Effective communication is key when it comes to managing a virtual team. You will rarely, if ever, see each other face to face, so you have to make sure everyone is on the same page.
There are a variety of ways to keep your team cohesive, including collaborative technologies. But specialised software itself is not the answer. Instead, you should look at many different techniques to manage your virtual teams.
Take a look below for some virtual team best practices and watch your team come together with these tips.
Tip #1: Stay on Top of Your Digital Communication
Digital communication may be the only way that you connect with your virtual team. This includes emails, besides the more personal video call and chatting software.
Emails are great because they’re not dependent on someone being there at the other end at the same moment. This particularly works for virtual teams who have members across different time zones.
However, we all have had this experience — email can easily pile up and turn into a tedious chore. As such, here are some steps you can take to stay on top of your email communication:
- Keep a zero-inbox policy by the end of day.
- Dedicate one or two timeslots every day to read emails and churn out replies.
- Add any action items to your to-do list the moment you read it on your email.
- Set a follow-up reminder on emails that you send out. Platforms like Gmail and Microsoft Outlook offer this in-app functionality.
- Utilize email management tools that you can add on your Gmail, Outlook or other platforms. Examples are Hiver to manage shared email account, Activeinbox and Sortd to convert email to task with due date and reminder, and Boomerang to schedule email delivery.
Tip #2: Communicate Complex Subjects Verbally
It may be tempting to chat or send an email about everything. They’re very convenient. However, that can also lead to misunderstandings, depending on the subject matter.
For relatively complex or sensitive matters, it may be better to schedule a time to video call instead. Not only is it more personal, but you can also address concerns as they come up in real time.
It is also good to reconnect face to face on major occasions like sharing quarterly review and communicating new business strategy. This does not need to be a huge investment burden; simply look for a one-off meeting room or a virtual office with monthly access to business lounges.
Tip #3: Schedule Meetings Regularly
Speaking of meetings, these scheduled briefings are also essential to successfully manage a virtual team. If you schedule meetings on the same day of the week, it helps create a routine. Routines give the team something familiar to reduce stress and put them at ease.
You can utilize built-in features on Gmail and Microsoft Outlook to manage bookings and invites. Use Scheduling Assistant or Google Calendar to see your team’s availability and set up a recurring meeting to mark down the time and date.
Additionally, there are some tools to help you and your team make meetings more effective:
- Meeting.gs and SoapBox: Create and edit agendas post meeting, create action points for post meeting follow up, and centralize meeting files.
- Calendly: See your invitee’s availability in their time zone, cap the number of meetings per day, send automated confirmation and reminder emails to invitee, and set minimum scheduling notice to avoid last minute meetings.
- Freebusy and Doodle: Indicate availability for meeting without sharing personal calendar.
Tip #4: When in Doubt, Over-Communicate
When your team don’t see each other face to face, over-communicating becomes even more crucial. This can range from communicating team’s vision and mission, clarifying tasks, setting goals, to reinforcing a strategy.
How can you do this better? CEO of Skillshare, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, suggested to keep it simple and avoid last-minute communication. Asking questions frequently is also a good way to make sure everyone understand your points. Keep everyone in the loop, even if it’s a bit repetitive.
So, go ahead and ask that question in the work thread or channel. And if you don’t get the answer, ask it again.
A little inquisitiveness can go a long way.
Tip #5: Give People the Benefit of the Doubt
Does your virtual team span various countries? It’s common for virtual teams to have many cultural and language differences.
Keep in mind, though, that you all have different ways of approaching things. Using a common language for work doesn’t necessarily save you from a possible communication faux pas.
So, the next time you see odd behaviour or odd grammar, give your teammate the benefit of the doubt. Focus on building positive relationships instead of resorting to nit-picking behaviours.
Tip #6: Leverage Project Management Tools
Having the right tools is the mainstay of virtual teams. Project management tools can keep everyone on the right track. That includes activities like:
- Tracking deadlines
- Sending alerts and reminders
- Daily, weekly, or monthly overviews of current projects
You may use a combination of applications depending on your business’ needs. For a start, we have listed the pros and cons of top 5 project management and collaboration tools used by companies like LinkedIn and Facebook that allow you to work productively as a team no matter the distance. This includes more familiar tools such as Slack and Asana but also some lesser-known ones such as Zoho Project, Wrike, and Freedcamp.
Tip #7: Be Positive on Purpose
Written communication is a tricky thing. It’s hard to figure out how the other person is saying something without having insight into their tone or body language. Similarly, it is easy to sound negative and hurt someone’s feelings.
Even if you try for humour, it may not translate well across cultures. So, what’s the solution? Be friendly and approachable in your written communications.
Use many emoticons if necessary. It may not be very “business-like”, but at least the positive tone can come across effectively.
Tip #8: Suggestions, Not Critiques
Lastly, try to focus on suggestions to move a conversation forward. Especially when giving feedback, endless critiques can put a virtual teammate in a corner. Instead of continuously picking apart mistakes, recognize the other person’s strength and be willing to work on the issue together. Listen to fully understand your team’s point of view, before discussing an alternative.
This method of giving feedback is a few of many ideas championed by Brené Brown, a renowned speaker, author, and research professor at the University of Houston, as written in her guidelines for engaged feedback.
The Takeaways
There are many ways to manage communication for virtual teams. Being selective in your communication channel is one technique to address challenges in digital communication.
Creating a routine and establishing regular meetings or video chats are a few ways to maintain a connection to your virtual team, no matter where in the world they are. Also, respect that your other teammates may come from different backgrounds and upbringings. Humour may not translate very well across cultures, but positivity will. Be purposely positive and approachable in all your communications.
Finally, have the right communication protocols in place. If you’re all in the same time zone, chatting may work well. But if you’re located around the world, you may have to design other solutions. Managing emails effectively and leveraging on project management tools are just a couple of solutions that can keep everyone on the same page – even when they’re oceans away.
If you want to act on one of these points, such as meeting face to face for important occasions, you can explore meeting rooms in locations near you.