Tools and Skills for Virtual Leaders

Virtual leadership can feel like an entirely different way to use the leadership skills you’ve been honing your whole life. The fundamentals of leadership are the same; however, virtual administration can offer unique and significant challenges. Focusing energy on the following tips and skills will help you to lead your teams effectively.

Communication

As with any style of leadership, strong communication skills are critical for positive team interactions and management. However, interfacing with a virtual team looks entirely different than communicating with an in-office team. A virtual team will lack face-to-face conversations, but there are plenty of communication channels available to remote teams. These can include phone calls, emails, text messages, instant messaging, and video conferencing. 

Leading a remote team requires leaders  to be proactive about staying in contact with team members. Communicate your expectations early and clearly to get the best results from your team. Ensuring clarity in communication makes everyone more productive and reduces the miscommunications that can compound when there is a change in standard communication methods. Consistent and timely communication will help a virtual leader guide their team.

The right communication method can make a significant difference. Find the method that works best for your organization. At Govenda, we utilize video conferencing and instant messaging a great deal to stay connected and keep projects moving while working remotely.

Keeping an organization’s internal communication flowing with remote teams can sometimes be a challenge. Govenda focuses on communication and collaboration features to ease the strain on remote teams and promote seamless communication. 

Invest in Employees and Relationships

Team relationships are crucial to the success of most teams. However, it is overlooked as a key element of team leadership. For in-person teams, these relationships can be easier to cultivate. You may eat lunch together, or chat about your lives before the next meeting starts or around the water cooler. For effective virtual leadership, the relational aspect of teams cannot be ignored. 

There are tools you can utilize to encourage your employees to chat at intervals throughout the day, but as the leader or manager of the team, more is expected of you. Your role as a leader isn’t only about the results your team can show for their time. The cohesiveness and stability of your team is

your responsibility. A healthy team is trusted, supported, and empowered by their leader. Healthy, engaged teams show 21% greater profitability, according to Gallup. 

Take advantage of technology

Taking advantage of technology as part of your virtual team management isn’t about keeping up with fads or trends. The right digital tools can empower your team to streamline tasks and increase productivity. When leveraged correctly, technology can be used to garner a competitive advantage for your teams and organization. Digital tools can provide new, enhanced ways to communicate and collaborate with your team. The right tools for your team may go beyond the more basic communication technologies, such as phone calls and screen sharing. 

The Govenda platform is designed to be a technology partner for enhanced communication and collaboration. Govenda users share the same experience across all devices with the latest release and updates on fully functional mobile applications. Equip your team with the best tools during this transition to a remote workforce.

Actionable Remote Meetings

Remote meetings can be a source of frustration for some teams, and that frustration can often go beyond the technology we are using. The way remote meetings are handled can make a significant impact on their effectiveness.

Consider making use of digital agendas to make your remote meetings more productive. A clear meeting agenda includes things like:

• Key talking points
• Meeting Structure
• Team Members that will be in attendance
• What each team member is responsible for bringing to the meeting
• Relevant links, documents or research 

After the meeting, agenda items can easily be turned into action items or tasks. If your organization employs a task management system, ensure that those tasks are created promptly after the meeting. Govenda supports remote meetings and enables you to quickly build agendas, share documents, assign tasks, and more within the platform. 

Govenda Supports Virtual Leadership

Govenda prides itself on providing our customers with the functionality unmatched in supporting virtual leadership. Make managing your remote team easier by partnering with Govenda for better communication and collaboration organization-wide. Our unlimited users model promotes the ultimate collaborative experience matched with a cost-effective solution.

Start a conversation today.