The Virtual Leader is the new leader of the 21st century. More and more, multinational or multi-located offices must collaborate in real time to get
things done. The soft skills or attributes measured by this Hartman based profile are uniquely needed to be an effective Virtual Leader.
While charisma and personality may enhance in-person leadership, without the necessity of strong administration skills, the Virtual Leader must be strong in organizational
and planning skills and yet still have high levels of empathy to make meetings flow and to effectively get things done through the dispersed team. These virtual teams may have some co-located members while others are in dispersed commercial or home offices. More often than not their objectives are mission or project based and they have specific timelines and budgets within which they must accomplish their tasks. Often times there are direct and indirect reporting relationships outside of the virtual team or teams they are on. Team members may also not share organizational alignment or performance requirements but the team must accomplish its mission under the direction of the leader of the group. Without the dynamic of physical presence, this leader must create a sense of virtual presence combined with an enhanced ability to read people through technology and push delegation of tasks across time zones, cultures and languages.
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Virtual Leader Profile
Competencies of the Virtual Leader
Administration
Communication
Diligence
Empathy
Humility
Leading
Responsibility
Trusting Others
Competency Overviews:
Administration
There are 2 key components of administration that are necessary for the effective virtual leader. The first is organizational skills. Meetings must be strategically and tactically
preplanned from a standpoint of content and technical issues such as calendar, time and media management. The second key part of Administration is found in having a well developed sense of both self awareness and awareness of others. They need to know their inherent strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weakness of
each team member so when they delegate, they can place the appropriate task or responsibility in an individuals sweet spot for high performance and goal achievement.
Communication
Effective management of any organization requires clear goals and internal communication, both vertically and horizontally, in collective pursuit of those goals. In order to make well-informed, cool-headed decisions, a virtual leader needs well-developed listening skills...not only for what people are saying or writing in their organization, but what they are meaning. They should also have strong self-discipline and self-management skills in order to leverage his or her power by effecting excellent time management and by delegating appropriately. A virtual team has the additional challenge of being geographically dispersed and the communicative skills of the virtual leader must embrace high levels of competence in multiple forms of media with electronic follow-up to enhance their presence in a remote office.
Diligence
Diligence in the virtual leader is seen in the circumspect attentiveness, hard work ethic and overall lifestyle of great virtual leaders. It is seen in an attitude of pay now, play later (and yes, play does indeed need to happen in the life of the virtual leader). This leader realizes that attention to detail is often needed to prevent people and productivity problems. Diligence means that although delegation is done effectively through well equipped and capable 'Lieutenants', the diligent virtual leader never takes their hand off the wheel of the organization they are responsible for. This virtual leader is also committed to
continuous learning to sharpen their skills while being an example of that to the team.
Empathy
The saying goes "I do not care what you know until I know that you care ". Empathy is the ability to place oneself "in-the-shoes" of another and to be able to view a situation from their perspective. Empathy in virtual leadership is the ability to perceive and understand the feelings, motivational needs and attitudes of others. The empathetic virtual leader will ask themselves why a person acts as they do instead of reacting to their behavior. Empathy does not mandate a softness towards or the enabling of an under performing employee, but it accurately assesses what is really going on and deals quickly with performance issues from a reality basis, not from a superficial level. It also involves being sensitive to others viewpoints and conscious of how your words and actions, or lack thereof, will impact others, and how it will affect your immediate team, the
organization, stakeholders and community.
Humility
There is a distinct difference between the power-first virtual leader and the servant-first virtual leader. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that the organization as well as their teams highest priority needs are being served before their own. In his book GOOD TO GREAT, Jim Collins states that humility as being a core component of LEVEL 5 leadership which he clams is the highest performing category of leadership in world. Humility in virtual leadership is the ability to see things as they really are and to build a strong team of competent people around them and release their talents without any need to share the glory of the resultant success. The humble virtual leader will serve or facilitate first, and then lead as a way of expanding service to individuals or their organization. These "servant leaders" may or may not hold formal leadership positions, but they acquire influence through serving others. They are known by their qualities of encouraging collaboration, praising team members publicly and the ethical use of earned and positional power.
Leading
With all of the soft skills needed, and the common challenges of leading a multi-generational and multi-geographically dispersed organization, the virtual leader must still
lead. The virtual leader must be skilled at evaluating the strengths and weakness of each individual by creative means such as psychometric assessments, 360 evaluations and past performance. This leader then must be able to balance tasks to specific team talent without overloading any overeager or overtly high level performer. This leader must be able to listen to what is not said as well as to what is said by each team member. A person who may be more introverted by nature may be the most qualified for a task while someone with a bolder personality may not. A more collaborative
decision making model works better here and should be in the context of both what to do as well as the when to do it. Finally, persuasive consensus building to gain commitment of each team member is more important for the virtual leader than for the in-person leader because motivation to work independently is greater when you are in agreement with your boss and feel as if you have had a part in developing a course of action.
Responsibility
There are two basic components of Responsibility: Personal Accountability and Accountability for Others. An effective virtual leader must possess above average measures of both.
Personal accountability is an internal attitude that causes a high performing virtual leader to manage themselves effectively because they have taken responsibility for their actions and will not shifting focus or blame on poor performance to somewhere else. This derives from an internal responsibility to one's self to be accountable and the internal willingness to 'own up'.
Accountability for Others is to be responsible for the consequences of the actions taken by those on their virtual team. Taking responsibility for the decisions and actions of teammates, and not shifting focus or blame for poor performance elsewhere requires good judgment, It also requires a presence of mind that keeps an active pulse of the organization they are responsible for. This comes from both a sense of internal responsibility to one's self as a supervisor of others, and a willingness to accept the responsibility associated with being in a position of leadership.
Trusting Others
The virtual leader has no choice but to trust those that cannot be easily monitored. Trust, assumed and extended intentionally by the leader to team members, allows for the release of creative talent and initiative and for others to feel empowered to do their best. This leader must be willing to allow the consequences of failure to fall upon the entire team if one person fails to carry their load. However this knowledge, in a virtual team, can often create a compelling force of peer pressure much greater than a single persons authority. There is an assumption of basic capabilities and the presence of internal motivation to succeed in each team player.
Much like a football team, the Quarterback must see that each teammate has the necessary equipment, strength and skills to perform their unique job and then move the ball forward, adjusting as you go. Trust sustains the dynamic of forward momentum.
