Purpose at work
Is the discussion around purpose at work just a fad? If you are interested in high engagement at all levels, you better act on it. Let me explain…
The jab against the online meeting pandemic
Working from home has great benefits but also shadow sides - the meeting pandemic. Rethink your approach to planning and conducting online meetings. Apply an old trick with new technology effectively…
The missing element?
One effect of working from home is that the number of online meetings has exploded. Some leaders seem to overstep lines pushing even more meetings to stay in touch. Watch out for the impact…
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: strengthen what members of virtual teams need most
The need for trust in virtual teams is even more crucial than for co-located ones. What do I do to foster it leading virtual teams? Learn more about why and how to develop trust ...
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: advanced facilitation of online meetings
In controversial discussion keeping an eye on everyone was and is crucial to the success. How does this work online when you screen-share and lose sight/ videos of the others ?
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: meet in a room, not on a flat screen
Today I want to share how you can enhance the feeling of meeting in a (virtual) room and not just seeing each other on a flat screen. Using your backgrounds effectively either with virtual images or physical ones …
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: how body language comes across in virtual meetings
Body language is important in meetings! How does that work online? Some tips to consciously include body language in online meetings. May be not obvious , but it is simple enough.
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: unleash the creativity in your dispersed team as if you were in a face-to-face workshop
Brainstorming also works online. Here are a few options for how online brainstorming can become effective.
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: sketching during online meetings
Sketching in online meetings like on a flipchart in a room. Whiteboards are good but sketching with the mouse feels awkward. Using a additional tablet does the trick.
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: how can you be present when everyone is in their home-office?
How can you be present to your team whilst working from home? Online and off-line presence counts. Some tips..
Dealing with the challenges related to everyone working from home
Working from home poses several challenges. I am offering various tips from blogs I had written about remote /virtual work. Subjects covered are: Keeping motivation up Taking care of social cohesion Building resilience – your own and your team's Celebrating in the team What about technology?
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: Make online meetings engaging
Make online meetings engaging through involving participants in the preparation, facilitate with high interactivity and involve everyone by...
Empowerment with a coaching attitude
Empowerment has been around for a very long time. It's often missunderstood as straight delegation of tasks. To make it really work it requires leaders being a coach! Let me show you how...
Eye contact is key in online conversations
My monthly tip for virtual leaders - February It is a fact that we need eye contact - at least to some degree - when we want to have a trustful conversation and good connection with someone we communicate with. In face-to-face settings that is…
Join our discussion about the best ways to motivate remote team members
The Virtual Leaders Lounge is (y)our place for informal exchange and learning Next session is on 26th November! Business leaders of virtual teams and our virtual working strategist share tips around what works and what doesn’t to motivate virtual team members. SIGN-UP now for a…
Leaders benefit in virtual coaching
Quite some Leaders have initially shown reluctance to have deeper reflections in a virtual setting. My clients were surprised how easy the work via a virtual platform was and how good the rapport, the quality of our relationship. When it works, the benefits of virtual coaching great: 1) A greater flexibility in scheduling 2) One can do it even during a business trip. 3) As your coach I can be available on much shorter notice And whilst the benefits speak for themselves, I will address the obstacles and how to overcome them in practice.
Virtual Leadership effectiveness: 4 success factors
In this blog I want to focus on the most important factors I consider necessary for virtual leaders to be effective and successful. Presence is one fo the 4 keys, synchronos or asynchronos
Fostering bonding in a virtual team
The simulated coffee corner effect for virtual teams When we, as the leader, start a new team, we like to do everything possible to make it a success and still an enjoyable experience. In order to enable a team to perform well high quality relations…
My way of celebrating with my virtual team
I already posted this a while back, but thought it would be good to repeat, as more and more teams around the world are facing the situation that they work in dispersed locations and barely -if ever- meet with their colleagues. But there is ...…
How can you lead the “old dogs” in your team?
Effective tips for young leaders leading people who have been in place for a while Over the last few months a number of young leaders have approached me asking for support in their new leadership role. They had been newly appointed taking on a team…
The Virtual Leaders Lounge (VLL) – your place for informal exchange and learning – next on 30th September
Meet other leaders with us online for an informal exchange about challenges and best practices related to leadership! The topic this time Best practices to develop deep connections in your team to boost performance. Leaders of virtual teams share what works and what doesn’t. SIGN-UP now…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – final part 8 – Awareness for team dynamics
Virtual teams can suffer from critical dynamics going unnoticed Awareness for team dynamics is another competency for effective virtual leaders. This post is closing the series of essential competencies for virtual leaders. With this last one on team dynamics I would like to present you…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 7 – Talent development
Human beings long for development Virtual team members should not be left in the no man’s land. So, caring about their development is also an important competency. Here we are again with the next, and sixth, competency I would like to present. And again I…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 6 – Direction and Meaning
Strong intrinsic motivation is essential to virtual teams Direction and meaning are essential triggers, and a key competency for effective virtual leaders. With this post I am continuing the series as announced in the opening blog post 5 weeks ago: I will present the fifth…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 5 – Intercultural Sensitivity
Leading teams spread across cultures requires intercultural sensitivity from their leaders Continuing the series of virtual leader competencies, I will present and share my experience on how you can develop intercultural sensitivity further to increase your effectiveness. The first 3 competencies, should you have missed…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 4 – Productive relationships
Effective team work depends on productive relationships This, therefore, has to be a key competency as well for virtual leaders. Here we are again with the next, the third, competency for virtual leaders which I would like to present and share some thoughts on how…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 3 – Effective Communication
Leadership is mostly about communication. So, effective communication is also a key competency for virtual leaders. This is now post #3 of an 8-post-series on the subject after the introduction and the one on self-leadership. And today, I would like to present you the second…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 2 – Self leadership
Self leadership is a key competency for sustainable and impactful leadership in a virtual context As announced in the opening blog post of this series this is the first of seven competencies I want to present, and reflect on how you can develop this further…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 1 – Introduction
THE 7 key competencies which make you highly effective as a virtual leader Looking into larger organisations and how their structures have evolved over the past years I see the dispersion of functions and their teams across sites, national or global, as the norm. As a response…
Leadership communication in virtual teams
The leadership paradox of organised informalities Communication is one of the keys to success in any team, be it local or virtual in structure. To get things done and deliver results team leaders have to pay attention to the quality of formal communication with and…
Focus – the gateway to effective and efficient work patterns
Creating focus through mindfulness - an experience with senior leaders On a regular basis my coaching clients bring up the theme of becoming more effective or efficient in their job. In some cases it's as simple as rebuilding the awareness for prioritisation and proper time…
Digital transformation for virtual teams
How to use artificial intelligence in managing virtual teams I have recently attended an online event organised by Adobe, called Experience Festival. One highlight for me was a talk around artificial intelligence (AI) and how it could help organisations to create a different future in…
Choose your own perspective: be a drone!
Stepping out of the actual situation and change perspective really helps your personal development Over more than 25 years I had the privilege to work with people on issues related to their personal development. Moreover, in this period I also developed my own personal leadership,…
The key to effective feedback
The wrong kind of empathy prevents you from giving effective feedback! Regularly, I work with leaders who struggle with giving open and honest feedback to low performers in the team. They all have one thing in common: they believe that giving honest feedback to their direct report would…
Don’t let the shadow of one personal value become too large
Exaggerated focus on a single value bears the risk of creating an imbalance in leadership behaviour Working as a coach I experience sometimes phases where clients from different industries or organisational levels bring the same challenge into the conversation. In recent weeks, such a theme…
Team Maintenance: keep your team in top shape!
Regular team maintenance is essential to keep your team performing Over more than 25 years I had the privilege to work with many teams in a wide range of settings. They varied from localised, national project teams to very dispersed international teams, ranging from focussed…
High performance virtual teams by design – part II
Three factors I care about managing a virtual team Key factors for successful virtual teams: tips for management and leadership - part II In the first part of this blog I have described my experience and approach in designing a virtual team with focus on…
High performance virtual teams by design – part I
My approach to team design to succeed with a virtual team Key factors for successful virtual teams: tips for management and leadership - part I The foundation for high performance virtual teams lies in the selection of team members and the design of the team.…
Virtual Working made effective
Good reasons why sometimes face-to-face meetings are NOT outdated If you have followed our blog so far you know by now that I am an evangelist for virtual working. And I am always willing to share my experiences in that area with anyone who is…
Self-Steering Teams: heaven or hell?
Teams without a formal leader need a proper start-up and support to become effective and valued by the team members In some businesses self-steering teams are operating for quite some time now. Successes are reported, but it is not at all a “recipe that fits…
How I boosted the engagement in my dispersed teams – Part II
The recipe for delivering a compelling vision In last week's blog I had reasoned that as the leader of a virtual team you can boost the engagement in your team through a compelling vision. I had also outlined the 5 ingredients necessary to make a…
How to set yourself up for great virtual meetings – Part II
The things “aside” most people do not pay attention to but make a great difference in virtual meetings Virtual meetings should be fun and effective and not frustrating or energy draining. With this attitude in mind I have - in part I of this blog - focused…
Launch of Virtual Leaders Lounge
Join free informal exchange with other leaders on topics relevant for you We offer you a unique place for interaction with leaders from other businesses to interact in an informal way and get new perspectives. This helps you to meet new people and discuss challenges…
Trust: the magic ingredient in Virtual Teams
My one essential ingredient leading a dispersed team effectively Leading over distance, being a virtual leader, is the norm in most international organisations. Yet, it is a widespread view in business that virtual teams are often managed badly and are performing way under their potential…
Vision: the power pack for Virtual Leaders
How I made my leadership more impactful when leading remotely Leading over a distance in today’s reality bears risks and challenges which can have a negative impact on the effectiveness of a leader. Because of the omnipresent high workload, the natural reaction of the human…
Help: virtual work is becoming viral …
... and not limited to multinational companies Some years ago it was my firm belief that virtual working was only found in multinational companies: people across the globe working on the same task or project need to work in a virtual way. Those dispersed teams…
Review VLD-Café session #7
Overcoming intercultural challenges when leading virtual teams ... ... was this months subject for the VLD-Café. In a lively discussion our diverse group of visitors came up with these fundamental challenges and ideas around the subject: the style of leadership the style and methods of…
Technology: does it help or hinder your virtual team?
Two factors you should consider when choosing the technologies to use Many discussions with leaders of virtual teams sooner or later lead to the question whether the importance of technology and its role in virtual collaboration is over- or under-estimated. From my personal experience and…
Review VLD-Café session #6
The original theme of this 6th VLD-Café session was the development of talents in a virtual context. In other words, how to deal with the development of human capital in dispersed teams where you as a leader have only limited line responsibility for the person…
Business concept isolated on white
Review of VLD-Café session #4
Unfortunately, our 3rd session had to be cancelled -so you won't find a review of it here. We hope this will remain a one-off, as the feedback from participants so far was very positive and encouraging to continue with this new, innovative format even if…
