Enhance Your Virtual Team’s Performance
High-performing teams are so important to business success. Effective collaboration has been shown to increase productivity, strengthen innovation, enhance profitability as well as support employee engagement and retention. Creating high-performing teams is not an easy task. It takes time and an ongoing commitment to keep staff members aligned and engaged with one another.
Virtual and hybrid teams have extra obstacles when it comes to success that in-person groups can typically sidestep. The concept of out of sight, out of mind plays a role as remote employees may work more individually rather than collaboratively. Virtual teams may also be more likely to experience miscommunication and feel disconnected from one another.
To help your dispersed team overcome these challenges and amplify success, try implementing these 10 tips to elevate performance.
1. Identify team-based goals.
To foster a team-centric mindset, identify goals that the entire group will work toward and make sure that individual objectives ladder up to the team-based targets. Doing so will help the whole group align on priorities so they are more likely to operate with a collaborative mentality even when they need to complete tasks on their own.
2. Set team-based key performance indicators (KPIs).
When employees are only measured on individual KPIs, it can be easy for them to prioritize individual performance rather than consider their group’s collective success. To encourage greater collaboration, identify metrics that the entire team will be measured on.
3. Set clear expectations on roles.
When staff are in different locations, it’s easier for miscommunications to arise about how work should be divvied up and what each person’s responsibilities are. Help your team operate more efficiently by outlining the roles of each contributor when kicking off a project and check in along the way to assess progress and make sure tasks are appropriately allocated.
4. Host regular team gatherings.
Provide your team with face time by setting a schedule for all-hands virtual meetings. Some gatherings should focus on information sharing to offer updates on project milestones and company initiatives as well as provide staff with time to share ideas and get feedback. It’s also important to build in bonding time to help virtual team members connect and engage with one another.
5. Promote empathy and emotional intelligence.
Trust is essential for any successful team. While it takes time to build, you can begin to create the foundation for trust by prioritizing empathy and emotional intelligence. By helping staff to recognize their own perspectives, appreciate the viewpoints of others and be willing to put themselves in their teammates’ shoes, you can create a more motivating, trusting culture.
To empower your employees with emotional intelligence, host one of our virtual programs to help your staff recognize the preferences of their team members and view their differences as assets.
6. Communicate frequently and mindfully.
It can be challenging to share information when your team is spread across multiple locations. Keep your employees up to date by identifying team norms around communication. Consider the best methods (e.g., chat channels, emails, phone calls or meetings) to share common types of information like project updates, milestones and even social check-ins to keep staff connected.
7. Surface obstacles.
To help your team operate efficiently, it’s important that they have a way to bring attention to challenges as they make progress on projects. Try implementing remote “stand-up” meetings or chat channels so that staff have an avenue to quickly surface obstacles they are facing. Encourage the team to work through those obstacles together or if necessary, elevate it through the manager.
8. Provide flexibility with consistency.
One of the benefits of remote working is that it allows team members greater flexibility over their schedules, which can improve morale and productivity. Help employees to maximize efficiencies by offering that flexibility while also identifying some team norms to establish consistency in schedules, such as regular meetings, designated off hours and expectations around response times.
9. Celebrate team achievements.
People are more motivated to work hard when they feel valued. To promote a collaborative spirit, take time in your meetings, emails and chat channels to honor your team’s progress toward goals. Recognition does not need to be overly complex or expensive (although financial rewards can be effective). Simple thank you’s also have a lasting impact.
10. Use cognitive diversity to your advantage.
We know that teams solve problems faster and more effectively when they are cognitively diverse. Help your team use the gift of their colleagues’ varying Thinking and Behavioral preferences and make it an expectation that cognitive diversity will be considered when working on projects. Doing so can help your staff appreciate one another, feel respected and find collective success.
Interested in utilizing cognitive diversity more effectively in your company? Learn more about our virtual workshops to help you understand and use the Emergenetics® Attributes to drive productivity.
When your staff members are part of a high-performing team, they contribute more to your bottom line – and have more fun while doing it! By creating a collaborative mindset among your remote teams, you can empower them to overcome the challenges often faced in virtual workspaces, strengthen team achievement and ultimately drive company success.
Want to learn more about how Emergenetics can enhance collaboration with your team? Fill out the form below to connect with our team members today!
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