the same as in the face-to-face world, with a need to orchestrate opportunities for regularly scheduled direct interactions. These interactions will fill in for the loss of hallway and stop-by conversations and provide a platform for purposeful communications. The interactions can be in the form of one-on-one meetings, skip-level or group meetings. – Mary Patry, ITeffectivity, LLC
14. Begin Each Meeting With An Energy Check
Begin the meeting with an energy check — on a scale of one to 10, 10 being completely overwhelmed and stressed and one on vacation, what number represents your current state? This one activity helped team members have more empathy when the average scores were between 8 and 12. Providing a brief explanation was highly informative for coordination and people were kinder, more patient and adaptable. – Mark Samuel, IMPAQ Corporation
15. Be Culturally Fluent, Understand Intricacies
To effectively lead virtual teams, especially global ones, leaders need to be culturally fluent. An example is being able to understand the small intricacies of ice-breakers in different regions to help build rapport, make staff sense a level of belonging and create a higher level of emotional intelligence. It would also allow a better understanding of how people prefer to be engaged. – Dr. Rakish Rana, The Clear Coach
16. Establish An Open-Door Policy
Leaders need to establish an open-door policy and hold regular virtual informal fireside chats, without a specific agenda. The objective is for all employees (those working remotely and in-person) to feel like they have equal access to leaders and to the kind of informal interactions that would otherwise happen “at the water cooler.” – Jay Rai, www.jayrai.com
