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5 Ways to Motivate Virtual Teams

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by Patty Azzarello

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How do you motivate people you can’t spend time with in person?

1. Virtual Team Building (literally)

I always did team building exercises when I had my team in a room together. But somehow with a remote, virtual team, I never considered that it was possible. This was a brilliant idea that one of my members offered. I wanted to share this because it is a great idea that I wish I had thought of ages ago.

How to do remote team building

First, prepare.  Distribute a template ahead of time that each person fills out.  It should include a photo of them, and questions which help people get to know each other.

Some examples:

  1. What is on your iPod?
  2. What was your best/worst job ever?
  3. What are your hobbies?
  4. What is your favorite book, movie, sport, animal?
  5. What is something from your childhood that has stayed with you and you use in your work?

Then when you have your virtual meeting over a conference call, show each person’s template and photo, and have them talk about it.  It is an amazing way to help your team get to know each other as people, and build a much more productive working relationship.

Photos!

Photos alone go a long way to build trust and camaraderie.  If your team is comfortable with photos, create a social media, facebook sort of page for your team to share non-work things with each other.

This is something you can easily assign to someone on your team who is inclined to set it up and keep it alive.  Refer to recent posts in your meetings.
(note: if someone refuses to submit a photo, let it go, don’t force the issue.)

2. Improve the Quality of Communications

Another issue with virtual teams is often that they are spread around the world, in different countries with different native languages.

Conference call communication is difficult enough, but if it’s not in your native language it’s excruciating.

A colleague of mine created a brilliant process to deal with this. 

Add written reinforcemnent to conference calls

On all of their multi-country conference calls they use an additional IM window where people in each country type out the key points being made, translate any jargon, highlight questions and decisions, and clarify areas in the discussion that were moving fast, or unclear.

They also use blog updates which capture the key ideas and decisions from the conference call in writing, to re-inforce the key outcomes and have a record for later review and understanding.

Adding written communications to conference calls, improves understanding, relationships and productivity dramatically.  Brilliant!
(I would think these were good practices even if there were not language issues.)

3. Timing

Being sensitive to time zones can go a long way to make people feel like they count.

Use their time zone: Whenever I recommend a meeting time, I always note it in the time zone of the other person.
From their perspective, if they are not in the headquarters time zone they need to translate every single meeting. Just doing that one step for them makes a big difference.

Use GMT: Another idea that came from a member was to always note times in GMT so everyone has to translate equally.

Share the suffering: Also, if you need to get the US, Europe, and Asia on the phone at the same time, alternate the suffering.  Have the meeting on rotating schedule so that one time zone is always comfortable.

4. Individuals must exert their presence

As a leader, another thing you can do is let individuals who are remote know that part of their job is to make sure they are not invisible.  The more they step up to make their presence felt the more included they will feel and the more motivated they will be.
It just works so much better for the remote individual to own this.

5. Have Better Virtual Meetings

How to have better meetings when no one is in the room:
When people are in a meeting I expect them to be “present” – listening, participating, contributing, and NOT doing email. If people are not going to be present why have a meeting?

Insist on starting On Time.  Everyone is to call in 5 minutes prior and be ready to go on time.  If need be, start the meeting start at 5 minutes after the hour – sharp! No excuses. Being late degrades accountability for presence, and is a huge time waster.  Don’t tolerate it.

Start with a weather report (or another personal topic) from each person on the call.  This gives every person’s presence a chance to be felt even though you can’t see them around the table.  And it gives you an opportunity to treat people like humans, which always helps.

Insist that no one mutes their phone. I don’t care if I hear children or dogs.  This also makes it harder to type, or watch TV without getting found out.  Mute degrades presence.  And it’s another big time waster.  After a discussion has gone down the road a bit, someone will chime in and say, “sorry, I didn’t realize my phone was on mute and I need to go back to …”

Be there. Make it clear that if this is an important meeting you are supposed to have it on your schedule, be on a landline, and not be driving somewhere between more important things.  You need to set the example for this yourself too – or don’t have the meeting.

Have a clear desired outcome and the promise of a shorter meeting.  “We will finish this meeting at 9:45 so that you can hang up and do 15 minutes of something else before your next meeting.”

Reinforce the fact that you value each others’ time. “The reason we have a shorter meeting, keep our phones un-muted, and don’t do email is because we respect each other’s time and therefore commit to being present, even though we are not in the same room.”

What has worked for you?

Having your whole team int the same room these days is a rare exception.
How have you motivated your people around the world?
How did you improve productivity, communication or motivation for your virtual teams?
Please share your experience and ideas in the comment box so we can all get better at this.

—–
Patty Azzarello works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. She has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at The Azzarello Group Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello

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Social Media & Blogging: Panel Discussion (Part 2)

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors to help manage their online book promotion. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!). I am here to offer a weekly post about one book author I am working with and one book I have put on my reading list.

I am mixing things up (again! – you can read part 1 of panel discussion on blogging and social media) for my weekly blog post at Successful Blog. I thought I would ask a few of the authors I have highlighted to offer their strategies and tips regarding blogging and social media.

Panel Discussion about Blogging and Social Media

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The panel consists of the following people:

Himanshu Jhamb thrives on challenges in Software Project Management and has successfully led global teams in industries ranging from Telecommunications to eCommerce. Himanshu is Senior Project Manager for Atypon Systems and co-founder of Active Garage, where he frequently writes about Projects and Project Management. He is also the co-author of #PROJECTMANAGEMENTtweet with Guy Ralfe.

Delandy Kirk, Ph.D., SPHR is a Professor of Management with 27 years experience in teaching Employment Law, Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, Managing Diversity, and Operations Management. She has conducted teaching workshops at numerous academic conferences and schools including Columbia University, Duke University, University of Washington, University of Arkansas-Ft Smith, Graceland University, and Metropolitan Community College. She was the featured expert for the Chronicle of Higher Education’s online chat on classroom management on September 15, 2004, and has earned the prestigious Drake University Board of Governor’s “Excellence in Teaching” Award. Her book, Taking Back the Classroom: Tips for the College Professor on Becoming a More Effective Teacher, was re-released by Tiberius Publications in October 2008.

Janet Fouts is a social media coach, teacher and speaker. She helps individuals and corporations understand how to use social media tools and work efficiently in this emerging field, and conducts in house and virtual training sessions on social media tools and strategy.
Janet has been working with small businesses to develop their on-line presence and working with online community for 13 years. She is partner in the award winning web design and development firm Tatu Digital Media. She freely shares her knowledge on several social media platforms including her blog at JanetFouts.com. She is the author of Social Media Success and co-author of Social Media Non-Profit Tweetby publisher Happy About.

Tim Tostaa partner at Luce Forward, is recognized as one of California’s leading land use and environmental attorneys. He also is a cancer survivor, a seasoned hospice volunteer, an evocative lecturer and writer, and a certified Integral Coach, guiding executives in the legal profession and the business community to live purposeful, balanced, thriving lives.
Tim is the author of #DEATHtweet and the highly acclaimed lecture series, “Lessons for the Living,” and the emotionally compelling hospice writings, ‘Putting Things in Perspective – Stories from a Hospice Volunteer.’ Tim has a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law and a BA from Princeton University. His Twitter handle is @TTosta.

Let’s Start the Discussion


How long have you been blogging?

Himanshu – 18 months

Janet – I’ve been blogging since 1996. Back then they weren’t blogs of course but hand coded pages. We basically modified guest book scripts and had to build a new page for every post. We were THRILLED when Blogger came out!

Delaney – 4 and ½ years

Tim – I started blogging in earnest in the Spring of this year at CoachingCounsel.com/blog. Although I am a full-time practicing Land Use and Environmental attorney, I became a certified Integral Coach about 18 months ago. I launched the CoachingCounsel.com website concurrent with the publication of my book #DEATHtweet – A Well Lived Life Through 140 Perspectives on Death and Its Teachings.

What subjects do you cover with your blog?

Himanshu -Project Management & Leadership

Janet – I blog on a lot of topics on my blogs. the principal blogs are on social media but I also blog on wine, food, local news and events and green technology and the environment.

Delaney – Teaching tips for college professors including classroom management and the use of educational technology as a pedagogical tool.

Tim– I came upon Integral Coaching from my own work with a coach, as well as my experience as a hospice volunteer at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital, where I serve the City’s indigent population at the end of life. The hospice experience also led to the authoring of #DEATHtweet. At its core, I blog to help people to relieve their suffering. Topics have included discovering your life’s purpose, leading a balanced life, finding happiness, finding awareness through meditation and the like. I blog at least twice a week. I provide exercises and practices to assist people on their journeys of inquiry. I use references to literature, poetry, music and the arts to engage my readers.

Why do you blog?

Himanshu – Whenever I notice something that will provide VALUE to others when faced with similar situations, I blog. Blogging on project management is for readers to GAIN from my mistakes and experience in Project Management (I share these also in the form of tweets in the book)

Janet – Because I’ve got a lot of opinions and I like to teach and communicate with other people on these various topics. I LOVE the whole idea of community online.

Delaney – I enjoy mentoring other instructors and sharing what I have learned in my 28 years of teaching.

Tim – Blogging reminds me of how we used to engage one another through written correspondence. In blogging, I convey information with informality and an open heart, making it easy for my message to be truly heard. Blogging allows me to get relatively immediate feedback on whether or not my messages are making a connection with my readers. To the extent that I receive feedback, I adjust my posts to more meaningfully serve my readers.


What is the one blogging tip you have to share with others?

Himanshu – Be Authentic. Do not blog for the sake of blogging. The blog post needs to be VALUABLE to others. For instance, my blog (www.activegarage.com) is positioned around VALUE to the reader … because all Authors are hand-picked accomplished practitioners of business.
Do not self-promote yourself in your blogs. That, in fact, is one of the requirements we make off new authors, when they begin writing on Active garage.

Janet – Think about your audience. What do they want to talk about? You can get a good idea of what they want by looking at the comments and what posts are most popular, but you can also just ASK. Why are they here? What do they want to talk about?

Be opinionated. That’s where the conversation part comes in. 

Don’t forget to leave room for discussion. If you say all there is to say you don’t leave room for anybody else’s opinion. 

Delaney – Don’t give up because you feel you are talking to yourself. There will be many people who will read your blog and never comment. That doesn’t mean they aren’t interested or benefiting from your expertise. I will sometimes get an email from someone asking me a question and always they start off by telling me they have been reading my blog for years.

 
Tim – Know your overall intention for your blog, but hold that intention lightly. I generally know the direction of the posts that I will create for many months in advance. But I am flexible in taking a new direction, if an opportunity arises. I have a map. But, I know it’s not the territory.
 
When I write a blog post, I usually either dictate it to tape for transcription or use voice transcription software. Those technologies keep my posts conversational. I find that when I write at the keyboard, my “editor/critic” always rests on my shoulder, blocking the relaxed, informal tone I want to convey.

How long have you been using social media (twitter, facebook, linkedin) for your business?

Himanshu -18 months

Janet – I built my first online community in 1994. Twitter and Facebook and what people now call social media? 2-3 years.

Delaney – Twitter and Facebook for over two years; Linkedin even longer I think.

Tim – I have been on Linkedin for almost two years. I use Linkedin to bring awareness to my law practice. Facebook, which I have been using for about the same time, is more informal but contains most of my coaching content. I have established a separate Facebook page for the book, #DEATHtweet. Twitter is my vehicle for communicating about my book #DEATHtweet and other books currently in the works.


When it comes to social media— do you prefer one platform over the others? (Faceook, Twitter or LinkedIn)

Himanshu – This is a very generic question. Each social media platform is different – it all depends on the criteria of comparison. For example, Facebook is more personal than twitter and requires a higher degree of trust whereas twitter has a larger reach than facebook. LinkedIn is more suited towards professionals in jobs.

Janet -Twitter is my favorite because it’s so rich in information. I also get most of my business from Twitter or my blog. I rank pretty high in Google for “Social Media Coach” and I’ve worked hard to keep that brand alive with social media.

Delaney – I really like Twitter. It’s a great way to build a network of professionals to share information, tips, links to articles, etc. I met Teresa Morrow through Twitter and have recommended her services to several new and aspiring authors I know.

Tim – Each social media platform offers its own distinct advantages. Linkedin serves my law practice well because it is more of a broadcast mechanism. Facebook, with its interactivity, is well suited for the coaching. Twitter inspired the #THINKaha! brand for Happy About Books. #DEATHtweet is a book in that series. My book was “designed” for tweeting.

What is one social media tip you have to share with others?

Himanshu – Again, be authentic. The more authentically you share, the more social-media love you will get back.

Remember… Give first… and you will get, then.

Janet – Every day pick a different connection or two and reach out to them. How can you help them? Read what they’re writing about and talk to them.
NEVER send automated DM’s. It’s just bad practice.
Start with 1-2 networks or tools at a time. If you try to learn them all at once you will flail around until you drown, exhausted. 
Join SocialMediaCoachingCenter.com and read Social Media Success!
Social media is all about the other guy. It’s not about you. Find ways to help other people and they will reciprocate.

Delaney – Be patient. You don’t create a network overnight. Think of it as a cocktail party-you wouldn’t go to a social event and immediately try to sell your product to someone you just met. Instead take your time, get to know others with similar interests, share information, and build trust and credibility.

Tim –
Each social media platform offers you a different way to present yourself. The culture of the platform shapes your audience and your message. Figure out the rules of each game to determine how that platform best serves you and use it accordingly.
 
Use of social media requires some study and a certain degree of discipline. But in order to be effective, you have to find a way to make it fun. Otherwise, you will make yourself crazy. I even take social media “vacations” periodically to recharge my engines, gather new ideas and seek inspiration. Sure, people will miss you. But coming back with fresh content reconnects you very quickly.

Thank you Himanshu, Delaney, Janet and Tim for contributing your valuable ideas and tips for the readers!

So, now it is your turn…share your answers to these questions about blogging and social media.

What Are You All About?

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By Terez Howard

Do you want me to read your blog? Then tell me about yourself?

Dan Keller recently wrote that blog post, and it got me thinking. When I check out blogs, and I am in the constant state of searching for new content, the absolute first link I click on if I like what I’m reading is the About page.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

  1. Who is this blogger? What does he/she do for a living, and why?
  2. What does this blogger hope to achieve with this blog?
  3. How am I going to benefit from following it? Am I going to benefit at all?

I ask myself these questions every time I click on that About link. But I’ve never put them in writing. Now that I have, I feel I have some work to do. Are you giving your readers this basic information?

You know you need a change, but how?

So, I look at my About page on my blog, and it answers what I hope to achieve with my blog. That’s about it. I’d say this is the easiest question to answer. Most, if not all bloggers, know what they are writing about. This is the time to provide a brief synopsis to your readers. Simple.

Looking back at my About page, it doesn’t say who I am. How can I, and maybe you, too, get personal? I would like to tell readers:

  • How long I’ve been writing
  • Where I’ve written
  • Why I love writing
  • What I do for a living
  • A little about my family (They’re my life!)
  • Where I live
  • A fun fact about yourself (Be creative.)

I’m going to add a headshot to my About page. Dan recommends posting a quick video so that people can get a glimpse of your personality.

An About page needs to tell people why they would care to read my blog. This is going to be different for every niche. The basic, foremost question you need to answer is:

What are readers going to take away from your blog that they can use?

I only read blogs that somehow relate to my life. For instance, I have natural hair, and I’m constantly looking for new styles, hair care tips and insights. When I’m looking at a new blog, I want that About page to tell me that I’m going to get what I need. Of course, I enjoy reading about personal information, like why a woman went natural and rants on natural hair. But I want to learn something for my hair. It has to be about me to a certain extent.

With that in mind, bloggers write about personal matters. However, if posts never relate to your readers, there will be no readers. Right of the bat, readers can know from your About page that you are going to help them in some way.

Ask yourself:

  • If I were visiting my blog as an outsider, what would type of information would I want to see?
  • How can readers use the information in my posts?
  • Why will readers want to come back to my blog?

Answering these questions can help you get on task for constructing an About page that tells your readers what they want to know. I’m ready to make some changes on my blog.

What else do you include in your About page?

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

The 10 Point Plan to Build an Internal Community of Brand Loyal Fans

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(Updated in 2020)

Community Starts at Home

During my years in publishing, I was a serial community builder. It seems that every job I took included “rebuild the department, refocus the vision” in the role. I’m fairly certain that those two challenges are what attracted me.

Even as a teenager, explaining the quest, translating the context, and helping folks bring their best to what they’re doing has been my natural response. I’ve always done that. Not that I’ve always done it well. Still the failures and successes of the past have taught me what moves people to trust in a vision and to join in to build something they couldn’t build alone.

So I was the one they hired

  • to rebuild the company and the strategy for growth six months after the company had laid off 40% of the previous employees.
  • to re-establish the department identity when it had grown too quickly and lost its role within the organizational process.
  • to build a cross functional team that could function with professional ease and confidence from a crew of new hires when the start up started growing.
  • to establish a winning brand and a high performance product / marketing team from a single product offer and a squad of contract workers
  • to lead an ad hoc SWAT team of 60 professionals to reconceive and bring to market a product in crisis (in 1/6 the time originally budgeted for development.)

Every one of those jobs was the best job of my life while I was doing it, because we built teams that made outstanding things happen. Who doesn’t want to work with people who are “in with both feet,” working at their best level, and having fun?

The 10-Point Plan to Build an Internal Community of Brand Loyal Fans

Now I’m working with two new clients that very topic close to my heart and my business. Both are asking how they might get their teams to “raise a barn” rather than “build a coliseum.” Both companies want a to build an internal community of brand evangelists the expands from team to team, from department to department that will spread from inside to outside their company’s “walls.”

We’re going to use traditional interviews, a social tool called a “histogram,” and tested, collaborative instructional design to build an internal community of brand loyal fans. Here’s a 10-Point Plan to build an internal community of brand loyal fans. It’s exciting to offer a program and a process that grew out of the of the working model we use every year at SOBCon.

  1. Articulate a clearly defined vision.
  2. Negotiate a leadership commitment to live that vision.
  3. Assess and benchmark the current status.
  4. Identify and enlist a core team of champions to lead the quest.
  5. Build a brand values baseline by gathering the values that drive the brand.
  6. Challenge the brand teams to condense and clarify the brand values baseline by talking them through with stakeholder and bring back less than 7 words.
  7. Align your brand values with your brand value proposition
  8. Engage the brand teams in identifying and collecting cultural stories, signs, and rituals that exemplify the values of the brand values baseline.
  9. Move the process outward training teams in — a leadership team that focuses on departmental quality and performance and communications through persuasion.
  10. Exhibit leadership commitment by investing regular time and resources to ongoing collaborative brand values conversations to build decision models, communication models, and performance / hiring standards that align with the brand values baseline.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about each step in the process. We will explore what each step is; why it’s important; how to put it into action; and how to know whether it’s working in the way you intended. Then we’ll talk about how to connect that internal community to the community of customers, partners, and vendors who help your business grow from outside.

Any questions?

READ the Whole 10-Point Plan Series: On the Successful Series Page.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

63% of the International Bees Awards Entries Are Big Brands

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San Francisco November 9, 2010 marks the first annual International Bees Awards in recognition to the best Social Media communications and marketing practices. I’m proud to serve as a member of the Iinternational Bees Awards jury. I’m also excited to report that

  • Every continent has submitted entries: Social media marketing is a worldwide phenomenon.
  • 14 of the 16 categories have received entries: Market sends the message that social media marketing goes way beyond creating a Facebook page.
  • 63% of all entries come from large brands: Large brands are embracing actively this new marketing approach on the Web.
  • 70% of all entries come from specialized agencies: Small/fast-growing agencies are making social media marketing their main expertise and as a result, seem to get the large client accounts.

Social media is still an emerging market and there are a lot of questions and curiosities revolving around this new medium. Upon submission, entires have the oppurtunity to become case studies for the international press. Entries are kept 100 % confidential unless stated otherwise.

Case studies that have been shared with the public come from Sweden, Japan, and Canada, showcasing campaigns for IKEA and Cirque du Soleil’s One Drop are shared on the Bees Awards Blog.

The professionalism behind the criteria for choosing the jury, the truly international focus, and the dedication to quality make this event one to keep an eye on.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Uncertainty is Expensive!

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by Patty Azzarello

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Hidden Expense…

Uncertainty is a huge hidden expense in your business.

There’s the obvious expense of work not getting done — as uncertainty causes people waiting for decisions instead of working. But the more damaging and expensive side of uncertainty is the work that gets done the wrong way.

The wrong work

Unresolved strategic issues, don’t just stay in the board room until you finally get them answered.
Every unanswered strategic question leaves legions of people in your organization, less productive and more expensive than they would be with clear direction.

It’s the inconsistent work that comes from everyone taking their best guess while waiting for the strategy from above, that is expensive.

As a leader one of your biggest responsibilities is to remove uncertainty.

Strategic Chaos

What are the unresolved strategic issues in your company?  What are the decisions that are never seem to get closed?

Are we a product or service company? Should we do an exclusive agreement?  Should we be selling through different partners?  Should we upgrade our architecture, or build on the one we have?  Should we change our pricing for global customers or optimize regionally?

The true cost of indecision…

It’s not that strategic unanswered questions go answered that causes the problem. It’s that they get answered every day, differently, by front line employees who are making the best choices they can in the moment for how to implement their work.

A tale of 2 business units:

An interesting example of this is a company I worked with that had two business units.  At the executive level, it was a political war.

They could not commit to a decision if one or the other business unit was the primary mission of the company, or if both businesses should get equal attention and investment.

So what happened…

Hundreds of front line, individual contributors had to wonder, debate and make up their own answer to the most strategic decision in the company: What business are we in?

Yikes! A customer-facing, unsupported strategy…

A specific, downstream effect of this was that every trade show event manager had signs for both businesses in their inventory.  So they each had to decide on their own, Do we hang one sign or both?  Do we make one bigger? Put one on top? Or give them equal treatment?

They all did their best, but of course they all made different decisions.  And different local politics ensured that the company was never represented the same way twice!

Because the executives left this uncertainty, the most fundamental positioning of the company was executed differently at every event.

Failure to build value, and wasted time and money…

The company shot them selves in the foot at every event, failing to build their credibility and recognition consistently in the market.

Your job is to eliminate uncertainty, so that everyone can invest in executing in an aligned way, to build value, market confidence and brand.

This is true for every function and every team in the organization. And this has a huge ROI.  Failure has a huge expense.

How do you deal with uncertainty is in your organization?

This is at the heart of the work I do with my corporate clients.  It is so important, and profitable, to create clarity, concrete actions and motivation both at the executive level AND with all of the employees.

We all wish we got more clarity and strategic decisions from above. How do you remove uncertainty for your team?

Please leave your suggestions and experiences on this in the comment box below. It’s so important.

—–
Patty Azzarello works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. She has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at The Azzarello Group Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello

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