This essay was originally published in Centennial Conversations: Essential Essays in Professional, Continuing, and Online Education (2015).
As more higher education institutions seek to move educational programs to online environments, leadership of personnel and management of resources must adapt in ways that will bridge local and remote locations. Continuing education units are widely known for being very entrepreneurial thinkers with respect to relevant and forward-edged educational programming, delivery modalities, and tailoring education and training solutions to specific audiences, and opportunities loom for units that can capitalize on new, remote markets by leading and managing personnel from a distance. What’s more, online leadership can reduce operating costs, while providing quality service to customers. While the concept is not new—it is used by airlines, technology companies, and others—its use in higher education is in the early stages. That stated, some leadership and management practices could be reexamined and adjusted to fit the online space. Leaders will need to develop virtual fluency in this new work mash-up that incorporates many of the tried and true leadership and management theories and translates them to an environment that seamlessly melds the physical space with the online space. This four-part essay is designed to serve as a primer for readers who lead online learning programs with team members geographically dispersed or who plan to lead one in the near future.
Step One: Communication
As with all leadership endeavors, the critical first step in creating a high-performing team is establishing clear communication channels. The challenges of misunderstanding or misinterpretation are all too real. In traditional face-to-face settings we tend to rely on nonverbal and visual cues to support verbal communication as part of the information-sharing process. And in that setting, if miscommunication arises, it can be resolved in a relatively simple manner because leaders are able to set in-person follow-up meetings quickly and work through misunderstandings with the added benefit of eye contact and body language.
When leading an online team, it is good practice to assume there will be gaps between transmission and reception of information. This assumption is based on several factors, including varying geography, time zones, technology, and meeting preparedness of the team. Informal lines of communication should be reimagined because geographically dispersed team members don’t benefit from the spontaneous synergies found in chance meetings at the water cooler or in the hallway. Further, depending on the distance at which team members are located from one another, even “sync-socializing” (e.g., synchronized duplex communication via telephone, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Skype, etc.) to share the in-the-moment atmosphere surrounding national events like breaking news or sporting events would be a challenge without prior planning due to time zone differences.
Time zones, a seemingly minor detail, can be a point of friction in online team meetings. Here is why. A prescribed meeting time may be convenient to some team members and a struggle for others. Online team meetings tend be scheduled around the nexus of operations or where the leader is geographically positioned. This means all team members need to be aware of the time zone for which the meeting will be held, and this needs to be clearly communicated to all team members. (This may also be an opportunity to rotate meeting times and allow team members to help plan and/or lead an online team meeting.)
Technology plays a significant role in online meetings. It stitches together data and ideas from team members around the country and globe into a cohesive quilt of information. That stated, assume the inevitable—technology will fail! You can bet technologies used for online team meetings (e.g., the Internet, video conference software and equipment, virtual presentation software, etc.) will fail or be seriously degraded just before or during an important meeting with your online team. Once you have embraced this eventuality, planning alternate forms of communication becomes a bit simpler. Cut out the fluff and ask yourself what are the informational items that must be shared and what is the lowest technological approach to relaying that information? Once this analysis is done, you may come to realize that a telephone and e-mailed presentations using backup commercial e-mail accounts like Gmail and Outlook.com will allow you to continue the meeting. As a matter of last resort, you may need to reschedule the meeting. If so, reach out to all team members as soon as possible and inform them of the new date and time.
Meeting preparedness is necessary to maximize information sharing and productivity outcomes for online teams. It encompasses setting a clear agenda, keeping meetings concise, and managing conflict.
Having a clear agenda will help alleviate confusion. Set and reinforce ground rules about civility and collegiality in the online space.
How long is too long for an online meeting? Think about attention spans during face-to-face meetings. Now, imagine having to compete with what’s going on locally at each team member’s location. Next, sprinkle in some web surfing and an errant text message, and a picture of your meeting’s competition for attention quickly crystallizes. Keeping meetings concise will increase team focus and sends the message that their time is valued.
This also means managing conflict via long distance. In an online space, as previously mentioned, there are multiple opportunities for misinterpretation of communication leading to degraded team interaction and, ultimately, productivity. Recognizing a team member’s affect, reaction, and behavior during team communications (video or audio) helps inform the leader how engaged each person is with the meeting’s content. The astute online team leader will have to quickly recognize conflict among team members and between team members and the leader. Once recognized, the leader will then need to address it right away. This will mean investing extra time in gathering facts surrounding the conflict, scheduling follow-up meetings (preferably via video) with the affected team member, and keeping a conflict resolution log to record friction points and strategies used to arrive at a solution(s). That log will help with future conflicts and may also serve as a baseline of accountability for corrective action.
Additionally, leaders should make a habit of recording audio and video of online meetings (a common software feature) and provide a way for team members to access the contents, remotely. This allows them the ability to double-check discussion that might have been unclear and provide a baseline of accountability for goal and task clarity.
Step Two: Autonomy (Measured and Managed)
Online team members need to function with degrees of autonomy. This means your online team should be comprised of members you can rely on to complete tasks and objectives, ultimately helping the team accomplish its goals. They are remotely located from home base for a variety of reasons—local talent is scarce, they are managing existing clients at a distant location, or new opportunities exist for your organization at a distant location and it’s more cost effective to have someone work remotely to gauge feasibility—and your organization values the ability to leverage their knowledge and skill set with minimum overhead costs. Coming to terms with the reality that there is a large amount of autonomy organically afforded your remote team members due to geography may be a bit unnerving to an online leader. Acceptance of this autonomy is necessary for your team to function. To function well, however, autonomy needs to be measured.
Measured autonomy can be achieved in a variety of ways, including team member updates during and between meetings, contact with clients, and the use of cloud-based project management tools. The level of reporting and sophistication these tools employ is remarkable and provides the team leader with a real-time, bird’s-eye view of all team projects to aid with understanding the full “battlefield,” revealing where chokepoints may be hindering progress, and providing talking points for meeting agenda formation. Using customer relationship management (CRM) software to keep track of the customer contacts all of your team members have, whether by e-mail, web-based communications, or telephone/video notes from conversations, is also helpful. To go a step further, you can use a cloud-based dialing software package that stores telephone calls for later review of content and process improvement.
Leaders manage autonomy of online team members best when they are proactive and highly engaged with them. They must strive to ensure communication lines are open, information is flowing, and maximum support is provided to each member of the team. What happens when a team member shows signs of missed deadlines, time management challenges, or struggles with customer communication? Or when, through a series of measuring autonomic performances of a team member, a leader identifies concerns with a team member’s performance at a remote location? That’s when the other side of managed autonomy comes to light. One of the first things the leader should do is gather multiple streams of information to develop a fuller view of the situation. Matching data provided by the autonomic measuring devices with a team member’s affect, reactions, and behavior in meetings as well as outside communication received from customers and/or vendors can quickly inform the leader. The leader should also schedule one-on-one meetings with the struggling team member to determine if there is something beyond the workplace that may be impacting performance. This combined quantitative and qualitative approach helps provide a fuller view of the situation for the leader to determine next steps.
If corrective action is deemed necessary, having a policy that details steps to help the team member get back on track is essential and would be utilized. If the team member cannot get back on track and needs to be replaced, several factors that could impact the rest of the team should be considered before replacing the team member. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Lost productivity while a replacement is sought
- Costs to recruit and train a new replacement
- Potential disruption to team chemistry
- Potential disruption to customers the replaced team member was responsible for serving
This does not mean the underperforming team member should not be replaced; it means that the totality of the replacement should be considered when making the change.
Step Three: Accountability
Teams need to know they can rely on each other to exhibit professionalism, complete tasks and assignments, and respect each other. Online teams must maintain these attributes despite distance from each other, and they must do so in inventive ways. These critically important areas of accountability are a must-have for an online team to be a high-performing team. In general, modeling these areas of accountability come from three sources: the organization’s existing culture, supporting employee policies, and the online team leader.
Online leaders should consider establishing an online environmental standard for the team to use on and off webcams. For instance, inform your team to sanitize their viewing areas when on camera by being mindful of wall art and other displayed items that could be considered controversial or culturally offensive. Family members and pets should not be in view or to within earshot. Also, urge your online team get used to donning professional or business casual attire at all times, even when not on camera. The reasons are simple. First, being dressed up to work from home helps set the mind up for a day of productivity (sorry, no pajamas or fuzzy slippers!). And second, you never know when a client or someone from the corporate office might need an immediate video call with a team member.
Step Four: Connection (Online Team Building and Maintenance)
One of the under-spoken truths about online teams is the feeling of isolation. Autonomy, as previously mentioned, should be embraced and measured by online leaders. However, there is a point where autonomy should be balanced with interdependent activities that require online team members to interact with each other regularly. Whether they are called group projects or collaborative projects, these types of activities cause team members to communicate, combine efforts, and share resources and insights, and they enhance team cohesion and help with online team building. It is important to develop team cohesion early in the lifecycle of an online team because there is a tendency for members to develop individualized work habits that may not be team-oriented. And a team member’s focus may be more on her or his local environment and less on the overall team. A savvy online leader will orient all online team members to the culture and expectations of the organization and balance that with the unique perspectives each team member brings to the team. Finally, rotating who convenes each meeting gives team members a chance to lead, share their unique perspectives based on location, and provide diversity of thought to the decision-making process.
Maintaining a healthy online team requires planning, sensitivity, and creativity. Providing a sense of connection beyond working hours can go a long way toward maintaining the online team’s health and keeping engagement levels high. Showing concern for team members’ work-life balance helps connect the leader to team members on a human level that transcends geographical distance. Remembering birthdays or other personal milestone events (e.g., completing a marathon, being recognized in the community for volunteer work, etc.) helps team members see and appreciate each other as the multidimensional beings we are.
One novel way would be to encourage team members to be involved in their communities and allow time for showcasing at a quarterly meeting. Another way would be to provide a link to their social media page (e.g., Facebook, Google+, etc.) where their contributions would be chronicled by multimedia wall postings. If you are looking for a low-tech approach to maintaining the health of your online team, try sending a periodic newsletter to the team that covers the hobbies and outside interests of team members. An online office party is also a fun way to help connect your team. Using video conferencing software as the communication link, try selecting a theme—“College Day,” for example. Using this theme, all team members could wear t-shirts from the college they attended and stream their alma mater or fight song to see if there are any commonalities. Or, encourage each team member to dress in local customary attire and discuss the cultures they live in while streaming cultural music and socializing during the online office party.
The leader of an online team has a unique opportunity to connect team members, and soliciting input from the team on ways to improve team cohesion may prove to be the best approach.
Another Word on Technologies Deployed for Virtual Teams
The technologies typically used to lead and manage virtual teams are comprised of teleconference software, videoconference software (with screen sharing and remote whiteboard capabilities), project management software, and CRM software. Each play a significant role in communication and information distribution, and as software programs advance, some functionalities will overlap. However, a good rule of thumb is to rely on each program only for the primary purpose for which they were designed.
Technologies like those listed require advance planning to set up usernames and passwords for each team member. Additionally, although each software service has extensive tutorials, it is considered good practice to have team-centric and mission-focused training of all technologies used for team operations. Consider conducting several dry runs to ensure proficiency with these software tools. The added benefit of having a dry run is the opportunity for it to aid the online team bonding process.
Foundation: Trust
Trust is essential to leading an online team. Its importance cannot be overstated and is the foundation for any successful organization or team. Without trust, no number of steps will provide a pathway to success for a team. That stated, trust becomes even more important in online teams. Trust must permeate the entire team, in full duplex, from the organization’s home base to the online leader, from the online leader to the online team, and between online team members.
As in any relationship, personal or professional, trust is organic and builds over time. Trust can start with simple things like following through on tasks, keeping deadline commitments, mutual respect, and how team members are treated when they leave the team, whether voluntary or not. Online team members also gauge trust levels by how other teams (online and on the ground) are treated by the organization and leader. If they observe behaviors that are deceitful, undermining, or unprofessional, it becomes difficult to believe similar treatment will not be directed to them at some point.
A great way to establish a baseline environment of trust is to have the online team meet in the same physical space at the beginning of the project if at all possible. Although this may appear to be a financial burden at first blush, it is best seen as an investment in the team’s success and ultimately the project. And in most online team configurations, expenses tied to the initial meeting period will be easily made up via savings in lower overhead costs. Once the initial in-person team meeting is complete, deploying team members will have a physical presence to tie to the online presence, providing an analog-to-digital context for future online meetings. A good rule of thumb is to have an on-site meeting once a year (or biannually if possible) to continue to nurture team trust and keep members connected to home base.
After investing time and resources to establish a foundation of trust for the online team, its preservation is key. Create a trust maintenance plan to ensure the team trust isn’t taken for granted. For example, one way to accomplish this is for the leader to stand up for the team during home base negotiations or in meetings with other team leaders. When your team knows you have their back, it provides a level of camaraderie and esprit de corps that allows them to innovate, problem solve, and push themselves further in an effort to make the team excel at the highest levels. In sum, trust is the foundation of an online team and without it the likelihood of team success is zero.
Conclusion
It is highly likely that the use of online teams will continue to increase in many areas of higher education, including academic and business operations. As colleges and universities continue to expand their reach beyond regional and national boundaries, team members will need to be geographically dispersed, whether academic programming is online or provided to a distant site. This essay has examined key issues that occur regardless of configuration and has sought to provide real-world solutions.
Global competition for student enrollment means that it would be wise for continuing education units to incorporate online team building into strategic planning and allocate resources to support the endeavor. This includes leadership training for the online leader that speaks to the nuances and challenges of leading an online team. Further, training and orientation should be provided to individuals who will become the online team. Ensuring communication channels and associated technologies are established and that all team members are comfortable with their use is very important to achieve early in the team’s formation. Setting clear expectations and providing accountability measures will help the online leader manage the team as it moves through challenges and arrives at solutions.
The role trust plays in online teams cannot be overstated. Geographical distance and associated time zones are a natural barrier for an online team. Establishing trust in each other by following through on tasks, observance of deadlines, and a team culture of support for one another will help ensure the team completes its goals and overall project. As online teams evolve and team members change, the leader needs to treat each situation with professionalism because this also helps with team stabilization and overall trust.
Finally, there has never been a better time for continuing education units to deploy online teams. The depth of available information on the topic has increased, as well as the acceptance of online teams as a new norm. This, coupled with advances in communication and accountability technologies, makes online teams a very attractive option.
Resources
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This article was originally published in Centennial Conversations: Essential Essays in Professional, Continuing, and Online Education (2015).