The Course

Managers today often find themselves balancing the need for getting the job done quickly, perhaps with fewer people, with the need for building working relationships that span barriers of time, distance, and culture, to name just a few. For many managers, this is unfamiliar territory that requires a new way of thinking about how to lead people. If this situation sounds familiar, this workshop is for you.

The workshop builds skills in two areas vital to the success of a virtual team: distance management and team leadership. By combining theory with experiential exercises, participants develop the skills required to meet the demands of the constantly changing global work environment.

The Goals

By the end of the course, the delegates will learn:

·         How to manage performance virtually

·         How to choose teams virtually

·         How leaders can develop their virtual presence

How to analyze personal growth virtually

·         How to work with virtual teams

·         How to use the tools of virtual management

·         How to develop trust virtually

·         How to work with different cultures in the virtual space

The Delegates

The program is suited for people with no or little prior experience of virtual working and leading as well as for people with several years of experience who are dissatisfied with this way of working and want to develop their impact as leaders in the virtual space.

The Process

This program utilizes experiential learning techniques with case studies, presentations, video segments and team building exercises to strengthen the learning environment.

The Benefits

·         Concrete strategies for overcoming obstacles to virtual management

·         New skills and tools required to lead across boundaries

·         The ability to match technology to communication needs

·         Increased commitment through awareness of potential cross-cultures

·         Positive relationships as a result of setting compatible expectations.

·         The distinction between traditional and virtual leadership skills, competencies, and attitudes needed to motivate workers across boundaries

·         Strategies to overcome or lessen the challenges to managing virtually

·         Factors critical to the success of a virtual environment

·         How to match leadership style to the stages of the virtual team

·         How to integrate multi-cultural considerations into thinking and decision making

·         How to build and rebuild trust under adverse conditions

The Results

·         Create a team environment despite challenges from geography, time zones and culture.

·         Build trust with people from a distance

·         Assess team performance from a distance

·         Review the benefits and challenges of working in various distant locations and with other organizations to deliver services and projects.

·         Understand the different cultures and how to use these to adjust your leadership style

·         Understand your own leadership style and consider how this understanding might be used to improve relationships you have with others on a local and global basis

·         Understand how effectively you lead currently and your situational leadership style

·         Practice flexing your style of leading and communicating to appeal to varying audiences with differing expectations and preferences

The Programme Content

 

Day One

The Virtual Leader

·         The Changing Global Industries

·         Global Cultures and how they differ

·         The Impact of Technology on Virtual Management

·         The fundamentals of Virtual VS Direct Leadership

·         The Competencies of Virtual Leadership

Day Two

The Administration Competencies of Virtual Leadership

·         The Two components of Organizing Leadership

·         Using virtual organization tools for calendar, time and media management

·         Creating a well-developed sense of both self-awareness and awareness of others

·         Effective delegating techniques of Virtual Leadership

·         The power of empathy in motivating virtual teams

Day Three

Communication and Diligence of Virtual Leadership

·         Setting Clear Goals and Internal Communication Vertically and Horizontally

·         Developing Virtual listening skills

·         Using multiple forms of media for distance communications

·         Keeping your hands on the wheel of control

·         Continuous learning and knowledge transfer

·         Empowerment VS Delegation

Day Four

Team Building Virtual Leadership

·         Setting the roles and rules for the Team

·         Understanding team dynamics

·         Team Styles

·         Matching your Leadership Style to the team in multi cultures

·         Team building for Succession Planning

·         Motivating across boundaries

·         Leading multi-generational and multi-geographical dispersed resources

·         Building a synergistic culture from multi cultures

·         The power of culture dynamics in productivity

Day Five

Trust and Virtual Leadership

·         The Speed of Trust in an organization

·         Building and Keeping Trust across boundaries

·         The role ethics and integrity play in building trust

·         Humility as a characteristic of a highly effective virtual leader

·         Case Studies on building trust.

·         Course Review