How To Be An Inspiring Virtual Leader

Jacob Morgan
5 min readOct 27, 2021

A few months ago I was asked to join a virtual all-hands meeting at a large company.

I was excited to participate because I always viewed the CEO who was leading it to be an inspiring and motivational leader. I’ve seen him speak in person and he was fantastic!

So I joined the all-hands meetings and after the CEO’s address my jaw dropped.

It was… terrible.

What happened to the confident, inspiring, motivational CEO who was able to pump up his team and connect with his workforce? It appeared he was replaced by a stoic silhouette who sounded like he was reading a script.

Leading virtually is not the same thing as leading people in-person.

Leaders have countless responsibilities, from setting the long-term strategy for their company to creating a vision and motivating employees.

All of those tasks are challenging on their own, let alone when they have to be done virtually.

Our new COVID-19 world has changed how leaders lead and interact with their people. It has added another wrinkle to the leadership puzzle as leaders try to find the best way to engage with their employees and lead their teams without actually meeting face to face.

Even after the pandemic has subsided, leaders will still lead virtually. COVID has shown that flexible work isn’t just possible — it’s the future of work. Future leaders will have to be effective and inspiring virtual leaders as they address employees near and far.

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“Managing a virtual team requires managers to double down on the fundamentals of good management, including establishing clear goals, running great meetings, communicating clearly, and leveraging team members’ individual and collective strengths,” said Harvard professor Julie Wilson.

Aside from doubling down on leadership fundamentals, inspiring virtual leaders also need to practice these five steps:

Learn the technology

Inspiring people virtually starts with knowing how to use the technology. The most basic step to get a good camera and microphone. People need to be able to see and hear you clearly. A leader can’t inspire their people if their people don’t know what they are saying or what they look like. Invest in a good camera and microphone and know how to use it and where to look to maintain eye contact and build a virtual connection.

Be human

It’s easy to fall into the trap of just being a face on the screen instead of people remembering that you are an actual human with a personality, hobbies, and family. Be human and show people more than just a cardboard cutout version of yourself. You can still build real connections virtually, and that real connection is what causes people to be inspired. Tracy Keogh, Chief Human Resource Officer at HP, shared a story with me about a leader who ran a virtual meeting where everyone had their children on their laps. “Those kinds of things are so personal,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll go back to a different way of operating because we’ve all shared something in a way that binds us in a unique circumstance.”

Lead collaboration

A leader’s job isn’t to do all the work themselves or tell everyone what to do — it’s to encourage and facilitate collaboration. This becomes especially important when virtual leaders and team members can’t communicate in person. One of the biggest dangers of a dispersed workforce is fragmentation, but that can be overcome with strong collaboration. An inspiring leader understands virtual collaboration tools and knows how to use them in a variety of settings to get the most out of their teams and people.

Be transparent and realistic

Without seeing employees in person regularly, it can be easy for a leader to only show part of the picture. But to build trust with employees and contribute to an authentic culture, leaders need to be transparent and realistic. Nearly 60% of remote workers have missed out on important information because it was communicated from one person to another. Virtual leaders need to ensure their organizations have transparent processes so that everyone has access to information. They need to find ways to regularly and openly communicate with the entire company, whether through messages, videos, or live calls. Aim to over-communicate honestly so that everyone is aware of what is happening in the company without sugar-coating it.

Listen

Virtual communication makes it easy for leaders to communicate and share information, but more difficult to listen to feedback. An in-person meeting opens the floor for comments, and stopping by someone’s office leads to a face-to-face conversation. But those opportunities face challenges when taken virtually. Leaders need to do more than just share information — they also need to listen. Open the lines for communication with your employees, such as participating in a group chat or inviting employees to email you with questions and concerns. Reach out to employees to check in with them and listen to their circumstances and suggestions. Make your virtual communication a two-way street.

Future leaders must be virtual leaders. They have to know how to inspire their people, no matter if they are next door or around the world.

There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and are you ready for them? Download the PDF to learn what these 6 trends are and what you should be doing about each one of them. These are crucial for your leadership and career development in the future of work!

http://bit.ly/6leadershiptrends

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Jacob Morgan

4x Best-Selling Author, Speaker, & Futurist. Founder of FutureOfWorkUniversity.com. Exploring Leadership, Employee Experience, & The Future of Work