The importance of developing effective virtual leaders
April 8, 2009 by Phil Montero
I came across this short thought-provoking video created by Team Builders Plus and some of the
statistics and points it raises are real eye-openers.
What’s it like where you work?
As they point out:
Leadership, trust, and communication are more important than ever, but if your organization is like many today, the intense focus on cost-containment and fears about the economy dominate
the conversation at work.
While millions of people are losing their jobs and an increasing number of companies are going out of business the landscape of business will be changing in the near future.
With more than 25% of the working population reaching retirement age by 2010 a massive workers shortage looms on the horizon. This means organizations will be forced to do more with less and increase productivity from fewer employees.
In a study of more than 1000 organizations, leadership was identified as the single biggest challenge. Increasingly people lack confidence and trust in their managers and leaders.
We’ve found that these issues are magnified when managing remote employees or virtual teams. That is why our training focuses on improving communication and increasing trust in virtual teams when managing virtually.
Far too few organizations are devoping these critical skills for their managers. In fact a study by Corporate University Xchange found that only 30% of companies support leadership development.
However, as this video points out, companies that invested in developing a leadership culture achieved substantial revenue increases as well as increased employee satisfaction.
Is your company doing anything to develop your managers and help ensure they have the skills to lead not only today’s more distributed teams but also the workforce of the future?
Please post a comment below and let us know what, if anything, your organization is doing to improve virtual management.
If you are looking for learning and development for yourself or your company in managing virtually please explore our workshop The Art of Virtual Leadership which we recently made available as an on-demand webinar.
