When I began my career in the mid-90s, all I had to do to address my team was step outside my cabin and assemble the whole gang. When I finished my last employment, before commencing my entrepreneurial journey in 2011, I was alone in my cabin talking to a phone, while my team, spread across multiple countries and time zones, listened in.
This is one of the realities that today’s leaders will face — the need to lead virtually.
It calls for a different mindset and a conscious way of practising leadership through a computer. As aspiring management students today, it is important to cultivate the right virtual habits so they support you in your leadership tomorrow.
Here are a few things that a virtual leader must remember.
Reinforce the why
When a leader is not able to have face-to-face meetings with the team regularly and does most of her communication online, it is all the more important for her to articulate and keep reinforcing the why of the team.
This could be the organisation’s vision, mission and immediate goals; it could be a project team’s deliverables or an NGO’s impact statement. The team needs to hear and feel the intensity of the leader’s belief in the why . The energy and motivation then takes root in them too and drives their everyday behaviour.
People are still people
Irrespective of whether people are in a face-to-face meeting, a conference call or a virtual meeting (VM), they still have the same emotions, the same confusions, the same needs. Sometimes, based on the technology we use, we cannot see all the participants and this adds a big barrier to the usual barriers present in communication.
So go the extra mile to ensure that people feel involved, and use a few minutes to engage and set the tone with the team before diving into the agenda. It is important for the leader to remember that even when she’s addressing a crowd of people on a conference call, there’s always a person at the end of each of those communication lines.
Leaders should, therefore, try to complement their large virtual meetings with individual reach outs — an encouraging email, a short individual phone call, a compliment via messaging apps. These help build bonds and keep people motivated and engaged.
Be aware of cultural differences
People from some cultures may talk a lot in a VM, while others might not. Some may raise disagreements, others may keep quiet about it. One of the biggest mistakes a leader can make during VMs is to assume that silence means agreement.
I was once in a room with a leader who was talking to his team, that included folks from Australia, China and the Middle East. When he was done, he seemed quite happy that everyone on the team had bought into his plan. From the tone of the China team leader’s brief interventions, I suggested that was probably not the case and asked him to pick up the phone and talk to the China team lead.
The lady, who had been mostly quiet on the call, was now vociferous in her objections to the plan and called out several risks that my friend had not thought through. He was quite taken aback and learnt a valuable lesson on how to engage and communicate differently on a VM.
Ask questions
More than you would in a face to face communication, ask questions. Keep checking if your message is being understood as you intended. A good rule of thumb is to call on specific participants for their views on specific issues, at different times, rather than throwing questions openly.
When you throw an open question to the whole group, no one knows who has to respond and suddenly, multiple people chime in at the same time and the din eliminates meaningful conversation.
Practical considerations
Understand technology and how it works best for your communication. If it’s a new software, ensure that you download it well in advance; test the audio and, where relevant, video and check that your dial-in or log-in credentials work.
We’ve had a few MBA graduates struggle with their first conference call or VM because they either assumed they knew how or didn’t bother to ask. Precious time is wasted and you make a bad first impression. If you are presenting material, ensure that it’s light to load, easy to read, and not burdened with too much information that people can otherwise efficiently read offline or beforehand.
Mute when you’re not talking
This is one of the standard rules on conference calls and VMs, but one that is rarely observed. There’s often ambient noise. Sometimes, participants are in traffic, or at an airport, or at home with the dog barking. So save everyone else the annoyance of having to tune out the distractions. When you’re not talking, hit mute.
For tired executives taking the call at the end of their very long day, this has the added advantage of muting the snore when they drop off to sleep. Not kidding. I’ve been on a call where the whole group had to holler over the loud snoring of a participant who had nodded off. And when you do have to talk, don’t forget to unmute.
Stick to time
Treat a VM or conference call as you would a face-to-face meeting. Dial in on time and announce your presence. If you’re leading the call, ensure that participants are clear about the agenda of the VM and what the objectives are, and if anybody has specific information or updates to share with the group. If it’s your job to provide information or an update, prepare beforehand, don’t attempt to wing it.
Do not multi-task
If you think the call or VM is not important enough to merit your time, politely decline it. Don’t attend it and then type away on your emails or messages during the call.
The key in virtual leadership is understanding that while technology may evolve, people and their needs remain very much the same. Leaders must harness the available technology to keep communicating and engaging. Sometimes, leaders can confuse knowledge of the technology with an understanding of how to use it. Like all other skills, it will take practice, mistakes, learning and more practice.
As Morpheus tells Neo in Matrix : “Sooner or later, you’re going to realise that there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path”. We know the virtual leadership path is here to stay. Let’s also learn how to walk it well.