Can you lead virtual teams successfully?

Working virtually is the key word of today. Increasing amount of multicultural and multinational teams work in companies, which are internationally active. Today the work ethos is characterized by independence of place and time, technological development, non- permanency, and multiculturalism.

Virtual teams are challenging to the team leaders. Leadership, teams and trust have to be built without face-to-face contacts.

Authoritarian leadership is not the most successful type of leading in virtual environments. The leader has to be mature for democratic leading. The leader has to learn how to lead, manage, motivate and inspire the team members, regardless of the nationality or multicultural background. Leadership in the net is much more than just giving orders.

One of the main reasons why virtual teams often fail is that they overlook the implications of the obvious differences in their working environments. Team members and leaders do not make accommodation for how different it really is when they and their colleagues no longer work face to face. Teams fail when they do not adjust to this new reality by closing the virtual gap.

Challenges of multicultural and multinational teams can be categorized into different categories: 1) Developing trust and good relationships, 2) Developing intercultural competence, 3) Managing conflicts and virtual team dynamics.

Picture 1. The fortune wheel of leading virtual teams successfully.

Virtual work and teams need to have result oriented, purposeful, and a strong leader. The team members have to know the goals and the target of the work. Also they have to be repeated during the work. Otherwise, one or some of the team members can make their own goals and target, which are different from the original one. And then might happen the teams are not working to the same direction with the organization. But how can you lead the teams to success? It is simple; you just have to make the fortune wheel turning.

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