I’m gonna be honest. Prior to 2020, I had never led a virtual team. I didn’t need to. We were all in the office and working together in a manner that we were all comfortable with. Suddenly, like it did for everyone, the game changed. And, with it, so did the way I needed to lead my team.
This situation forced me to get creative, and to assess how I typically interact with my team. What I realized right away was that I needed to leverage technology to build rapport in a virtual setting
Technology
I’m someone who spends a lot of time reading body language, assessing the things people aren’t saying in meetings, and using my emotional intelligence to get a deeper understanding of things. Virtual settings make this nearly impossible. It’s imperative that you figure out how to connect with your team despite these challenges.
At Cardone Ventures, we use tools like Slack to help one another get quick answers to time-sensitive questions, and we make use of Zoom’s screen sharing capabilities in order to share work and feel just a little bit more connected to one another as we navigate projects.
What technology platforms are you leveraging to align your team and move the business forward? If you’re trying to rely solely on emails and phone calls, then you’re doing a disservice to your team, and ultimately your customers. Do the research, use your imagination, and take advantage of the platforms that can help catapult your organization.
Reconsider how you approach your team meetings
Another important aspect in feeling connected with your team is through the frequency of your meetings. Pre-2020, the Cardone Ventures team held separate bi-weekly executive and all-staff meetings. Every other week, the entire organization met for an hour, and each respective department would provide status updates, action items, and so on. Due to our busy schedule, this was our big stake in the ground. But once we went remote, that all changed.
In order to keep everyone aligned, motivated, and taking action on the organization’s most important priorities, we started meeting every day. The entire staff. Every single day. First thing in the morning. At first blush, you might think that this is overkill, but it was such a great thing for our entire team. It increased our sense of rapport. It gave us all updates on internal and client priorities that kept our organization aligned to updates we might not otherwise be exposed to. It kept us focused.
Use your new insights to reprioritize and create more success!
And you know what else this situation did? It allowed us to cancel our executive team meeting, because executive discussions took place at the end of these daily meetings.
Due to our increased communication and awareness, we have even greater insight into where we should be focusing the business, which has allowed us to reprioritize and generate more success than we otherwise have.
Every challenge is an opportunity — look for the wins
Not every aspect of this new situation for Cardone Ventures was a culture building miracle. There were growing pains. There’s always hard work. Always constructive criticism and constant assessment. But we knew that there were ways in which we could improve the way we work. We found those things. We created new, better processes.
A few years ago, I would have to have admitted that virtual teams weren’t an area of my expertise. Now, I feel fully confident in my ability to build and manage teams, no matter what the scenario. You and your team deserve that same level of confidence.
To truly be a leader in business, you need people skills, because it’s people that move businesses forward. Go to CardoneVentures.com/events to sign up for our next People’s Essentials workshop. Don’t delay! You, your team and your potential deserve it!