Virtual Team: Building Community, Essay Example

In the contemporary world of fierce competition the demand for professional and remote leadership teams whose members are scattered all over the world is extremely high. There are certain distinctive and unique requirements for leadership consideration in the virtual business team, where individuals who pursue the same goals and are responsible for common obligations are scattered across various geographical locations. There is sound evidence that the effective virtual leadership is based on the very same foundations as the usual office environment. However, difficulties and challenges occur and even increase, due to the distance that separates the team members. Therefore, I believe building a community in a virtual team to be the most challenging task.

Community may include demonstration of sympathy to differences, establishing and sticking to rules, project team manners or simply an agreement among the workers on ways of working together. It is crucial to start establishing mutual trust between team members at the beginning of a work affiliation. Trust is easily broken, and it demands clarity of objective. Ultimately, events and actions that carry out a specific commitment are inclined to congeal the trust. This is vital for virtual project team members who have miscellaneous signature skills or are representatives of different technical fields. While professionals with differing approaches to thinking and analyzing are now regularly chosen for accelerated product development squads to arouse creative pressure and generate intensified creativity and originality, the effective leader should always think about an initial personal appointment to purposefully adjust the members toward a productive objective constructed on community and reliance on each other. “Meet face-to-face periodically throughout the life of the project” (Dealing with Communications Problems, 2009). The awareness of fairness is another significant aspect. As members of the virtual team examine day-to-day activity, they obviously form opinions about the justice of any situation or activity. An action or situation that triggers workers to recognize unfairness can directly influence their wish for contributing energy and professional ability to the project team and its objectives. Consequently, if there is an apparent indication of prejudice or unfairness, cultural tactlessness or unethical behavior towards others, the common response is to purposely reserve full effort and creativeness. “Understanding cultural differences helps to bridge gaps in miscommunication. Identifying similarities provides a basis for establishing common grounds and interpersonal connections among team members” (Global Virtual Teams Leadership Competencies, 2009). The need for relationship when building a community within a virtual team is also important. A human necessity for classifying with a valued group, engaging in a highly regarded objective or purpose with associates, and developing certain level of connection is central in rise above social isolation, distancing and detachment. “In the case of teams, it can lead to more integration and higher levels of self-management” (Gibson, 2003). Community building also includes keeping promises, providing positive feedback, offering every member an equivalent voice, sharing critical information and data, and recognizing inclinations for type and rate of communications and other distinctive aspects on how the project team desires to cordially work as one. “Employees tend to be more comfortable and effective if they are capable of performing the core tasks for their roles; self-disciplined; goal-directed; flexible; collaborative; willing to share and exchange information; open to feedback, change, differences in people and culture, ways of thinking, other discipline models or signature skills, and alternative approaches to processes; committed and connected to the business; and competent in using technology required for their roles” (Leading Virtual Teams, 2000).

In conclusion, building community in virtual teams appears to be one of the most demanding and complicated task for a group leader. However, taking into consideration that the challenge in question is the core supplement of a successful group activity, it is a responsibility of a virtual team leader to achieve this goal.

References

Leading Virtual Teams. (2000). Building community. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.qualitydigest.com/sept00/html/teams.html

Dealing with Communications Problems. (2009). Leading Virtual Teams. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.leader-values.com/Content/detail.asp?ContentDetailID=183

Global Virtual Teams Leadership Competencies. (2009). Leadership Competencies for Managing Global Virtual Teams. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6654/Leadership-Competencies-for-Managing-Global-Virtual-Teams.html

Gibson, C. (2003). Virtual Teams that Work. John Wiley and Sons