If you’re new to virtual working, the benefits are clear: the comfort of home, personal space, low to no commuting expenses and not to mention, reduced carbon footprints. However, it is imperative that new employees are also familiar with certain health issues that may arise from remote working—and more importantly, know how to tackle such challenges. So let’s start!

A problem first time virtual workers may experience are feelings of isolation—especially for those who now work remotely on a full time basis. According to a 2011 article from Cornell University’s School of Industrial Learning Relations, the lack of face to face communication and “less frequent opportunities for personal and professional relationship building”, may cause employees to feel extremely secluded and lonely. Such emotions may lead to a loss of productivity and interest.

Another virtual work issue to watch out for is inactivity. Sure, you may occasionally get up from your at-home workstation for a coffee or washroom break, but compare this to a traditional workplace. In the latter, any form of face to face interaction requires the employee to get up and walk around the office space—whether it’s to say hello to a co-worker, to head to a meeting, or just head out to lunch. Moreover, some traditional workplaces even provide exercise equipment for employees to use during breaks.  It is clear that compared to traditional workplaces, there is less physical activity involved in remote working.

But don’t worry, these problems are all solvable!  Any new type of working style will definitely require some getting-used-to. So here’s some homework for you home-workers (team leaders too!) that is sure to help you cope with your new virtual situation.

#1) How to avoid isolation

Team members: Try to incorporate social behaviour into your work. If you discover that certain team members live within the same city as you, organize an informal get together. Go out for a coffee…or Cosmic Bowling—whatever matches your corporate culture.

For those team members who are globally dispersed, or just too far away to meet in general, set aside time for laid back group video/audio conferences. Talk about things that aren’t related to work. Get to know each other—alternatively, you could also play multiplayer online games, some of which allow up to ten members. The benefit of virtual working is you can harness the connecting capabilities of the internet itself to do just that—connect!

For managers: The same Cornell University article suggests that managers should have “informal check-ins” with their virtual workers. This means, managers should engage non-scheduled web calls with employees just to catch up on how things are coming along—and to also inquire if the individual needs additional support. This fosters an encouraging and supporting relationship and lets the employee know that the manager is always available when they need him or her. This reduces the virtual worker’s feeling of isolation, as the individual knows that his or her team leader will always look out for their interests.

#2) How to avoid inactivity

Team members:  An easy way to be an active virtual worker is to step out of the house for lunch every other day of the week. Note: this doesn’t mean buying lunch every other day! It means you take your lunch out with you. Although the short walk to your kitchen may sound alluring because of the little effort involved, it may be more rewarding to just leave the house (with your lunch) and take a 10 minute stroll to your community park. Breathe in some fresh air and enjoy your lunch. This way, you’ll be relaxed and ready to get back to work. The scene change may also be refreshing from staring at a computer screen all day long. However, if weather does not permit going outside, try to recognize fitness opportunities in your regular workday. For instance, if you need to go to the washroom, go to the one on a different floor.

Team leaders: encourage employees to find time for fitness. Add fitness to the work mix—even if this means at-desk stretching routines.  The benefits of a healthy worker are endless. Not only will the individual be physically and emotionally well, he or she will also be more productive and enthusiastic about the work they are doing.

So for all you new virtual workers, this new working style may at times feel overwhelming, but just know that there is always a solution to every problem. And to the seasoned virtual worker, let us know what other tips you would give virtual work freshmen. We would love to hear from you!

Is your virtual team in a motivational rut? As work pressure increases and schedules become tight, team enthusiasm reservoirs can deplete faster than a river in a drought. It’s important to recognize that to achieve success, maintaining team motivation should be an ongoing practice and responsibility for team leaders.  Here are 3 ways to get your team back in the game, happy, engaged and ready to roll!

1)   Encouragement

Fact: 69% of employees would work harder if they were better recognized (Workforce Mood Tracker Survey)

 

It’s amazing what wonder a little pat on the back can do for team motivation. But encouragement is more than complementing an employee for their work. Sure, saying “good job” or “nice work” may be a genuine remark and pleasing to hear, but these words are also generic. For an employee to feel recognized for their services, team leaders should try and complement them on a personal or detailed, level, even if the achievements are small. For example, after a successful meeting, say things like, “I really liked the way you handled that question with the client this afternoon. I could take some pointers from you”, or “The report that you submitted last was excellent. I was very impressed with how you…”. It’s important to let the employee know that their presence is significant to the company.  

 

2)      Take action

Fact: Engagement surveys without visible follow-up action may decrease engagement levels (2011 Employee Engagement Report)

Walk the talk. If you find that your team is disengaged through your own observations or through formal tools such as engagement surveys, it is important to take action immediately. Your team will respond if they realize you are making a conscious attempt to engage them.  The first step is to talk to your team. Isolate where you need to take action by recognizing where the problems lie. Is the work pressure becoming too heavy? Is there a lack of team cohesion? Are there additional problems occurring in the individual’s personal life? Depending on the degree of sensitivity of the issue, address the problem on a one-on-one or group setting, accordingly. Some suggestions to engage your team include creating fun and meaningful virtual meeting activities, or treating your team to free e-books or gift-cards—or even occasional half days!

In some cases however, the team leader may even have to the find the solution beyond him or herself, as there is only so much one person can humanly achieve alone. Luckily, there are excellent support systems, such as the Virtual Engagement Diagnostic Tool, which are designed to address the specific problems of your team. Having external support systems reduce the load on the team leader. He or she can now focus on managing the team projects, while having a secondary support system diagnosing and facilitating employee satisfaction.

3)      Free/creative time

Fact: 59% of engaged employees say that their job brings out their most creative ideas against only 3% of disengaged employees (Human Resources and Employee Engagement Statistics)

 

High work satisfaction and engagement is directly related to high levels of innovation.  This correlation is not surprising when considering how Google handles employee engagement. The Internet tycoon harnesses innovation by literally allowing workers to have free time. They call this the “20 Percent Time” rule. Here, Google engineers spend 20% of their time working on their own leisurely interests—which means tasks that have no relation to their job description. Through this strategy, the company encourages creative thinking, which enables them to develop new IT ideas and address gaps that have been overlooked in existing services.

At the end of the day, the team leader’ responsibility is to ensure that team members are excited about their work. This is the only way tasks can be completed and company growth can occur. We hope these strategies help you. Talk to us. Let us know how you facilitate motivation at your virtual workplace!

What should meetings achieve? You have 10 seconds. Go!

What did you think of? If you’re like most of us, you probably wrote qualities such as:

* Team communication

* Task clarity

* Assessing progress

* Team cohesiveness

* Idea exchange

* Question/concern assessment

* Delegation and organization of tasks and projects

If all your virtual meetings achieve such feats, feel proud.

For the rest of us humans, we secretly realize this is unrealistic. The truth is, the expectations for a smooth meeting are too idealistic. There is no such thing as a “perfect meeting”. But sadly, when a meeting is not “perfect”, team leaders tend to blame it on themselves. They may begin to feel that the exercise was unsuccessful because of his or her competency. Understand this now: it’s not your fault!

Here’s why you shouldn’t have a “great meeting”. Have a realistic one instead! Let’s walk through FOUR virtual meeting myths that may be holding you back from the truth.

Myth #1: Ideal Meetings allow great communication

An ideal meeting is complicated…and even more complicated for virtual teams. In terms of a virtual meeting, where no one can see each other without a webcam, a team leader may never fully know if the meeting participants are fully engaged or cognizant of the delegated tasks. This means communication may not be as successful as you had hoped.

Many virtual meetings don’t have any visual cues—which means a critical dimension of communication is completely lost: vision. Communication requires listening and seeing. According to Learning Through Listening, the most important type of listening is reflexive listening. A reflexive listener not only hears, but also interprets meaning based on visual information. This provides a deeper insight as to what is being said. Thus, for proper communication, you need to hear and see.

But videoconferencing may not always be the solution; although video conferences are helpful, they may easily become costly—especially when investing in high quality and long lasting equipment. So what do you do without video? Try these alternatives strategies that are equally as effective for maintaining a strong leader-to-team member connection:

Virtual Whiteboard – with a virtual whiteboard, the team can formulate and brainstorm ideas and simultaneously share the information with all meeting participants. Try free online tools such as Wiggio that offers this service (as well as integrated video/voice chatting functionalities).

Breakout groups – Breakout groups are a great tool to engage team members. These allow a passive meeting to immediately become active. Schedule 10 to 15 minutes for team members to break up and exchange their thoughts and ideas within smaller groups. Then regroup and share any new insights achieved from the smaller conversations.

Ask Questions – Every 6 minutes or every 3 slides, engage meeting participants by asking their opinion. You can also select specific people by name for their input.  But be careful. Make sure that person is willing to speak. Also avoid being too persistent.

Another thing to keep in mind is to stay away from questions like “does everyone understand?” or “Is that clear?” This usually leads to the ambiguous blur of mmhmms and yeahs from the group. Instead, ask team members to briefly summarize what they understand. Ask active questions such as, “Can everyone go around and explain their responsibility in a sentence or two?”

Or better, prompt certain teams to initiate a discussion at the meeting. Try to take turns as to who speaks first. If your team from Ottawa, for example, spoke first during the last meeting, ask your New York team to speak first this time.

 

Myth #2: Long Meetings Achieve More

Although it is surprising, a longer meeting is far from conducive. Think of all the effort that goes into the planning alone. It requires a great deal of preparation in terms of deciding which issues need to be addressed as well as identifying any sub-issues and specialized, critical details.

As the meeting leader, you will need to spend much more time organizing your opinions and concerns regarding each individual discussion point. And as for the employees, longer meetings not only cause restlessness and disinterest, but also detract time from getting work done.

The solution? Keep meetings brief. Decide beforehand what the meeting should be about. Prioritize key points within a meeting agenda. Meetings should be used for decision-making and brainstorming—not for routine updates. More importantly, remember to keep the agenda realistic. Do not attempt to address everything at once during a single sitting.

Also, don’t invite everyone! Consider if the information at the meeting really requires all participants to be there or not. Perhaps you should only talk to a specific group of people. If you need to gain a status report on all the different projects running concurrently, ask yourself: do I really need to address this ina general meeting? Or can this information be successfully extracted (or conveyed) through an email instead?

Meetings should be an active exercise—they should be used to push projects forward by means of brainstorming and exchanging ideas. Keep meetings specific.

In addition, although meetings should be specialized, also avoid planning too many short meetings throughout a week. Although brevity may be alluring, scheduling too many meetings can be equally as time consuming and ineffective. Time is valuable, so use meetings wisely.

Ask yourself, does everyone need to be at the meeting? Can some issues be addressed one on one, or perhaps through an email?

 

Myth #3: The smooth virtual meeting

Some attempt to have a completely smooth virtual meeting. Don’t be one of those people.

Always plan for the worst case scenario.

The nature of the virtual meeting brings with it an inherent layer of complications: the internet. How many times have you used such phrases during your meetings: “Sorry, the connection dropped.”, “Can you hear me?”, “Can you send that file again?”, “That email bounced.”

Because virtual meetings are completely web based, we rely on web based technologies to communicate. The web is unpredictable. While you may have scheduled a meeting for an hour, consider whether it will actually take an hour. Think of all the other variables that may change when planning the meeting. For instance, you may have a key team player, working remotely from India during the Monson season. Due to this, she may experience a wavering internet connection at the time of the meeting. What will you do?

The solution? Have a back-up! What’s critical is that everyone should know what route to take before being told. All the details must be pre-planned, and all team members should be aware of this plan. This requires that everyone is thoroughly briefed, especially new incoming team members. For instance, if a web call fails, all team members should automatically know how to join an alternative teleconference line. Moreover, also have a third option to your back-up plan. So in this case, if the teleconference doesn’t work, find a way to reschedule or postpone the meeting. This back-up plan should come into effect like a reflex action.

Myth #4: Meeting minutes save hassles

Often, virtual team leaders take down meeting minutes or ask other team members to do so. Minutes are supposed to act as a reference point for all the topics discussed and the decisions made during a meeting. Meeting minutes are supposed to save hassles.

They don’t.

Note-taking while attending a meeting distracts from understanding what’s going on. Conversations move fast. In the time it takes to listen, understand, synthesize and write, important information may be skipped over or go unregistered. In addition, the note-taker cannot contribute to the discussion as he or she will be too busy writing.

The information can also be misinterpreted. Because only one person is responsible for recording how the meeting progresses, the note-taker’s understanding of what is said can vary vastly from the intended meaning.

The solution? It’s a virtual meeting, folks! This means everything is digital. There are many tools on the Net, such as MP3 Skype Recorder, that can record virtual conferences as they happen directly from the computer’s sound card. (Remember to ask everyone if they are okay with being recorded, first). Tools such as VoiceBase, also transcribes MP3 files to text. This allows you actually search an audio file for keywords and then play the file at the relevant point.

And there you go! Four meeting myths demystified! We hope these help. Let us know what you think in the comments below! We would love to hear from you.

As a virtual team leader, you have probably come across this question an innumerable amount of times: Do you trust your virtual team? This question presents a valid concern, but what is equally, if not more important is the other side of this question: Does your virtual team trust you?

By being a leader in a faceless workplace, building trust is arguably the most significant part of a successful team. Think of trust as a pivotal block in a game of Tumbling Towers. As soon as this single piece becomes loose, the entire structure falls apart. Don’t make your team dynamic suffer at the cost of a single loose block. Here are 6 tips that will help your team see you as a trustworthy leader.

1)      Be true – Like the old adage says, “Mean what you say, say what you mean”. Being true to your team is the first step to ensuring their trust. It may sound simple, but it is also the most important. In certain situations, you may make promises with the full intention of keeping them. However, there is always a possibility that new circumstances may develop, where old promises are no longer feasible. What do you do?

In such situations, it is essential to communicate your problem to your team and detail what you are doing to fix it.  Note that the verb used here is “doing”—and not the word “trying”. “Doing” and “Trying” are vastly different. “Trying” is a safe, passive word that can excuse you from your responsibilities. “Doing” is affirmative and confident word. It is a no nonsense word that means you are taking action. When the team sees you acting, they will begin to trust you. So don’t try: Do. Do and be true.

2)      Don’t keep secrets—In other words: COMMUNICATE! Communicate your feelings, communicate you thoughts, communicate your actions, communicate your trust. The more transparent you are as a leader, the more transparent your employees will be with you. Communication with employees should also exceed work related discussions. If your employees consider you as a comrade, the trust will follow automatically.

3)      Keep secrets—This is not to contradict the previous point. In this context, “keeping secrets” means to maintain the confidentiality and privacy of team members. If a team member confides in you, your duty should be to keep the information private. Be aware of what you say, as certain information can easily slip out to others involuntarily.

4)      Be approachable—As an approachable team leader, you automatically allow your team to open up to you. Team members will voluntarily give you feedback on work related issues and possibly personal issues as well. Your team will realize you are a reliable source of support, advice  and overall mentorship.

5)      Don’t be suspicious –There’s nothing more irritating than an overbearing parent looming over your shoulders while you work. Scratch that…there is: An overbearing boss. What you may call an “hourly status report” translates to “I’ve got my eye on y
nou” for the rest of the team. If your virtual employee has agreed to have a certain task completed by noon, take this or her word for it. In the situation where the work is not in by noon, don’t assume the team member has slacked off. Instead, ask if he or she needs any additional support or they need a bit more clarification. Also consider if the employee is experiencing any personal trouble at home or other external discrepancies. Be present to your team, not persistent. Give support, but also give space.

Think of how trust functions in your workplace. Remember, it may be a small word, but it has a big meaning–and perhaps a bigger meaning in virtual teams. What else can you think of that we haven’t listed? We would love to hear from you.

Do you ever have those days when go you off on philosophical tangents?  You know, those cold, gloomy mornings when you stare out the window, coffee mug in hand, wondering, “Does a fish know what water is?”, “Is the colour red really universal?”, “Is Robert from marketing a real person?”

We’ve all been there. The truth is it’s hard for virtual teams to always bond on a personal level with other team members…partly (well, mostly) because we may not even know what our team members look like! Without bonding, the results could be dangerous. The University of California, San Francisco, lists some of the common symptoms of a disengaged team:

-          Decreased productivity

-          Conflicts or hostility among staff members

-          Confusion about assignments, missed signals, and unclear relationships

-          Decisions misunderstood or not carried through properly

-          Apathy and lack of involvement

And there’s more:

-          Lack of initiation, imagination, innovation; routine actions taken for solving complex problems

-          Complaints of discrimination or favoritism

-          Ineffective staff meetings, low participation, minimally effective decisions

-          Negative reactions to the manager

-          Complaints about quality of service

And there’s still more! A 2009 article from the Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed that a lack of team spirit can even cause employee depression…

But don’t panic!

Before you scurry off to Google, furiously searching “how to engage virtual teams”—take a breath. We’ve done the work for you. Here are some innovative games that are sure to have your employees amused and engaged in no time.

1)      Virtual Charades – Charades is a great game that builds team spirit, whether in a traditional workplace or a virtual one. If your company usually sets up video conferences for meetings, this is definitely a game that will have everyone working together, solving problems, and having fun along the way. If you’re unfamiliar with the game, Charades requires the player to mime or imitate a certain action or subject which the rest of the team has to figure out. For more information on how to play click here .

 For those who use voice chat instead of video chat, there’s a fun alternative for you too—Voice Charades. For Voice Charades, create a secret list of objects, animals, or famous people. To decide who will go first, enter all team member names onto a site such as Random.org and choose the first name that shows up. Email or send an individual/private instant message to this team member letting them know what they will be acting out. Remember to keep the clues work appropriate and respectful of others. Have fun guessing what/who the person is imitating. Some entertaining suggestions are:

-        Printer sound

-        Al Pacino impersonation

-        Star Wars Light saber

-        Monday traffic

-        Radio anchorman

2)    Spin a Tale– This fun game fosters creativity and helps team members think on their feet. During a meeting, make up the first line of a story. Then ask team members to take turns and add each subsequent line until a whole plot develops! Let the story go along on its own path and deviations. This is the fun part of the game; you never know what perils or fortunes can occur next! The best thing is, even though your team may develop favourites start tags, the story will never end up the same! In other words, you learn how to think innovatively. Here are some ways you can start your tale:

-        I woke up at 9am—that was when we were supposed to Skype in for the meeting…

-        Jared looked over the ledge of his balcony, wondering why the crowd had gathered…

-        The email had no subject line…I hate it when he does that…

-        15 years, 15 days, 15 hours and finally the letter had come…

-        As Sophia hid behind the red SUV in the parking lot, she tried to remember how exactly she had gotten there…and why there was that giant scar on her arm…

3)    Situation Puzzles—Situation puzzles are an exciting way to exercise creative problem solving skills while also building team unity. In a situation puzzle, the team leader states one mysterious sentence such as, “a bell rings, a man dies, a bell rings”*. The rest of the team must now solve the situation by asking “Yes” or “No” questions. As each question unearths new information, the team can creatively build on each other’s thought patterns and ideas until all the loose ends are tied. A great reservoir of situation puzzles can be found here!

*(Click here for the answer)

4)    PowerPoint Game – You will never look at PowerPoint presentations in the same light after this game! This is a great way to get group members thinking on their feet while having loads of fun. To play the PowerPoint game, go online and find a series of complicated or extremely nonsensical PowerPoint presentations (try SlideShare). Then ask team members to improvise a presentation with the slides they’re using. Hilarity is bound to ensue! Go here  for more information about the PowerPoint game.

5)    2 Minute LOL –This is another improvisation game that will get everyone thinking fast, learning about team members and literally laughing out loud. First, divide the team into smaller groups or partners. Then give each group a topic, or let them to choose one. Allow each team about 5-10 minutes to create a set of jokes based on their topic. Make sure they have this discussion in a separate virtual conversation, so that the rest of the team does not hear the punch lines beforehand. When everyone regroups, randomly choose a group to go first, while timing their comedy improvisation for two minutes. Once again, remember to keep all jokes respectful and workplace appropriate. Award the funniest team with a gift card or some other form of prize!

And there you have it—5 amazing ways of engaging your virtual team! Try them out and let us know which game your team liked the best! And if 5 tips aren’t enough, here’s a whole book full of tips! Across the Hall, Around the World is the ultimate archive of virtual team building tips that’s sure to get your team engaged!

Know any other games? Tell us in the comments below!

You are a virtual worker…but things are different now. When your inbox chimes, you approach it with caution. The highlighted subject line shoots a chill down your back. Before you open the e-mail, you already know what it will say. Someone has been sending you hateful words for two weeks.

Your mind fearfully churns the possibilities.

Could it be your neighbour? Perhaps it is the clerk at the grocery store across the street…or is it a stranger halfway across the world? Your mind sinks to a darker place. What if it’s a co-worker?

The sender remains faceless.  You don’t know where to go. You are a victim of virtual harassment.

Virtual harassment disturbs the e-office in the same way workplace harassment disturbs a physical office, but it often goes overlooked. Elizabeth Carll, PhD, from the American Psychological Association, states that virtual harassment traumatizes victims on a much larger magnitude than its non-virtual counterpart. The emotional impact of online harassment, Carll explains, induces “high levels of ongoing stress, anxiety, fear, nightmares, shock and disbelief, helplessness, hyper-vigilance, changes in eating, and sleeping difficulties”.

Carll explains adverse effects are amplified because of the eternal nature of the web. The internet exists everywhere, anyone can see it and the content never goes away. E-harassment victims can therefore feel unable to “escape to safety”, as Carll puts it.

What exactly is e-harassment?

In the simplest words, e-harassment constitutes any form of online communication (whether an action, speech or text), that makes another employee feel uncomfortable or threatened. Sometimes, a joke that may seem harmless to one person, could deeply offend another co-worker.

In fact, in a virtual workplace, the risk of e-harassment can intensify even more. Because team diversity is such an intrinsic part of virtual work, everyone will have a different outlook on certain words and actions based on his or her background and beliefs. The team leader must therefore, identify such differences and make sure no one gets hurt.

Examples of e-harassment

Some examples of e-harassment include sending abusive, threatening or obscene emails or texts. In addition, emails sent in masses can also qualify as harassment—what researchers Louise Ellison and Yaman Akdeniz from the Criminal Law Review call “electronic sabotage”. E-harassment also includes cyberstalking, where the tormentor exposes a victim’s personal information, or abuses the victim’s contact information to subscribe to numerous harmful online sites.

There are an endless amount of things that can create an unsafe virtual work environment for virtual employees. This makes it all the more important for team leaders to consider means of preventing virtual harassment.

 How do I prevent e-Harassment at my workplace?

Safety, safety, safety. All employees should feel safe within the virtual team. Everyone should work without the fear of being harassed and furthermore, work knowing that action will be taken if harassment does occur. Here are some tips that could make your virtual office a safer place :

1)    Create legally enforceable policies –With assistance from an attorney, create (and circulate) a detailed document which clearly communicates harassment circumstances, penalties, complaint procedures, remedies and other important aspects of how your company will deal with this issue. The Canadian Human Right Commission offers a great example for developing anti-harassment policies: http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/publications/anti_harassment_part3-eng.aspx#39.

2)    Educate your team: Knowledge is power. Explain your policy document in terms everyone will understand and retain. Hold engaging online seminars to address any questions from the team. You can also hold online workshops that promote team cohesion—this will help facilitate a safer and tolerant workplace.

3)      Clear and open communication: Your team members should not be afraid to approach you if they experience any form of harassment. This means you, as the team leader, should be directly available to your team. You may work 9am -5pm, but harassment can occur 24/7.

4)      Virtual Anonymity box—Employees enduring harassment may feel guilt or fear. Create a safe and anonymous space (perhaps an anti-harassment email address), where employees can send questions, concerns and seek advice. This allows continuous support. If the nature of the situation is serious, you can act immediately.

5)      Communicate that you care:  Keep your team up to date with new regulations and definitions of harassment according to your state, province or country. Also send out reminders and newsletters outlining when anti-harassment workshops will be held. Make attendance mandatory.

Here are some useful links that explain e-harassment/harassment legislature based by country (and jurisdiction for the US link).

Canada: http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/publications/anti_harassment_part3-eng.aspx

US: http://www.haltabuse.org/resources/laws/index.shtml

Australia: http://www.aic.gov.au/crime_types/cybercrime/onlinevictimisation/cyberstalking.aspx

 What are your thoughts on virtual work and the possibility of harassment? What other actions can you think of to prevent it from occurring?

Pop Quiz!

a)      Did LOL ever mean “lots of love” to you?

b)      Do you remember a time before (or during) the Walkman?

c)       Was there ever a point in your life when perming was all the rage?

d)      In your heart, will Pluto always be a planet?
You probably realized by now this isn’t a real quiz. Nor is it a sadistic exercise to make you feel old. But what it should do is show that times have changed—and the workforce has changed with it. As each passing year increasingly necessitates cross-generational interaction, there is bound to be some cultural clashes along the way.

The Princeton dictionary defines culture as “the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization”. In this light, working with someone from a different culture doesn’t always mean working with someone of a different nationality. Cultural differences can boil down to your age.

This might explain why so much tension arises between the Baby Boomer, Generation X and Generation Y cultural groups. That’s right…cultural groups. Each of these generations respects a unique set of values and ideologies. These ideals can begin to conflict if not clearly communicated and understood within the team. So when cross-generational frustrations emerge at the workplace—ask yourself: Is this an issue of cross-cultural miscommunication?

Cross-cultural miscommunication between generations can occur almost automatically. Why wouldn’t it? It is very easy to assume that an employee or co-worker who shares commonalities in language, nationality or education may also share similar outlooks in relation to work ethics, ideas of job satisfaction, motivational incentives and so on. But this is not the case.

For instance, while Generation X workers may find satisfaction in job stability, career growth and financial gain, Generation Y workers often find value in a proper work-life balance and the overall emotional fulfillment of the work. To put it crudely: if it ain’t fun, it ain’t done.

But don’t get it wrong. Generation Y workers will work hard—except their approach to work is what differs from previous generations. A Generation Y worker may even leave a job if it does not offer flexible or negotiable hours. The logic being: why work 8 to 9 hours a day if the work can be successfully delivered by noon? Such thinking patterns should not be interpreted, rather mis-interpreted, as lazy or self-centred by workers and leaders from previous generations. It’s just different.

Different isn’t bad. It is important for virtual team leaders to recognize the great potential Generation Y workers can bring to the workplace. The Gen Y worker’s love of technology, social media, remote working and willingness to prioritize work over salary (as long as the work is fulfilling) makes him or her an ideal candidate for the virtual work environment. However, if a leader’s mindset still dwells in past managerial styles and expectation, it is possible that such talented people could slip right through the company’s fingers (and perhaps, land right into the hands of another, more flexible organization).

To understand and adapt to the new workforce, the most important aspect is to be open. Try to understand the worker as a person—as an individual. Perhaps the Gen Y team member wants to take an extended amount of time off, to travel the world, do charity work, or spend time with his or her aging parents. A team leader willing to adapt to such requests will not only augment worker-leader trust, but also enrich the work experience for the employee, to make it exactly that…an experience, and not just “work”. In return, the Gen Y worker may start to adapt to certain traditional managerial styles out of mutual respect. At the end of the day, tasks are completed and both sides of the team are happy.

So as Bob Dylan would say (a name familiar across all generations!), “Times they are a Changing”…and perhaps our outlooks in the workplace should as well!

How do you cope with Gen Y at your virtual workplace? Let us know in the comments!

You know that feeling you get when you look at the swirling mass of tasks in your planner that still need completion? This usually leads to a worse feeling: you realize there’s no way you’re going to complete everything on time. Finally, as you stare at your planner in despair, the feeling of irony sets in. You wonder why your planner is even called a planner. Nothing seems planned.

But don’t worry. You’re not alone. Ineffective planning plagues many of us. Whether planning a meeting, an event or to lose that post-Holiday paunch (we all know how that one goes), it is necessary to have a clear understanding of how you will achieve your goals in an efficient way. Proper planning requires proper structure.

However, what many fail to recognize is the structure should work for you—not the other way around. This means your goals must be manageable. In fact, what limits you from reaching your goals in the work place is the same thing that limits you from reaching your New Year’s Resolutions year after year.

Psychologist Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire conducted a study on 700 people to understand why some are successful in reaching their New Year’s goals and why most are not. In his study, 78 percent of the participants did not achieve their resolutions. The mere 22 percent who did, often broke down their goals into a series of smaller, realistic steps.

This technique can help you structure work related goals as well. Your plan should be realistic and accurately reflect your abilities. If you know a certain task will take you an hour to complete, do not attempt to finish the whole thing in that half-hour time slot before lunch. It may be more effective to break down the task in a way that suits your working style and speed.

Wiseman also found successful participants did not lash themselves over minor setbacks. We often forget that we are not the computers with which we work (and if you think about it, even computers fail sometimes!). While it is important to recognize the necessary steps to reach your goal, you should also understand some tasks will require more time than predicted. Your plans should therefore, be flexible. There’s a reason we call it a “plan”, and not a “do-or-die-written-in-stone-list-of-commandments”.

So if you take away anything form this article, remember these R and Rs of effective planning:

Realistic—Keep your plans realistic as to what you are capable of achieving in an allotted time.  Break up you goals into attainable steps.

Rigidity—Avoid it. Keep breathing room. As a human being, you need to breathe and include breathing in your plans as well!

Hopefully these tips will help you plan more efficiently at work and who knows—maybe even with your 2012 New Year’s Resolution!

My palms are sweaty. Why are my palms sweaty? When I get nervous, I usually fidget with whatever I’ve got on hand; my pen, the hem of my sweater, my cell phone. But my palms never get sweaty. Yet as I sit here at my brand new writing desk, my palms are actually sweaty. I guess this is just a whole new level of nervous, then. After all, this is my first virtual meeting. Scratch that – it’s my first meeting, of any kind, for my first real job as a university grad. I wipe my palms on my pink yoga pants and glance at the time on the bottom corner of my laptop screen. It’s 12:41 pm, and the meeting starts in four minutes.

First-job-jitters must be a universal thing. The worst part of it all has got to be that little voice in the back of your head that’s repeating things like, “Oh God, can I really do this?” or “What if I fail miserably?” or “Nope, definitely can’t do this.” And for a recent grad like me, so fresh of the academic bandwagon, the prospect of a first job can be pretty daunting.

It’s 12:45 pm. I’m signed onto Skype, waiting for my manager to give me a virtual call. I’m beginning to wonder how this whole “virtual meeting” thing will work, anyway. I know that big CEO’s and executives do conference calls where everyone in the room stares at the disembodied voice coming from the speakerphone. Is that what it’ll be like?

I guess I’ll have to say it now – it wasn’t like that at all. My palms stopped sweating about three minutes into the meeting and in about half an hour, I was already acquainted with everyone on the team, and listening to current project ideas.

I wasn’t the only one who was having her first day on the job, though. Another recent grad was joining the team and this was her first day, too. A prospective graphic designer had been listening in since the beginning of the meeting; he’d wanted to meet the manager in person before agreeing to the position. By the end of the meeting, though, he was asking questions and already pitching us new ideas for his first project. When the manager asked him if he’d still like to meet her in person, he said no, it’s okay.

As for myself, in the span of two hours, I’d gone from wondering how I could ever fit into this virtual team, to rushing to begin writing my first assignment. And that little voice that made my palms sweat earlier was now drowned out by the ideas floating around in my head.

When you’re working virtually, it may feel like you’re talking to strangers. But very quickly, you become colleagues. “Does the team feel like strangers to you?” asked my manager afterwards over the phone. “No, not at all,” I replied

The idea hadn’t even occurred to me. But it was true, and I almost felt silly for how quickly I responded “no” to that question. I’d never met any of these people before, and only spoke to my manager twice on the phone. But already, I felt like I was part of a team, and I was (cautiously) optimistic about how I would fit into it.

But that’s the power of virtual teamwork, and that’s what Virtual Team Builders does; faceless people on the other end of the line become trusted co-workers, a job description becomes an engaging team experience, and a boss on the other end of the line is not a stranger, at all.

Virtual work is beneficial to both the employee and the company; however, a common challenge among virtual teams is a lack of team familiarity.

As a virtual team member, I know firsthand that it is easy to think of people as just an email or a voice on the end of the phone. However, when you bring in the personal aspect and humanize everyone, your team gets stronger and produces better results.

For example, during a recent weekly Skype meeting with our virtual team, our manager noticed a lack of energy among us. Taking a strong leadership role, she introduced an activity that would: a) increase energy levels and engagement, and b) bring the team together in a more personal way.
The exercise was called a truth and a lie. Each of us said one thing about ourselves that was true and one thing that was a lie, and the remaining team members had to distinguish the truth from the lie. This exercise created a fun sense of engagement within the team and everyone participated, which was great. It was interesting to hear what the team members had to say: embarrassing stories, ability to speak multiple languages, personal achievements, and the list goes on.

This exercise humanized each virtual team member. We often forget that our team members are not just words in an email or a voice on the other end of the phone; each one has a face and is a real person.

After the short exercise, we continued with the meeting and energy levels were notably increased. Each team member actively participated in the discussions throughout the remainder of the meeting.

Finding creative ways to engage everyone in team meetings will help familiarize everyone with each other, which will strengthen the team and create better results. It might also teach someone something new. So, what have you learned today?