Cost cutting and doing more with less is in the air. Rarely does a day go by when you don’t face pressures yourself to do more with less or hear something similar from others. At the beginning of the week, WSJ had two articles on how businesses are trying to improve productivity or manage with less (Stores count seconds to trim labor costs, Restaurant chains look for creative ways to cut costs).

Are virtual team leaders immune from such pressures? I doubt it. Are there some “not so difficult” things that a virtual team leader can do to significantly improve the productivity of her/his team? I put this question to our Leading Virtually Team and here are three things that we came up with:

1. Clarify expectations. If you have not done this or if there is ambiguity about what is expected from the team and its members, now might be a good time to clarify the following:
   • Team goals – present these in the form of clear, measurable targets that the group has to achieve.
   • The roles of team members and how those roles are related to team goals. Make sure you include social roles too (see description of different types of roles).
   • A time line indicating the work that has to be done, when it has to be done by, who is responsible for it, and what media will be used to accomplish/deliver the work.

   Call a meeting to clarify expectations. Give team members the opportunity to give their input (for example, when indicating the social roles they would like to play). Document these expectations and post them in a shared online space. If possible, post them on a wiki so that changes can be made in response to changes in the team’s environment. Team members can turn to these expectations at any time to remove any uncertainty about the team and their work on the team.

2. Use a meeting agenda. Make sure you create and distribute the agenda for each team meeting. Get input for agenda items from others. Look at your last meeting to see if there are any pending items to discuss. Ideally, you should be including the talking points of all the presenters in a PowerPoint presentation that is shared with all (via a shared online space) before the meeting. This presentation can then be used to structure the meeting either via desktop conferencing tool such as WebEx or by asking everyone to open up the presentation on their computer and prompting them about where you are in the presentation. We encourage you to include a quick After Action Review (AAR) at the end of  your meeting. A quick AAR would ask the team to answer the following questions: what went well? what can we do better next time? AARs are very useful for helping a team learn from its experiences and improve. Also include time for “Other items” that are not on the agenda. This allows you to build some slack time for spontaneity and social chit chat (more on this below).  Meeting agendas make the meetings and the team more productive by creating a structure for the meeting and by reminding team members about the work they need to accomplish before the meeting.
3. Promote prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is oriented towards improving social relationships. It includes social chit-chat, learning about others, and helping others accomplish their tasks (e.g., when others are busy with a competing project). If you are starting a virtual team project, we recommend the use of an ice-breaker exercise to build relationships (see an example ice-breaker to help team members learn about each other). Build some slack in the agenda and use the extra time for social chit-chat (without announcing it a priori). Encourage team members to set up blogs to share tidbits about their life (e.g., the movies they saw, the activities they engaged in, what their children are up to). As I indicated in a past post, such blogs can be very useful for building social relationships. Prosocial behaviors build team cohesion and improve productivity. Due to pressures from competing projects, not all team members will be able to contribute to their fullest all the time. In the presence of good relationships within the team, those who are facing less pressure are likely to jump in to help.

What is your reaction to this list? What would be on your list of quick tips if you were to create one? Share your reactions and/or your list with the Leading Virtually team and our readers. All of us will benefit from your sharing.