Nurturing relationships are the most important primary foundation for both intellectual and social growth. Relationships are known to foster warmth, pleasure, physical safety, protection from illness and injuries, and supply basic needs for nutrition and housing at the most basic level. People who nurture great relationships feel good about who they are and always look for the positives in their world. They also wish the best for others and sincerely want to see them succeed. With most offices interfacing virtually these days, it may seem more difficult but let us see how one can nurture positive relationships with your virtual team.
Do more video calls
One of the hindrances to working remotely is the fact that you may not get to see your colleagues physically for some months. Meetings are usually online but the aim of building positive relationships with your team virtually would be better achieved if you did most of your online meetings with your cameras active. This is about bringing your whole self to the meeting which will include your face. It leaves a better lasting memory than just voice calls.
Create a social space
The occasional fun things that happen in the office are part of what builds relationships. Things like the chit chats before general meetings or training, banter over tea breaks, or even grabbing lunch together all go away when office work becomes remote. The biggest mistake we make when on remote working is thinking that rapport-building will exist naturally. Creating your own social space will help avoid killing this off. You could do occasional video calls to your colleagues with whom you want to nurture positive relationships just for chats and laughs. The experience is one that lingers on continuously especially if this is done regularly.
Take some professional courses to help manage your team virtually
When you are leading a team for a group project virtually, one of the important aspects of your job would be to carry everyone in your team along and make sure you are all on the same page. To achieve this, you need to have good relationships with every member of the team. It could mean occasional calls to check on them and know how well they are handling the aspects of the project assigned to them.
Calling them would be a perfect time to know the challenges they are facing too both on the job and with life generally. You can then think of ways things can be smoothed out for them. Take some professional courses like PMP training online which will help you become a better project manager and help you build a positive relationship with your team.
Do not allow for any bias
Social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form unconsciously are some biases that can’t easily be resisted. When you connect with someone virtually in a meeting, always bring some awareness to how you treat the person in relation to his or her identity. No one is perfect and we are all conditioned to carry bias. So if judgemental thoughts pop up at the back of your mind when in a virtual meeting, get aware of it immediately and squash it. This will help you build the positive relationships you have with your team virtually.
Learn to give and take feedback
Another way of fostering positive relationships with your virtual team is by being involved with them. Giving and taking feedback is an important aspect of making your team members feel relevant to you. It is fuel for progress and it doesn’t have to sound good all the time but it can be helpful. Instead of keeping some malice and becoming biased unconsciously, why not learn to give constructive feedback to others and help them tap into their potential? This will help in forging positive and mutually beneficial relationships.
Have empathy towards your team members
People can forget what you said or what you did at one time or the other, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Empathy and understanding how someone is feeling build a special type of connection with that person. It is a state of perceiving and relating to another person’s feelings and needs with the way your decorum is around them at that instant. You don’t have to blame, give advice, or try to fix the situation. Being in the same aura with that person feels more comforting. Empathy also means “reading” another person’s inner state and interpreting it in a way that will help the other person and offer support and develop mutual trust. Even if this is done virtually, during the video call, your facial expression matters a lot because that is all the information the receiver gets. It goes a long way in cementing positive relationships.