Trust is even more important in virtual teams compared to physical or traditional teams. This is because there is often little or no personal contact, as a result a team member can feel excluded and there is a lack of trust. But how can you become a successful online business manager or virtual manager? This article will give you an introduction to building trust in your virtual team.
Trust is not something that happens overnight and it can really take some time to create a (working) environment in which you trust the team, but also in which the team trusts you. You should view this overall process as the foundation for building trust. If the team gets to know each other better, this is of course an excellent opportunity to work on trust. Will this only happen at a later stage? Then it becomes considerably more difficult to work on the basis of trust.
These are some characteristics of a successful online business manager or virtual manager:
- Stimulates openness and involvement within the team.
- Communicates regularly and ensures that everyone receives the same message but also understands the context.
- Shows interest in the home situation, for example the family of the team.
As the leader of a team working remotely, building trust is your responsibility. So not only the trust between you and an individual team member, but also the mutual trust. One approach to this is to be consistent and open, encouraging others to use this approach as well. As a role model, the team will try to copy your actions/behaviour, so you should behave as the team expects.
Don't be discouraged if it turns out that trust within the team doesn't develop right away. Developing trust within a physical or traditional team already takes some time, so in a virtual team it takes even longer! Keep giving your team the opportunities and over time you will see that trust will develop.
If you would like to gain even more knowledge regarding virtual teams, the following training is available to you: Managing virtual team training.
Still more focused on remote project management? Then the helps remote project management training you with guiding and uprising the timely and successful delivery of projects.
