Here are 5 reasons why every virtual team leader should be playing virtual team building games with their remote global teams:

#1  Playing virtual team games with your team will lift team morale within your virtual team so there is a shared feeling of purpose that motives your team to achieve brilliant results

#2 By watching your team interact as they play the virtual team building game you’ll discover what really goes on behind-the-scenes of your virtual team – are they working together, are they as effective as they could be, is everything really as it seems?

#3 Playing team building games online will help build real trust and reduce virtual team turnover by building strong relationships across your virtual team

#4 By taking the lead in facilitating the team building game you will strengthen your virtual leadership skills so your virtual team really look to you for direction, learn to respect you as their motivator and leader (even though you don’t work from the same office)

#5 As your virtual team play the game, you’ll start to identify communication Break-downs and cultural barriers within your virtual team.  Once you see these issues emerge through the virtual team building game you can start to address them as part of your overall team building strategy.

Here are 5 Virtual Team Building Games/Resources: 

 

Check out these nine symptoms below that may be signs that you’re ready to switch to working virtual online.  It may be the perfect time to ask your boss to work from home.

 

#1 You dread going to work each day and dread having to face your boss and/or co-workers

#2 You’re so sick and tired of traveling to work and back in the stressful traffic every day

#3 Your head is always in your work; you’re stressed and feel you have no work life balance

#4 Trying to stay focused amongst all the office politics is proving impossible

#5 Constant interruptions plague your work day and you never seem to get ahead in your work

#6 You dream of a flexible work schedule where you can work online and change your hours when you need

#7 Exhaustion has you feeling like work is out of control – you’re all work and no play

#8 You long for the “work from home” lifestyle – being able to work where you want (perhaps even travel)

#9 You just want to show up to the office in your pajamas

If you’re showing any of the symptoms outlined above, perhaps it’s a sign that  you need to consider taking your job online and start working remotely or working virtual from home!  Which brings us to the very next important question of  HOW to ask to work from home?

For the answer click here to find out  “How To Ask Your Boss To Work From Home – and Get Them To Say “Yes”

 

If you are leading a virtual team, you’ll need to find some fun virtual team building activities to help your team truly “gel together”.    In your typical office environment people will get to know each other through everyday contact, the office “chit chat” and face-to-face conversations.  Often co-workers will go out together, take a lunch or coffee together and many times office colleagues become great friends.  A lot of team building is done “off the job” so to speak.  But with a virtual team building, it’s different.

The thing is, in a virtual office or virtual team environment achieving that level of togetherness is a challenge.  As a virtual team leader you need to find virtual team building activities and/or virtual team building games to help your virtual team bond together in a way they can connect and get creative with each other.

“Get To Know You”  Virtual Team Building Activity

If you want your virtual team to work successfully, to really perform at their best, you need to facilitate a team building activity that will help them learn and understand each individual working style within the Virtual Team.  For a really dynamic, creative virtual team environment your individual team members need to make a connection and enjoy working together toward a common goal.  Florence Littauer’s bestselling book Personality Plus: How to Understand Others by Understanding Yourself has been helping people connect and understand each other for over 25 years!   As a virtual team leader, you can use her proven methods (she has already sold over one million copies) as a virtual team building activity to help you build stronger relationships within your virtual team.

How to Facilitate the Team Building Activity Continue reading

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When your virtual team meet together are they engaged, excited and taking the initiative to have an active share in the meeting OR are your virtual team meetings dominated by a few strong team members leaving the rest to quietly drift off in the online world?

Keeping your virtual team excited and engaged during your virtual team meetings can be achieved.  With a little thought and planning you can get more out of your virtual team meetings – they can be productive, exciting and can be a great way to build strong virtual team purpose and relationship.

Here are three virtual team meeting tips to incorporate into your overall virtual team building strategy: 

Use Quick Virtual Team Building Exercises to bring the team together

Arrive 10-15 mins before the start of the scheduled virtual team meeting and have some fun virtual team ice-breakers to start the meeting off.  This will help your team feel positive about showing up for the meeting.  Remember your virtual team members may be logging on from different timezones (some times not so conducive to creative thinking) and will need extra incentive to show up for meetings.

John Chen author of 50 Digital Team-Building Games: Fast, Fun Meeting Openers, Group Activities and Adventures using Social Media, Smart Phones, GPS, Tablets, and More recommends an excellent quick and easy virtual team building game called “Where in the World Whiteboarding”.   It’s a brilliant virtual ice-breaker game for virtual teams – especially global teams that are logging on from different parts of the world.
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Here are six easy to facilitate virtual team building activities for work:

 

#1 Virtual Team Project Initiation Meeting

This virtual team building activity should be top of your list.   Too many virtual team members are showing up for work online without the proper training and preparedness for working as part of a virtual team.  Each virtual team member working from a remote location needs to be aware of the challenges they will face and the special advantages and requirements of working on a virtual team project.

Part of the virtual team building activity should include virtual team ice-breakers to help team members get to know each other, discussions over possible challenges the project will face as a virtual team and solutions to overcome them.   Virtual teams need to clarify the “virtual team” ground rules and be fully aware of the project responsibility structure and virtual collaboration tools available to them.  Yamma is one collaboration tool gaining popularity within Virtual Teams.

#2 Regular Virtual “face-to-face” Online Team Meetings

Whenever possible, a real-life, face-to-face direct meeting between virtual team members is the BEST virtual team building activity you can initiate.  However, just because your virtual team members are remotely located around the world DOES NOT mean you cannot meet face-to-face on a regular basis.  Face-to-face virtual team meetings can be facilitated through video conferencing.  Platforms like Skype (free) and Go-To-Meeting will deliver a face-to-face experience without you needing to be in the same room as your team members.

#3 Ice-Breaker Activities for Virtual Teams

Add some fun into your virtual team meetings by starting out with some ice-breaker activities.   As a fun virtual ice-breaker team building activity  you can ask each team member to take “the office character” quiz.   The team can discuss the results together online and talk about why they think the quiz results were accurate/not accurate.  For more ice-breaker team building activities check out this article here:  http://virtualteamintelligence.com/virtual-team-building-activities/virtual-team-ice-breaker-games/

#4 Take Coffee Breaks with Your Virtual Team “Virtually”

Set aside time to have coffee with your virtual team members.  The activity can be done as a collective virtual group OR you can have personalized, individual “coffee breaks” with the members of your virtual team.

If you want to really get your team members excited and supporting this virtual team building activity, you can order Starbucks vouchers for them here – http://www.voucherexpress.co.uk/verse/starbucks/

#5 Incorporate Regular Virtual Team Building Exercises into your overall Project Plan

Conducting regular virtual team building exercises can help build stronger relationships within your team.   Providing the virtual team opportunity to have fun and get to know each other will improve the virtual team performance and dynamics.  Get ideas on the best team building exercises here:  http://virtualteamintelligence.com/virtual-team-building-activities/ultimate-remote-team-building-activities/

#6 Remember to celebrate your Virtual Team project success and thank your Virtual Team for a job well done

Here’s the easiest and quickest way we’ve found to reward your virtual team for a job well done.

These are just six easy virtual team building activities for work that are very simple to implement.  Take the time to discuss these team building activities with your Virtual Team.  Get your virtual team excited about WHY you want to implement these virtual team activities and ask them to add their own ideas into to the team building plan.

Happy Virtual Team Building!

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the increasing rate of globalization, a demand for a more efficient workforce and with the introduction of online collaboration platforms we have seen an increase in the development of virtual teams across the globe.   Many questions are being raised about Virtual Team Building and how to get the best out of virtual teams.  One question that arises is how virtual team leaders can overcome the unique challenges facing Virtual Teams.

Though the introduction of virtual teams presents many benefits and opportunities, as a virtual team leader you’ll need to be aware of and address the challenges you will face.   Some of the challenges facing virtual or global team leaders include:

Lack of feeling of connectedness within the Virtual Team.

Without regular interaction, individual virtual team members can feel isolated and unsupported.  This leads to high virtual team member turnover and ultimately high expense to the global company.  Virtual team building activities need to be introduced into the team.   Just as team building activities are important in traditional working environments, even more so they need to be a regular part of your virtual team building strategy.

Virtual Team Communication breakdown. 

Without the opportunity for face-to-face meetings, it is difficult to develop personal, one-on-one relationships with individual team members.  In addition to this, if the right tools and resources are not made available to the virtual team, then communication breakdowns can cause entire projects to perform poorly.   It’s imperative the virtual team is provided with the necessary tools and resources (specifically designed to support virtual global teams).

Lack of customized Training to prepare people for working in a virtual team environment. 

Just because you have a bunch of employees working together online across the globe, does not mean they are functioning as an effective virtual team.   Just as there is a unique working environment and unique challenges facing a virtual team, specific training needs to be introduced to the virtual team to ensure they truly are effective and functioning as a high performance team.

For more Virtual Team Building Tips >>>  VIRTUAL Team Success – A Practical Guide for Working and Leading at a Distance.

 

 

Why Gift-Giving Should Form Part of Your Overall Virtual Team Building Strategy

When you’re leading a remote virtual team, building your team and bringing them together with a feeling of connectedness and purpose requires thought and creativity.  Finding unique and original virtual team building activities can be a challenge for the Virtual Team leader.   Helping each individual team member working remotely feel part of a unified group can also present challenges.  It’s easy for virtual team members to feel forgotten, alone and unappreciated if they are not reminded they are a valuable member of an overall virtual team (if you don’t believe me, then just ask them).   This can lead to very high staff turnover in virtual teams so this challenge definitely needs to be addressed as part of your overall plan for virtual team building activities.

One way to help each individual remote team member feel part of the virtual team is to continue to reward and recognize your  virtual team members by sending them a gift.  Though they may not meet with you regularly face-to-face, you can help them feel like you are with them each step of the way by sending thoughtful reminders and gifts.

It doesn’t take a lot of time or expense but you will reap the rewards if you implement a reward and recognition strategy into your overall virtual team building activities.  Sending each of your team members a simple thank you gift or a gift on special occasions is a way they can feel part of your virtual team.

As a virtual team leader this should be important to you.   It’s also important to make the process of purchasing and sending the gift virtually as pain-free as possible.  If it isn’t, you’ll end up putting it in your “too hard” basket and forgetting about rewarding your virtual team altogether >> with disastrous consequences.

So, if rewarding your team is an important part of your virtual team building planning, then …

What is the The Quickest and Easiest Gift Solution for Global Teams >>>

• A gift that can be used across the globe, no matter where the virtual team member is located
• A gift that gives each individual virtual team member the opportunity to use their voucher to purchase items THEY want
• A gift that that can be delivered online
• A gift that can be arranged quickly and easily online
• A gift that represents a trusted brand that speaks quality and choice
• A gift that can be personalized to each individual remote team member
• A gift that reflects the occasion and overall virtual team culture
• A gift that can meet the needs of your virtual team building reward and recognition strategy budget

The gift idea that ticks all the above 8 requirements is the Amazon.com Gift Cards – E-mail Delivery OR Amazon.com Gift Cards – Facebook Delivery.

We especially love the personalized video feature.    It’s quick and easy to access and simple in online delivery.

Click below to check out some of the humorous themes that can be adapted for virtual teams including: Elf Office Party, Farting Office Birthday Party, Crazy Congrats Song.  They’ll have you and your virtual team laughing and having fun!

For more virtual team building activities click here to enjoy reading our article “Ultimate Remote Team Building Activities”

When selecting remote team building activities or virtual team building activities for your virtual team, what are the key elements of the game or activity you need to consider?

First of all you need to determine what kind of remote team building activity you want to deliver.  If it’s a simple “water cooler”, quick catch up game, you’ll be more interested in reading this article  about Virtual Team Building Games … http://virtualteamintelligence.com/virtual-team-building-activities/big-book-of-virtual-team-building-games/.

However, if you’re looking for REAL virtual remote team building activities that deliver real results to your virtual team – here are 3 important considerations…

1  The remote team building activity needs to mirror your virtual workplace.

If your remote team is global, then the team building activity needs to be facilitated online so that all members of your team can participate.  If you have 20 remote team members all working virtual – then your remote team building activity needs to reflect that working arrangement.  If your team works virtually, then the remote team building activity should be delivered virtually.

2  Remote team building activities need to reflect your own unique virtual working environment

When analyzing what remote team building activities would be suitable for your virtual team, you need to ensure that the same virtual working environment is used to facilitate the activity.  That means the same tools and resources your virtual team uses to work as a team should be employed throughout the game.   That way you can measure how your virtual team performs in regard to your key team performance indicators.  Things you’ll need to consider …

• The number of people that will participate in the remote team building activity
• Working Time zones of remote team workers
• The Language abilities and language barriers faced by your remote team
• The kind of communication tools your remote team uses to communicate
• The technology accessible by your remote team workers
• How much time you’d like to spend delivering the remote team building activities

3. REAL remote team building activities should address the core team skills you want to develop within your team.

• Virtual team leadership skills
• Organization skills within a virtual environment
• Remote team communication skills
• Problem Solving and Decision making

As a virtual team leader you can search for hours looking at various remote team building activities or new and original team building activities.   Many of them lacking in at least one of the 3 areas outlined above.  You want to find a remote team building activity that delivers REAL virtual team building results?

Looking for a remote team building activity for your virtual team?  Check out this brilliant resource to find the virtual team building activity game that suits your team >>>

For more virtual team building activities you can do with your remote team click here to read our article 3 New Quick, Easy and Fun Virtual Team Building Activities

Before you send an email to your boss about working from home ask yourself …

Do I want to work from home for this one off occasion or is working from home something I want to do long-term?

The way you answer that question will greatly impact the way you ask for work from home and the words you use.   The way you ask the question and the words you use will, in turn greatly impact the outcome of whether you actually do get to work from home not!

 

The idea of working virtual is slowly becoming more easily accepted in the workplace.  However, there are still many business managers that can be close minded about the idea.   That’s why you need to ask the right way to get your manager to say “yes” to your work-

from-home proposal.

Work From Home Short-Term Request

If you plan to work from home for a one-off occasion or short-term you’ll need to consider the following factors in your

email >>>

• The reason why you want to work from home
• How long you plan to work from home
• How you address the request.  Consider the seniority of your role within the business and your relationshipwith your manager or the person you’re asking for work from home.
• The communication style of your manager – eg.  Would a face-to-face request or phone-call be more appreciated
• How you working remotely from home (even for a short period) will impact the rest of the team
• What arrangements you’ve made to ensure your work quality and productivity isn’t affected negatively

Work From Home Long-Term Request

If your ultimate goal is to join the ranks of global virtual workers on a long-term basis, then there are more factors to consider before you just go and send an email.   Here are 10 steps to consider before you ask for work from home…

Get Them Here.    http://virtualteamintelligence.com/how-do-i-ask-my-boss-for-work-from-home/how-to-ask-your-boss-to-work-from-home-and-how-to-get-them-to-agree/

If you want our fail safe system to taking you through every step of the process. Click on the button below to get the details: