What Good Parenting Can Teach You About Managing a Virtual Workforce

Last week, I met 3 HR friends at a local diner. We caught up on work and life. As our conversation unfolded, it became clear that there were some striking similarities between our personal and professional situations.

“Sheila” was dealing with her soon-to-be new role as a “virtual parent” — her oldest daughter is going off to college in the Fall.

“Hank” is experience his first summer as an empty nester, because his twin sons are away at camp for the entire summer.

“Wayne” is busy establishing a virtual workforce –- he recently joined a firm and will be instrumental in staffing up the company’s first virtual department of recruiters and support people. As he voiced his concerns about hiring and then managing a department that will be out of the office, we realized that his business situation was very similar to the others’ family scenarios.  We laughed as we discovered that whether virtual parenting or virtual managing, there are 4 key elements to making it work!

TRUST: Parents trust that their campers will wear their sunscreen every day. And they expect that their college-aged students will go to class. As a manger, your virtual team needs to be trusted too. Darleen DeRosa and Richard Lepsinger explored this subject in their book, Virtual Team Success. Their findings: The most successful virtual teams reported higher levels of trust than those that were less successful. The study concluded that trust is an essential element to virtual workforce success.

INVESTMENT: You wouldn’t send your child off into the world without the proper clothing, bedding and housewares. Why would you launch a virtual team without providing equipment needed to succeed? The right technology, support, education and supplies are vital to making the virtual transition work.

COMMUNICATION: Phone calls, letters, Skyping. As a parent, you expect a clear, steady stream of information back and forth from your children. Whether they’re in the next state or across the country, you count on frequent base-touching to stay informed and to keep the connection strong. Similarly, you must provide your virtual staff very clear expectations regarding timely feedback and status updates. Furthermore, regularly scheduled meetings are key to keeping common goals aligned.

HOME BASE: Even though they are NOT under your roof, college kids still need a place to retreat, from time to time. So, don’t turn your kid’s room into a man cave just yet. Likewise, do your best to provide virtual employees with physical space they can call their own. If you can’t offer temporary offices or cubicles, be sure your employees have access to you for face-to-face meetings. (For many on-the-road managers and small business start-ups, a corner table at Starbucks is the home base of choice.)

Do you find solutions to your business challenges by looking at other areas of your life? If so, please share. I’m so curious to learn more about it…