Lauren is assigned team leader of a cross-functional team for a very important project to the company. Lauren reviews the profiles of the six team members her boss gave her. She is both intrigued and anxious when she sees that team members are geographically dispersed.

Lauren works in the Atlanta office. One team member is in India; another is in Germany; and the rest live in the United States, but in different time zones. Two staff members are in the eastern time zone (Virginia and North Carolina) and two staff members are in the central time zone (Texas and Louisiana).

Lauren has never managed a virtual team and is unsure what special skills it will take to be successful. She begins to wonder what competencies are necessary for virtual team leaders and members. She studies the team member profiles and creates a matrix to evaluate each member’s strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of working virtually. She includes herself because she realizes she needs to evaluate her own strengths and weaknesses. Lauren thinks about the challenges and opportunities she will face managing this virtual team.

Team Member Matrix

Team Member	Location (Time Zone)	CommunicationPreferences	Virtual experience	Strengths	Weaknesses
Lauren (Team Manager)	Atlanta, GA (Eastern)	E-mail	No	Building and maintaining trust. Performance management and coaching. Networking.	Appropriate use of information technology. Developing and adapting standard team processes. Managing across cultures.
Santosh	Pune, India (GMT+05:30)	Instant messaging	Yes	Interpersonal awareness. Use of technology.	Self-management. Project management.
John	Wilmington, NC (Eastern)	Telephone	No	Networking face-to-face.	Use of technology. Spanning boundaries.
Joyce	Norfolk, VA (Eastern)	E-mail	Yes	Self-management. Project management.	Networking.
Helga	Berlin, Germany (Central European)	SharePoint; Webconferencing (with video)	Yes	Use of technology.	Interpersonal awareness. Project management.
Adam	Dallas, TX (Central)	Instant messaging, discussion boards	No	Networking via technology. Spanning boundaries.	Use of technology.
Brenda	New Orleans, LA (Central)	Instant messaging; blogs; SharePoint; e-mail	Yes	Use of technology. Interpersonal awareness. Networking. Spanning boundaries.	Self-management.

1. Identify primary and secondary communication methods.

2. Discuss technology requirements for collaboration, information sharing and brainstorming.