Build and Maintain Virtual Relationships: Top 3 Communication Tips

Build and Maintain Virtual Relationships
While many leaders have had virtual team members for years, who could foresee that, suddenly, almost every team other than first responders would become virtual due to COVID?  Building and maintaining interpersonal relationships without the handshake, without the opportunity for impromptu discussions, and without the chance encounters is not easy.

To sustain a healthy and high performing workplace culture, teams need to be able to build and maintain strong virtual relationships.

To Build and Maintain Virtual Relationships Focus on Effective Communication as a Core Competency

To work effectively together, all teams need strong, savvy, respectful, and caring leaders. For virtual teams, the need is even greater. We know from organizational culture assessment data that virtual workplace settings require that leaders:

• Articulate clearer goals and accountabilities
• Establish more meaningful strategic priorities
• Define sharper roles and responsibilities
• Give more frequent feedback

The Top 3 Communication Tips in a Virtual Environment
|A good way to check to see if you are doing all you can to communicate effectively with your team is to evaluate the conversation after each virtual interaction. Grade yourself. Be as objective as you can to assess what went well and what didn’t in three key areas:

1. Were You Clear and Thorough Enough?
   Keep your comments simple and to the point. Include only information that is relevant in order to avoid strategic confusion. Your message should follow an organized, logical structure and emphasize a few major points. Check to see that your team members understand you clearly and then answer any questions they may have.

   Working meetings are meant to be a conversation not a lecture. Invite everyone around the “table” to offer their thoughts. The best decisions are made when a variety of viewpoints are shared, considered, and constructively debated.

2. Were You Actively Listening Enough?
   Do not tune out or prepare your next statement when others talk. This is your opportunity as a leader to hear and understand what others are thinking. Show that you value their input by respectfully listening and asking open-ended questions to ensure you understand what matters most.
3. Were You Genuinely Concerned Enough?
   Leaders demonstrate their empathy for their team by being polite and respectful. Simply ask how your people are doing and how you can support them. Each team member is an individual; they all have different backgrounds, different life experiences, different talents, different interests, different motivators.  The more you can get to know them personally and what they care about, the more they will be engaged.

The Bottom Line
Like any team, building strong virtual teams is all about building clarity and having strong interpersonal relationships. The best communicators have the best chance of creating a culture where teams, in-person or virtual, can thrive.

To learn more about how to build and maintain virtual relationships, download Leading Virtual Teams Challenges and 3 Winning Communication Strategies

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.