Question

Recall a time when you felt like you could not trust members on your team. Why did you feel that way? How did that affect the team's performance?

Can you think of strategies that can help build trust among virtual team members?

Imagine you are a manager at a national corporation. You have been asked to select employees for a virtual problem-solving team. What types of employees would you include and why?

Answer 1

1. I recently experienced a time when I could not trust members on my team. In my last administrative role, I had to rely another admin to help get logistical items completed for an event we were helping support. First, already knowing the admin had a track record of calling into work, coming in late, and complaining that certain duties were not part of their job when they were asked to help, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I assigned a few tasks for them to complete, unlike me with not only making sure we complete everything but also supporting more than one event on the same day. The day the tasks were due, my co-worker did not have the table tents printed nor had they been proofread ahead of time. When I inquired about the tents she brushed if off as if it was no bigdeal. Instead of printing them right away she decided getting a coffee at the snack shop was more important. I was upset she had not completed her tasks on time and I had to stay late for her to finish them. My performance from that point on was to do everything myself and not rely on her help even if it meant over exhausting myself which impacted my performance. Unfortunately, because her lack of teamwork, contribution, and poor attitude forced me to bid out and get a new job.

2. Following are the ways---------------

1. Keep the lines of communication open---Regular communication drives motivation, accountability, and demonstrates everyone’s commitment to the team. Whether it’s a Monday morning call, daily status emails, or collaboration in a project management tool, find a way to bring the team together and keep employees engaged regularly.

2. Embrace transparency------Managers must lead by example and being transparent should be top of your priority list. Keep everyone in the loop by providing easy access to team information. Project progress, work schedules, and task statuses should be publicly available to all members of the team.

3. Set clear goals and objectives-------Save yourself a headache down the road and set clear expectations from the get-go. Give your team a common goal with actionable tasks. Not only will this increase productivity, but it will also keep your team motivated.

4. First, managers can build trust with a common goal, mission statement and aligned strategy with shared values. Second, effective communication and a collaborative partnership with a clear plan of how decisions will be made, and each team members role defined. Third, creating common guidelines to achieve collective goals. Transparency in communication helps avoid any misconceptions that could create mistrustamong the virtual team members. Finally, three important elements are timeliness, comprehensive responses, and dependability.

3. I would choose a diverse group of employees, so each person brings a different insight to problem solving and allow the team to make more creative and better judgements. The diverse team would have a driver, analytical, amiable, and expressive person. The driver would help keep the team on track while the expressive would be motivational sharing their new ideas. The analytical would ask questions by focusing on logistics and facts while the amiable communicates trust and gives support. Overall, the team members chosen need to have a common work conduct with the same principles to ensure success.