As Leadership Now states, virtual communication has its own specifics which need to be taken into account.
Lack of feedback
With standard communication, you receive feedback from the other person instantaneously. You can see their facial expression, how they react to what is being said, and what they think. This is often not the case with virtual communication, especially chat-based channels and other forms of indirect communication.
When communicating virtually, it is therefore necessary that you as a manager give clear feedback to the other person and ensure your communication is completely unambiguous.
Depersonalisation
Virtual communication is often less personal than the standard form, in which people look each other in the eye when talking. This means some employees may communicate in a very direct manner, paying no attention to the emotions of the other person, which often leads to misunderstandings.
Support video-calls. If at all possible, limit written communication and promote video-calls within virtual communication so that everyone involved realises there is a real person sitting on the other side.
Slowness
Virtual communication, especially if it is happening over multiple time zones, may be very slow. And therefore ineffective.
Try to come up with a time schedule when all team members are available, so that each person can rely on being able to reach their colleagues. Define the timeline of the virtual communication in your team and thus reduce delays as much as possible.
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