Join The Ken Blanchard Companies for a special complimentary webinar and online chat beginning today at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (12:00 noon Eastern). Senior Consulting Partner Carmela Southers will be speaking on the topic of Leading In A Virtual World. The webinar is free and seats are still available if you would like to join over 500 people expected to participate.
Immediately after the webinar, Carmela will be answering questions here at LeaderChat for about 30 minutes. To participate in the online discussion, follow these simple instructions.
Instructions for Participating in the Online Chat
- Click on the COMMENTS link above
- Type in your question for Carmela
- Push SUBMIT COMMENT
It’s as easy as that! Carmela will answer as many questions as possible in the order they are received. Be sure to press F5 to refresh your screen occasionally to see the latest responses.
We hope you can join us later today for this special complimentary event courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies. Click here for more information on participating.
I would like to listen to the webinar but I don’t see a site or link.
Thank you.
Bill Bryant
I would also like to listen to this webinar….unable to figure out how to do it.
Hi Kathleen–I hope you were able to get in through the hyperlink. If you had trouble with that, please send an email to webinars@kenblanchard.com and I will send you a link to the recording which will be available in about 24 hours.
what to do when collaborators in another city take days, weeks o simply never answer calls or emails?
thanks a lot for the webminar! I really enjoyed it =)
Howard, this is a great question. Prevention is really the best strategy. Having a team charter – where everyone agrees on the purpose and importance of the team and agrees on responses times, resources, roles, etc. is critical. The whole issue of chartering is a separate topic that we talk about in our Teaming Virtually program. You may want to explore that resource a bit.
Where can we find information about the Teaming Virtually program?
Hi Kim,
Here’s the link to information on our web site: Teaming Virtually
thank you!
In a team where the manager and his direct report are in 2 opposite time zones, having weekly 1:1 but did not meet physically for more than 2 years, in that case what kind of issues might arise and how to handle the situation in a smart way?
Part of the challenge of working virtually is that we often don’t know how we are perceived as a leader. Is there a specific issue – you’d like to discuss?
Yes, but how can i do so?
Hi Chandrani, Please send me an email at webinars@kenblanchard.com and I can set up a time for us to discuss.
What new virtual channels and collarboration tools have you discovered to be effective? (Beyond e-mail, phone, IM, Webex.)
Shelley,
Many tools work well. A danger is that we think that a technology tool will solve leadership issues. Even the most primary of tools, phone calls and emails can work well. Shared drives to share information are critical, shared calendars are extremely helpful. Webcams are nice but only if they work… I’ve seen lots of people just get frustrated with high tech solutions.
How do you assess work performance for an annual review in a purely virtual work environment?
So what are the standards for good performance? what are the goals? the goal should be to measure against the goal achievement instead of the activity. It’s always helpful to ask the individual to provide you with data as well. It’s likely as a virtual leader that you are missing some valuable data.
Can you suggest reading materials to help with (virtual) leadership skills? Thanks – great WebEx today!
Hi Kim,
THere are a lot of good resources out there. Send me an email at webinars@kenblanchard.com and I can send you a list.
If you have par of your team working onn graveyard what is the best way to keep them in the loop outside of e-mail.
Gerald, you probably won’t like this answer but you’ll need to flex a bit to their schedule. Even a conference call at the beginning of their shift once a week or so will help build relationships. You might want to do that in addition to your weekly 1 on 1 meetings
In a team where the manager and his direct report are in 2 opposite time zones, having weekly 1:1 but did not meet physically for more than 2 years due to economic downtime, in that case many issues might arise and how to handle the situation in a smart way?
Hi Chandrani–there are a lot of issues that can come up. Please send us an email at webinars@kenblanchard.com so we can address directly.
Thanks everyone for attending the webinar and Leader Chat. I appreciate your time. Good luck!
Due to the nature of my work, flexing my schedule is not always possible. I agree with your statement addressing e-mail because it can be viewed as hostile depending on the individual who receives it. In a lot of ways, I fell I’m stuck in terms of meeting with all of the staff.
Thank you