Pro Tips to Manage Virtual Teams
We all are one big global family now. Everything has widened its horizons and become global. Travel, business, entertainment, art, etc. are the fields that have definitely blurred the boundaries and gone beyond borders through various mediums.
Similarly, people sitting across borders and working on a common project is not a big deal these days. But the management of such a team is definitely a big deal.
Project management of virtual teams is a major deciding factor for the success or failure of the team. A global team cannot be managed without a global mindset. Here are a few parameters you should keep in mind for the right management of a global team.
In this article, I will use the term ‘ virtual’ and ‘global’ interchangeably.
Diversity of cultures
Culture tends to have an everlasting impact on people’s lives. People belonging to different cultures have different beliefs, ideas, attitudes, and behavioral patterns.
There are a variety of variations in the work style and behavior of your global project teams belonging to different cultures.
For example, Americans tend to work for more hours in a day than British people. Americans take hardly any coffee breaks whereas English people need a coffee or tea break every now and then.
Research says that Americans tend to take individual responsibility for their performance and undergo pressure to perform whereas British people believe more in teamwork and collective responsibility.
Another example can be a comparison between German and Chinese work ethics.
This data has been taken from the infographics made by Yang Liu (a Chinese born artist who moved to Germany at the age of 14).
In Germany, the boss is basically looked upon as one of the members of the team. He does not take a highly authoritarian position whereas in China the boss or the leader stands taller than anyone else and exercises a highly superior position.
Now, as an overseas manager, a little research about the basic nature and work ethics of people belonging to different nationalities can really help in defining a successful relationship with a global team as you can’t really meet this team over coffee. You should be sensitive to different cultural practices. Sometimes, talking to your overseas team about their cultural practices or being curious about a particular tradition can really help you establish a good bond with them.
A clear understanding of different cultures will give you insight into how you can make these teams collaborate in the best possible manner with quick resolution of conflicts if any.
Different requirements of a virtual team
A global team not only varies in attitudes and ways of life, but they also tend to have different requirements in terms of the holidays and off days they need. So being a manager of a virtual team, you cannot have a fixed plan for everyone. You will need to do your homework right to understand the requirements of people of different nationalities. Dateandtime.com can help you know all about culturally important days of different nationalities.
A common software platform
Effective communication and collaboration are the assets of a global project team or an inter-country team stationed at different sites. This communication does not only refer to communication between project managers and teams of different countries or cities. Rather, these teams need to communicate with one another also to facilitate discussions and keep everyone on the same page.
Virtual teams can switch to some good project management software for a smooth collaboration of project teams. ProofHub is one such Project Management software, which offers great opportunities for communication and collaboration.
ProofHub offers a number of tools to manage different aspects of your projects. You can keep all your project-related files, clients, conversations, discussions, task allocation, status reports, etc. at one centralized place. Everyone on the team can have access to this software with just an internet connection and here they have all the project related information available to them in a click.
“Try ProofHub for free and keep your virtual team together.”
Let me give you a brief insight into how ProofHub can make Project Management of your virtual team easy.
Task allocation
Task allocation becomes very easy with ProofHub. You can assign tasks to your global team and everyone will be immediately updated about the same. You can add deadlines and a description of the task. The best part is you can track the progress of work done by different team members using Kanban boards.
Kanban boards are basically a visual representation of your workflow. There are columns on the board and every column represents a particular stage of the workflow.
For example ‘to do’, ‘doing’, ‘done’ are the columns of our default Kanban board. (Happy fact — In ProofHub you can customize Kanban boards as per the requirements of your own workflow). Now, you can keep a track of which team member is doing what without even exchanging cumbersome emails with every team member separately about status reports and flies.
Every time a teammate has completed any stage of work, they can move it from ‘doing’ to ‘done’ lane and you will be immediately notified. They can attach the respective file then and there and you have access to that file without any extra effort sitting millions of miles apart.
This way tasks can be managed in the most effortless yet organized manner with ProofHub. This is not all. Kanban boards play a significant role in increasing the overall efficiency of a project. Basically, when you can track your workflow on a visual board, you can understand the loopholes or bottlenecks in your process which can be highly unmanageable otherwise in a global team.
You can maintain a limit on your ‘work-in-progress’ section to avoid taking too many tasks at the same time. Basically, the rule can be that any member will start working on a new task when the previous task has been finished to avoid pending tasks or multitasking.
Communication
Just as I mentioned before, communication can be a challenge in the project management of global teams. But no fear, when ProofHub is here.
ProofHub provides you a great platform for communicating with your global team.
“Communicate seamlessly with ProofHub. Sign up now.”
Discussions
Discussions section within ProofHub is a great way to have all your project-related discussions. The team manager can create a new discussion and subscribe people to that discussion. Now everybody concerned can give their opinions or ideas about the matter of discussion at this centralized platform.
This is a great way of giving equal opportunity to everyone to express their opinions and ideas.
Announcements
Mutual trust and cordiality is of utmost importance among the team members of any team. Announcement section in ProofHub provides an opportunity for non-project related communication.
You can wish birthdays, anniversaries, celebrate milestones or achievements through this section. Also, in a global team, this medium can help understand and celebrate different cultures. Occasions of different cultural significance can be celebrated through this section to develop a feeling of mutual respect and consideration.
Chats section
Now you have a platform for project-related discussions and non-project-related conversations, but what if you have a query for a particular member of the team, well, ProofHub has taken care of that.
Chats section in ProofHub provides you a one-on-one conversation facility. While working on a common project, there will be chances that you need to ask something from a particular teammate regarding some approach or on some technical matters. You do not need to draft a separate email for that. You can simply converse with anyone on your team using ProofHub’s chat section.
“Your free trial of ProofHub is just a click away.”
So with ProofHub, all the communication which would otherwise have become highly cumbersome and difficult to organize to carry out through emails can be kept in a structured manner at one centralized place available for everyone to access and collaborate anywhere and everywhere.
Time zone differences
The difference in time zones is yet another hurdle for the project managers of global teams. Teams spread across different parts of the world might not be always available for urgent decision-making and partnership. Well! This does not mean that global teams are bad teams. Rather, having a global team brings an opportunity to have the best talent and a global perspective on your projects from across the world.
Different time zones also ‘facilitate around the clock’ working hours. Maintenance work can also be smoothly carried out by one overseas team when another overseas team’s working hours have finished. This leads to an uninterrupted work process.
But we cannot overlook the difficulties of a project team with different time zones and a middle ground has to be worked out. Tools like timeanddate.com which is a customizable world clock that can help you map the time of different locations around the world.
You can schedule your conference call with teammates around the world by working out a suitable time after tracking the time of different countries using timeanddate.com.
Conclusion
Project managers of global teams need to be people with a multidimensional approach to handle different teams differently. They have to understand that global projects can have cultural implications and collaboration challenges. The right mindset and right tools can help global project managers reap the best of both worlds.
Project managers of global teams have to bear in mind that the work practices of teammates from different nationalities will differ depending on their work ethics, cultural values, differences in local and national management practices. So, while making your project management policies, project managers have to be cognizant of different cultures.
Technology can play a big role in maintaining seamless coordination among global teams. Making the right use of software like ProofHub can really bring organization in your entire project.
We would love to know if you found this post useful. Do let us know in the comment section below if you have any more information important principles of Project Management of global teams.
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