Professional Skills Development

Participants will learn to:

1. Understand and develop the skills required to effectively manage a remote team.
2. Develop a strong team purpose and understand team dynamics in a virtual team.
3. Be aware of the qualities needed when selecting new team members.
4. Build engagement and trust with members of their team.
5. Effectively use technology and tools to support communication within the team.
6. Improve their communication and feedback approach with their remote team.

Day One

• Managing remote teams: A Systems Overview
• Team effectiveness and performance measures
• Team processes, behaviours and development
• Managing team dynamics, team goals and team make up
• Distributed teams: people, purpose and links

Understanding behaviours

• Leadership – the unintended consequences of remote leadership, why is it different?
• What I say, do, measure, prioritise
• Transactional versus transformational leadership styles
• Global trends in virtual leadership
• Behavioural template
• Understanding my impact
• Understanding the needs of others
• Relationship improvements

Day One PM and Day Two

Participants will be split into 2 groups and over the following day and half will apply the tools and skills learned on day one plus additional sets of skills outlined below to the challenges presented through the case study. The background of the case study will provide the ‘generic’ industry and organisation they work in, the market trends, the culture and leadership, bios of their team members and some of the issues they face. During the course each group will have to work up solutions to a range of problems (plan) and then apply these (do) in a series of group role plays, telephone calls, email exchanges, teleconferences, meetings etc. They will get real time responses to the approach taken and this will be followed by a review of learning (review) between the groups so as to share and embed the learning (learn).

This approach is based on the Kolb learning cycle of learning: plan - do - review - learn.

In between the case study working sessions there will be a series of short ‘skill injections’ that cover some of the pragmatic tools and techniques that can be applied.

These skill injections cover:

Communication skills

• Personal e.g. Transactional Analysis
• Email / phone / telecons
• Video conferencing
• Social media and equivalent

Meetings

• Structures and terms of reference
• Principles and guidelines
• Managing contributions

Learning buddies

At the end of day two learning buddies reflect on their personal learning and apply it to the real issues they are facing. 

Day Three

Performance management

• Planning and decision-making
• Techniques such as force field analysis and fishbone
• Three-dimensional planning

Problem solving

• Engaging a group from a distance
• Techniques such as brain mapping and rich pictures

Influencing

• Managing upwards and peer to peer in a remote or matrix organisation
• Picking up the messages when body language cannot be seen

Note: additional skills can be included based on the types of challenges identified by participants on day one.

Learning clinic

Small groups, based on the like-minded challenges they raised on day one, apply the skills learned during the course, and develop a strategy to manage the real issue faced. This gives much more time for them to really develop a sustainable action plan.

Summary review and way forward

Those who lead or aspire to lead a geographically remote team, or who move between teams or work with other leadership teams from their own business, supply chain or contractors.