Power Teams Beyond Borders E-Book

Peter Ivanov

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 317

Beschreibung

Empower your virtual and remote teams with this comprehensive and timely new resource Power Teams Beyond Borders: How to Work Remotely and Build Powerful Virtual Teams shows readers how to unlock the potential of their remote and online teams. Full of actionable advice and concrete strategies, celebrated consultant and author Peter Ivanov offers virtual leaders practical guidance on how to create and sustain online engagement across multiple time zones and cultures. The book includes step-by-step advice on areas like: * How to build trust and clarity without meeting in person * How to establish structure in communications and avoid confusion * How to make the most of your team members' unique talents in a global setting * How to use the technique of "over-communication" to ensure your team members remain fully informed Perfect for anyone who's expected to lead in an online or virtual environment, Power Teams Beyond Borders also belongs on the bookshelves of everyone who hopes to deliver results in an environment that includes remote teamwork.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Introduction

How I Learned to Develop Virtual Power Teams

2020: The Tipping Point for Global Change?

PART I: Building Trust and Clarity: Discovering, Dreaming and Goal‐Setting

1 From Failure to Amazing Success in Global Teams

What Causes Global Teams to Fail?

What Do All High‐Performing Teams Have in Common?

Establishing Your Foundation

2 Personality in Focus

How to Start Building Trust in Your Team

The Importance of Empowerment

3 The Strengths Matrix

How to Uncover People's Natural Strengths

How this Works in Practice

Why Personality in Focus and the Strengths Matrix is a Magic Combination

How to Create a Team Vision

4 Interdependent Goals

Start by Defining the Hottest Issues for your Team

The Thinking Behind SMART Goals

Creating SMART Goals

Name your Team

Developing your Roadmap

Sharing Responsibility

Getting the Best from your Team

PART II: Establishing Structured Communication: Active Collaboration and Coopetition

5 How Everyone Can Contribute and Shine

How to Maintain Engagement in your Regular Team Meetings

Always Have an Agenda

Change the Format Once a Month

Allow People to Ask Questions

The Importance of Time Management

Making Time for Personal and Professional

Don't Have Too Many Meetings

How Often Should Virtual Teams Meet in Person?

Setting the Agenda for an Annual Meeting

6 Bridging Time Zones and Knowledge Management

Finding the Optimum Time for Meetings

Coping with Language Barriers

How to Deal with Challenging Accents (And Make Sure Everyone is Understood)

Agree on a Channel for Urgent Communication

Knowledge Management

Encourage People to Join a Community

Build Regional Zonal Communities

Best Practice for Online Communication

7 Regular Feedback

How to Structure a Performance Feedback Session

Learn the Difference Between the Development Plan and Performance Feedback

Why is this so Important in Virtual Teams?

Practice Generous Listening

Use the Magic Words

Speak About Possibilities

Tips for Sharing Team Feedback

The Formula for a Virtual Power Team

Key Takeaways on Feedback

8 Cross‐Company Cooperation and Coopetition

An Evolving Environment

How to Build Trust

The Need for a Collaboration Agenda

Structured Communication is Essential

Finding your Optimal Culture

Don't Forget Personality

Defining Intra‐Organisational and Inter‐Organisational Coopetition

Where Does Inter‐Organisational Coopetition Come From?

Where Does Coopetition Lead?

Why you Should Explore Cross‐Company Coopetition

High‐Profile Examples of Coopetition

How to Establish your Win‐Win

Developing the Right Mindset for Coopetition

PART III: Uniting Global Teams: Leveraging Global Community

9 Praise, Praise, Praise

What Qualities do you Need to Stay Motivated When Working Virtually?

How to Motivate and Retain Key Team Members When you Work Remotely

How to Make Decisions in Hybrid Teams

10 Building the Optimal Team Culture

The Leadership Scale

Tips For Leaders To Adjust Their Leadership Style

The Four Levels of Meetings

Tips for Adjusting Your Decision‐Making Process

Tips to Adjust to Different Conflict Styles

Finding Your Optimal Team Culture

11 Establishing a Winning Spirit

My Team

1

The Early Stages of the Project

Taking a Different Approach

The Road to Tenerife

The Outcome

How to Apply This to Your Team

What if You Don't Have the Budget to Be Generous?

Use Tangible Tokens

Don't Forget About People's Families

12 Next Generation Leaders

Building Virtual Power Teams Under Virtual Power Teams

Ways to Develop Next Generation Leaders

Top Tips

Virtual Power Family

Why it's Important to Foster Gravity in Your Virtual Family

What Can You Learn From Being Part of A Virtual Power Family?

Applying These Principles to Long‐Distance Relationships

Maintaining Global Friendships

Connect With Your Parents

Co‐living to Be Part of A Community

The Importance of Community

My Advice for Living and Working Remotely

Setting Up Your Virtual Working Environment

13 Building Power Communities

Lessons for a More Remote Future

The Importance of Frequent Updates

Regular Updates are Essential for Strengthening Bonds

Be Clear On Your ‘Why’

Empowerment and Trust Building

Responding to Any Major Change or Disruption (Including A Pandemic!)

The Road to Digitalisation

Career Visibility When Working Remotely

Conclusion

Using the 10 Big Rocks to Foster Gravity

Focus on Gravity

Epilogue

Index

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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Power Teams Beyond Borders

How to Work Remotely and Build Powerful Virtual Teams

Peter Ivanov

This edition first published [2021]

© 2021 Peter Ivanov

This work was produced in collaboration with Write Business Results Limited. For more information on Write Business Results’ business book, blog, and podcast services, please visit their website:

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I dedicate this book to my daughters Raina, Sophia, Gergana, Elena and Maia and to all the children in the world whose future depends on the decisions, dedication and commitments we make today. By uniting global talents we can resolve the toughest challenges of humanity.

Introduction

I want to start by reminding you of five words, which nearly 50 years ago, cast the world simultaneously into fear and hope, and which are still a symbol of the unexpected that calls for urgent action. For three men and their families, these five words meant a one‐week life‐or‐death struggle. These words are: ‘Houston, we have a problem.’

Think back to 1970, which incidentally was the year of my birth. It's 11 April and the clock in Houston shows precisely 13:30. It's at this moment that the American space agency NASA shoots the spaceship Apollo 13 into orbit, with the aim of landing on the moon in four days' time.

On 13 April, there is a loud crash and the three astronauts look out to see a plume of white as their oxygen flows out into space. The two oxygen tanks in the service module have just exploded. The initial reaction back in Houston is one of panic – no one has planned for such a disaster. The families of the three astronauts are horrified. If you've seen the film Apollo 13 you might remember that at this point in the mission, the spaceship is getting close to the moon. If they continue to fly according to their original plan, they won't have enough energy to reach the gravity of Earth and therefore return to the Earth's surface.

It's now clear that the mission to land on the moon has failed and all of their planned lunar research has been blown away. The focus now is on the lives of the three astronauts. This is a matter of life and death.

Back in Houston, it's 37‐year‐old Gene Kranz who is in charge at Mission Control when the fateful call from the astronauts comes in. Kranz quickly realises that to save the astronauts' lives, he has to win one fight: the fight for energy.

In space, energy is everything. You need it to move the spaceship, to navigate, to communicate with Mission Control and, of course, to sustain life. At this point, every single unit of energy now means the difference between life and death. They need a miracle.

What does Kranz do in this historic moment? He gathers his whole Houston team into one room. The tension and nervousness is palpable. He lays out the challenge. Brains go into overdrive. Ideas rush around. Everyone's hearts are full with care, fear and hope. Kranz listens carefully to each and every idea being put forward.

Eventually he calls for silence. Then he pulls everyone together – and not just the team in the room with him. He has the three astronauts and hundreds of scientists and engineers from across NASA listening as he calmly says:

‘We haven't lost a man in space until now and as long as I'm responsible, we won't. Failure is not an option.’

The seven days of the Apollo 13 mission were filled with incredible strength of character, flashes of genius, feats of engineering and, above all, an extraterrestrial triumph of leadership.

As we all know, Kranz and his team succeeded in safely bringing the Apollo 13 astronauts home. But what Kranz also did was succeed in pulling together all these people spread around space, through the magical gravity force of one of the strongest virtual teams the world has ever seen; one whose goal was aligned to one purpose only, to save the lives of the three astronauts on the spaceship.

On 17 April, Apollo 13 landed, or rather splashed, back to Earth with the command unit carrying the three astronauts landing safely in the Pacific Ocean. The rescue was hailed as a miracle. This is a virtual power team at work.

You might be thinking that the Apollo 13 was an exceptional case and not one that has applications in general business. But how many of you have worked on a project which has experienced an unexpected change? How often is the budget reduced but you still have to deliver? How often is the go‐live date brought forward? How often do team members spread across different locations lose motivation, resulting in a deterioration in the team's performance?

Personally, I've heard the statement, ‘Houston, we have a problem’ more than once in my career, although thankfully never in relation to a life‐or‐death situation. But for the projects I was working on, it was critical.

How I Learned to Develop Virtual Power Teams

In the last 25 years, I've had the opportunity to live and work all over Europe. I began my career as a data analyst and have worked across many areas of technology, leading a number of large, multinational virtual teams. Most recently, I was the head of IT services for Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where I built and led a large team spread across various countries, time zones and from very different cultures.

Through this experience, and if I'm honest mostly from my mistakes, I've developed a highly effective method for creating and leading virtual power teams. But in recent years I started questioning my mission and exploring how I could use my talents to change the world for the better. This was when I decided to leave the worlds of IT and mathematics behind and pursue my dream of becoming an inspirational speaker and coach, focusing on uniting people despite distance. It's this passion that has resulted in this book, where I'm sharing my passion for and knowledge of building virtual power teams.

I like to think of virtual power teams as atoms. You have the nucleus in the centre and then the various particles orbiting that nucleus. In a virtual team, you're building an atom. Your individual team members are the particles and you need to keep them around the nucleus, despite the physical distance between individuals.

I'll let you into a secret now. The nucleus of this power team isn't the manager or the boss, it isn't any member of the team. It is the purpose and goal of the team that acts as the nucleus, constantly pulling everyone back together.

In this book, I'll explain how to set this goal in such a way that it's aligned with the individual goals and strengths of your team members, while aligning with the overarching purpose and vision of the team. I'll also give you effective tools to put this vital nucleus in place.

2020: The Tipping Point for Global Change?

Globalisation and digital transformation have introduced new challenges in leadership and communication. Teams and projects are often decentralised, crossing international borders, time zones and cultural boundaries. Leading such virtual teams requires very specific organisational knowledge, including how to select qualified experts, knowing which virtual platforms to use and how to structure, support and lead your team. These are among the topics I'll cover in the following pages.

But the coronavirus pandemic has challenged us further. More people than ever before have been working from home in 2020, and we rose to the challenge. This extended period of remote working means we have to take more team decisions remotely, resolve conflicts from a distance and find new ways to lead and manage effectively.

What I want to share with you is that virtual teams can achieve much more. I want to open your eyes to the possibilities available not just to organisations but to society, if we can ignite global talent to address the monumental challenges of our time: Climate change. Hunger. Pandemic response. We have the power to overcome these challenges, all while bringing opportunities to young professionals in every corner of the globe.

PART IBuilding Trust and Clarity: Discovering, Dreaming and Goal‐Setting

‘A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.’

John Lennon

1From Failure to Amazing Success in Global Teams

Adam stirs slightly as the dim light of a new day tries its best to break through the fabric of the bedroom curtains. His mind tries to cling to the last strands of his sleep, but he knows that he can't sink back into a deep slumber. Slowly, carefully so as not to wake his wife Rose, he rolls over onto his right side and gropes blindly for the alarm clock.

Through half‐closed eyes he sees the blue lines marking out the time: 5:50. At 6:00 a.m. his alarm will start to beep. He sighs, resigning himself to getting out from under the covers. As he stretches and starts to wake his body up, he feels his muscles contracting. They're aching a little after his gym session last night. With a slight groan, he eases himself up to sitting and turns the alarm off. A yawn and a stretch accompanied by some clicks in his body reminds him, once again, that while he's strong for 48 he's not as young as he used to be.

He stands and pads slowly across to the bathroom, flicking on the light and shutting the door behind him. Adam goes through the usual morning rituals. He cleans his teeth, showers, shaves and throws on some aftershave. Wrapped in a towel he makes his way into the bedroom to find Rose is up and has gone downstairs. He dresses for work and gets ready to join his family for breakfast. He can hear the gentle hubbub of his daughter and wife talking in the kitchen.

Adam walks into the kitchen and kisses Rose on the cheek as he passes her to get a cup of coffee. He's barely sat down at the table when Georgia, his daughter, has fixed him with an accusing stare. ‘Who bought cheese wrapped in plastic again?’ she asks, barely giving anyone a chance to answer. ‘How many times do I have to say this? There is going to be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050, we all have to do our part to change that. Not to mention all the seabirds, dolphins and whales that die each year because they eat plastic. It's disgusting.’

Adam holds his daughter's gaze, trying his best not to erupt and to be reasonable in the face of such an outburst at the breakfast table. ‘Look Georgia, I picked up some cheese on my way home from the gym last night. They only had cheese wrapped in plastic. What am I supposed to do? Leave the fridge and cupboard bare for breakfast? Then you'd be complaining you had nothing to eat. One piece of cheese wrapped in plastic isn't going to make a big difference.’

‘That's what everyone thinks, and that's why this planet is slowly choking on plastic,’ Georgia fires back. ‘It's alright for you, but it's my generation who won't have a planet to live on in 50 years. You just exploit the Earth, working in fossil fuels without a care for what it means for the future.’ With her eyes burning, Georgia leaves the room before Adam has a chance to respond.

He lets out an audible sigh. Rose reaches across and touches his arm. ‘You know how passionate she is about this,’ she says in a conciliatory tone. ‘Well it wouldn't hurt her to acknowledge how hard I work to put a roof over her head and food on the table,’ Adam replies. ‘I know, I'll talk to her. She needs to be respectful, even if she doesn't agree with you,’ Rose smiles. ‘Now, what would you like for breakfast?’

‘I think I'll skip breakfast,’ Adam says, taking one last sip of his coffee. ‘I'll see you later, have a good day.’ He gives Rose his best smile as he stands and walks into the hall, but inside he's still angry. He knows his job is far from perfect and he knows that Georgia would much rather he worked in a more, as she puts it, ‘responsible’ industry. But this is where life has led him. Adam is still thinking about Georgia's remarks when he sits down at his desk half an hour later.

He makes himself a fresh cup of coffee while his computer whirrs into life. The email at the top of his inbox is titled: Confidential. Without entirely knowing why, Adam feels nervous as he opens it. He has to read it through three times before the contents sink in. The gist of it is that they're closing his location because of competition and disruption in the renewable energy sector.

Adam almost laughs in spite of himself. This should make Georgia happy at least, he thinks. But then he focuses on the rest of the email. He has two options: take redundancy or relocate to Kuala Lumpur.

The more he reads the email, the angrier he becomes. He's given years of his life to this company, and those are the only two options they can find for him? His breathing has quickened and he realises he's clenching his fists. He slams one down on the desk, spilling a little coffee. Why the hell have I put so much effort in if this is how I'm going to be treated?

He takes a deep breath and stands up from his desk, pushing his chair back a little harder than he meant to and feeling a little satisfaction at the sound of the backrest hitting the wall. He walks out of his office to go and see Dave, who's been with the company a little longer than he has. Maybe he'll have better news?

As Adam approaches Dave, he looks up from his computer and gives him a wan smile. ‘I take it you got the email too?’ Dave says. ‘Yep!’ Adam replies. ‘Where did this come from Dave? It feels like a bolt from the blue…’ ‘Well, I guess the writing's been on the wall for a while if you think about it. We've all known renewables were on the up and disruption is disruption. If you're not going to jump on the bandwagon there aren't many options left.’

Adam can't help but admire how pragmatic Dave is being about all of this. ‘Are you moving to KL?’ he asks. Dave shakes his head, ‘I don't think so. I mean I'll think about it, but I've been thinking about having a change and getting into the renewable energy sector for a few years, so this might just be the push I need, either to go out on my own or to join another company. What are you thinking?’

Adam lets out a sigh. ‘Well, I mean, I don't know. I've given 20 years to this company, you know? I'll need to talk to Rose about it. I mean, she's got her coaching business, and then there's Georgia and her schooling. KL could be a good opportunity, but, like you say, maybe this is a nudge to move in a new direction.’

By the time he's walking away from Dave's desk, Adam feels calmer. Dave always does look for the positives in a situation and that was what he needed today, to feel as though there were other options. He hadn't considered moving into renewable energy, despite Georgia's best efforts to convince him in recent months, but now, maybe, just maybe…

He doesn't have time for more contemplation though, as he has a video call in, he glances at his watch, in five minutes. He rushes back to his desk, composes himself and gets on with his day. The morning flies by and it's 2pm before he's able to step out for lunch.

As soon as he leaves the office, his thoughts hit him like a speeding train. As he walks his mind flicks between the two scenarios: move to KL with this company, stay in this job and uproot his family, or take the leap of faith into the renewables sector and do something new, something different. His mind keeps returning to Georgia's comments. This is a chance to do something good for future generations. But it's terrifying to take that step at this stage in his career. Is he just being idealistic? Adam can't quite tell. There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity, he thinks.

Suddenly, he realises how hungry he is and ducks into a nearby takeaway. As he stands waiting to order, he scans the menu. Having skipped breakfast, he's now starving. A burger feels like a good idea, but his eyes drift down the menu and pause on a veggie burger. He knows which Georgia would choose. He's lost in thought and is pulled back to reality by the person behind the counter saying, ‘Excuse me, sir, what can I get you?’ He smiles, ‘I'll have the veggie burger please.’

He collects his burger from the counter and strolls out into the sunshine, making a beeline for the nearest park. Adam finds a bench and settles down, feeling the sun on his face and noticing the breeze in the trees. As he takes a bite of the burger, he starts to realise the possibilities that lie before him. But it's still a big decision to make, and he's not quite ready to take the leap of faith just yet. Maybe he could move to KL? Maybe Rose and Georgia could be happy there?

Walking back to the office, Adam decides he'll apologise to Georgia when he gets home, and then break the news of his impending redundancy, or relocation to KL, to Rose. That's going to be an interesting conversation.

Suddenly he remembers Kaito, a Japanese scientist who he met at an energy conference a few years before. They sat next to each other during a seminar about disruption in the solar energy sector and got chatting in the break. Adam can still remember how Kaito's face lit up when he started talking about his work on solar energy projects. It was refreshing to meet someone with so much passion for what he did. I wonder… Before he has time to think too much about it, Adam gets his phone out of his pocket and fires off a quick message to Kaito. ‘Hi Kaito, how's everything going in Japan? I have some exciting news, just wondered if you'd be free for a chat soon?’ He knows it's late in Japan, but he's hopeful he'll have a response by morning.

As the rest of the afternoon passes, Adam feels his stomach tying itself in knots. He's not looking forward to the conversation with Rose when he gets home. As he leaves the office, he notices that the wind has picked up and grey storm clouds are looming on the horizon. Great, what an omen.

****************

As you can see from the beginning of Adam's story, there is a lot to consider when you're creating a virtual team.

I'd like to begin by sharing my definition of a virtual team. This is any team that is in more than one location. This doesn't have to mean that every member of that team is working in a different place. It might be that you have two offices in the same city and team members spread between them. Or you might have some people working from home and others from the office. These people may be working in the same time zones, they may not. For me, a virtual team is any team that communicates virtually at least part of the time.

According to research from Forrester in 2016, 81% of teams are virtual and 60% of these virtual teams are spread across more than one time zone. I'm sure that this figure has increased since this study was carried out. It's also important to understand why you'd want to build a virtual power team.

There are many reasons why this is the most appropriate option. They include expanding your business internationally and delivering projects more quickly, But if you don't spend time creating your virtual power team, there is a good chance they will fail.

I will tell you now that the first time I was a member of a big virtual team, in 2002, my overwhelming emotion was one of frustration. I was one of 30 project managers spread across Europe and our boss was based in London. Once a year we had a face‐to‐face meeting with everyone in one place. Once a quarter we had a telephone conference, although this was usually an opportunity for our boss to speak and present various KPIs and business results. But aside from these large meetings, we rarely spoke to each other. As a team, we didn't communicate, let alone help one another.

I didn't feel appreciated or recognised by my boss. Over time, I became increasingly frustrated and I'm sure the other project managers did too. This led not only to pain and frustration for us, but also for our manager.

This experience taught me that over time, virtual teams can lose their centre of gravity. People can get lost in space. This leads to a decline in the team's overall performance. It made me question how you could retain this ‘gravity’ and cohesion over time and even improve a team's performance exponentially as you do so. Before I come onto this though, I'd like to talk to you about why global teams fail.

What Causes Global Teams to Fail?

There are four main reasons why global teams fail. In fact, these are four reasons why any virtual team will fail, not just one that is global.

They fail to build trust

– when you're creating a virtual team you need to make more of an effort to build trust between everyone. They can't bond while using the coffee machine. You need to find ways to build trust despite the distance.

They can't overcome communication barriers

– in virtual teams you have different barriers to overcome. There is the distance and the technology. But there are also potential issues surrounding goal setting, particularly in relation to decision‐making and handling conflicts.

The goals of the individual and the team aren't aligned

– sometimes there is a team goal that has been cascaded and not worked out from the bottom up. That means an individual's goal might not align with the team. Or, as is often the case, people within the team have their hidden agendas, whether that's something to facilitate their career or their bonus scheme. If it's not completely aligned with the team's goal, it will lead to issues.

The vision and goal of the team isn't clear

– if the vision and goal has been cascaded, there is a much higher probability of a lack of clarity. By contrast, if people within the team work out the vision and goal together then they identify with it and this is one of the keys to the success of virtual power teams.

What Do All High‐Performing Teams Have in Common?

Over the years, I have developed a highly effective method called ‘Virtual Power Teams’, which comprises 10 Big Rocks. These are the 10 key success factors for retaining the gravity in your team and unleashing the virtual team's power.

I want you to imagine that your virtual team is a human. The first part to consider is the head. This is the logical, cognitive element and it's where you'll find the first three of the 10 Big Rocks that are essential to every virtual power team's success.

These rocks are:

Personality in focus

The Strengths Matrix

Interdependent goals

Personality in focus – this means you need to consider the personalities of every person you include in your team. If, as a manager, you don't believe this is important for remote teams you're making a big mistake. Later on in the book I'll give you an exercise that can help you get to know your team members quickly and intimately. It's important to know how to achieve this when you're managing a remote team. So, the lesson is not to ignore personality when you're choosing your team or recruiting, but instead to put personality in focus.

The Strengths Matrix – this is all about exploring and identifying the key strengths and natural talents of each team member. All too often people can feel anonymous and feel as though they're being treated as a resource. By identifying people's strengths and making everybody else aware of them, you'll make every person in your team feel like a hero who has a special talent that's vital to your success. This is about helping everyone in the team understand that they're not anonymous, but that they're understood. That they've been chosen to be part of this bouquet of skills and with this mix of talent we can achieve anything.

Interdependent goals – goal setting is very important in virtual teams. This rock is about making sure that everyone has their own goal and that everyone is clear on what they need to do to deliver. But more than that, the team will be organised and managed in such a way that they all have the freedom, within budgetary and time constraints, to decide how best to deliver on that goal. Micromanagement is not an option. This is about empowerment. It's about allowing people to set and choose their goals, not simply delegating tasks.

With these three rocks that make up the head of your team, you're aiming for clarity about who your team members are and what goals you're all aiming to achieve.

The next part of the body that I want you to consider is the skeleton and muscles. This is the dynamic part of the body, and therefore of the team. The next three rocks are:

Meetings and agenda

Knowledge management

Regular feedback

Meetings and agenda – this means deciding which online meetings and conferences you need to have as a team. You may have a core leadership team, as well as extended teams, and you need to be clear on how often they will meet and what format these meetings will take.

Knowledge management – this is about how we manage knowledge. It ties in with the Strengths Matrix, but rather than being about skills it's about the knowledge or expertise that individual team members have. I'll talk more later about how you can define knowledge champions or knowledge custodians within your team.

Regular feedback – this can sometimes be scarce in regular teams, but it's even more of an issue in virtual teams. But for your virtual team to be a success, it's essential that you institutionalise feedback. You need to make sure that communication with your team allows everyone to have an equal contribution. You want to establish structured communication where everybody can contribute, rather than taking a manager‐centric or problem‐centric approach.

From the skeleton and muscles we move onto the heart, which is my personal favourite. There are three rocks that are essential in this part of the ‘body’:

Recognition

Diversity

Winning spirit

Recognition – did you know that the number one reason for people leaving a company is a lack of recognition by a direct superior. That means people are leaving jobs not because of the company they work for, but because they don't feel recognised by their manager or boss. In virtual teams, it's important to recognise progress despite the distance and I'll give you tips on how you can do this and make sure everyone in your team feels seen.

Diversity – if you have a diverse team from multiple cultures, you need to think carefully about how to establish the optimal team culture. There are three areas in particular that you need to consider: leadership, decision‐making and conflict. In leadership, you have the choice between egalitarian and hierarchical and I'll explain how you define the optimal leadership style for your team. With decision‐making, you have the choice between top‐down and consensus and, again, I'll help you understand how to find the optimal way for your team to make decisions. In terms of conflict, you have confrontational versus non‐confrontational approaches. I'll help you reflect and consider different cultural considerations when deciding how best to manage conflict within your team.

Winning spirit – establishing winning spirit in your team when people are spread across time zones and cultures can be challenging. But if you can establish this winning spirit, anything is possible. I'll give you advice on how to establish this winning spirit across your virtual team.