No matter how distant

We have been learning about collaborative technologies to help
us manage virtual teams. In this post I want to focus about essenital
skills to help us lead virtual teams. After reading some articles,
googling "Skills needed in Leading Virtual Teams", and my own personal
experience ( I lead virtual team meetings across 5 US offices and 3
International offices) I finally found an article that I completely
agree with in terms of the core essential skills needed to
successfully manage virtual teams. Of course there are many more
skills that will help, not to mention our own experiences, but I really
think these five are core and should be the basis when leading
projects. According to the author, Joyce A. Thompsen, these skills
will help you lead a virtual team "no matter how distant"
(http://www.qualitydigest.com/sept00/html/teams.html).

The 5 essential skills are:

Communicating effectively and using technology that fits the situation

Building community, based on mutual trust, respect, fairness and
affiliation, among project team members

Establishing clear and inspiring shared goals, expectations, purpose
and vision

Leading by example with a focus on visible, measurable results

Coordinating/collaborating across organizational boundaries

Overall, I would say that as long as we are proactive, if we have different skill sets we would be able to lead virtual teams.

Comments

[Fayez Almalki]

This is really good article. THANKS,,,
It won’t help us on improving skills only, but it’ll help the leadership on some bases. Also, in this article I like how the make everything as easy steps to flow.