Effective Virtual Leadership
Josh Henson
Shorter University
EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL LEADERSHIP
Twenty first century technological advances in communication have broken down almost all of the physical barriers to communication in the world today. Today a person can communicate with almost anyone in the world at any time. Leaders in today’s workplace face new advantages and new challenges when it comes to advances in communication. The traditional workplace is changing as the virtual workplace expands. Research indicates that one of the biggest challenges to companies today is finding leaders with the skills to thrive in a complex and changing world (Dennis, Meola, Hall, 2013). Leaders of today need to be able to reach across differing cultures, many time zones, and they need to collaborate and build alliances across geographic distances (Dennis et al., 2013). Leaders today need to have a global mindset which includes operating from multiple sites, directing workers at multiple locations and working with clients in different geographic areas (Dennis et al., 2013). In a recent study by ASTD.org entitled Virtual Leadership: Going the distance to manage your team, a survey of five hundred and five managers found that ninety-nine percent responds affirmatively when asked if their employer provides some employees to opportunity to work virtually (Mandzuk, 2014).
A virtual workforce is described as any team whose members are not all physically under the same roof, as long as the participants have complementary skills and knowledge that produce greater value when they work together than if they worked separately. A virtual team can be local, national, or global, with members from one firm or many. Teams can be made up of full-time...
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...dgment. According to the article qualitative judgment is the ability to formulate and select the right options (You can’t be a wimp, 2013). Qualitative judgment involves moving from the big picture down to the concrete, developing a diverse and trustworthy social network, and thinking through second and third order consequences ( You can’t be a wimp, 2013). Qualitative judgment is the second quality of a great leader.
The third quality of a great leader is credibility. The lack of credibility will keep your ideas from ever being accepted in the company (You can be a wimp, 2013). Credibility according the article is gain by listening to diverse and contradictory views, building support from the board, employees and outside constituents, and having the courage to make the best decision for the company despite its popularity (You can’t be a wimp, 2013).
Credibility holds significance in a leadership position. According to Kouzes and Posner, the foundation of leadership is the act of credibility (2012). Without credibility, organizations can deteriorate. The lack of credibility in a leadership role creates mistrust and ill feelings towards leaders. These burdens constituents carry, disrupts the organization of being successful. Leaders should full understand credibility. Credibility is earned when leaders set example and commit to their words (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). When credible is present within an organization, constituents are more motivated, committed, and feel a strong sense of team spirit for their company (Kouzes & Posner, 2012).
Answer: According to Kouzes and Posner people most admire a leader that is, “Honest Forward-looking, Competent, Inspiring” (Kouzes & Posner, 2012, p.33). A leader that is honest is holding to the truth, guiding their people through honest feedback, reviews and advice. These leaders gain trust, respect and cooperation by sharing honest information with all. People want to know that their leaders are looking for future opportunities that will guide the company and drive success for all. Competence breads both respect and confidence. A
A virtual team refers to a collection of collaborating persons in geographically dispersed means. This group of persons do work across space, time and organizational boundaries and are connected together via information and telecommunication technologies in order to accomplish one or more organizational goals. The virtual teams do require new array of ways to work across boundaries through processes, systems, technology and people. This does require effective leadership in order to be a success.
Lastly, the key to successful leadership is getting all of one’s followers on their side. In order to achieve this, leaders must gain all their followers trust. Bennis outlines four key elements to gain this trust. Primarily, constancy must be enforced. Leaders must stay the course. Second, congruity is essential. This is so the leaders can “walk the talk.” Third, reliability is needed so that leaders are present when it matters most. Lastly, leaders honor their commitments through integrity. All of these important, aspects gain the trust of their followers by their side.
In an effort to understand the questionnaire, one must first understand the definition of an Authentic Leader. Genuine, trustworthy and reliable are a few words that are interchangeable with the term authentic. Authentic leaders exhibit qualities of confidence, transparency, and high moral standard and are usually very confident (Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May and Walumbwa, 2005). A person that is considered to be authentic is one who taking account for their behavior and a person who is true to themselves and what they think. A quality of an authentic leader is that he/she exudes the level of authenticity through their actions that encourage others to want to behave the same way. The leader who acts in this manner believes that all individuals have something to contribute to a goal and
A leader needs to “believe” in oneself and have the confidence that whatever you say will excite and what you do can motivate others. You must be optimistic about what you do, do have some relevance for being in existence. Believe it or not, “leadership begins with you”.
As technology improves, businesses expand and recruitment pools decrease, organizations contemplate ways to, not only reduce the overhead costs of doing business but, to attract new talent in a competitive employment marketplace (Darleen, 2012). To do so, many organizations have redefined what it means to ‘go to work’, in terms of not only the act of getting there, but how work is accomplished and where (Lojeski & Yuva, 2008). A study conducted three years ago by the Society For Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that almost half of the organizations surveyed utilized virtual teams (Minton-Eversole, 2012). Anyone who conducts business using mobile technology devices is considered
Credibility may be the most important aspect of leading effectively. Group members must believe and trust their leader; this does not happen overnight. Leaders must have a good reputation amongst group members Conger (1998) explains that leaders become credible from having intellectual competence, interpersonal competence, and personal character. Leaders should possess good judgments and is very knowledgeable in their field. Leaders must be able to work well and collaboratively with others. They show themselves as credible when they display a good work ethic and want the greater good for the team than for themselves.
The evolution of globalization and the advancement of communication technology have increased the amount of cross cultural, virtual teams in existence in today’s business world. Cross cultural, virtual teams can leverage on the diverse experiences of its members to achieve good results even without the members meeting face to face.
Many Scholars characterize the core qualities and skills necessary for an effective leader. Useem defines leadership as “Creating a vision and translating that vision into actions”. Historically, an effective leader was assumed to be exceptionally knowledgeable, authoritative, and dominate. Those leaders applied the command and control method to lead an organization. With the passage of time, this definition has been changed. The modern definition of an effective leader is honest, courageous, trustworthy, inspirational, and result-oriented. Today’s leaders create shared values and vision, and empower others to achieve their targets.
Videoconferencing in Virtual Teams, The Business Review, 7(1) p.164-170.
A virtual team is a group of people working interdependently via various types of electronic media across organizational and geographical boundaries for a shared purpose (D’Souza & Colarelli, 2010). Research indicates virtual teams are becoming increasingly popular in organizations across the United States and the world (D’Souza & Colarelli, 2010; Rusman, van Bruggen, Sloep, & Koper, 2010). These teams vary in size, degree of geographic dispersion, prior shared work experience, nature of assignment, and expectations of a common future (Rusman et al., 2010). Although virtual teams have potential advantages like the removal of physical boundaries, the ability to form new partnerships, and optimization of competencies (Chinowsky & Rojas, 2003), they also introduce many challenges that may not be as prevalent in traditional teams.
The methods of communicating for a virtual team consist of different tools than used by a traditional team because “…awareness of others’ activities is more difficult and requires some degree of technological intervention” (Fussell et.al., 1998, p. 276). A virtual team needs to use alternative tools because it has members working from different geographical areas and possibly at different times. A traditional team meets face to face, whereas a virtual team needs the use of technology to operate and interact efficiently. Teleconferencing, video conferencing, faxing, e-mail, and instant messaging are some of the tools available to a virtual team.
Virtual corporations have some major characteristics (Judith, 2002, quoted in Byrne. n.d.) as following state: technology, excellence, opportunism, trust and no borders. Technology makes distance no longer a problem while entrepreneurs or companies far away from, due to the computer networks link people all over the world. Excellence was showed by each partner bringing its core competencies to the corporation, which can exert all advantages. Companies make alliances for specific market opportunity and this is a more efficiency work way than any others. Members in a virtual organization must trust their partners due to they meet the need by cooperating. The new communication ways were brought by computer networks, which blur the traditional hierarchies and boundaries.
With the rise of mobile working whereby companies employ from different regions without necessarily having employees enclosed in one building, they end up employing more skilled and qualified workers regardless of their location. This has been made possible by companies embracing virtual meetings and video conferencing where managers and