Ever notice how certain team experiences feel exhausting while others enlighten you and help produce the best work of your career? If two-thirds of employees are disengaged (Gallup study), then even the most reliable team might appear moderately uneven and not very memorable. Yet, other team experiences can serve as career high points helping us to remember the reasons why we love where we work, lessons we’ve learned containing positive impacts, and teams we’ve performed with that produced outstanding outcomes. Research using the Extraordinary Teams Inventory (ETI) even exposes the reality that the average group contains roughly 15% of members who suck as employees and 15% who are genuinely extraordinary.
Virtual teams are no longer the “wave of the future.” They are here now and they are growing in use. The 2010 federal Telework Enhancement Act mandates federal agencies to create telework policies under which eligible employees can telework. And public and private organizations of all sizes are rapidly developing and adapting their own methods of teleworking.
Leading virtual and remote teams is a way of life today. Yet many organizations are still struggling to develop the skills needed to manage teams and projects when people are separated by time, space and language.
How is a meeting different than a presentation? How do you engage people and get consensus in a phone meeting? Do we really need to meet anyways?
Lead a remote team? Then you're responsible for the vitality, engagement, productivity and efficiency of your entire team! How do you drive performance, participation and production while connecting with your team virtually?