CEO to CEO: Navigating virtual leadership in a global workplace

As a South African CEO navigating these difficult times, I wanted to reach out to other CEOs and share personal insights around this issue in the hope it might resonate and open up dialogue around the challenges we're all currently facing. 

Navigating virtual leadership in a global workplace

The worldwide pandemic lockdowns of 2020/21 delivered to many multinational businesses a scenario that had likely escaped their business continuity plans: how to get entire workforces operating from home while still connected to office networks, to their colleagues and to the company leaders within days, if not hours..

It was a feat that ultimately, most businesses managed. Aside from the challenges of the home environment, employees quickly adapted to working outside the office, especially those firms that had already begun embracing remote working..

As the lockdowns lifted and businesses returned to 'normal', organisations opted to either maintain a remote team or enforce a hybrid work-home model. Some companies have retained this approach as it works for them, while others have since recalled all staff to the office, reinstating the more traditional, homogenous workforce..

This journey was an important one. It allowed us to take away key learnings for the future (as I'm sure this was not an isolated scenario), and to augment our skills as leaders governing in an increasingly geographically diverse yet connected global workplace, where core skills do not always share the same office..

One observation I made during this period was that although operations could still continue remotely, the virtual team risked becoming a disconnected team, as the personal interactions that previously bound the team were suddenly missing. That included my own interactions with my team as a usually highly visible, hands-on leader..

Retain your open door policy
The only way to manage this was to become an excellent communicator. When working with teams across cultures and sometimes even time zones as we do at RSIS, effective communication becomes the glue that binds the team. .

Keeping channels open, encouraging discussion and remaining accessible - as you would were you in the office - are all imperative to keeping a remote team connected. 

Video conferencing was incredibly popular during lockdown for good reason. It facilitates direct engagement, where collaboration is possible and feedback is instant. It also better supports the 'emotional' side of working in a team; colleagues can see and hear each others' reactions. There is no possibility of staff reading emails with unintended tone, which can easily happen when there are no supporting personal interactions to indicate otherwise. .

Video remains the most effective way to maintain a sustainable virtual office environment and foster open communication between team members..

Strengthen your team
Equally important is building the inherent strength of the team. Weekly team meetings are critical to eliminating feelings of isolation within team members. Transparency in these engagements is vital, as it helps to build further trust among the team. .

Formalised teambuilding events take this idea a step further, entrenching your company culture and deepening relationships between employees who have to frequently deal with each other, but who have had limited (if any) personal interaction. .

I saw this first-hand when, after months of lockdown, I was able to travel abroad to meet with clients again. The video meetings had been necessary, but they couldn't replace the connection I felt when personally engaging clients. This is true for working teams too - never underestimate the power of personal interaction, no matter how infrequent it may be..

Build emotional intelligent employees
Running parallel to open communication and team-strengthening efforts is the continual development of the emotional intelligence of your workforce. We as leaders need to set the bar for this still-developing workplace ethos, and lead by example..

Rational decision making will always have its place, but when working in a virtual office, decisions made with awareness of the emotional impact on other team members is crucial. This mindfulness of colleagues' emotions and needs enables staff to make better informed decisions. A team that can strike a balance between reason and empathy is an empowered team..

By all accounts, the virtual workplace is here to stay, whether entirely remote or via the hybrid model or as necessitated by a global workforce. Whichever way, guiding our teams through this new terrain requires much savvy on our part as their leaders. We need to constantly remain vigilant of changes in the team dynamic, and work to understand the reasons behind this - and mitigate them - as we keep our teams together, all striving for the same goal..