Laura’s Winning Ideas

I recently led a workshop on Virtual Management skills. The group was surprised to find out how many folks are managing virtually. I used myself as an example. My assistant is in Texas, I’m in Wisconsin, and I regularly work with my webmaster in the Philippines.

Daniel Goleman wrote an article for the New York Times on October 7, 2007 entitled E-mail is Easy to Write (and to Misread).

In both my workshop and in Goleman’s article, the point was made that some folks can detect more emotion in e-mail than others. This gives them an advantage in virtual communication.

In the past we have encouraged development of the ability to emote and communicate with others in person. Extroverts have an advantage over introverts here.

In the future, we will encourage development of the ability to emote and communicate with others virtually. Introverts have an advantage over extroverts here.

Very few people lack the ability to improve skills in an area they may have neglected in favor of other skills. Paying extra attention to our written communication skills may improve our abilities in virtual management. The endeavor is a worthwhile investment as the world rewards those managers flexible enough to succeed while working together apart.

How to improve in this area is not my expertise. However, I can tell you that I personally focus more on reading and writing than I might have otherwise. More important is changing the way I hire. I make a point of keeping a certain amount of our communication on-line.

As a manager, I made a bad hire when exposed to someone exclusively through their resume and in-person interviews. Their ability to work virtually was exceptionally limited. This meant I had to keep them off large projects because all our large projects required a good facility in virtual communication. After that, I learned to spend time communicating on-line before extending an interview. It gave me valuable information about their virtual abilities.