Mind Tools Newsletter 52 - 11th July 2006

Time for a Break? This newsletter is published by Mind Tools Ltd of 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY, UK. You have received it because you have subscribed to our double opt-in newsletter. To subscribe or unsubscribe, just click the links at the bottom of this email.

Contents: What's New Make Time for a Break Mind Tools Store Virtual Team Working A Final Note

In many places around the world, July and August is the traditional time to take a well-earned break or vacation. Time to relax, time with family and friends, time to do something other than work.

But sometimes finding the time is the one big problem. With too much to do before you go, and even more when you return, how can you make sure you enjoy this rather than get overburdened?

To help answer this question, our first article this week has some tips on planning and surviving time away from the office.

On a slightly different note, our second article is one for people who spend (or plan to spend) even more time out of the office! More working from home and more global organizations mean that more and more of us work in "virtual" rather than traditional teams - in fact, this is the way we work at MindTools.com. Virtual teams work together just as traditional teams do, but without being co-located in the same office. Our article explores what this means for effective team work and good communications.

As well as the articles in the newsletter, we have four more new articles in the 'what's new' section at Mind Tools. Be sure to check these out once you have read today's edition. There's advice on communicating in a crisis, how to take better notes in meetings and on how to adapt your learning style. And much much more.

Enjoy the read!

James & Kellie

James Manktelow and Rachel Thompson
MindTools.com
Mind Tools – Essential skills for an excellent career!

To find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded, click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS.

• 7th Jul 2006 - Communicating in a Crisis - Don't shut down communication
• 5th Jul 2006 - Learning Styles - Learning effectively by understanding your learning preferences
• 30th Jun 2006 - The Cornell Note Taking Approach - An effective and efficient approach to note-taking
• 27th Jun 2006 - The RACI Matrix - Structuring accountabilities for the maximum efficiency and results
• 23rd Jun 2006 - Working in Virtual Teams - Teamworking that overcomes time and space

Find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded! Click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS.

Make Time for a Break
By Rachel Thompson

Picture this: You are on vacation. Relaxing on the beach. Or on the golf course. Or walking in the hills. Or doing whatever you like to do to relax.

Then your mobile phone rings. It's the office. Your peace is shattered. And you are transported back to world of work, problems to solve and urgent things to do.

Maybe your phone doesn't ring. And still, your thoughts wander back to the office too often. Why haven't they called? Did you remember to leave this file or that? Each time these questions flood your mind, the vacation magic is broken, at least momentarily.

So next time you take a vacation, what will it take for you to turn off your mobile phone, figuratively as well as literally?

The secret to a relaxing vacation is in the planning and preparation. Just as you need to plan and prepare for the vacation itself, so you need to plan and prepare for your time away from the office. and your return. Here are some tips to help you do that:

Get on top of your to do list:
Ahead of your vacation, make sure your to do list is well under control. Include on it every single thing that needs to be done before you go. Plan especially carefully for the things that are due whilst you are away and immediately after you return.

Delegate diligently:
If you need other people to do things for you whilst you are away, remember it takes time to explain these to them and prepare things they may need from you. Plan time so you can do this thoroughly. The more you prepare others for the time you are away, the less your mobile phone will ring!

Schedule contingency time for a smooth exit:
Have you ever been in the office until late the night before a vacation, desperately trying to finish some papers? Or maybe you have made one last phone call on the way to the airport to make sure your clients can survive your absence?

When this happens, it’s really difficult to switch off that mobile phone!

Many of us are born optimists, with the unfortunate consequence that everything takes longer than we expect. And that includes getting ready to leave the office. The only solution is to plan some contingency time for the few days before you depart. Plan to complete everything before the contingency time begins. Who knows: With great planning and preparation, you could even start the vacation a little earlier – or at least start to relax!

Manage other people’s expectations:
Tell everyone who needs to know ahead of time when you will be away and when you will return. It’s obvious but so often overlooked. Make sure they know exactly who is dealing with things in your absence or if anything they expect from you will be delayed.

Some people, perhaps your boss, may have unrealistic expectations that your vacation should have no impact whatsoever. Maybe he or she expects you to have the mobile phone on all the time… Or worse, to take work away with you. His or her view will not change overnight, so preparation and persuasion ahead of time will be required!

(And if he or she is not persuaded by your great planning and preparation, the last resort is to vacation somewhere remote and communication free...)

Do as you would be done by:
Other people’s vacations? Who needs them! It’s more work for everyone else. And everyone gets envious and desperate to take their own break. Right?

Well it needn’t be that way. If you help other people, they’ll more likely help you when it’s time for your vacation.

And people need time to refresh! So the office is usually nicer (and more productive) place to work when people get the chance to take regular breaks. So why not enjoy other people’s breaks as well as your own?

Let go a little:
Does part of you actually want the office to phone whilst you’re away? After all, how could they possibly manage without you for a whole week?

Sometimes it takes a little bit of mental preparation to truly wish yourself a phone-call-free vacation! Start by telling yourself:

“When I am away, everything will go smoothly because of my great planning, preparation and delegation. The less I am missed, the more successful I will have been in this!”

Plan your time for a smooth return:
What awaits you on your return? An overflowing inbox? Back to back meetings with clients? No time to catch up with colleagues?

Just as you need good scheduling and contingency time before you go away, so you need this on your return. Make sure you leave space in your schedule to deal with urgent and unexpected matters, to clear down your inbox and to catch up with what’s been happening whilst you were away. All of this takes time. And you will feel refreshed for a little longer if you prepare for your smooth return!

So what do you think? Do you have time for your well-deserved break or vacation a break or vacation? You will have if you get started on that preparation and planning.

Taking time away from work is really important, and the better you prepare and plan, the more smoothly it will go, and a more enjoyable time will be had by all!

Time management is of course a valuable skill all year around, not just at vacation time. You can learn more of the skills previewed here in Mind Tools time management program: Make Time for Success!

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The Mind Tools Store:

• Design Your Life Design the life you want to live. Set the clear, vivid, powerful goals you need to live it to the full. More >>
  
  
• Make Time for Success: Learn 39 essential personal effectiveness techniques that help you bring your workload under control and maximize your productivity, so that you can make the most of the opportunities open to you. More >>
  
  
• The Mind Tools E-book: All of the tools on the Mind Tools website in one convenient, easily-downloadable, easily-printable PDF file. We have excluded advertising to enhance clarity and have formatted sections to be easy to read, print and use. More >>
  
  
• How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You: Learn the 48 simple but essential skills you need to become a top leader in your industry. More >>
  
  
• Personal Coaching from Career Excellence Professionals: Find career and life direction, bring your job under control, build self-confidence and put yourself on the path to long term success with a Mind Tools coach. Our coaches give you the focused personal coaching you need to make the very most of your career and life. More >>

Working In Virtual Teams

 

Team Working That Overcomes Time & Space

More and more companies are going global. And more professionals are working from home. Because of this, businesses are increasingly relying on virtual teams to get their jobs or projects done.

Like any conventional team, a virtual team consists of a group of people who interact to complete interdependent tasks and work towards a common goal. But instead of working in the same office, the team members work in different places, often at home, and in different time zones. And they may never meet their co-workers face-to-face.

Virtual team working has become possible because of advancements in communication technologies. Members of the virtual team mainly interact electronically by email, messaging and Voice over IP technologies like Skype.

They may also communicate by telephone, teleconference and, to a lesser extent, through video conferencing.

Why Create or Work in Virtual Teams?

Virtual teams often evolve rather than get planned that way. Whether you consciously decide to set up a virtual team or your virtual team has evolved, it’s likely to be for one or more of the following reasons:

• The choice of best skills irrespective of your business’s physical location;
  
• 24 hour coverage by team members working across time zones;
  
• Reduced office overheads when team members work from home; and
  
• Cost effective and flexible resource scheduling: You can scale up or down as demand requires.

As a member of a virtual team, you can benefit from greater flexibility and freedom from many of the constraints of office working. Among the benefits you may find are:

• Being valued for your skills irrespective of your physical location;
  
• Not having to face the waste of time, discomfort and cost of commuting;
  
• Working from any place you choose;
  
• Working at times that suit you; and
  
• Physical disabilities are no hindrance.

Building Virtual Teams

When you set up a virtual team, the world is your oyster! You can recruit people with the right skills, irrespective of their geographic location. You can get your team working 24 hours a day with team members across different time zones. You can easily bring in people who work on a part time basis, and easily integrate experts who need only contribute for a few hours each month.

On the one side, this means enormous flexibility; On the flip side, you face the challenge of managing people you may never meet, and dealing with people from widely different cultures, languages, and with different personalities.

You and your team members will face many challenges. Issues and difference can arise because of team members’ different cultures and backgrounds. Each person has different expectations, different experience and different working styles. The team must work hard to ensure each person can contribute effectively and to ensure the team pulls together towards the common goal.

The Importance of Effortless Communication

The single biggest challenge that virtual teams face is communication. Without the usual face-to-face daily exchanges between team members, you and your team members must make extra effort to communicate effectively. There are no chats by the water cooler! And it’s not so easy to socialize outside office hours. So you need to make up for the loss of informal communications, make good use of communication technology, and communicate, communicate, communicate.

Among the communications channels that you may consider using are:

• Intranet team notice board, constantly updated with team news;
  
• Intranet team room, where people can share photos and get to know each other;
  
• Regular team newsletter;
  
• Team meetings by teleconferences; or
  
• Occasional face-to-face meetings.

Above all, though, your communications infrastructure must work smoothly, and people must be happy using it without being hampered by inconvenience and with little thought for cost.

This sounds challenging and expensive, but fortunately it's not. Internet technology has matured to a stage where email is reliable and dependable. And (we'll mention it again!) technologies like Skype mean that you can communicate globally for free - this makes it almost as easy and cheap to talk to someone thousands of miles away as it is to talk to someone on the other side of your office.

Picking the Right People

Recruiting and managing virtual teams is another challenge. It is not a given fact that a good team member in the conventional sense will perform equally well in a virtual environment. Your team members must be self-motivated, results-oriented and able to work independently. And of course, each team member must also be able to communicate effectively with the team lead and his or her team colleagues.

To manage a virtual team effectively, you must learn the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. And that’s all the harder without daily, face-to-face opportunities to casually monitor and mentor each person.

Working remotely, you must give each team member the guidance and support they need and also build trust in each person abilities and reliability. It’s important to create the virtual equivalent of an “open door policy”. Make sure team members know how to get what they need from you and encourage open and frequent communications.

Aligning Incentives for Success

Another management challenge is monitoring performance and aligning incentives. If this is important for successful management in a normal environment, it is absolutely fundamental to success with virtual teams.

You must choose whether to reward people for what they deliver or for set hours each day. Aligning incentives well can make management and monitoring much easier. Whilst a service support executive may be paid for set hours to ensure reliable response to urgent support calls, a sales agent could be paid for each customer call or sale that he or she makes. A journalist, meanwhile, may be rewarded for each article or for the number of good quality words he or she delivers.

In virtual teams, team building must be a very conscious process and effort. Stripped of the natural benefits of team socialization and trust building, the manager of a virtual team must provide the means and opportunities for team building that compensate. Without the benefits of informal communication and casual chat, he or she must actively and regularly communicate direction, ensure that team members know what they need to know, and that make sure that team members feel supported and appreciated.

More than this, team members working virtually should feel that they have the same opportunities for appreciation and promotion as those "at head office." Managers must constantly work to avoid the very human tendency to give preference to people they can see and whose hands they can shake.

When managed effectively, your business and your team members will be able to enjoy the successes and benefits of working in a virtual team. Done properly, there can be huge advantages to virtual team work!

Keys to Successful Virtual Team Working

• Choose people who are self-motivated, self-reliant and results-oriented
  
• Communicate, communicate, communicate
  
• Ensure that your communications infrastructure is robust, and that people can communicate in a way that seems effortless
  
• Make sure incentives are aligned with the outcome and deliverables you need from the team
  
• Give clear directions, objectives and context
  
• Monitor and give feedback often
  
• Recognize a job well done and share success stories among the team
  
• Build trust among the team members
  
• Help team members get to know each other and understand different cultures and backgrounds of other people
  
• Then communicate, communicate, and communicate some more!

 

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A Final Note From James

Whether you are preparing for a summer break or just a rare weekend of relaxation, there’s plenty of sound advice and tips this week, here in our newsletters and at the Mind Tools site.

Whatever your plans for the coming weeks, make the most of it with so good time planning and preparation! You deserve it and any extra effort upfront is always worth it.

As some of the Mind Tools team members take their (well planned!) breaks, others continue working on an exciting new schedule of articles and reviews. So now’s the time to let us know what you want from Mind Tools and what you think. Let us know by clicking here.

Next issue, we have more new tools and a feature on positive thinking. Until then, have a great two weeks!

James

James Manktelow

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Mind Tools
Essential Skills for an Excellent Career!

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