Yael Zofi's Blog, page 3
February 18, 2015
How to Coach Remotely and Give Feedback When Managing Virtual Teams
Managing virtual teams is challenging, especially when they report to a local manager (in India) and a virtual manager (you in SF). This ‘Identity Conflict’ is what I refer to in my latest book, A Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams, as a conflict of ‘belonging’. Many times there are different perspectives around multiple priorities and deadlines, leaving the person confused about feedback, coaching and career development.
Without going into too much details about virtual conflicts around Context Communication, I’d like to offer you some suggestions for managing virtual teams through a feedback/coaching conversation that you are about to have which is going to be via virtual communications (assuming telephone call).
First, keep communication lines open and transparent. Try to get specific feedback and examples from the local India manager and team members in Delhi about what this employee does, what impact he/she has, and how they accomplish outcomes. Make sure this feedback is behavior based (goals, tasks, situations).
Deliver balanced feedback built on what the person does well (and needs to continue doing) and what this employee needs to change/improve/enhance/do differently.
Begin with the employee’s perspective first. Allow the other person to complete his/her thoughts. Avoid dominating the conversation, even if you feel you have a lot to say. Make sure to consider the cross cultural factors and time zones/language differences. Often folks in India (even though the conversation is in English and they speak it well) are translating what is being communicated in their head. Be comfortable with long pauses and silence.
Based on the little information provided in your request, this conversation seems to be a combination of feedback and coaching.
HERE ARE 7 STEPS FOR COACHING AND GIVING FEEDBACK FOR MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAMS – A FEW TIPS TO CONSIDER:
1. Use a Combination Impromptu and Scheduled Feedback Sessions – It is important to have regularly scheduled coaching and feedback sessions with remote employees. But don’t pass up an opportunity to pick up the phone in between meetings when there is something important to discuss.
2. Use Technology Tools to Keep You on the Same Page – There are a lot more technology options than just using the telephone. Use web conferencing tools, wikis, or blogs for shared note taking. If possible, use webcams to allow a more “face-to-face” (what I refer to as ‘Virtual In Person’) type of interaction.
3. Begin With Expectations and Goals But Don’t Stop with Results – You probably performance indicators and metrics (feedback on measurable results – M of SMART objectives) that will make discussing work outputs with your employee feel very natural, but don’t stop there. Use performance results as a jumping off points into a deeper conversation about work activity and resource needs.
4. Listen Carefully to Your Employee – It is important to stay focused on your employee during remote feedback sessions. Busy managers must avoid the temptation to multitask. Use active listening techniques such as clarifying, paraphrasing and giving feedback. When responding make sure to restate what you heard and give the person time to explain. Use a combination of Written, Voice and Virtual-in-Person (three components of Context Communication). Ask for suggestions and LISTEN (from my cross-cultural communications model L= Listen, E= Effectively Communicate, A = Avoid Ambiguity, R = Respect Differences, and N = No Judgment).
5. Give Balanced Feedback – Itemize the merits and faults in that order, making them specific and task related. Always express faults as concerns, not criticisms! Offer suggestions that retain the merits and estimate the faults. Then invite further comments because feedback is a 2-way exchange.
6. Build on an Idea and Offer Positive Reinforcement – Make sure to indicate how you want to improve the idea or suggestion. Make the connection between the person’s perspective and yours. Then mention additional benefits or advantages and suggest a modification. Check to be sure you haven’t distorted what the person was originally trying to accomplish.
7. End Discussion (Acknowledging The Other Person’s Vies and Feelings) and State Your Decision – Remember that remote employees don’t have the advantage of seeing what is going on, so state and restate your decision and support respecting the other party and suspending judgment. Remain positive. Reflect once again on the conversation and agree on a Feed-Forward approach (concept I call going from Feed-Back to Feed-Forward).
Hope this is helpful. You can refer to my website: www.yaelzofi.com or blog:www.virtualteamsguide.com for more tips and techniques on managing virtual teams or schedule a free 15-minute call.
Good luck and regards,
Yael Zofi
September 4, 2014
Virtual Teams Focus on Teamwork
With constant changes occurring in the global business environment and economy, getting things done in teams is more important than ever. Given all the downsizing and organizational changes, much more is done virtually in teams. Existing teams have been reconfigured, and employees are working with people they hadn’t worked with before. There appears to be greater recognition that the ability to pull teams together and facilitate collaboration is more critical than in the past. The priority will be on building team chemistry and harmony, partnering across boundaries, and focusing on the company’s big picture interests.
So what does this mean for global leaders and management consultants? Clients are refocused on growth and believe that success depends on obtaining and retaining key talent. That should mean a much greater emphasis on team and leadership development as we move ahead.
The best companies know how to insure both efficiency and effectiveness on their teams. AIM can help you get started. We have a systematic approach to onsite, dispersed and hybrid teams and offer tools and best practices to support you. Checkout online resources on www.yaelzofi.com
If you would like to explore having Yael and/or AIM consultants spend time with your team, please let us know. We are especially interested in offering short presentations or workshops about the new book. Shorter sessions introduce virtual teams to our thinking; longer workshops build people’s skills in using our practical methodology. For more information contact : info@aim-strategies.com
Virtual Teams Project Management Focus On Teamwork
Virtual teams project management is becoming more important than ever as many managers struggle with uniting the virtual workforce and managing offshore teams. With constant changes occurring in the global business environment and economy, getting things done in teams is more important than ever. Given all the downsizing and organizational changes, much more is done virtually in teams. Existing teams have been reconfigured, and employees are working with people they hadn’t worked with before. There appears to be greater recognition that the ability to pull teams together and facilitate collaboration is more critical than in the past. The priority will be on building team chemistry and harmony, partnering across boundaries, and focusing on the company’s big picture interests when thinking about virtual teams project management.
So what does this mean for global leaders and management consultants working on virtual teams project management? Clients are refocused on growth and believe that success depends on obtaining and retaining key talent. That should mean a much greater emphasis on team and leadership development as we move ahead.
The best companies know how to insure both efficiency and effectiveness on their teams. AIM can help you get started. We have a systematic approach to onsite, dispersed and hybrid teams and offer tools and best practices to support you. Checkout online resources on www.yaelzofi.com
If you would like to explore having Yael and/or AIM consultants spend time with your team, please let us know. We are especially interested in offering short presentations or workshops about the new book. Shorter sessions introduce virtual teams to our thinking; longer workshops build people’s skills in using our practical methodology on virtual teams project management. For more information contact : info@aim-strategies.com
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Video Transcript:
Trying to find virtual teams is across the street or across the world.
How many of you are working with virtual teams now? And how many of you are consulting, interacting with different virtual teams?
The islander, he called himself: “I’m by myself, I don’t know where my boss is, I don’t know where my team is.” There were some people that if their team did not create or their manager or their unit to not enable that interaction, they kind of felt like they’re lost, I call them the lost riders. They’re riding into the sunset.
These four people they’re all high performers, they’re all really effective at what they do, they all have a great expertise: let’s put them together, here are your team, will do. What do organizations want? Immediate deliverables.
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Team Building Strategies For Managing Virtual Teams Webinar
Check out this webinar on team building strategies for the virtual project team featuring author, consultant and virtual management expert, Yael Zofi.
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Yael’s Highlights For Team Building Strategies From The Webinar:
Clip 1 (4:14-4:45)
That’s part of the challenge, the technology piece and the human piece and combining the two of them in this virtual environment. So making sure we have the technology to work. Sometimes the technology is more advanced than the human component but my work and my focus has been and my book “A Manager’s Guide To Virtual Teams” is about how to manage virtual teams despite time, distance, and space and using team building strategies to make sure the human connection stays alive as we advance the technological connections. We need to sort of align both together.
Clip 2 (5:05- 5:20)
We need to make sure that the good parts of establishing connections, human connections, building relationships and working together even though we are physically apart, just like we are doing right now “hello everyone” , is doable and possible and still gets done.
Clip 3 (13:20-14:00)
One of the concepts, I started writing about this back in 1999, is that we are all moving from agent of change to becoming an agent of connection. Came out first in ‘99 and then I spent some time, I write about it a little bit in my current book, the concept of agent of connection as a leader is that modern 21st century leadership is a shared leadership. In order for virtual teams to be successful, leadership needs to be a shared approach. There are seven dimensions of leadership and the combination of those dimensions needs to be incorporated for a team.
Clip 4 (14:02-14:35)
Virtual project team is not like a traditional team. It’s a different kind of team and it’s tough for a lot of my clients to understand that. It’s kind of like a team operating at a different level; the team is at different atmosphere, like driving in space instead of driving on a highway. So some of these challenges and stages of development are a little bit different in a virtual environment, one of the team building strategies, I refer to them as setup, follow through, and refresh. Refresh happens all the time because people are coming in and coming out and it is an amoeba kind of team that is constant revolving and evolving.
Clip 5 (14:38-17:47)
In the virtual environment, conflict normally starts as a misunderstanding. Conflict could be “I sent Claire an email and she misunderstands what I said, and she responds, and it becomes a little bit of an email war and then it becomes a misunderstanding that leads to that conflict. Then If you add a cross cultural factor or the fact that we have different time zones and the back and forth and then I CC the boss and then it becomes a whole other scenario.
Throughout my work and my research with virtual project teams, there are four types of virtual conflicts that come up again and again.
The first is performance conflict which is “what am I supposed to perform, what am I supposed to do?” Sometimes when we work with the hives, the regionals, or hybrid teams, a lot of my work is done with hybrid teams and they got their own challenges because they are sort of trying to be virtual but they are not or they are partial. So the performance conflict is a challenge because people might be working under an assumption reporting to one manager but really they are performance. That is one kind of conflict and there are all kinds of solutions and strategies to handle those.
The second that comes up a lot in virtual project teams from my research is identity. Like belongingness. If you think about it and talk about human connection; the first rule of connection is where do I belong. In the virtual environment, particularly when I work with teams in India and other parts other world, it could even be across the United States, do I belong to my local manager or do I belong to this other virtual team working on this new technical project or whatever it is. So the conflict that is there is the belongingness, identity conflict.
The third one is data. We get data overload. How many emails do you get a day? I’m about to go on vacation next week so I’ve spent the last three days trying to clean emails and just overload of data. So what should I focus on first is one of the biggest conflicts in the virtual environment, data conflict.
The last one, the fourth one, is social because we don’t have, especially for those might be working at home or remote locations. The social is who is on my team and what are they like and what are their personalities. One of the things when I coach virtual teams about running their virtual meetings; Wayne, I am going to read “Meetings Sucks” because I sometimes use some other curse words to say that are probably not appropriate for this. Meetings are the gathering space, however they are not efficiently run in a regular environment then in the virtual environment they are even sometimes more challenging. So the thing that I often recommend to managers in terms of social conflict is having some time in the meeting to allow for some socialization for the team.
Higher performing virtual teams have eight characteristics. One of them is they have some fun. They engage, as David would love that word as that is one of your keyword, in a social component. It doesn’t matter if they are not in the same room but they have some creative stuff; through food and through a bunch of creative stuff. Those are the four.
The post Team Building Strategies For Managing Virtual Teams Webinar appeared first on Yael Zofi.
July 22, 2014
Mid-life Management Crisis – Part II: The Assessment
In overseeing the well-being of others we often forget to check-in with ourselves. This is also true of managers. If you are an avid reader of this blog, you recently learned about a career life event we call the 20/20s. If not, click here to read our last post before continuing with this second half.
The manager in this scenario experienced a moment of doubt before realizing the value they actually bring. However, quick recoveries like this one don’t always occur, creating the need for further intervention. When it comes to evaluating one’s strengths and areas for development there are quality resources to consider. We recommend engaging in an assessment process; whether self- or coach-guided, the results can be very revealing. Our recent AIM® eNewsletter provides an overview of assessments and offers assistance. In addition, if you are looking for insight in this area, the following tips will help you evaluate options.
Suggestion: Find an assessment tool that addresses your unique circumstance.
High-level Understanding
DiSC® – Are you Dominate, Influential, Conscientious, or Steady? This self-administered assessment will help you identify your personal behavior style. The online tool is fast and easy and provides an instant results report. If you feel you just need minor adjustments to improve working relationships, this tool is ideal to understand how your style can impact others.
More Intense Understanding
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) – This assessment delves deeper into psychological types based on theories developed by Carl Jung in the 1920s. The creators of this personality inventory, Isabel Briggs Myers, and her mother, Katharine Briggs, set out to make these theories more available and relevant to people’s lives. This popular tool explores conclusions drawn from four quadrants of perception. While highly-encouraged to work with a certified administrator, there is an online, self-administered option.
Thorough Understanding
360° Assessments – These tools offer data that measure competencies related to your leadership development focus areas. There are various instruments on the market and often organizations will build their own models. These assessments typically combine input from supervisors, peers and direct reports as well as the individual and commonly report on three skill areas: technical, leadership, and business. AIM® has developed a 360-degree assessment for global leaders and one for those responsible for managing global teams called the People Management Assessment™ (PMA™).
For more tips on assessments, visit our websites at www.aim-strategies.com or www.yaelzofi.com. Also, check our books and other services at our virtual Store.
June 25, 2014
Sticky: Mid-life Management Crisis (part of the Virtual Team Comic Relief Series)
When did it happen? You had fresh ideas, a new suit, and a promising future. Then one day you woke up to a recollection of a thought, a thousand responsibilities, and a promising diet plan. Your staff speaks CSS, PHP, Ruby, XML, and a few hundred more trendy abbreviations you aren’t quite sure are related to the internet, a reality star, or an expletive; but you do know it is exhausting trying to keep up. Heck you remember mimeographs — try slipping that one into a virtual watercooler conversation and it’s death by silence.
So it happened, you’ve become the slowly aging portrait to their perpetual youth. The truth is you have entered the 20/20s. The career no-man’s-land twenty years in and a good twenty to go, where you are neither young nor old and your mind is racing with quality of life decisions you’ve made. Then, like every week, Sally, the effervescent recent MBA grad from Omaha knocks on your door to tell you the QIB (quarterly investment bonds) report has been updated and is ready for your review. She smiles in that way that asks for approval as Jack, your boss, your mentor, your friend pops up behind her with that charming twinkle in his eye to say the client is over the moon about your presentation and are you free for lunch on Thursday. Before you can answer, the team manager for your division in Hong Kong rings in and your admin drops off the folder for the Skype call you scheduled. You give Jack a thumbs up on lunch, thank your admin, smile politely to Sally with a, “I’ll follow up after my call”, and engage Hong Kong. As reality floods back into your conscience you laugh to yourself, aware you’re good at what you do and are respected for your contribution. You’ve made quality choices all along; and you are as excited for the next twenty as you were for the first.
Questioning your value is common. Understanding that decisions are made in moments when the best possible information is before us is important. Being nostalgic about the past is healthy, however, dwelling on mistakes made and/or paths not taken is not. If you find yourself stuck in a holding pattern about choices past and present, complete an assessment exercise and update your LinkedIn page. Visual inventories of accomplishments and/or goals will help.
Reconnect with us next week for examples of assessment exercises and action plans you can implement to stay focused and fresh throughout your professional journey.
Mid-life Management Crisis (part of the Virtual Team Comic Relief Series)
When did it happen? You had fresh ideas, a new suit, and a promising future. Then one day you woke up to a recollection of a thought, a thousand responsibilities, and a promising diet plan. Your staff speaks CSS, PHP, Ruby, XML, and a few hundred more trendy abbreviations you aren’t quite sure are related to the internet, a reality star, or an expletive; but you do know it is exhausting trying to keep up. Heck you remember mimeographs — try slipping that one into a virtual watercooler conversation and it’s death by silence.
So it happened, you’ve become the slowly aging portrait to their perpetual youth. The truth is you have entered the 20/20s. The career no-man’s-land twenty years in and a good twenty to go, where you are neither young nor old and your mind is racing with quality of life decisions you’ve made. Then, like every week, Sally, the effervescent recent MBA grad from Omaha knocks on your door to tell you the QIB (quarterly investment bonds) report has been updated and is ready for your review. She smiles in that way that asks for approval as Jack, your boss, your mentor, your friend pops up behind her with that charming twinkle in his eye to say the client is over the moon about your presentation and are you free for lunch on Thursday. Before you can answer, the team manager for your division in Hong Kong rings in and your admin drops off the folder for the Skype call you scheduled. You give Jack a thumbs up on lunch, thank your admin, smile politely to Sally with a, “I’ll follow up after my call”, and engage Hong Kong. As reality floods back into your conscience you laugh to yourself, aware you’re good at what you do and are respected for your contribution. You’ve made quality choices all along; and you are as excited for the next twenty as you were for the first.
Questioning your value is common. Understanding that decisions are made in moments when the best possible information is before us is important. Being nostalgic about the past is healthy, however, dwelling on mistakes made and/or paths not taken is not. If you find yourself stuck in a holding pattern about choices past and present, complete an assessment exercise and update your LinkedIn page. Visual inventories of accomplishments and/or goals will help.
Reconnect with us next week for examples of assessment exercises and action plans you can implement to stay focused and fresh throughout your professional journey.
April 4, 2014
Sticky: Virtual Team Comic Relief: Look At Me, I’m Tworking!!!
“Exactly when did the crazy cat lady drop off this box of kittens to manage?” you ask yourself after another epic fail to reach your virtual team. Sure you handpicked them, sure you love their energy, and sure you benefit from your global footprint, but are you asking too much for a little communication now and then? Just as you are about to take extreme measures, Michael, your friend and colleague, who served alongside you in the trenches when you were both wide-eyed junior executives, enters your office with a supportive “Dude, your frustration is palpable. What’s up?”
After you launch into a brief rant, he asks if you’ve tried “Tworking”. Of course you respond, “That thing Miley Cyrus does?” He knowingly laughs while shaking his head, “no”, and explains how he dealt with a similar challenge by opening a social media channel with his team. He tells you that, during a consensus-building exercise, he discovered his team preferred Twitter at work for quick communication and it had a positive impact on productivity. He states, his team may not always be at their computers, but they always carry their mobile phones. And while nothing confidential is posted; short reminders and alerts work beautifully. They even developed fun shorthand as a group. As you confess you personally despise social media but are willing to try anything, you truly understand it’s more about finding what works best for your team. Not that Miley has anything to worry about, but who knows, Tworking might be your undiscovered talent.
Establishing ground rules and setting up a Team Code are two critical steps every virtual team should take to ensure high performance. Understand first your company’s policy on social media and other communication resources before entertaining suggestions from your team. Then achieve important buy-in from your members by allowing them to choose an approved method for staying in touch.
Connect with us next week for valuable insight and a few helpful tips for establishing a Team Code with your own virtual team. Before then, we want to know if you are enjoying this series by liking us on Facebook.
Virtual Team Comic Relief: Look At Me, I’m Tworking!!!
“Exactly when did the crazy cat lady drop off this box of kittens to manage?” you ask yourself after another epic fail to reach your virtual team. Sure you handpicked them, sure you love their energy, and sure you benefit from your global footprint, but are you asking too much for a little communication now and then? Just as you are about to take extreme measures, Michael, your friend and colleague, who served alongside you in the trenches when you were both wide-eyed junior executives, enters your office with a supportive “Dude, your frustration is palpable. What’s up?”
After you launch into a brief rant, he asks if you’ve tried “Tworking”. Of course you respond, “That thing Miley Cyrus does?” He knowingly laughs while shaking his head, “no”, and explains how he dealt with a similar challenge by opening a social media channel with his team. He tells you that, during a consensus-building exercise, he discovered his team preferred Twitter at work for quick communication and it had a positive impact on productivity. He states, his team may not always be at their computers, but they always carry their mobile phones. And while nothing confidential is posted; short reminders and alerts work beautifully. They even developed fun shorthand as a group. As you confess you personally despise social media but are willing to try anything, you truly understand it’s more about finding what works best for your team. Not that Miley has anything to worry about, but who knows, Tworking might be your undiscovered talent.
Establishing ground rules and setting up a Team Code are two critical steps every virtual team should take to ensure high performance. Understand first your company’s policy on social media and other communication resources before entertaining suggestions from your team. Then achieve important buy-in from your members by allowing them to choose an approved method for staying in touch.
Connect with us next week for valuable insight and a few helpful tips for establishing a Team Code with your own virtual team. Before then, we want to know if you are enjoying this series by liking us on Facebook.
March 28, 2014
Sticky: Virtual Team Comic Relief: Just In Time For Cocktails – Part 2
You may recall our recent post describing a scenario not uncommon to most teams – multiple complications with an added network failure to liven things up. If you didn’t get a chance, you can read it here, Virtual Team Comic Relief: Just In Time For Cocktails, before continuing with Part 2 below. (We don’t want to spoil the story for you.)
So the question posed in Part 1 was “What occurred during the 30-minute call?” How is it possible to solve a client’s issues in just thirty minutes? True, thirty minutes isn’t a lot of time if you think about it. That’s not even enough time to perform a simple task like washing and drying a load of laundry. So, what did occur during the call to cover all of the points and guarantee a successful outcome?
Well, that’s kind of a riddle. It’s not so much the call, but what occurred around the call that kept it within 30 minutes and created the result this virtual team and, ultimately, the client desired. The success factors in this story involve the efficient use of the following:
Staff – Only three team members were needed in the client meeting and two out of the three were offsite, though the remaining team members were on alert.
Time – During the client meeting, both remote attendees were free to make contact with team members without disrupting the meeting. This allowed the team to set responses to client needs in motion while the manager/team leader gave his full attention to the client – all before the meeting with the client ended (and the network malfunctioned).
Resources – Clearly this team knows how to leverage the benefit of their virtual structure by transforming into a solar team extending their productivity with a 24-hour workday and by utilizing several communication options.
Communication – You’ll notice the communication with this team never stopped, but was always purposeful. Our research demonstrates frequent communication is common in high performing virtual teams.
Planning – Regardless of the network failure, this team was organized to succeed. And, this is the point you have all been waiting for…the 30-minute call! The call would have occurred whether the client requested new information or not. It was always part of the plan. The call would either have been a virtual celebration for a great client meeting or a touch point to ensure everyone was on track with results, which it turned out to be.
In this scenario, the manager would have opened the call with a brief network update before quickly moving to a report from John and Seiko detailing the action plan from that very moment to the release of the deliverable including required team members and scheduled hand-offs. The manager would know from the report what was accomplished up to that point. The how and why of those accomplishments would be discussed on a different call, if at all. This call is about future action. After presentation of the report, the manager would quickly provide feedback on critical items before releasing the team – all within 30 minutes.
Does all of the above seem realistic? Has it generated any ideas for your own virtual team? Let us know your thoughts. And, join us next Friday, April 4 for a new installment of Virtual Team Comic Relief.
