During this pandemic, all
around the world almost all the IT companies and non - IT companies
announced work from home for some months or probably for an year.
But the question is, do we Project Managers have essential
skills to manage virtual teams effectively?
I was going through few articles on this topic,
interestingly , I found a well explained quote by Julie Wilson.
'Managing a virtual team requires managers to
double down on the fundamentals of good management, including
establishing clear goals, running great meetings, communicating clearly, and
leveraging team members' individual and collective strengths," says Julie
Wilson, founder of the Institute for Future Learning and instructor at Harvard
University.
Top three challenges Leaders and Project
Managers(PM's) go through were very well explained in a nut shell in
one of the Harvard university education blog.
1. Communication
2. Trust
3. Productivity
Based on my own experience and interaction with
friends ,I listed few challenges a PM face while managing virtual teams
but are not limited to are
1. Giving assurance to the employees that
they will be treated equally, irrespective of whether working at office or from
home .
2. Communication skills are the key in managing
virtual teams successfully.
3. Ensuring the virtual employee's work is
in line with the teams work for the common goal- successful completion of
a project.
3. Assigning and Monitoring employees work but
not the time logs of employees online status as working from home is
different than working at office especially during this pandemic time as
there are many challenges to face at home and the situation is same
for all of us in the family -children's online classes, spouse work from
home ,almost everyone has the same start timings in the morning.
4. Collaborative working and strategic team
building can help instill trust in remote and onsite workers.
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