Stage 6 – High Performance
WOW!
High team performance is achieved by effectively managing work load needs, access to information, performance accountability, and decision-making processes (Forrester & Drexler, 1999). This allows for innovation and responsiveness that leads to results that create value for the customers, the team members, and the organization.
Innovation & Responsiveness
One of the greatest challenges of virtual teams is managing the creative discussions. This challenge can be managed through a combination of physical proximity, multiple methods of communication, and team coordination strategies. An empirical study of 44 research and development teams found that the need for creativity is most important in the early stage of projects and, as a result, the need for flexibility of those three factors is most important during those early stages as well to encourage innovation through shared thinking (Kratzer, et al, 2006).
Another characteristic of teams that are able to thrive and succeed is the ability to maintain what is important while letting go of the extraneous. Virtual teams are a great example of working with fluid boundaries that allow for additional interaction between members and a flow of work that is unconstrained (Forrester & Drexler, 1999).
CLICK HERE for a tool that can be used to identify levels of individual team members' comfort with different aspects of innovation.
Results and Virtual Team Leadership
Ultimately, the success of a team is defined by reasonable measures toward a defined goal and by mastery over obstacles. Leaders are integral to the performance of a virtual team as they encourage learning and promote openness through empowering of team members. While the virtual environment requires greater levels of skill for working within a culturally and geographically diverse population, relationship building remains key to achieving sustainable results (Mukherjee, 2012).CLICK HERE to access a chart that compares the cognitive, social, and behavioral capabilities of transactional vs. transformational leaders that directly affect the successful leadership of virtual teams.
If Stage 6, High Performance, is unresolved...
Teams that do not allow for innovation and responsiveness risk negating the positive results that can occur through virtual teams by…
- Accepting the status quo and not taking advantage of the creativity that is within the team.
- Creating rigidity or work overload that suffocates innovative thought.
- Getting only mediocrity when so much more is possible.
