Virtual Teams: Unlocking Global Talent, Skills & Potential - Essay Sample

Introduction

A virtual team refers to people who work together in groups with the aim of corporate goals across space, time, and organizational boundaries. The team is connected electronically by communication web technology such as WebEx, Skype, and the internet. Associates of a virtual organization manage their work primarily with electronic tools to attain specific organizational jobs. Virtual teams enable firms to acquire the paramount skill possible for a particular task without geographical limitations. Also, they seem more effective in outlays of time and associated travel expenses. Management of a virtual team is vital to indorsing project team cooperation and is significant to the achievement of a virtual team. The management comprises all the procedures that it takes to control a virtual team, such as training, assembling, and managing.

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A high performing and successful virtual team must achieve different features. For a dynamic virtual team, there are six elements organizations should embrace to attain high performance. These success aspects play a significant role in distinguishing the best virtual teams and improving their performance. First, a capable virtual team should have a stable and consistent membership in the group. Hence, a capable virtual team should involve themselves in less regular modifications in the group to provide a better constancy and delivering sufficient time for the members to create attention on establishing positive relationships. Second, the virtual team should comprise fewer team members as it will be managed in contrast to the group with a significant number of participants making it appear immensely larger (Lepsinger, 2010). Besides, the participants from similar geographical locations make it challenging for the whole virtual group to relish achievement since they seem to experience similar encounters, unlike the cross-sectional groups who may face unique issues. The accomplishment of a virtual team is anticipated if the members are not attending many different organizations. If the participants engage in various groups, there is a higher probability of influencing their overall performance. Also, a high profile virtual group comprises of participants who have an extensive tenure as it is capable of accomplishing better because of their capacity to spend their ample time in enabling the executive practices and the communication. Lastly, the leaders of the virtual teams need to embrace diligence regarding inspiring participation, handling conflict, and accurately identifying and gratifying team members. Leaders of active groups seem to have less struggle with establishing cooperation virtually, which is a significant problem reported by the lesser performing team leaders.

Moreover, the team that holds a kick-off conference in the first ninety days have attained superior performance correlated to the groups which have never met. The kick-off seminar is a substantial part of establishing a profile of a capable virtual group. For a virtual group to become prosperous, it should conduct regular conferences. For example, 62% of the excellent performing teams usually meet every week, different to 29% ineffective teams who do not hold regular meetings (Pullan, 2016). All leaders must adjust their team on roles, responsibilities, and goals. However, with virtual teams, management is essentially more of an issue as individuals do not collocate. It is substantial to concentrate on the particulars of task processes, and design to complete the tasks. Simplifying the duty to the utmost level possible ensures the allocation of works to sub-groups of three or four team members. Thus, teams that embrace regular meetings will finally have a more significant and effective performance. The excellent performing team should establish leveraging technology to keep their concepts away from their competition. Hence, the team members have the potential to discuss attaining the best and appropriate technology, which will allow them to collaborate in performing the tasks.

Additionally, leaders should utilize online project management tools as an ideal method to maintain track of deadlines. Online project management tools help individuals to keep track of activities. The devices are web-based, extensively interactive tools a virtual team can use to plan the entire task, manage the schedule, and enable collaboration. It allows an individual to upload and share documents with the team, establish and manage various tasks, and enhance communication with the involved team (Graham et al., 2019). Thus, virtual teams should utilize this tool to improve their procedures and be more effective in performing their tasks. These tools send reminders and alerts for deadlines and deliver a quick overview of incomplete works. For example, Google documents are useful for time tracking presentations. They can offer the structure necessary for business processes that will advance the virtual team's overall workflow and establish a more timely and efficient contribution of every individual. Virtual team management tools assist in keeping cohesion among the team members from various time zones and places and encourage tracking and coordination of their input on the task. When a leader provides his/her team with suitable software, there will be a productive collaboration, seamless communication, and, ultimately, the excellent performance of the team's personnel. Therefore, deploying online appliances for collaborative activities and aligning them with the proper procedures and transparency will assist the virtual teams to attain their goals and deliver the work according to the expectations.

Also, the excellent teams frequently utilize the video conferencing, helping to reinforce the groups by assisting the remote staff to incorporate more easily into the team. When groups exercise this, it makes more conferences more prolific, restricting cycle periods and making of decisions for a host of firm interactions and processes. The high performing team should deliver more skill training to help strengthen the capabilities of the low performing teams to enhance improvement as this aids in bringing all the teams to a higher level to possess similar knowledge and abilities (Alsharo et al., 2017). Besides, having a director with the proficiency of managing people will ultimately lead to a successful team, thus ending up establishing teamwork virtually. The virtual team leaders should commit to ensuring team members acquire adequate information on any advances associated with projects or the overall business of a firm. The team leaders should establish a visible direction for the other participants, making sure everyone takes a shared vision and goal. The excellent flow of communication will improve the ability of the group members to establish clear responsibilities and shared objectives, which will advance liability.

RAMP model ensures positive establishments of connections with the other members of the virtual team. According to DeRosa (2013) RAMP model, a capable virtual group should make sure it is successful in the formation of a connection, accountability, process, and motivation. A more significant virtual team must enhance a good association that comprises trust, excellent communication, and conflict resolution. When team members establish trust from the ability to communicate honestly and openly with each other in case of any conflicts, it will be tranquil for the team members to approach the problem and find a resolution. Also, the RAMP model emphasizes accountability, where individuals take responsibility for their activities. In the periods of presenting the outcomes of a specific event, they should perform it in an apparent method (DeRosa, 2013). If a virtual team display accountability, it is conspicuous that it will be successful as the members acknowledge their expectations from the firm and are responsible for their activities. Motivation is another way of a high performing virtual team. When a virtual group is tremendously motivated, it will establish a more significant variance compared to the unmotivated group. A leader who frequently motivates the virtual members instills morale to the participants in attaining the set goals. The virtual team leader can look for opportunities for the members to advance themselves through enhancing training and formal education. The leader needs to recognize and converse prospects for the on-the-job tasks that will assist formulate members to acquire new skills and knowledge. Lastly, a capable virtual team should have a process that guides them in their daily operations. The virtual teams require to establish communication and collaborations in their processes by maintaining consistency as it will aid them in achieving their goals. Therefore, the crucial interpersonal features of a capable virtual team comprise communication and prompting abilities, the capacity to continually encourage others, build relationships, coach, and advance other people.

There are distinct accelerating aspects that a virtual team should embrace to enhance effectiveness. For example, since team members come from remote zones, there should be various components that exist to help in accelerating trust. The amount of time spent with the team members helps in the establishment of the degree of the built confidence. If the members of the team use their high time networking, it will aid in creating the trust (Friedrich et al., 2015). Also, an organization should have a facilitator who guides the group to stay neutral and encourage everyone to focus on their primary goal. Facilitators generate a positive environment for negotiations and intensely inspire the members of the team to participate in the meeting enthusiastically. The facilitator plays a significant role in establishing a virtual conference to gain crucial experience. The individual directs the process and encourages proposals, maintaining track on the team, summarizes performances, and builds a positive environment. A facilitator should guarantee that each team member comprehends the plan and aims of the meeting, ensure all people receive respect for their ideas in the group. The power of interaction acts as an accelerating element to improve the trust among the members. Positive interaction enhances communication, which is influential in teaming consistency and association establishments, which may advance the method the team directs its activities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, virtual team leaders play a substantial role by ensuring every member of the team meets their true potentials and completion of tasks within the stipulated time. The virtual team leaders help in solving conflict and resolving issues in the group by ensuring positive relationships and transparency. Also, effective virtual teams are significant at upholding social bonds while providing the smooth performance of business tasks. Coordination of activities has substantial responsibility in virtual team performance as it enhances harmony in performing distinct operations and functions to attain the organization's goals efficiently.

Bibliography

Alsharo, M., Gregg, D., & Ramirez, R. (2017). Virtual team effectiveness: The role of knowledge sharing and trust. Information & Management, 54(4), 479-490.

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Virtual team success: A practical guide for working and leading from a distance. John Wiley & Sons.

DeRosa, D. (2013). The RAMP Model: Tips for High Impact Virtual Leadership. Retrieved on 29th January 2013 from https://www.onpointconsultingllc.com/blog/2013/01/the-ramp-model-tips-for-high-impact-virtual-leadership.

Friedrich, R., Stengel, I., Bleimann, U., & Walsh, P. (2015). Enhancing Virtual Team Performance via VTMM–A real-world case study. B...