This post provides all the information you need for Part 2: How we work and onboard new colleagues (originally released 28 April ’23). Each part includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Listen to the course podcast
This course is podcast based and you can take part by simply listening each week as a new topic is released.
This week’s episode:
S02E13 – How to Lead Virtual Teams: Part 2 – How we work and onboard new colleagues
In this second course podcast (40 min), we discuss definitions of different ways of working and why it matters to be clear when it comes to the language we use when we talk about how we work. We will also explore how this relates to recruiting staff and onboarding new colleagues. For this topic, we’ll be referring on Chapter 1 of Leading Virtual Teams.
Reflect on this topic
Effectively reflecting on your practice is a key skill for leading virtual teams. For this topic, use these definitions of different Modes of Working to reflect on your practice. You can either join in the reflection as you listen to the podcast episode, which includes a dedicated section on this, or you can return to this once you have listened to the episode:
- What term(s) best describe your mode of working?
- How would you describe it to someone else?
- To what degree do the policies in your organisation reflect this practice?
- What may new colleagues not easily understand about the way you work? What else?
- What might be difficult for new colleagues to get used to? Why?
“So what?” The purpose of the reflection is three-fold: first and foremost, it helps you develop your reflective skills. Try to notice how easy or difficult you find it to reflect in particular questions. Secondly, the prompts are designed to help you identify blind spots and open up new ways to think about the way you work. Thirdly, you can use these prompts to identify areas for action or making a change to the way you work.
Explore tools and resources
Here are some further tools and resources to explore if you’d like to take a deeper dive:
- Explore Modes of Working from Leading Virtual Teams
- Kropp, B. and McRae, E. 11 Trends that Will Shape Work in 2022 and Beyond
- Noelle, D. What Colocated Teams Can Learn From Remote Teams
- Ringel, R. When Do We Actually Need to Meet in Person?
Say hello #lvt23
If you’d like to connect with me and other participants during the course, use the hashtag #lvt23 on Mastodon, Instagram and Twitter. I’ll be posting a few times each week during the course, and I’d love to hear from you.
Catching up?
If you are just getting started with How to Lead Virtual Teams or catching up with topics you have missed, you can find all the information you need to get started on the catch up page.