Critical Success Factors for Virtual Teams
February 12, 2025
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In case of traditional co-located teams, pizza parties, lunch/dinner outings etc. are common approaches to celebrating team success while cash or non-cash awards such as public appreciation, customized merchandise or certificates are used to recognize individual performance. But when the teams are globally distributed, it becomes a challenge to reward and recognize their triumphs in an encouraging manner.
Such celebrations are more vital in a virtual team environment because the feeling of isolation is experienced much more by their members as compared to that of co-located teams.
Some managers realize this and in order to make up for the distance, send congratulatory emails or do a quick 5 minute praise over the phone. But these gestures actually lack the true spirit of recognizing employee’s or team’s performance. These draw a wet blanket on the people’s enthusiasm.
As a virtual team leader one has to think-of-the-box and come up with creative ideas for recognizing good performance to keep the morale of the team high. Below are some meaningful ways to recognize individual and team performance that makes them feel in valued and appreciated:
It is notable to mention here that even though a part of R&R program should regard individual performance to inspire each member towards higher productivity but at the same time major emphasize should be placed on group efforts because then only will people unite and collaborate together to deliver results.
Virtual team members perform in a unique cross-functional, cross-organizational and multi-cultural work environment, therefore their key performance indicators should also focus on working across organizational boundaries, sharing knowledge to support group tasks, ambiguity as well as adaptability to different cultures.
The key to unlock the full potential of virtual team’s performance management system lies in both modified performance objectives and distinct rewards & recognition programs.
Virtual team members need constant reinforcement that they are important asset of the organization and their contributions go a long way in determining the organizational success.
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