How to manage a happy, productive and engaged virtual team
Duration: One or two days, delivered at a venue of your choice, anywhere in the UK.
Kate Jennings is a highly qualified and experienced trainer, coach and consultant with a commercial background in product development. She has worked with some of the UK’s most famous brands to help develop and deliver management skills programmes that have benefited thousands of delegates. Kate has a personable style and a strong client focus, with a talent for building positive and productive working relationships. She is also qualified in a wide range of psychometric and other tools that can help enhance and cement learning.
Course details
Who is it for?
This course is for anyone who manages people who normally work from a different location to their own.
This might include mangers of teams whose members work from home, are part of a mobile workforce, or who work from other offices.
What’s this course about?
With ever more of us working from home, on the road or across multiple sites, the character of management is changing. And for many, the lack of in-person contact can be a challenge.
Of course the manager's central role remains the same: To maintaining morale, engagement and productivity in their teams. But without daily face-to-face contact many managers can feel their influence and oversight has been reduced.
From the perspective of team members, working remotely can present a range of challenges that require their manager's support. What these are depends on their personalities, working environments and the tools that are made available to them, so managers need to be aware and responsive to a wide range of new needs and concerns.
Done right, virtual teams can be hugely effective satisfying to work in, offering the right balance of structure, support and freedom to enable individuals to flourish. Our Leading Virtual Teams course provides virtual team leaders and managers with the tool to achieve this.
Over the course of this insightful and practical day, you will learn how to build team identity, communication and structure whilst taking account of individual needs and working styles. You'll leave equipped with the knowledge, skills and tools to run a focused, goal oriented team that works for the organisation and its employees.
What will delegates learn?
By the end of this course, delegates will learn to:
- Identify and use effective leadership behaviours when leading virtual teams
- Recognise what virtual team members need and expect from team leaders
- Spot the different needs individuals have in relation to remote working and support them accordingly
- Use a range of communication methods to support effective team working
- Create and maintain motivation and team spirit within remote working environments
- Use a range of techniques to manage and maximise the performance of virtual team members
What is the course content?
1. Defining the characteristics of effective virtual teams
- The different types of virtual teams
- Identifying the challenges and opportunities of remote working
- How personality helps / hinders being a remote worker
- Flexing your response as a manager
- Identifying the behaviours, skills and qualities of highly effective virtual team leaders
2. Managing team performance and motivation
- Setting clear expectations
- Managing remote workers flexibly
- Creating a virtual environment to motivate the team
- Supporting and developing the team from a distance
- Providing effective, personalised feedback to the team and individuals
- Coaching from a distance
- Measuring team performance on an ongoing basis
- Running effective virtual team meetings
3. Building a high-performance virtual team
- Building engagement within a virtual team
- Defining remote team members' expectations of their team leader
- Creating the right environment
- Building team spirit and trust
- Understanding the emotional, psychological and physical requirements of remote workers
4. Communication across a virtual team
- Identifying and overcoming the barriers to effective virtual communication
- Planning when and how often to communicate – and with whom
- Selecting the right communication method
- Developing and implementing communication systems and processes using technology such as online forums and online virtual meetings
- Techniques to ensure everyone is are heard and understood
5. Continuing your development
Developing a personal action plan to support you in putting your learning into practice
Post-course support
We understand that your professional development doesn’t end when you walk out of the classroom. The time you’ve put in will only make a real impact if your learning is carried into the way you work. That’s why we offer post-course support in implementing your new skills, for as long as required. Your trainer is available to discuss problems, provide advice or offer feedback until you feel confident on your own.
E-learning package
This course also includes access to an ‘e-learning pinboard’, a password protected webpage where your trainer has posted articles, videos, interviews and other useful tools around building a resilient team for you to draw on for inspiration and ideas going forward.
Client feedback from our courses
“Very engaging and interactive. Kate was superb.”
Director, Advertising Standards Agency
“Wonderful day. Filled me with positive energy and feeling very motivated at a much needed time.”
Delegate, John Lewis Partnership
“Very enjoyable, valuable day.”
Delegate, RSM UK
“I learnt a lot from the day. Lots of ideas to return to the office with. Very much enjoyed the course and the fantastically knowledgeable trainer.”
Delegate, IRIS Accountancy Solutions
“This course was very enjoyable, and levels of interaction allowed me to relax and feel comfortable.”
HR Administrator, Kidsunlimited
Find out more or book an in-house course
If you have any questions or if you would like to speak to Kate or one of our other trainers about how this course could be adapted to work for you please get in touch.
In-house delivery prices
In most cases we can provide an all-inclusive quote to cover design, delivery and materials with some basic information:
- Which course you are interested in
- Where the course would take place
- How many delegates need to be trained
Just drop us a line with these basic facts and we’ll get back to you with a no-obligation quote on the same day.
Cambridge Executive Development is a boutique learning consultancy with a small and select team specialising in management and communication skills training. Over fifteen years we’ve helped delegates from hundreds of companies, including many of the country’s biggest brands, boost their productivity and confidence, and transform their impact at work.
