Motivating Your Virtual Team

An essential part of being an effective manager is motivating your teams. After a difficult quarter or a hard week, nothing is better than recognizing those team members who went above and beyond to ensure the success of your group and the company. When making the switch to working virtually many leaders may find this hard to incorporate into their new remote management styles. In this blog, I will share with you ideas of motivating virtual teams. 

Recognizing individual team members and their successes is just as important for virtual teams as it is for groups who meet in a physical office space. I once heard a story of a remote manager who wanted to thank one of his employees who had worked overtime for a week in order to meet stressful corporate deadlines. The manager thought back to previous conversations with this employee and remembered him mentioning his favorite pizza place within the neighborhood. In order to show his appreciation, this manager called up the restaurant and paid for a full dinner to be delivered to the employee and his family. Through acts like these, we can show our gratitude to hard-working employees and motivate our teams to work diligently.

You can further motivate your teams by reminding them that you are invested in their professional growth. For virtual teams, frequently share links to training opportunities or possible promotions that may interest your employees. Showcase the recent affinity groups or opportunities for advancement that your corporation may be involved with. Have one-on-one meetings with team members to discuss their future career goals and put together plans for how to achieve this with the resources of your company. By continuing to support your employees’ professional growth, you highlight your investment in them and their importance to the organization as a whole. This motivational strategy results in higher engagement and output from employees even when working from home. 

In addition to this, motivate your employees with virtual team building activities. Many organizations are now hosting coffee meetings or happy hours on certain days of the week. By switching just one meeting to a themed gathering or fun event, you can motivate your employees to tune into professional discussions and engage them with your future messages. These alterations may be just what your team needs in order to make it through a difficult work week.  

By being intentional in motivating your employees and finding creative ways to do so, you can encourage your virtual team members to feel connected and motivated.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Three Tips For Connecting With Your Remote Team

One of the major challenges of leading a remote team is creating a sense of connection between team members, managers, and the corporate strategy. While a physical office space allows for casual conversations and group breaks, virtual organizations require a little extra work to establish a sense of communication and integration. By being intentional, you can unite your team even if they work thousands of miles apart by enhancing these three essential connections. Here are three connections pointes that are essential for any team:

Connecting the Manager to Individual Team Members

When working virtually, it can be easy to let connections to your team members slip over time. I recommend setting up weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your employees in order to catch up with your employees and understand their personal and professional situations. Use this time to discuss their progress with current projects and track their current workload. if you are having a difficult time keeping up with all of your employees as well as their various projects and needs, then try implementing a project tracking sheet. I recommend having each team member complete it on a weekly bases and share it with you. This can help you and your team members stay informed about the status of various projects and hold team members accountable. Additionally, this sheet will help you to to move towards a more results-oriented management style. By remaining intentional with your connection to individual team members, you can stay informed about current projects, hold employees accountable, and effectively manage your remote team.

Connecting Team Members to Corporate Strategy

As we transition to working from home, our days can be consumed by task after task, creating a mundane routine of simply getting the work done. Many employees feel disconnected from the bigger picture of understanding the overall corporate strategy. This will make them lose meaning in their work and feel lonely and distant. To change this, keep the team updated on the organization’s key messages and spread this with your team at the start of department meetings or through motivational emails. Inform your employees about key changes in policy, so they feel integrated and included. Be intentional about communicating the upper-level strategy and decisions which may affect their careers. By making the effort to gather and share this information, you create a sense of belonging and purpose within your organization and empower employees by sharing how their specific task will contribute to the company’s success. 

Connecting Team Members With Each Other 

Without a shared break room or watercooler area, it may be difficult to stimulate casual communication between team members. However, this connection is integral to strengthening your team and creating a more cohesive workforce. The simplest recommendation is to set up “virtual watercooler time” at the start of departmental meetings. Once you have your team gathered in your video chat or conference call, set aside five to ten minutes to allow your employees to catch up with each other’s lives and current projects. Small activities like these can bring your team together even if they do not share a physical office space. Furthermore, encourage communication between team members by creating “accountability partners.” With this exercise, employees will select a peer to meet with throughout the week in order to discuss projects, provide support, and track the progress of work together. Utilizing these techniques will help you bring your team together and grow group bonds. 

Through these activities, you and your employees will remain connected and productive when working from home. By remaining intentional and taking the time to reach out to your employees, you will strengthen team bonds and increase trust and productivity within your remote organization. With these three essential connections, you can lead your virtual team to success.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Tips for Managers New to Managing Virtual Teams

With virtual teams on the rise, it is more and more important that we familiarize ourselves with the effective techniques of managing a remote organization. This may be a daunting task to those new to the skills and technology needed to motivate, engage, and lead virtual teams, but with the proper training anyone can create a sense of unity, productivity, and support through remote platforms. In this blog, I will share my top three pieces of advice for managers who are new to leading virtual teams. 

Adapt to New Technology

I started working virtually in 2004, then, I led global teams using only a laptop and my telephone. Nowadays, we have a multitude of technological softwares and virtual platforms where managers can connect with their teams, see them virtually, and communicate with them real-time. Ensure that your department has the tools and resources needed to successfully collaborate with both employees and managers to create a cohesive remote environment for all team members. For the employees that are struggling to adapt, spend time with them and provide video tutorials.

Schedule Frequent and Purposeful Meetings

As we move into the virtual workspace, don’t forget that you have to lead your entire team through this transition as well! I would recommend scheduling a department meeting where you and your team can discuss the process of shifting to a virtual team and actively listen to their questions and challenges regarding this change. Be open to concerns and have helpful information handy for frequent technology issues. Additionally, use this initial transition meeting to set clear expectations for your remote team. Be clear about the organization’s standards and your needs as a manager. Follow this meeting up with weekly or bi-monthly department meetings in order to ensure that your team is continuing to succeed and thrive even when working remotely. 

Communication

Communication is essential for any team, whether in the office or working from hundreds of miles apart. Ensure that you and your team are on the same page by establishing strong lines of contact with each of your employees, corporate, as well as your mentors or other individuals in your professional life. When sharing information, try not to overload your team with emails or long, meticulous messages; these can be hard to read and process. Instead, stay engaged through a variety of platforms like video chats, phone calls, and even instant messages, and learn which of these techniques works best with each of your employees. Some of my team members even prefer texts! By improving your virtual communication skills you will strengthen your ties to your remote team and increase connection throughout your organization. 

Managing teams can be a challenging task on its own without the added complexity of virtual interfaces. These tips will help those of you transitioning into a remote workforce and improve the connection of your organization through added communication, useful meetings, and integral technology. They will help you unify and lead your remote team and ensure productivity, accountability, and engagement from your employees. 

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Virtual Team Building Activities

 As many organizations make the transition to managing remotely, it is integral to maintain employee engagement even when working virtually! Think about ways to draw your employees together for communication, problem-solving, or creative-thinking tasks, which will strengthen teamwork and improve the bonds within your company. In this blog, I will share with you three virtual team building activities for remaining connected when working remotely. 

Virtual Lunch Meeting

 Set up a video call lunch meeting with your team, covering their meal expenses if your organization is able. Encourage your employees to order from local restaurants and host a casual gathering where team members can catch up on their personal and professional lives. With the added fun of food, team members will be drawn to this event! Think about making it a monthly recurrence to maintain these levels of communication. Through this activity, you encourage communication within your organization while also highlighting the ways your company supports local establishments. 

Opening Meetings with Check Ins

 Working from home can be incredibly stressful and isolating. Team leaders can help employees lessen this burden by showing interest in their mental and emotional states through this team building activity. At the start of weekly meetings, go around the virtual conference room, and encourage each team member to share one word about how they are currently feeling. Whether this be sad or happy or hopeful, this moment of vulnerability and trust allows leaders to gain insight into what their team needs and helps employees gain a sense of how their co-workers are feeling. If you want to make it fun, you can ask them to share one word of how they are feeling and then followed by them sharing the last thing they ate. 

Family and Pet Video Chat

 Small children and pets can often be a distraction for our team members working from home, but this activity puts them in the spotlight! Schedule a short, around 30 minute, meeting for your organization, and encourage employees with children or pets to bring their little ones to the video call. Start the meeting by asking your employee’s children to share what they think their parents do at work! This is sure to bring a bundle of joy and laughs to your team and show team members that you care about their family and home life. This is the perfect light-hearted team building activity for the end of a busy week or stressful quarter!

 I hope these three ideas help you and your virtual teams increase interconnection and employee engagement. With a little bit of creativity, we can put together exciting activities that draw our teams closer to one another and ease the isolation and social stresses of working remotely. If you are doing something interesting with your organization, please share it with us in the comments below!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.