Essay On How To Manage A Virtual Project Team

Reference 1: How to manage a virtual project team
By: Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson

The article mainly focused the tips on how to manage and motivate virtual project teams. The authors has presented the key benefit of forming virtual teams in which they have mentioned that it is the ability to cost-effectively tap into a wide pool of talent from various locations. Along with that they have highlighted the understanding of the dynamics of the virtual team worker.
According to the authors, a virtual team worker is more likely than the collocated worker to suffer from feelings of isolation if the set-up is not right, and they need to be more self-managing and focus their efforts in a particular way.
The article has highlighted the five primary aspects in which a project manager should direct their efforts to ensure effective project management of the virtual team, which is listed below:
1. Manage Goals:
Setting clear goals and objectives plays a vital role to achieve the targeted goals. So, all the team members should be aware of the clear goals and the expectation so that they can put all their effort and achieve the success.
2. Manage Communications:
Communication is very important between team members to perform well. Project managers need to understand the specific communication needs of the team workers.
3. Keep People Motivated
The project manager should look for ways to keep the team workers engaged and motivated throughout the project.
4. Regularly Assess the Effectiveness of the Remote Communications
The project manager needs to accurately assess each person’s level of comfort or willingness to be in a virtual setting, and look for any behavior that may signal that a team worker is suffering from “dis...

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...o the success of the project. There is a variety of team building techniques that can be undertaken to help make teams in matrixed environments more cohesive and successful. Seasoned and successful managers and leaders will continually analyze the team, determine which of Tuckerman’s phases the team is in, as well as the needs of individuals, so that effective team building techniques can be employed appropriately.
The author listed the Phases of Team Development into Forming, storming, Norming, and performing .
Similarly the author has mention the Team Building Techniques ,Kick off meetings
Team agreements,Delivery process definition, Conflict management,Personality assessments,Team building events, Social events, Experiential team building events
End of project celebration,Executive Coaching,Regular status updates,Clear Task Assignment, Recognition and rewards