Power Teams Beyond Borders. Peter Ivanov
of them, you'll make every person in your team feel like a hero who has a special talent that's vital to your success. This is about helping everyone in the team understand that they're not anonymous, but that they're understood. That they've been chosen to be part of this bouquet of skills and with this mix of talent we can achieve anything.
Interdependent goals – goal setting is very important in virtual teams. This rock is about making sure that everyone has their own goal and that everyone is clear on what they need to do to deliver. But more than that, the team will be organised and managed in such a way that they all have the freedom, within budgetary and time constraints, to decide how best to deliver on that goal. Micromanagement is not an option. This is about empowerment. It's about allowing people to set and choose their goals, not simply delegating tasks.
With these three rocks that make up the head of your team, you're aiming for clarity about who your team members are and what goals you're all aiming to achieve.
The next part of the body that I want you to consider is the skeleton and muscles. This is the dynamic part of the body, and therefore of the team. The next three rocks are:
1 Meetings and agenda
2 Knowledge management
3 Regular feedback
Meetings and agenda – this means deciding which online meetings and conferences you need to have as a team. You may have a core leadership team, as well as extended teams, and you need to be clear on how often they will meet and what format these meetings will take.
Knowledge management – this is about how we manage knowledge. It ties in with the Strengths Matrix, but rather than being about skills it's about the knowledge or expertise that individual team members have. I'll talk more later about how you can define knowledge champions or knowledge custodians within your team.
Regular feedback – this can sometimes be scarce in regular teams, but it's even more of an issue in virtual teams. But for your virtual team to be a success, it's essential that you institutionalise feedback. You need to make sure that communication with your team allows everyone to have an equal contribution. You want to establish structured communication where everybody can contribute, rather than taking a manager‐centric or problem‐centric approach.
From the skeleton and muscles we move onto the heart, which is my personal favourite. There are three rocks that are essential in this part of the ‘body’:
1 Recognition
2 Diversity
3 Winning spirit
Recognition – did you know that the number one reason for people leaving a company is a lack of recognition by a direct superior. That means people are leaving jobs not because of the company they work for, but because they don't feel recognised by their manager or boss. In virtual teams, it's important to recognise progress despite the distance and I'll give you tips on how you can do this and make sure everyone in your team feels seen.
Diversity – if you have a diverse team from multiple cultures, you need to think carefully about how to establish the optimal team culture. There are three areas in particular that you need to consider: leadership, decision‐making and conflict. In leadership, you have the choice between egalitarian and hierarchical and I'll explain how you define the optimal leadership style for your team. With decision‐making, you have the choice between top‐down and consensus and, again, I'll help you understand how to find the optimal way for your team to make decisions. In terms of conflict, you have confrontational versus non‐confrontational approaches. I'll help you reflect and consider different cultural considerations when deciding how best to manage conflict within your team.
Winning spirit – establishing winning spirit in your team when people are spread across time zones and cultures can be challenging. But if you can establish this winning spirit, anything is possible. I'll give you advice on how to establish this winning spirit across your virtual team.
The tenth rock is next generation leaders. This is very important because it is no good having this wonderful virtual power team at the top if there is no one coming through behind them to take their place. You need to make sure you are connected to all the layers of your organisation and think about how you can involve people at all levels in delivering your agenda.
According to Google's Project Aristotle, where they researched the characteristics of high‐performing teams, they found that the number one characteristic high‐performing teams have is psychological safety.
This means that the people in those teams are willing to share their vulnerability and don't feel pressure to keep up the appearance of being perfect. The benefit is that when they come up against a task that doesn't play to their strengths, they're not afraid to ask for help. This makes the team a powerful unit. It makes 1+1+1 much more than three.
Establishing Your Foundation
If you lay these 10 Big Rocks, carefully considering each one based on your industry, your locations, the countries your team members are in, their diversity and cultures, your virtual power team will be capable of anything.
Just like when you're establishing the foundations of a big building, you want to make conscious decisions about how you lay your foundation and where you place your 10 Big Rocks. Throughout the rest of this book, I'll share the tools that you need to make these conscious decisions to enable your team to become a virtual power team.
Source: Guide: Understand team effectiveness, re:Work With Google
I will give you examples of how these rocks have contributed to successful power teams that I've been part of, so that you can see them in action.
2 Personality in Focus
When Adam arrives home, he finds Georgia in the kitchen. ‘Georgia, I'm sorry about this morning honey. I know this stuff is really important to you and I will make more of an effort.’ ‘Thanks Dad,’ she says, giving him a hug before leaving to return to her room. He takes off his shoes and jacket and goes in search of Rose, finding her in her home office.
Her face lights up in a beaming smile when he taps lightly on her door, nudging it open to check he's not interrupting. ‘How was your day? Better than breakfast I hope?’ she asks with a twinkle in her eye. He takes a deep breath and steels himself for what he's about to say. ‘Well…’ ‘Adam, what's the matter?’ He steps into the room and closes the door, relaying the email, the options and some of his internal monologue to her.
She sits and listens. When he's finished, she looks at him and says, ‘You know we can't move to Kuala Lumpur.’ He begins to protest, but she silences him with a glance. ‘Adam, this isn't just about you. I've got my business here. Georgia is in school. Moving halfway around the world just isn't an option, especially not for a company that treats you like this.’ ‘I know,’ he says with a sigh. Why do I feel relieved? Did I want her to say no? To be so adamant about staying here?
‘Adam, I know you've put a lot into this job, but maybe it is time to move on? You know I'll support you if you decide you want to go out on your own.’ He nods. ‘I know, I just wasn't expecting to have such a monumental decision to make this week,’ he says, trying to smile. Rose takes his hand, squeezes it and says, ‘I know, but you'll do the right thing.’
As Adam sinks into bed that evening, he already knows he's not going