Today many teams are highly dispersed. Gone are the times where all members of a team worked in the same building and even in the same office. How can you manage your team? Check out these tips by the management.about.com website.
1) Create a vision for your team
If you want your team to work together when dispersed and virtual, you need to craft a strong, shared vision. You must be sure that your colleagues are not working in bubbles and are aware of what impact they have on the others. They have to know that they are working towards a common goal. They have to understand what the goal is. This vision, the common goal, gives everyone a reason to call each other, to check how a project is progressing and how they can help to make remote collaboration easier and more effective for everyone.
2) Turn regular meetings into opportunities to learn
When the team is in the same building, there are regular team meetings. Also, managers regularly set up one on one meetings with their direct reports as well. When a team is geographically dispersed, the need for meeting together does not disappear. It is necessary because it keeps your team aligned and fosters a sense of unity and mutual trust among both members and managers.
Your weekly meetings should allow everyone to have the opportunity to learn from others. It will foster the dynamic of the whole team. For every meeting, select an individual who will deliver a short presentation about how they have contributed to the team. People from different areas of expertise will better understand what goes on in other parts of your organization. With a deeper understanding of every process, the team will become more engaged.
3) Teleconferences can be fun
The manager could send a small, personalized gift to everyone. When the video conference starts, you can have everyone open their gift and talk about it. Gifts should somehow be connected to the people who receive them – connected to their personal interest or their work.
-jk-