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Leading Small Groups: Practical Tips 207

so forth. No wonder virtual team members also report an “absence of collegiality”
and little “rapport and trust” as their other personal challenges. Effective leadership
of these teams absolutely makes a difference to their morale and performance. Vir-
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tual group leaders are expected to have the same kind of skills as face-to-face leaders
and also competence in structuring meetings and managing the highly diverse virtual
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group membership. Here, we will take a look at the special nuances of their admin-
istrative duties.
Often, virtual team leaders are in charge of assembling their teams, and they, too,
want to select carefully. Especially important to some virtual teams are project man-
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agers. Virtual leaders, if they do not take this role, must delegate it to someone.
Virtual team members report more satisfaction with delegation when it is done well
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and helps them coordinate their efforts and stay connected. It is recommended that
virtual leaders select a strong project manager based on actual knowledge of his or her
capabilities that is acquired through one-on-one experience with the person or through
viable performance measures.
Although virtual teams operate with little to no face-to-face contact, members
consistently lament the lack of face-to-face communication in their virtual groups,
associating this lack with their difficulty in building rapport and their feelings of
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isolation. Virtual group leaders face the challenge of overcoming this; ideally, they
facilitate face-to-face meetings when possible, especially early when the team is first
being assembled. 15
A dominant theme in research into virtual leadership is the need for and respect
for team meetings. We mentioned in Chapter 7 that these are often the only time
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virtual members are “together.” Team members report strong preferences for leaders
who can plan meetings thoughtfully in order to make the best possible use of time
and talent. Virtual team meetings must occur on a regular basis, they need to be
organized, and they should respect the different time zones as well as cultural holi-
days that affect member participation. Meetings can be rotated so that no one time
zone bears the brunt of the meetings and holidays can be posted in advance of
meetings.
Virtual team members expect their leaders to be able to select and use a variety
of computer tools that promote the team’s work. For instance, one online collabora-
tion tool we will highlight here is Wiggio (www.wiggio.com/), which is useful for all
types of groups. This user-friendly platform is designed for people who manage multi-
ple groups. Virtual leaders can simply connect their team members; once “grouped,”
mass e-mails and even voice mails can be sent. Invites to meetings are synched to
shared calendars, and reports and other information can be shared and worked on
together. During meetings, members can use conference calls and chats, which allow
records of the meetings to be stored and retrieved. Members can be polled using this
platform. Wiggio is free and requires no complicated registration process. The explo-
sion of these sorts of platforms also include sophisticated video and audioconferenc-
ing, which gives members multiple channels of communication that can compensate
effectively for lack of face-to-face nonverbal richness.

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