Welcome

Welcome to our course Virtual Leadership Essentials! We are glad you are here.

Note: Throughout this course, when we use the term leader, we are referring broadly to anyone who plays a role in virtual teamwork — including formal managers, team leads, and individual contributors who influence how virtual teams function and collaborate.

Your leadership of virtual teams has been your 'new normal' now for a while. And while you can apply many of your well-honed team leadership skills to your setting, you will have likely discovered that creating and maintaining a culture and practice of trust, psychological safety, cohesion, motivation, communication modes, boundary setting, performance monitoring, and problem-solving as well as conflict management tend to be more challenging in a virtual (or hybrid) team. Not to talk about nurturing candor as well as having some fun while at work! 

At the same time, virtual teamwork has some clear benefits and advantages – as long as you as a team leader know how to use these opportunities to the full extent. 

If you decide this is exactly what you need as a virtual or hybrid team leader at this moment in time, then head over to the registration page to add your name to our cohort!

If you would like to first have a call with one of the two coaches in the course, Tosca and Ahmed, please email us at hello@5oaksconsulting.org and we will set up a conversation to answer your questions and concerns.

Your Learning Objectives:

We believe that learning objectives should be personal and negotiated in the case of any learning opportunity. Please look at the above objectives and merge them with your own by using the learning journal to jot down why you are taking the course and what your expectations are. Please make sure to download the learning journal to your device.

Click complete and continue to go to the next page and do the learning needs assessment. We collect data on your specific needs, expectations, and objectives for taking the course, and we try to accommodate those as much as possible, both in the asynchronous course and the peer-coaching sessions (if you are a tier 2 learner).

Lesson Summary

Welcome to the "Virtual Leadership Essentials" course designed to help you lead virtual and hybrid teams effectively by addressing unique challenges and leveraging opportunities to build trust, motivation, communication, cohesion, and performance in new work environments.

Course Learning Objectives:

• Understand why virtual team dynamics are uniquely challenging compared to co-located teams.
• Learn strategic approaches to build motivated, happy, and productive virtual teams.
• Gain practical daily management tools, tips, and tricks for effective virtual leadership.
• Increase personal and team resilience in virtual settings.
• Apply conflict management skills tailored for virtual and hybrid teams.
• Design long-term organizational and team virtual work strategies for the post-pandemic employee experience.

Course Structure: The course spans six weeks plus a free basic team leadership refresher, covering:

• Team Leadership: Back to Basics
• Virtual Team Leadership: Challenges
• Virtual Team Leadership: Solutions
• Management Tips, Tools, and Tricks
• Conflict Management in Virtual Teams
• Building Resilience for Leaders and Teams

Key Themes and Activities Include:

• Self-assessments on leadership style referencing Theory X and Theory Y to uncover management assumptions.
• Reflection exercises to identify what leadership behaviors to increase, reduce, or maintain.
• Problem-solving and conflict management case studies involving cross-cultural virtual team scenarios, emphasizing inclusion, fairness, and respect for diverse cultural and religious norms.
• Practical tools for creating engaging virtual meetings, fostering team rituals, emphasizing relationships over tasks, and managing effective communication across time zones and cultures.
• Strategies for addressing sensitive topics such as cultural biases and unequal recognition within teams, exemplified by scenarios involving challenges around religious observance and cultural traditions.
• Self-care and resilience-building modules to help leaders and team members manage stress, mental health, and work-life balance in remote work settings.
• Action planning exercises for setting SMART objectives to enhance trust-building, communication, and resilience in virtual teams.

Sample Case Summary (Taifa’s Virtual Team):

• Leader Taifa oversees a virtual team of 11 experienced managers, most remote and globally distributed.
• Team faces challenges including unengaging meetings, multitasking during virtual calls, low interdependence and collaboration, technical issues, and cultural tensions.
• Conflict surfaced between team members over differing regional expertise and organizational philosophies.
• Team-building efforts include virtual celebrations and awards but overall low sharing of ideas and connection.
• Leader must navigate performance evaluations, inclusive behaviors, and cultural sensitivity.

Cross-Cultural Conflict Case (Art for Peace):

• Illustrates complexities when virtual teams span multiple cultures and time zones, illustrated by tensions between Jim (Western director) and Ihsan (Middle Eastern program officer) over meeting norms, religious observance, and cultural recognition.
• Key lessons focus on the importance of open communication, cultural sensitivity, adapting rituals and meeting schedules, and leadership modeling inclusive practices.

Reflection and Coaching:

• Throughout the course, learners are guided to journal personal reflections, identify growth areas, and document lessons learned.
• Coaching support is available via peer sessions and instructor contacts for personalized guidance.

Self-Care and Resilience Tools:

• Includes stress management self-assessments, emotional needs checklists, and recommendations to balance work and well-being.
• Encourages leaders to coach team members on resilience and self-care practices to maintain sustainable performance.

By completing this course, you will be equipped with both strategic frameworks and practical skills to lead virtual teams confidently, foster inclusiveness and collaboration, and maintain team and personal well-being through challenges unique to virtual and hybrid work environments.