Question

Malhotra et al. (2007) identify six leadership practices of effective leaders of virtual teams. If you needed to, how would you rank these and why?

Answer 1

Virtual teams are the members who collaborate with one another using present technology with very minimal face to face interaction. Every member in the team works for the upliftment or the progress of the team. They try to upgrade and monitor their members through enhancement in different sections of online meetings. There is lot of difference beween face to face interaction and virtual meet. So, in order to bridge the gap between the leader and the team members the following practices are essential :-

1. First and foremost individual benefit should be highlighted to create enthuse in the team members to participate in the team work. They should be ensured that they will be given awards,rewards,certificates etc.

2. Maintaining confidence in the team members regarding the communication of the information through technology. Assurance to be given on virtual get-togethers to be held periodically without any technical issues.The team leader should be able to provide technical assistance to the members who cannot afford to.

3. Team training and awareness of the members on the progress of the webinar by giving them proper knowledge on communication strategies , regular instructions, messaging about their participation and monitoring between virtual meetings and quick participation messages.

4. This training should be followed by keeping synchronisation between members regarding their individual opinions. Asynchronisation or trouble shooters and conflict raisers should be resolved regarding any issue by monitoring them regularly and educating the members at intervals.

5. As the team members will be from diverse areas , each one should be guided in comprehending the various issues in an optimistic manner enhancing   and leveraging their understanding ability and appraisal quality.

6. Finally, as anything is interesting when it is visual rather than only audio to any of the age group members , the whole team should be promised to be focused or shown on the visible screen to make their participation more interesting and exciting.

As this is a worldwide multilingual and multicultural participation of the team, the firms or the organisations should make it mandatory that they are benefitted for their investments on an average scale.