Free Paper Sample: Virtual Team Writing Strategies That Reduce Emotional Hijacking

In a world of high competition and expectations, performing teams are a must. Virtual teams are examples of these teams. They are teams that focus on telecommunication where members are from different cultures and in different time zones. However, virtual teams are a challenge with communication being at a significant distance, issues of culture, personal diversity and coordination. In this letter, I will focus mostly on the communication challenge where several strategies will be used to overcome interpersonal traits that render communication ineffective during virtual team projects. These strategies include making intentions clear, matching technology to the task, being supportive and responsive, being open and inclusive, building relationships and staying in sync.

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Building relationships

Relationships are built through engineering interactive work sessions where members can freely communicate. In the process of communication, that is when several interruptions appear. As Team members, we may react differently to others' opinion. Some convey angry aggressions leading to disagreements. This can only be improved by strategizing peaceful ways of relating. The best way to build a relationship is through building trust, empathy, appreciation and rapport among members. Trust improves with transparency. It is important for one to express decisions and opinions vocally, provide frequent updates that talks of what is known and unknown and eternalize one's thoughts in details. With trust, it ensures a member is comfortable when another promises a specific day to deliver a result. Short-term expectations are met when members develop trust among themselves. Rapport enables members to form a harmonious, meaningful and close relationship between us. We are able to connect easily with each other. A good relationship is enhanced since members find they share common priorities and values among themselves. With empathy, it enables one to see the world in the other person's mind. One can speak the most effective message at the right moment. This enables members to put themselves in each other's shoes and learn how they are all feeling (Brewer, 2015). Familiarizing with all members problems strengthens their bond where they easily interact without judging each other hence a good communication platform is created.

Making intentions clear

Nowadays, most communication is based on texts. Unfortunately, most leave assumptions, common biases, and interpretation that lead to unhealthy conflicts due to misunderstandings thus hurting team performance. Team members become so negative when using text-based tools now that they cannot see the person responding to the texts, they get angry and even insult one another. We may become more negative unlike in face to face communication. We might express emotions that we receive from nonverbal cues which are not in the text-based communication. For instance, the recipient who would have received the message in the positive way, ends up receiving it as emotionally neutral and the one who receives a message with a negative tone, ends up interpreting it intensely negative than it was intended. To avoid all these it is important for members to be crystal clear with intentions when communicating. We must review our messages before sending to the recipients so that they strike the right one. We should never err on using emojis that others may interpret as negative. It is important to emphasize key information by highlighting points that need close attention.

Staying in sync

It is essential for team members to stay in sync. Lack of frequent contact with other members is a problem since others are left guessing because they lack accurate information. Without proper knowledge, the audience is left assuming the worst. Team members can overcome this by ensuring everyone is on board where this is enhanced by avoiding lengthy silence and maintaining frequent communication with everyone. It is essential to proactively share information concerning time demands, unexpected emergencies, priorities, and one's local location. This approach enables members to understand each other's intentions and behaviors. It is also good to acknowledge any sent message as much as it does not need an immediate reply clears the benefit of a doubt. For instance, members should check on the people they sent emails to and they have not replied, maybe an emergency came up, and they did not read the message.

Be open and inclusive

Since virtual teams involve members spread worldwide from different cultures, different backgrounds and with different experiences, the diversity contributes to bigger ideas that boost performance and creativity, virtual communication mostly rejects members from talking openly especially due to their language differences hence making diversity less important. Social cues that enable team members to interact reduce due to these virtual tools. Members' motivation to share information and ideas lessens. Majority may hold back when they don't receive a direct reaction from the rest when they are speaking or presenting. This may make members from far locations feel disregarded. To avoid all these, leaders and team members should talk openly and inclusively involving everyone in decision -making process and sharing ideas. It is important to actively solicit viewpoints and perspectives from all members, specifically those from far locations to enhance openness and approaches to different tasks despite their background and culture. Leaders should seek to involve the best of the member's ideas (Brewer, (2015).

Matching technology to the task

Virtual teams use several communication technologies such as video conferencing, web conferencing, chat platforms and emails. Teams chose what they are convenient with, and in many cases, each technology performs specific tasks. Choosing the wrong one leads to trouble and may deliver delayed or altered information. These tools differ along the levels of real-time communication and information richness. Likewise, a team's communication responsibility varies in complexity depending on receiving and giving of feedback and putting viewpoints together. The basis of communication should consider the delivery mechanism. For instance, web conferencing and video conferencing are more vibrant and best suited for the difficult tasks such as negotiation and solving problems since these tasks require active participation. Leaders in virtual teams should specify technologies to be used for various tasks enhance efficiency and secure delivery of sensitive information. This brings an improvement in communication in the way the team works together. Overall, I believe the approaches highlighted above will greatly enhance how our team's communication efficacy and effectiveness.

References

Brewer, (2015). International virtual teams: Engineering global communication.