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Hrm 531 Week 2 Team Analysis

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Part I. As a manager of a virtual team, what team characteristics would you be especially concerned about so that the team’s work would be exceptional?
According to Gibson (2012), Virtual Teams are defined as, “a team that relies on interactive technology to work together when separated by physical distance.” (p. 244) Ironically, I manage a virtual team and I wholeheartedly agree with best practices managing virtual teams. I have team members who support the same business unit, physically sit in an office but in various locations from Michigan to Florida. Most of my team I inherited but have done a decent job of following the best practices discussed by Gibson. I encourage social skills and self-leadership through weekly one on one meetings …show more content…

My one on one meetings and division wide meetings are mostly conducted via instant message conference so we are able to feel that we are meeting face to face. Due to budgetary constraints, team meetings face to face happen once a year in the form of a summit. I also make a concerted effort to visit each team once a quarter in person. Obviously, with any team, there are certain team members that require more attention than others but I try to balance that appropriately in my visitation schedule. The best practice I could certainly do better is to foster a global mindset. We follow the company’s mission statement and performance management goals but often find it difficult to identify with the large enterprise. I also don’t do a good job of encouraging team members to evaluate and develop transferable skillsets. Our company is a fortune 50 and tends to be siloed in its management approach. It may help if each team member was able to “job shadow” various business units to develop their understanding of whole …show more content…

He was Gibson’s (2012) definition of a “Type D manager.” (p. 449) He was in the later stages of his career and therefore didn’t feel threatened by others ideas and open communication. He was very transparent in his communication and supported those high performing individuals on his team to the degree that 4 of us have received promotions since his departure. He truly listened to his employees and offered empathy when appropriate. He also provided critical feedback when necessary but in a productive manner. He was simple in his messaging as evidenced by his notorious subject lines in email that summarized the action item or the body of the email. Most importantly he fostered an environment of mutual trust. Not only was he effective in his communication to his team but he was effective in his cross functional communication. He retired 3 years ago but many people still quote his, “Bazanisms” or his nuggets of wisdom he would offer or so many of us. We also covet his ability to deescalate any situation with his communication style. On occasion, I could use one of his friendly reminders to “PICK UP THE PHONE” and call a business partner versus continuing an escalating email

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