Successfully Leading Distributed Teams
The Global Report on Call Centre Practices is a free monthly newsletter that provides fresh insight and analysis on customer management issues, and how customer contact trends and developments across the world are impacting virtually every organization in today’s communications-driven economy. It is produced by ICMI, part of Think Services and the UBM family of companies, with offices worldwide, and is edited by ICMI president Brad Cleveland.
In the latest edition they say…
The results you create (for your customer) depend on being able to get support from people who work at different times, different places, or in different departments.
If you are a call center manager, you will likely have the responsibility of getting results from people that work in different locations, don’t report to you, or don’t work the same hours. Computer and telecommunications technologies have spawned organizations that span geography and time. Multi-site environments, cross-functional teams and extended hour or 24×7 operations are common call center examples.
But technology hasn’t eliminated the natural barriers that exist between people who work in distributed environments. People who work in different places and/or at different times often have trouble seeing themselves as an integral part of a larger team.
Like leadership in general, there’s no specific recipe for building a cohesive virtual team or organization. There are, however, tried and true principles that will significantly increase the chance for success:
1. Create a compelling vision. I know, many organizations have been through the process of creating mission and vision statements that have had little or no impact on peoples’ actions. But creating an effective vision – one that is alive and dynamic – is absolutely essential to managing a distributed team. Vision begins by asking and answering key questions, e.g., What are we trying to achieve? How will the organization and all who depend on it – customers, employees, shareholders – benefit from our success? How do individual members contribute to overall results? A clear focus that is championed by the leader is a prerequisite to pulling people in and aligning actions.
The Global Report on Call Centre Practices
As president of ICMI, Brad Cleveland has delivered keynotes, executive briefings and consulting services in over 50 countries. ICMI is part of the CMP family of companies, a global leader in business information services with offices around the world. Brad can be reached at bradc@icmi.com.
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