In a recent issue of T+D magazine (February 2013), an article recapped research on what critical leadership skills were required to effectively lead a virtual workforce. Here are some of the highlights:

• Establish and meet metrics for work projects and goals

• Be extremely clear with goals and directions with a constant focus on the big picture

• Work with a high degree of complexity

• Promote organizational commitment

The article goes on to talk about the importance of effective communication, increasing feelings of connectedness, ensuring clear working protocols, and remaining focused on goals. In other words, virtual leadership is whole leadership.

By whole leadership I am describing an approach to leadership by which we develop all four energy patterns, as assessed by the FEBI coaching tool, so that we learn to use each when appropriate. Although we have preferences for which pattern we naturally use most often—the “home pattern”—we also have access to all four, and the ability to strengthen any of these patterns enough so we can use each when we need it.

Working with top companies from across the globe, I’ve find that the most successful leaders are those who can use any of the four patterns and access the right one at the right time. They are self-aware of their natural pattern preferences, they know how to win on those strengths, and they develop weaker patterns to ensure they are effective when the situation calls for something different from their home pattern response. Although partial or short-term success is possible by developing and focusing only on one's natural style, each pattern is indispensable in the long run. Leaders need the

• Driver’s focus, ensuring they clear barriers, motivate their people, and reach goals

• Organizer’s stability, ensuring quality by building process, defining roles and responsibilities, and maintaining conscientiousness in everything they do

• Collaborator’s engagement, ensuring effective problem solving by seeing multiple perspectives, meeting people at an emotional level, and being fully engaged while engaging others

• Visionary’s expansiveness, allowing them to embrace the chaos, expand their world to all that is possible, and be more effective at strategic planning for the future.

Could you imagine a leader lacking any of these qualities?

Leading virtual teams and organizations is much like leading their face-to-face counterparts, except more difficult, and so requires more focused effort for success. I completed my dissertation research on virtual team effectiveness. I studied real teams in real companies, all with real challenges. Virtual teams struggle more with building trust and maintaining full engagement. Their members make more cognitive errors (for example, false assumptions), and share less information among themselves. These challenges result in less effectiveness when attention isn’t given to overcoming them.

One reason for this added struggle is that virtual teams communicate in less feedback-rich ways, such as phone and email. When the receiver has less information from the communication mode (think facial expression and tone of voice), he tends to “fill in the blanks” on his own. Personality is the lens through which we filter this information, which can get us into trouble when our filter unknowingly is distorted. Suddenly a short email response or an unanswered phone call makes us frustrated as we conclude that our co-worker is disengaged and unmotivated. In virtual communication we are more at risk of drawing a false conclusion because we tend to have less information in the communication mode. My research showed that when people simply become self-aware of their own filters (that is, their personality or home pattern), these errors are reduced, and ultimately team effectiveness increases. I have found that even one session of FEBI coaching led to a significant increase in virtual team effectiveness.

As development practitioners, it is our job to help our clients to get the most out of themselves, giving them the best chance at success. This means helping them to become self-aware of their own filters, which they are using to fill in all of the missing information (blanks) that accompanies virtual communication. It also means helping them to develop their whole selves and become whole leaders.

As the list at the beginning of this article illustrates, whole leadership is equally as important for virtual leaders. Virtual leadership requires the Organizer to establish and meet metrics for work projects and goals and ensure clear working protocols; the Driver to be extremely clear with roles, responsibilities, goals, and directions; the Visionary to work with a high degree of complexity and maintain a constant focus on the big picture; and the Collaborator to promote organizational commitment, knowledge sharing, and overall teamwork. In the virtual work space, leaders must ensure their own agility in managing all of the elements that are imperative to the success of their teams. You see, virtual leadership is whole leadership!

If you are interested in learning more about how FEBI develops teams, join us on June 8 for a free webinar.