Careers advice: Managing your virtual team and demonstrating resilience

Although virtual working is now commonplace and today’s work organisation is often described as one ‘without walls’ due to the use of technology, most of us are still based at a physical office and have regular face to face meetings with Senior Management and colleagues.

Due to the current coronavirus situation occurring around the world, most of us now find ourselves confined to working at home (often with partners and children around), and a part of a virtual team, perhaps for a prolonged period of time. As a full-scale organisational transformation isn’t possible overnight, how do you as a manager demonstrate understanding of the pressures of working at home, foster trust and accountability, enhance collaboration, and bridge the distance between a dispersed team?

Good (virtual) teamwork doesn’t just happen - it requires leaders and managers who have the necessary skills to manage those teams. For our alumni, one of the ‘silver’ linings of working from home could be the time to upskill yourself by taking some of the modules from the WBS Career Management Online Course – particularly ‘Operating in a Global Environment’ which addresses ‘Managing Virtual Teams’.

This part of the module was developed by one of our Careers Managers, Monica Garcia-Romero, who has extensive experience of managing global teams in a multinational corporate business, and living and working internationally. Containing an engaging mix of advice, interviews with and advice from alumni, videos, ‘Stop and Think’ moments for you to reflect on your own experience, and resources to explore this further, it represents a great place to develop your skills and enhance your career development.

Virtual teams

The biggest change to our current work condition is to be a fully virtual team, and the module starts with an examination of:

• What a virtual team looks like
• The benefits virtual teams bring to an organisation and its individual team members
• How to lead a virtual team effectively
• The challenges virtual teams bring, both to the organisation, the team members, and the individuals leading virtual teams
• Managing your time and the expectation to work 24/7
• Enabling your team to see the bigger picture
• Handling difficult conversations and managing performance
• Exploring different strategies for the effective leadership of virtual teams.

While you’re online, take a look at the rest of the comprehensive Career Management strategies our module offers: most people would like to advance their career but many don’t know how. We help you learn how to make things happen in your career. Just as companies need strategic plans, this is your opportunity to create your own strategic career plan with the help of expert advice from our team of Careers Managers, most of whom had established careers in business themselves.

If you are a member of our alumni community and would like to take the module, please visit the Career Management page on my.wbs.