Powerful Strategies for Leading the Online Workplace

This post is co-authored by Jamie Bitz, Claremont McKenna College Class of 2022.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only about 4 percent of the U.S. workforce performed at least half of their work from home. The viral threat skyrocketed the habit with nearly a third of all Americans now working remotely. Moreover, many of the new online employees had little experience working remotely, as did many supervisors.

The transition has been understandably difficult, but perhaps less difficult than it might have been. The development of platforms for online team coordination, such as Slack and Asana, along with meeting software, like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, helped ease the sudden switch to working from home.

Fortunately, there has been quite a bit of research on virtual teams and how to best lead them, and this work provides some best practice strategies.

Communication Is Key. Just as in co-located work, clear and accurate communication among team members and with leaders is critical. However, when working from home, employees can feel isolated and “out of touch” with other members, so more-than-average electronic communication is called for. This might include one-on-one check-ins between leaders and team members. In addition, regular, daily emails from leaders to team members, providing news, status reports, etc., can help employees feel connected and substitute for the “what’s going on?” conversations that typically happen in the co-located workplace.

In one study, it was found that leaders had more successful virtual teams when they encouraged members to share personal stories. These informal contacts helped to connect team members and helped to develop and maintain the personal relationships that normally form in the halls of the office. Sharing personal anecdotes also reinforces the feeling that the virtual team is about more than just work; it is a group of people who can rely on each other, and such informal communication increases feelings of trust and commitment to shared purpose and goals.

Establish Guidelines and Norms for Working From Home. An important leadership task is to provide structure for employees working from home. This includes setting expectations for how teams should coordinate work, and for work output, by developing shared goals (with team members’ input). To maintain work-family balance, norms should include limitations that allow team members to step away from the virtual workplace for personal time.

Transformational Leadership Works. In transformational leadership, leaders strive to understand team members’ individual needs, abilities, and personal goals. There is good evidence that transformational leadership, which includes empowering workers to take initiative and be innovative, while providing ongoing mentoring/coaching leads to better virtual outcomes [More on transformational leadership here].

Do Virtual Teambuilding. Setting aside time for team members to discuss their experiences and feelings about working from home, helps to build shared understanding. Leaders must focus intentionally on teambuilding activities, which more naturally may occur in co-located work. Regular online team meetings allow for members to also discuss shared values, with all of this interaction aimed toward increasing trust among team members. Trust leads to commitment to the team, which impacts performance and team member satisfaction.

There Are Advantages

Moving forward, what are some of the positive lessons that we have learned from the sudden shift to remote work?

• Wider range of employees. Virtual work teams widen the pool of potential workers. Members no longer need to be within commuting distance to join the team and organization.
• More flexibility for employees. Flexible work hours allow team members to take care of personal issues (e.g., doctor visits, errands) without missing scheduled work time. Workers who formerly commuted get back all of that tedious travel time.
• More time with family. Employees can be in the home – perhaps even sitting side-by-side with children as they do virtual schoolwork. Of course, structuring the day and environment is important to keep work and home life separate.

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