CHAPTER 4
Developing Accountability in a Virtual World
Accountability is like the fuel flowing through the engine of the team. It is the essential bond that enables the team to operate successfully. Team members must have faith in their colleagues’ ability to deliver. This is true for all types of teams, and even more so in the virtual world, where bonds are more fragile. Without accountability, a virtual team will most likely fragment and not fulfill its goals. Without accountability in the virtual environment it is difficult, if not impossible, to carry on.
But what exactly is accountability? How is it tied to factors that make the team function or, lacking these factors, perform poorly?
Simply put, accountability is the act of taking responsibility for one’s actions, and accepting the consequences if predetermined goals are not met. Much like the term virtual team, people have their own definitions for what accountability means to them.
The definitions of accountability that follow are taken from various client conversations about this subject and from VT managers interviewed for this book.
Accountability Is About You
“Accountability starts with yourself—you need to hold yourself accountable for your own deliverables. Once others see that you are committed to your own accountability, and meet deadlines, they will trust you. People who take pride in their work and have higher standards for themselves and are accountable for their actions become trustworthy.”
—VT MANAGER, MAJOR ACCOUNTING FIRM
Accountability Is About Clarity
“Clarity and transparency are key. Today, we have an organization that is divided into subgroups, and it is clear who needs to handle what aspects of the job. At the beginning, people felt they would get more work and didn’t want to take on responsibility for [figuring out] ‘who is doing what.’ Then I did the organizational transition, and now the organization is clearer—each person knows his role and is accountable for it.”
—SENIOR GLOBAL LEADER, MANUFACTURING
Accountability Is About Influence
“Accountability is challenging because people work on multiple team arrangements and the team leader is not necessarily [their direct] supervisor. So influence skills—building shared commitments and practices—become important. In my team, I created a directory where people share information about what they are doing, their deadlines, and whether they are on track. We have a task checklist, and the virtual manager serves as the task coordinator. If we have a strong mission and purpose, people have a greater sense of responsibility. It all comes down to influence skills.”
—VT MANAGER, BANKING
Accountability Is About Operational Rhythm
“It goes back to having standard routines about communication and operations, and it becomes part of everything you do. For example, if you have a team meeting every Tuesday at 11:00 a.m., and every other Monday [there is] a 9:30 a.m. meeting with your boss—this becomes part of your weekly rhythm. Routine should be transparent and the vehicle [technology] is different depending on your need.”
—VT LEADER, BOTTLING COMPANY
Accountability Is About Performance
“My team members are all ‘remote’ and ‘virtual,’ but report to me. I keep them on target. Some are very organized and clear on accountability. Others need more guidance. In any virtual organization, it is very important to know who is accountable—when, how long, and how much.
—SENIOR VT LEADER, MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY
Accountability Is About Culture
“There are some cultures where they take less responsibility. That’s easy because there’s a process. There are target dates. We have weekly meetings to discuss the status and due dates.”
—VT MEMBER, TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY
Clearly, accountability is one of the most important aspects of working on a team because it leads to team effectiveness. This is true for both on-site and virtual teams. It is even more applicable in the virtual environment because the true measurement of each team member’s success is the person’s individual contribution to the group’s efforts. And, without visual cues to create the context that allows someone to tell whether another person is actively engaged in a task at a given time (e.g., observations of the person’s facial expressions, body language, or other activities), virtual teams rely heavily on results against promises. Many studies conducted on virtual teams have found that personal accountability is rated as one of the most important factors in a successful virtual team. In fact, the characteristic associated most often with virtual team success is individual and mutual accountability. In other words, it doesn’t matter whether members are all “remote” or “virtual”; what matters most is staying on target and being clear on what each member is truly responsible for achieving.
Creating Accountability in a Virtual Environment
How can you create accountability on your virtual team? Fortunately, there are many best practices from experienced virtual managers—working managers like yourself. Here are some of their practical suggestions. As you read this list, choose a few items that resonate with your situation, and try them out with your own team:
Get senior support from the beginning.
Solicit people who have subject matter expertise (SME) and know what is involved.
Make sure your people have the authority to make decisions.
Be clear in your communications: Clarity creates commitment!
Set expectations up front regarding what needs to be achieved and who does what (i.e., have a clear definition of ownership) and provide deadlines so that everyone knows and is committed.
Have each person’s or each subteam’s deadlines roll up to the multiple-page plan.
Conduct regular reporting on tasks: Are they done? If not, why not?
Have regular successive meetings set on the calendar even if you don’t have much to talk about.
Conduct one-on-one (1:1) meetings where you can ask the “softer” questions: What needs to be done? Who did it today? If delayed, why? What help do you need? How is that XYZ report we need coming along? What problems are you having with it?
Check results regularly and create a feedback loop. Some virtual teams give daily status reports while other teams send e-mails at the end of the day to review progress (e.g., What did you do today and what do you plan on doing tomorrow?).
Make one person own a core responsibility. Organize due dates around that person and make sure the person reports back.
Create a “share point” on the Internet or a “shared drive” on your servers, or find another tool that helps everyone stay informed and share data (e.g., folders and work files).
Integrate work tools to help clarify ownership on projects and enable virtual teams to make decisions quickly as business needs change.
If and when things don’t work out, don’t hide or blame someone else. Take responsibility; jump in and raise your hand.
Accountability is about getting things done and following through. But setting guidelines for accountability becomes even more important for virtual teams because clarity creates commitment. And commitment creates dependability. Dependability builds trust, and behind accountability is trust, the energy that sustains the entire operation. Trust is the foundation upon which accountability sits. And trust develops when team members realize that other members are reliable and can be held accountable. So, if you say you are going to do something, do it!
CASE STUDY
Flagging Down Accountability
Because of a multitude of errors, one of my retail clients lost revenue. As the errors kept occurring, managers tracked mistakes on the basis of their frequency, need for escalation, and quality of initial customer contact. Not surprisingly, finger-pointing ensued. The situation was grim: Key customer orders were not completed because people “forgot” certain important items or thought that other teams or other parts of the organization were responsible for those orders. Deadlines were missed and profits suffered. At one critical juncture several items were not ordered and ready in time for holiday shipments. Cross-functional teams scattered and scrambled to get local vendors to help, but the loss of time, money, and trust created a huge gap.
Finding themselves at the end of their rope, the managers reached out for tools to help clarify accountability, create ownership, and rebuild trust in their organization. They chose a project management tool that created greater accountability among the team. Through this tool all team members must keep track of their own responsibilities using a Flag system, which consists of placing markers on all ongoing projects indicating dates and time lines for review. The Flags indicate the following:
Red Flag—We need to regroup into crisis mode when issues come up.
Yellow Flag—We are a little nervous about a deadline.
Green Flag—Project steps are on target.
With this new system in place ownership became clearer and finger-pointing diminished. Now each team was aware of its own impact on the bottom line and where its projects affected other workers’ deliverables. Supplies were ordered in advance, work was performed more efficiently, and responsibility became transparent. During subsequent meetings, everyone had visibility and shared the same template and work product. With Flags clearly indicating workflow issues, everyone viewed the same data simultaneously and received complete status updates. And, at the same time, the Flag system enabled management to hold people accountable and catch any mistakes or slips as they were occurring rather than after the fact. Team members took on a greater role in reporting and used conference calls to update each other on external partner issues.
As my client said, “This tool opened up discussions and [let us keep] an ‘ear to the ground’ to know what’s going on out there. Everyone knew what they were accountable for, and key updates occurred. I learned that for accountability and trust to occur, we needed to keep things simple, shared, and straightforward.”
Accountability and Trust …
It is impossible to overstate the importance of trust and accountability in business (as with all human) relationships. Accountability and trust are spoken of in the same breath because they are interrelated. Accountability provides the energy for the virtual team’s day-to-day activities, but trust is the larger concept and at the very core of human interactions. And trust develops over time.
In the virtual environment, trust develops once team members realize that their teammates are reliable. When team members complete an activity they have committed to, trust is built. Acting responsibly is important for all teams, but it is even more critical within virtual teams because they are working across distance, time, and space. My consulting experience with various global clients and their virtual operations has introduced me to something called “swift” or “instant” trust. This kind of trust is very important for virtual success, and yet it is hard to establish because virtual team members do not share long tenures together, and they lack the face-to-face communication and team-building opportunities that normally elicit trusting relationships.
Because virtual teams may work on short-term assignments and move on to new projects quickly, Instant Trust is extremely important on the road to building Lasting Trust. In this environment, teams often form and disband quickly, so trust has to be built almost immediately. To build Instant Trust, members must quickly establish a reputation for performing tasks and acting with integrity; they need to develop reliability and accountability. Simply stated, through accountability, people act trustworthy, which leads to Lasting Trust.
Trust is extremely important because it creates a place for people to interact and connect with each other. Those connections—similar to the axles on the wheels of a car—enable teams to function efficiently and develop long-term relationships.
Trust is necessary for the team dynamics to function properly. Of course, having a competent leader who picks reliable people and provides critical resources is important as well. When trust is broken, then colleagues no longer turn to each other for assistance or work closely; ultimately, the unit breaks down and individuals go off on their own. This situation occurs more readily in the virtual environment where the majority of tasks are worked on individually.
Trust—Hard to Build, Easy to Break!
Figure 4-1 shows what happens to a team when there is trust and no trust. Without trust, we are less honest, and less willing to collaborate and openly communicate; instead, energy is spent on self-protective measures. We keep ourselves at a distance, observing rather than participating. We resort to withholding, withdrawal, persuasion, or argumentation. Trust is a measure of our well-being, our ability to live more honestly, to be open to learning and participating without holding back.
Figure 4-1. Trust creates teamwork.
Fear brings about defenses and stops a positive communication flow. We put on masks to get ahead or to get along for the short term. Fear also creates dangerous situations because we become defensive and sometimes produce exactly the outcomes we feared. Progress is not made when we surround ourselves with worry or allow others to direct us through their defensive strategies.
You’ve heard the saying: Trust brings trust. Fear brings fear. Trust and fear are the keys to understanding people. Your trust level at any given moment determines how open, personal, and independent you will be. Simple to say, harder to practice….
Trust starts with vulnerability and continues with acceptance.
Trust involves being open to experience, taking risks, putting fears aside, and being transparent. It means being honest with oneself and open to building trusting relationships.
Behaving authentically and showing true feelings produces trust. Withholding, rationalizing, depersonalizing, and reading into behaviors (“Why are they doing what they are doing?”) feed fear, cynicism, and distrust. It doesn’t take long for this to happen, and the effect is powerful.
To get trust, you must give trust. Treat others with dignity, courtesy, and equality and appreciate people with different backgrounds, cultures, and ideas.
Despite wonderful advances in technology and its possibilities regarding synchronous communications, the foundation of all human connections is contingent upon trust.
Business is conducted through relationships, and trust is about relationships—and only those who are open with information about their thoughts, ideas, and feelings earn high levels of trust in relationships.
Trust is about creating a nonhierarchical status of equality and interpersonal respect.
Trust is about creating synergy.
Trust is about driving collaboration.
Trust is about enabling connection.
Trust is difficult for most people. Human beings, especially adults, desire self-preservation. Putting themselves at risk for the good of the others is not something that comes naturally, and it is rarely rewarded.
Think about things we learn from a very young age; comments such as, “Look out for number one” or “Don’t let them see you suffer.” It’s no wonder we naturally learn to think of ourselves before others.
The key to building trust is to get comfortable being exposed to other people as vulnerable, and being unafraid to say “I was wrong,” “I am not sure,” or “I need help,” and, yes, even saying “I am sorry.” If team members cannot bring themselves to say these words when the situation calls for it, then they aren’t going to learn to trust one another and will waste time and energy thinking What should I say? and wondering about everyone else’s true intentions.
So, start small…. Get comfortable with moderate vulnerability.
One rule above all guides virtual team behavior, and it is especially vital when team members haven’t met in person and so they cannot pick up the nonverbal signals inherent in face-to-face communication. The rule is: Assume positive intent of your teammates. Simply, give others the benefit of the doubt.
Building Trust Starts with You
Your most important task is to build trust. Therefore, your key role as a chief trust leader (CTL) is to build trust in you, in the project, and in a unified team, despite the challenges of distance, time, and space. Make sure that communication is strong enough to defeat the obstacles of geography, isolation, and history. It is communication that enables us to build the trust we need for success. Only when trust flourishes do people do magically wonderful things together!
Leadership is no longer perceived as power and control over people. Twenty-first-century leadership is even more important, exciting, and challenging. It starts with giving away power, giving people the benefit of positive intent, and giving up some of your guard to demonstrate vulnerability.
And like any good relationship (friendship, marriage, partnership), trust within a team is never complete; it must be maintained over time. In fact, many people claim that trust is the single most important driver for the success of virtual teams. Once trust is established, it is possible to gain consensus, build agreements, and influence others in your direction.
Think about your own experiences on virtual teams. A natural part of any relationship is the building or the breaking of trust.
During the early stages of a team’s development it is helpful to do the following exercise: Ask everyone to list the behaviors they associate with building trust and ones they associate with breaking trust. Then conduct a discussion about what are the most important goals for them to achieve on this team, and what trust behaviors they agree to hold each other accountable for. This is an exercise I often do in my training workshops, but you can also present it during a conference call and engage in a productive dialogue.
Figure 4-2 is a list of behaviors that build trust and those that break trust within organizations. Take the time before you continue reading to consider your own ideas in the two areas. Later in this chapter there are several best practices and success tips for developing long-lasting trusting relationships.
As a manager, remember that trust does not occur in a vacuum. Feedback messages are more effectively heard and acted upon when offered in an environment of mutual trust. In a virtual setting, your behaviors have a particularly strong impact on that environment.
Team members often tell me that they want a virtual manager to have human “value” characteristics such as honesty, loyalty, respect, and commitment. They often say things like, “I want my boss to share information,” or “I want my boss to help us create common goals and make sure we all value the same things,” or “I want my manager to show emotional support and be someone whom I can depend upon when I need to.” Virtual managers tell me that they look for team members who get done what they promised on time, and who demonstrate emotional stability and integrity and are motivated to succeed.
Figure 4-2. Trust-building and trust-breaking behaviors.
Virtual Team Behaviors That …
What are the most common trust breakers on virtual teams according to my conversations with clients? Those that involve missing deadlines, not “keeping in touch,” keeping information private, being “secretive” (avoiding), making excuses, and delaying results. These breakdowns happen more often in the virtual environment because the face-to-face element is missing. Trust issues can have an effect on the entire team, even if only one individual loses trust in another. And poor communication, especially the misreading of e-mail, makes trusting even more difficult.
Simply put, people who trust each other work more effectively, and they are more inclined to openly communicate, collaborate freely, innovate, and accomplish results.
Engendering Trust
Ask yourself these four questions:
1. Do I exhibit predictable behavior? If you want others to depend on you, your behavior can’t be confusing, indecisive, or inconsistent. People need to make reasonable judgments about how you might react under new or different circumstances, and in order to do that you need to behave in a somewhat predictable manner. This consistency means, for example, that you will meet an agreed-upon protocol for informing others about key milestones.
2. Do I follow through on my commitments? People tend to treat you the way they have been treated by you. If you take your commitments seriously, others will, too.
3. Do I communicate clearly or carelessly? Miscommunications, especially in a virtual environment, add an extra hazard to trustworthiness. If you are clear about what you mean there is less chance that others will find your statements misleading.
4. Am I honest or dishonest? If you are knowingly careless with the truth, such as insisting that you never promised to call or e-mail at a specific time, then other people have good reason not to trust you. There is no such thing as a little bit of dishonesty.
Ten Rules for Building Trust in Your Virtual Team
Trust in virtual teams tends to be established—or not—right at the onset. It is during those first interactions, first stages, and first promises that Instant Trust occurs. After that, it evolves slowly through performance and consistency over time to become Lasting Trust.
Rule 1: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
Don’t make remote teammates guess what you are thinking. Tell them. Unfortunately, remote teams and virtual teammates tend to believe that no news is bad news. A lack of interaction across distance erodes trust. Make sure to use communication methods that simulate a face-to-face or one-on-one interaction as much as possible. Use pictures and voice along with data. Use Internet phone with video, or use computer technology to embed pictures on the intranet so that members can “see” each other online to help create social bonding and build trust.
Suggestions
As the virtual team leader, define what ownership is and who is responsible for what pieces.
Require each team member to communicate ideas and solutions for problems that arise.
Make sure other teammates know that they are being listened to and convey that you are paying attention.
Do not blame technology for communication failures—virtual teams are about people and relationships, not technology.
You can’t overcommunicate, so always increase communication and be prepared to listen.
Rule 2: Give Trust to Get Trust
The best way to create an environment of trust is to begin by trusting others. As a leader, you must set the example. Waiting to give trust to employees until they earn it is never as effective as assuming they are trustworthy unless they prove otherwise. As team members come to feel that you trust them, they will find it easier to trust you.
Suggestions
Consider trust as an exchange that starts with giving. Once your trustworthiness influences others’ trust in you, they will give you their trust in return. It is about reciprocity.
Treat employees and colleagues with respect, even when they are impolite to you.
Be prepared to give people the opportunity to demonstrate that they can be trusted.
Take responsibility for your actions and give others the benefit of the doubt.
Give recognition when it’s deserved—don’t try to take credit for the work of others.
Promote your team to others; do not simply promote yourself.
Rule 3: Be Open and Honest
Honesty is the most important element of human trust. People respond to sincerity, self-disclosure, and openness. Share the good and bad news openly and provide information about your vision and actions. Hold honest conversations about what is going on, what you know, and what is on the horizon. Include your team members in these conversations and ask for their input. When you make a mistake, admit it and move on. Don’t cover it up and ignore the consequences. Great leaders know that creating a climate that encourages open, honest conversation reduces politics, eliminates mistakes, and improves morale.
Suggestions
Tell the truth.
Keep staff members truthfully informed. Provide as much information as you can comfortably divulge as soon as possible in any situation.
Display competence in supervisory and other work tasks. Know what you are talking about, and if you don’t know, admit it.
Give honest, just-in-time feedback to the person who is not performing.
Mistakes will occur: Acknowledge what happened, talk through it, and learn from it.
Be sincere and communicate with your team members on a regular basis to increase trust.
Rule 4: Keep Your Commitments
Again, this sounds like a cliché, and it is, but an important one at that. It’s one of the golden rules and will go a long way toward building a productive relationship: Do what you say and say what you will do—and make your actions noticeable. Keep your promises and help people see the bigger picture. When leaders don’t make their actions visible, it creates the perception that they don’t follow through. This perception only increases when you factor in the physical distance between coworkers.
Suggestions
Be reliable in keeping your promises.
Act with integrity and keep commitments. If you cannot keep a commitment, explain what is happening in the situation without delay. Current behavior and actions are perceived by employees as the basis for predicting future behavior. Managers who act as if they are worthy of trust will more likely be followed with fewer complaints.
Don’t be late for conference calls or meetings.
Don’t hesitate, however, to speak to people who don’t keep their promises.
Rule 5: Be Consistent
Trust results from consistent and predictable interaction over time. The process of building trust is not an event—it is a process. People tend to trust those who behave in a consistent manner, even if they do not like the actions. It provides a measure of comfort to know that we can count on someone to act in predictable ways. As is commonly said, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.”
Suggestions
Treat all team members in a fair and consistent manner.
Some remote team members may feel that they are being treated differently if there is an audio conference call from an office where other, “on-site” members are physically present. To ensure consistency, some managers use web conferencing with everyone at his own computer, even when some people are located on site.
Be consistent because it demonstrates that you are stable and can be trusted.
Act in a consistent manner with your employees because it will make them more engaged and involved in the interaction. As their comfort level increases, some people may take more risks.
Stay positive even when things go wrong or you are faced with criticism.
Rule 6: Be Accessible and Responsive
Find ways to be regularly available to the team, even when involved in projects that take up your time and energy. Be sure to set regular virtual meeting times (via teleconference or videoconference), even when your team members work across multiple time zones. Let team members know that they will have an opportunity to address their questions or problems without a long waiting period.
Make sure to provide opportunities for interaction (planned or unplanned) because when the leader doesn’t respond, or appears unresponsive, distrust is not far behind. Be action oriented. Avoid saying, “Let’s think about it.” Instead, say, “Let’s do this or that.” And then do it! Say what you mean, mean what you say, and follow through with actions. That will build your reputation for trustworthiness.
Suggestions
Create a plan that lets everyone know when communication will and can take place. Include all the scheduled meetings and times you would normally be available to talk.
Anticipate problems and be proactive.
Be ready to give help when needed.
Stay responsive—if you are being asked, respond.
Rule 7: Establish Agreements Up Front
Let your team know how and when you will respond to them. Then, honor those agreements throughout the life of the project or relationship. For example, a helpful protocol is to tell your virtual members that when they contact you, you pledge to respond within twenty-four hours—unless it is an emergency, in which case you’ll respond immediately. In general, establish time lines and deadlines, and provide answers, information, and the necessary data to move on. Lack of timely response can look like a lack of concern or incompetence to someone, thousands of miles away, who’s staring at a deadline.
Suggestions
Help your team build a common language and reference points.
Let others know when you are reachable. Give them a sense of how you prefer to be reached (e.g., e-mail first, telephone second, text third) and let them know the best times of the day to reach you. Some virtual managers create virtual office hours when they are available at their desk and people can “pop by,” so to speak, using an IM, text message, or web chat to simulate dropping by the office in person.
If agreed-on standards or rules aren’t working, then do something about them. They may need adjusting.
Rule 8: Maintain Confidences
Team members need to be able to express concerns, identify problems, share sensitive information, and surface relevant issues. Getting agreements early on as to how confidential or sensitive data will be handled is important. Remember, different cultures handle privacy issues differently.
Suggestions
Keep your word.
Help your team build a common language and reference points.
Create an environment where members feel comfortable sharing relevant information.
Respect others and deal with conflicts you may have with a team member in private and not in public.
If you suspect a colleague is not being honest or is withholding information, have a word with the person in private.
Rule 9: Watch Your Language
A leader can unintentionally erode trust in subtle ways. Be careful not to use words that someone could construe as insulting. Don’t refer to team members in remote locations as “them” or “those people.” Don’t use home office or cultural slang that may not transfer beyond your own country. Doing so will only widen the gap and increase someone’s sense of isolation. It’s a good idea to often check for understanding during a video or teleconference, and ask the speaker to clarify the meaning for others, if necessary. Or when e-mails contain jargon or acronyms that are unique to a function, location, or culture, follow up with clarification and then coach team members to avoid using such terms in future communications. In addition, avoid what could be perceived as vulgarity or profanity. It is best to stick with common professional business language, especially when working across organizational or ethnic cultures.
Suggestions
Be a good example for people to follow. Remember, people look up to you and are observing your actions (and nonactions) particularly in the virtual environment, where trust is more fragile.
Stay calm at times of difficulty or crisis.
Protect the interest of all employees in a work group. Do not talk about absent employees or allow others to place blame, call names, or point fingers.
Be aware of how you come across on the phone (e.g., communication style, how fast you talk, use of lingo/local slang words).
Words are power—use them wisely.
Rule 10: Create Social Time for the Team
With on-site teams, much of the trust and confidence that team members have in one another and in the leader comes from informal social interaction. For virtual teams to have this experience requires a little more thought and creativity. It’s a good idea to build informal socializing time into video or telephone conferences. At either the beginning or the end of a call, lead the way with informal conversation, such as asking about team members’ outside interests or families. Begin by sharing something of your own, to break the ice.
Suggestions
In the early stages of virtual team development, put your efforts into getting to know each other socially, rather than focusing totally on work.
Create opportunities for team members to interact virtually.
Make time for team members to play an online game together.
Share international holidays with the team and discuss various customs/traditions.
Above all, trust comes from what you do over a period of time—the actions you take—and not from just saying the right words. Lasting Trust takes a long time to develop and can be lost in a moment. Do not take trust for granted.
Creating Trust Synchronization
Even if your virtual team met once or twice in person, when a team is geographically dispersed, building and maintaining trust adds another dimension to an already-demanding process. And once you add the cross-cultural layer, trust can be your biggest challenge.
As a virtual manager, you must create what I call Trust Synchronization. Although we don’t put a name to the day-to-day behaviors and thought processes that engender trust in a global workplace, we engage in an unspoken contract with each other to take the necessary steps to deliver organizational objectives. At the core of these behaviors and thought processes is the expectation that we can rely on another individual or group in a number of ways. That is what I mean by Trust Synchronization, and it involves four key principles:
To be honest —Can I trust you to tell me the truth and say what’s on your mind? (For example, will you admit a mistake, or give me constructive feedback?)
To be competent—Can I trust that you are a capable member of the team, delivering high-quality work product? (For example, is your solution to a complex design issue accurate, pragmatic, and cost-effective?)
To meet commitments—Can I trust that you will do what you said you would do? (For example, will you meet an agreed-upon deadline and keep me in the loop, as promised, if I am not present at a meeting?)
To represent me although I am not in the room—Can I trust that you will consider my interests even though we work in physically dispersed locations, with diminished cues to communicate sensitive business and people issues? (For example, will you include my team’s expertise when deciding on who will work on project X?)
Let’s take a closer look at each of these four principles of Trust Synchronization.
Honesty-Trust Definition
There is nothing more important in trust than the simple fact of just telling the truth. That is the basis of Honesty-Trust, and that’s why it is the first element of creating Trust Synchronization.
Trust occurs when I trust you to tell me what is really happening. It has to do with integrity. This is true whether team members are colocated or disbursed, but in the virtual environment it becomes especially critical because I cannot see you and need to depend on your word. Being honest and thinking that others are honest is the strongest predictor of trust. And to assess Honesty-Trust, one can look at how consistently people met their obligations in the past, aligning them with original goals and results. Therefore, Honesty-Trust has to do with telling the truth and fulfilling one’s commitments.
Honesty-Trust Behaviors
Tell the truth.
Share all available information.
Raise issues that you have early on.
Stand up for your team members.
Deliver on what you say you will do.
Ask advice from others because it shows that you are open to suggestions.
Consider and discuss both sides of an issue, good and bad.
Competence-Trust Definition
Competence-Trust has to do with someone’s ability to do the job, with the skills, knowledge, and behaviors that build competence. It also has to do with team members’ perceptions of one another’s skill practices, content qualifications, and organizational perspective. If people perceive you as providing good-quality work and contributing relevant, interesting ideas, you will gain credibility as a competent individual. Therefore, Competence-Trust involves the skills and behaviors that help people learn, perform job responsibilities, and influence outcomes.
Competence-Trust Behaviors
Manage time and priorities well.
Do your homework and background research.
Make good decisions.
Take initiatives.
Demonstrate motivation.
Actively seek out information.
Commitment-Trust Definition
Are you going to follow through on what you said you will do? Can I trust you to meet your deadlines and keep me in the loop? In the virtual environment, the most significant way to demonstrate that you are committed is to produce results. Team members cannot see that you are staying late to finish the deliverable or that you are working through the weekend. They can only see your results and whether you got things done on time, within budget, and within the protocols set up front for your assignment. Commitment-Trust also involves response time and completing tasks within appropriate time frames. In fact, I once observed a situation where two team members were fully committed to getting the job done, but since they worked virtually on two different technology platforms, they did not complete tasks on time and lost Commitment-Trust in their organization.
Commitment-Trust Behaviors
Think ahead.
Do what you say you will do.
Follow through on deadlines.
Respond to e-mails even after business hours.
Help other team members.
Do tasks that are not required of you.
Conduct research for an upcoming project before it has officially started.
Write down all of your project deadlines and post them in a place where everyone on your team can see them.
Representation-Trust Definition
Representation-Trust is the principle that has impacted me more than the other three, probably because I had an “aha!” moment several years ago when working with a virtual team that was struggling with trust-building expectations. The team members were stuck on ways they could implement Honesty-Trust, Competence-Trust, and Commitment-Trust behaviors. After several sessions we kept discussing the three elements, but they did not understand their connection to establishing trust with other team members who were located elsewhere. How was this different from on-site teams?
Then I had a sudden insight—in the virtual environment the trust differentiator is that the other person is not in the room. So how do you trust someone you cannot see? What do you do when the person representing you resides in another part of the country or the world? I realized that a fourth type of trust existed, which I call Representation-Trust, and it rounds out the Wheel of Trust™ model (shown in Figure 4-3 and as detailed in the next section). By definition, this kind of trust is an identification-based trust since individuals cannot see each other but may “permit” another party to serve as their agent when not in the room. Similarly, we entrust lawyers and accountants to represent us in trials and audits. Representation-Trust has to do with the ways that you represent me and consider my interests, even though the virtual setting means we are subjected to diminished cues to communicate sensitive business and people issues.
Representation-Trust Behaviors
My “representative” generally agrees with me about how work issues and deadlines are handled. We both have a similar work ethic and problem-solving style.
Anyone who acts as a representative for me or others on the team must have a strong understanding of the company, professional communication skills (oral and written), an amiable personality, a keen ability to build rapport quickly, good videoconferencing etiquette, and knowledge of other people’s cultural values and culturally sensitive issues.
To represent me or others on the team well, people who act as representatives have to be able to present themselves well.
Everything revolves around trust when you work with others. If you don’t trust each other, you can’t succeed together. For Lasting Trust to occur in the virtual environment, the four trust elements must work together to create Trust Synchronization. Some people refer to this outcome as credibility. Or, as a CEO of a construction company said, “There is trust because they just know you.” I like to refer to it as the human connection in a virtual world.
The Wheel of Trust™
To the extent that virtual members honor these four elements, trust exists and accountability is achieved. If accountability is the gold standard, leading to business success, then teammates need to act in a credible manner. If we visualize these four elements as the spokes in a wheel (Figure 4-3), with accountability as the axle that holds them in place, one can see that when the spokes are not well aligned, the wheel cannot properly support the car’s momentum, and the journey will be far from smooth.
Picture yourself as an executive driving down the global superhighway neck and neck with your competitors. To gain an edge, leaders require a cohesive and knowledgeable team, whose members support each other with accurate and timely information. On-site teams can provide this support; however, on the global superhighway, members are dispersed over wide distances, creating conditions that erode trust, such as the lack of face-to-face interaction, communication and cultural barriers, and workdays that span many time zones. These are challenging circumstances for virtual team leaders who strive to align the Wheel of Trust™.
Figure 4-3. Wheel of TrustTM (AIM Strategies®; Applied Innovative Management®).
Virtual teams are encouraged to establish a few accountability agreements that support building or, if necessary, rebuilding a trusting team environment. This encourages teams to document the trust-building relationships that are most important to them and hold each other accountable. You can have your team members participate in this exercise together to remind them that building trust is an important step. Thank them for their willingness to keep the commitments they just made and encourage team members to support one another as they implement new behaviors.
Aligning the Wheel of Trust™: Attaining Accountability
Figure 4-4 outlines what you and your team members have to do to achieve clarity around trust. If you take these actions, you are well on the way to sharing accountability to attain common goals. Global leaders of virtual teams face the further challenge of establishing and maintaining solid connections without the support of physical cues and with less organizational support than their counterparts in colocated teams enjoy.
Figure 4-4. Wheel of TrustTM: trust builders.
What Does Accountability Look Like?
At the onset of the chapter, we learned that accountability in the virtual world is about clarity, operations rhythm, and performance. But mostly it is about you. An individual who behaves in an accountable manner:
Acts in Predictable Ways and Is Dependable. Behaving predictably creates parameters within which team members can operate without continually checking back for further information or instruction. Inconsistent behavior makes it hard for people to know what they can expect or where to place their trust. (Of course, sometimes leaders shift direction based on changes in business conditions that render past actions obsolete.) Behavior, however, is based on values and principles that guide one’s actions. This is especially true when the individuals who are affected by your actions are many miles away and lack context and supporting cues to fully understand the situation.
Manages Team Members’ Expectations. How we manage another person’s expectations of us goes a long way to determining accountability. Sometimes expectations are not met because they have not been identified or understood—a situation easy to picture in a virtual environment. Clarity is key, because without it intentions are misconstrued and perceptions become mismatched. When someone’s expectations are not met the person can feel disappointed, frustrated, or worse. Often, the result is a lack of trust, which prevents accountability.
Some expectations are explicitly conveyed, while others are merely implied. To succeed, global leaders need to manage relationships throughout the organization and think through the various written and unwritten “contracts” they have.
Explicit expectations are clearly stated and understood by all parties. When people act within these parameters, trust forms and people can work effectively, even when they do not share the same physical location yet bear joint responsibility for work product.
Implicit expectations arise from agreements or mutual understandings that are unwritten or unspoken. In a virtual environment they can occur frequently, since time constraints prevent continually checking and fine-tuning every detail. Unfortunately, sometimes a negative impact from unwritten agreements is not noticed until something has dropped through the cracks. A rule of thumb: If you work closely with someone and share similar beliefs, work style, and worldview, your implicit expectations have a greater chance of being met. The opposite is true when you merely assume that a team member from a different culture, where communication barriers may exist, shares your understanding.
Accepts Responsibility for Deliverables. President Harry Truman was legendary for having a sign on his desk that read, THE BUCK STOPS HERE. Few qualities engender accountability more than simply acknowledging your part in a written or unwritten contract without assigning responsibility elsewhere. Busy executives, with large spans of control, are unable to control every variable. Mistakes are made on their watch. However, a good faith attempt to admit them openly and work to correct them can go a long way to making you credible.
Confronts Obstacles. Hand in hand with accepting responsibility is confronting obstacles with the intention of removing them—without spending time and energy blaming people or processes for their existence. The nature of business is fixing problems, or creating new problems, which then require fixing! In a virtual environment, where it is often difficult to get your hands around the actual obstacle, you can be a “blocker” or “fixer” of problems. Those who actively tackle issues in order to move business goals forward quickly develop a reputation as accountable team members.
Follows Through on Commitments. People can depend on you to follow through on your commitments. When you keep agreements with others, you empower the relationship and build trust. Obviously, when someone repeatedly breaks agreements, trust is compromised and the relationship disintegrates. In a virtual environment, where time constraints prevent continual interchange among stakeholders, it is impossible to share every decision. Therefore, great care should be taken to promise what is doable. Global leaders get into trouble when they overpromise for expediency’s sake and yet fall short on deliverables. Unfortunately, people tend to remember the promises you didn’t keep far longer than the promises you kept.
It seems obvious that (1) leaders earn trust not by words but by deeds, and (2) leaders lose trust when they don’t act consistently or fail to follow through on commitments.
Respects Team Members and Provides Support as Needed. If you respect your team members’ skills, abilities, and judgment, then you are willing to rely on them for key deliverables, and you treat them as partners in accomplishing goals. In a virtual environment, you often have to take a leap of faith in trusting someone you don’t know well, who may not even speak your language fluently, to handle a complex, technical issue. However, micromanaging is not a viable option for global leaders in the twenty-first century. A wiser strategy is to have in place support systems that recognize and encourage competence and open communication.
YOUR VIRTUAL ROADMAP TO TRUST AND ACCOUNTABILITY
