In the corporate world, the focus has moved from individuals to teams to virtual teams. According to a Gallup survey conducted in 2015, 84% of people are a part of virtual teams for at least a part of time.
A virtual team is a group of people that work across time, geographies, and organizational boundaries while mostly using technology to interact and communicate. Such globally dispersed teams allow organizations to hire and retain the best people irrespective of location. Virtual, well managed teams can be forty percent more productive than same-location teams. If you are not comfortable working within virtual teams you better get on it because this culture is here to stay. It allows organizations to leverage rich diverse resources and perspectives and to expand and grow rapidly.
One fact of virtual teams is that they are far more dynamic than the teams where all the employees are in one location. They get formed easily and also get disbanded quite quickly once the area and focus of the work shifts. What becomes essential for the leaders in such cases is to have the knack of building trust rapidly. If we go by the usual measure of time taken to build trust slowly and gradually, it may already be time for the team to disintegrate and move on to the next order of business. Being deliberate and conscious of building trust is a requirement.
Another issue that crops up when you are working primarily in virtual teams is that you don’t get the appreciation and credit you may deserve for your work. The reason being that people are not observing you long enough or through various cycles to clearly notice or recognize your contributions. This can leave anyone feeling demotivated. Paying special attention to appreciating virtual team members needs to be kept in mind.
I observed something very interesting during learning circle calls with a few organizations that had a matrix structure. Learning circles are smaller group coaching calls which are follow-ups to leadership development workshops, and help in working on people’s individual issues in an intimate setting. A matrix organization structure is where people report formally to more than one manager. I have noticed that an average person in matrix organizations is a member of at least three virtual teams at any given time. What it means is that often in such organizations employees have more than one boss.
In business parlance, these reporting lines are distinguished as either solid or dotted lines. The weightage of the lines represents the level of power and influence of the reporting managers.
The solid line manager could be the functional manager or someone who is geographically close to the individual to give them easier access. They are responsible for goal setting, performance evaluation processes and career growth of individuals. Sort of like the class teacher as opposed to subject teachers.
The dotted line manager does have a formal right to some part of the employee’s time and attention and will usually set some of the goals. The dotted line role is usually that of a project manager who is responsible for delivering some tasks or deliverables but need not get involved in the development of the individual or the administrative processes around them. It was not perceived as strong a relationship as a solid line in face to face teams.
With the increase in virtual teams this perception is changing. Sometimes the dotted line now is stronger than the solid line. When this starts to happen, i.e. if the horizontal activity that cuts across the vertical silos of function and geography is really important then organizations eventually convert the strong dotted line to dual solid line reporting. This leads to individuals reporting to more than two people with direct solid lines.
The management styles required in these two types of relationships are quite different. Dotted line managers sometimes get frustrated because they cannot get things done by authority alone. They have to learn to exercise more influence without having formal control over the resources.
The purpose of these lines is actually an attempt to incorporate structure with multiple virtual teams. In fact, another demand of virtual teams is additional process and structure. However, the structure alone will not solve anything. The individuals and leaders with multiple reporting lines need to have high levels of autonomy and skill to make decisions and manage trade-offs. If this environment is not prevalent people will be constantly escalating to their bosses who may only understand half of their role and are sitting in far off locations.
Leadership for virtual teams is a different ball game needs to be learnt quickly to operate in the current climate.
( Views expressed are personal. )
The author is the founder and CEO of Talent Power Partners a global Leadership Development company based in Bangalore. She is a Leadership Development Specialist, an ICF Certified Executive Coach [PCC] and author of the book Team Decision Making.