A Year in Review: The Story of Virtual Leadership Matters (So Far)

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This month marks the one-year anniversary since Virtual Leadership Matters began operating. Throughout this year our expert facilitators have helped many Business leaders and teams navigate the unknowns of leading in a virtual environment. As we move forward, we want to take the opportunity to look back at the road that led to Virtual Leadership Matters and reflect on our future.

The Road of Our Co-Founders

Long before our cofounder’s paths crossed in Virtual Leadership Matters Inc., David Smith and David Town had spent years gathering experience in leadership positions and honing their craft as Executive Coaches/Consultants. Prior to 2020, David Smith gathered knowledge and expertise from his work in the private sector. David served eight years as the Founding Chief Executive Officer of CUCORP as well as five years as Executive Vice President at Concentra Bank. In both positions, Dave lead and managed multiple employees and teams remotely. In 2009 David started Logia Consulting Inc. With over ten years of experience in coaching, David Smith delivered results to business leaders all across Canada in-person and virtually online.

 Meanwhile, across the country, our second Co-Found David Town had also been gathering experience in the field of virtual leadership. David had held leadership positions at Loblaw Companies Limited, Shoppers Drug Mart and Big V Pharmacies. By 2020 Town had fifteen years of experience in leadership development as the President of his consulting firm and as a member of the Faculty of Continuing Education and Training at Seneca College where he teaches Organizational Behaviour. Since 2014 David has delivered coaching and consulting on-line and has become well versed in multiple online platforms. For more info about who we are click: HERE

If there was one lesson our co-founders learned in their combined 50 years of experience it is this…

A team or organization is only as effective as its leaders.

This simple truth plays a large role in the success or decline of any team/organization. This is especially true when times are hard. The pandemic brought about some of the most difficult periods for individuals and organizations in recent memory and challenged business leaders in a way they had never experienced before.

The Beginning of VLM

The global pandemic dramatically changed the way organizations did business. One of the new realities of course was the rise of a remote workforce. Business leaders who normally managed their teams and employees in the office were now forced to navigate a virtual environment. This transition brought about a variety of challenges, mistakes and stress for both leaders and employees alike. Seeing the need for effective Virtual Leadership, the two Davids partnered together to provide a proven road map for navigating the unknowns of a virtual work environment. This partnership was the beginning of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Throughout the past year, the Virtual Leadership Matters team has helped many business professionals operate more effectively while working remotely through in-depth programs and workshops. We have helped teams remain aligned with each other while working miles apart. Individuals were shown strategies to maximize their personal productivity while working from home. Leaders learned how to best manage and delegate tasks remotely as well as much more. Click HERE for a full list of areas we have helped our clients this past year.

Midway through the year a Virtual Leadership Certificate course was developed.  It has been delivered with 100% funding available through the Re-Open Saskatchewan Training Subsidy. Qualifying Saskatchewan organizations were now able to learn the tools and strategies to increase their remote team’s performance at no cost during times of tighter budgets. Virtual Leadership Matters continues to offer this training certificate and for Saskatchewan-based businesses, full funding is available until June 30th, 2021. For Ontario-based businesses, the Canada Ontario Job Grant, successful applications receive reimbursement of up to 83% of the program cost. For a detailed look at our Virtual Leadership Certificate Program click HERE.

Looking Forward

After a year of working through these uncertain times, it is clear that a new normal has developed that will endure beyond the reaches of the pandemic. Many companies are adopting a hybrid model that will combine work-from-home options together with a return to the common workspace for their workforce that will continue long after the Pandemic has ended. Virtual Leadership will continue to remain a key factor that will impact performance and results for organizations. The team at Virtual Leadership Matters looks forward to assisting many more business leaders and teams grow and produce results.

The Author

Gabriel Olver, BCOM, is a recent graduate from the Edwards School of Business with a major in management. Gabriel is an Associate with the Virtual Leadership Matters Team focusing on client outreach and content creation.

How are your teams doing? Really?!

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As we move further past the one-year mark since the pandemic landed, we see the pressures and challenges mounting for leaders and their remote teams. In this time of uncertainly and sudden adaptations, it has become more important than ever to understand how leaders can continue to influence their workforce positively. This blog explores how leaders affect the way teams respond and move through a period of crisis. It will also introduce an easy-to-use free self-diagnostic tool for leaders to immediately begin identifying and solving the key issues facing their remote teams.  How is your team doing? Really?!

This McKinsey Graph* shows how leaders influence the way teams respond and emerge from a crisis. This research focusses primarily on the COVID-19 crisis that has gripped the globe.  In the graph, you will see the various stages of a team or community’s crisis response. After one whole year we have moved through the impact, heroic response, honeymoon period well into to disillusionment as we round the anniversary of the crisis. Now more than ever, team leaders must re-energize their workforce as vaccines rollout and the threat of variants continue to make headlines in the news. During the disillusionment period, two new trend lines have emerged. These distinct lines represent the impact leaders can have on their workforce during this time. The blue line shows leaders responding to disillusionment with bounded optimism, resilience and managing the morale and relationships of those they lead. The red line highlights leaders that respond with overconfidence and failure to address the underlying issues and needs of their workforce.  At Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.™ (VLM) we help ensure leadership choices and actions align more with the blue curve by equipping you with the strategies and tools to meet the needs of your remote teams.

Build Awareness

The first step in this process is becoming acutely aware of the pressure points or stressors manifesting within your remote teams.  As the months progressed you have undoubtedly encountered stress points in your remote teams that continue to impact performance and morale.  Pretty well every team has! Like other leaders, perhaps you or employees, still find personal productivity a challenge when working from home. Some employees may be overburdened while others hide from extra tasks when working from home. You may feel that team members are not “on the same page” due to a lack of clarity regarding each other’s roles and responsibilities. Or maybe you still find yourself in too many unproductive zoom meetings. Often there is not one but multiple stress points hindering performance. For a list of potential stress points that we have aided our clients with over recent months, click HERE.

Virtual Leadership Matters has spent the past year identifying and helping solve the problems facing leaders in today’s new normal. Some issues were obvious while others required more attention and investigation to identify and resolve. For each item listed HERE, VLM has the expertise to save you time and energy in achieving better outcomes for your organization. As Leaders, it is our responsibility to take steps in identifying and addressing the areas in which our remote team can improve. This why filling out the self-evaluation is such an essential first step for relief.  After you identify your unique stress points by filling out our self-evaluation HERE, take action by scheduling a complementary consulting call with one of our expert consultants to seek practical solutions.

Key insights

As the future continues to remain uncertain, leaders must take action to address the needs of their remote teams and overall workforce. After a year of working through the pandemic, multiple stress points will have started to emerge in your remote team limiting productivity and performance. Begin the process of identifying these stress points by filling out our self-evaluation HERE. Save yourself valuable time and energy by utilizing the experience and expertise of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.™   in a complimentary consulting call.

The Author

David Smith, BComm, CMC, ACC, RPM has over 30 years of experience as an organizational leader and a decade as certified executive coach, facilitator and management consultant. He has served as a corporate executive (CEO), business owner and entrepreneur in multiple start-ups in different industries including one of Canada’s ‘50 Best Managed Companies’ and is Co-Founder of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc. 

*Source:  https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/overcoming-pandemic-fatigue-how-to-reenergize-organizations-for-the-long-run?cid=eml-web

2020 WIM Win Conference

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David Smith was a guest presenter at the WIM WiN Sask “Mine Your Potential” Conference – September 25, 2020.  David spoke on the topic of Effective Leadership of Virtual Teams. Have a look!

Purpose… The New Strategy

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In the past seven months since the arrival of COVID-19, much has changed. We heard strategic prophets at the outset talk about how the next two years will bring us the same amount of change anticipated for the coming two decades. Wow, much to assimilate and adapt to so quickly. As millions of people in Canada have transitioned to remote working, many things are different. In general, organizations have not dramatically altered their vision and mission but certainly working processes, systems and the climate within teams have morphed profoundly.

In the deafening noise and commotion around pivoting in this new environment, the phrase ‘purpose is the new strategy’ has rung loudly. With organizations jettisoning long-term strategic planning in favor of looking after the present, purpose has taken on a new vital profile.

Identify a Purpose with Meaning

A few years ago, author Daniel Pink wrote in his book ‘Drive – the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’, that the number one motivator for people is the realization that the work they do is meaningful. In times of looming personal and safety risk (COVID-19) this has become even more important as people think about their participation in the workplace and all the effort involved. If the work isn’t meaningful and the rewards corresponding, it’s not likely people will be engaged or even there.

I encountered Juan Pablo Ibarra, the US-based COO of The Mercon Group, in a virtual leadership conference recently. He explained that they are a vertically integrated global green coffee supplier. From headquarters in the Netherlands, they guide over 500 employees in 8 different countries serving clients in more than 40 countries. They are strongly committed to the sustainability of the coffee industry to generate long-term value and benefits for everyone in the supply chain, especially the coffee farmers and their communities. Their purpose is ‘to build a better coffee world.’ Pablo made it clear that the critical ingredient to keeping the teams engaged during the many dramatic impacts from COVID-19, was keeping their purpose top of mind all the time. They are making a difference in the world!  

Find Your Why

The meaning that people drive from the purpose in their work stems from host of factors. Certainly, the ‘Why’ the organization exists is principal among them. Organizations could be focused on being client service centric or industry leading or perhaps even driven to serve a greater cause, like the desire Steve Jobs had to ‘make a dent in the universe’ at Apple. They could also be focused on altruism in serving communities or simply maintaining quality employment for their employees as their key purpose. Some organizations are narrowly focused on the financial metrics and wealth generation and that would need to be embraced by employees to foster real engagement.  Logically, profit sharing would then be the ‘Why’ that motivates.

Why think about purpose? Our purpose or the ‘why’ we do things, naturally emanates from the mission, vision and values within our organization. When we enjoy personal alignment of our own purpose to the organizations there is a higher probability of synchronicity and productive engagement.  Our sense of purpose influences our conscious and subconscious thinking and thereby our emotions positively or negatively and ultimately, our habits and behaviors.

As humans, our purpose or ‘Why’, drives our behaviors in profound ways and we need to understand that to be successful and engaged. During the COVID-19 crisis it is particularly important that leaders talk about the purpose of the organization but also ensure that it is clear for individual teams, individual people and specific jobs and work assignments. Great benefit accrues from taking the time to ensure there is clarity of purpose within the team and for specific individuals. That sense of purpose and then be sub-defined for key groups to ensure relevance is sustained these critical stakeholders: clients, team members, communities and business partners or suppliers. Having a keen sense of who they are and what they expect will go a long way in delivering to their expectations or perhaps even beyond, which would be ideal.

Diligently Communicate Purpose

In summary, our suggestions for leaders are firstly, to remember that purpose is the ‘new strategy’ so, regular references to mission, vision and values for the organization and defining the purpose for specific jobs and assignments are critical.   Secondly, use routine polling of the team’s level of engagement with purpose to being vigilant to the likely need to course correct and attempt to nurture greater alignment. This is what leaders must do, tell the story of ‘why’ the organization exists and ‘why’ the work is important so people will remain productively engaged and organizations with endure to thrive again. 

The Author

David Smith, BComm, CMC, ACC, RPM has over 30 years of experience as an organizational leader and a decade as certified executive coach, facilitator and management consultant. He has served as a corporate executive (CEO), business owner and entrepreneur in multiple start-ups in different industries including one of Canada’s ‘50 Best Managed Companies’ and is Co-Founder of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc. 

Getting to Know Your Team Through Assessments

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Have you ever been confused or discouraged when you’ve discovered that a team is not performing as expected or a team member isn’t fitting in?  What happened?  Did you inherit leadership of the team or personally assemble it?  Has the team climate changed dramatically, maybe a pandemic has set in?  Sadly, that is our reality six months into COVID-19.

What Makes People Tick?

In our leadership consulting and coaching practice, I am continually challenged to try to find out what makes individuals and teams tick in rapid order. Diagnostics assessment tools are valuable aids in helping leaders and their teams move towards plausible solutions to grow in healthy ways. 

Everything in life centers on measurement—money, time, trave, volume, temperature, stock indexes—the list is endless. Yet, in our experience most people do not have adequate measurement strategies to help improve their personal performance, teams, culture or even establish their career or life path.  If during an appointment, your doctor simply guessed your temperature or blood pressure without using the correct equipment, you would think he or she was a quack – certainly not someone you would trust with your life. Coaching and organizational development is no different. Coaching without using assessments is like your doctor guessing your temperature – professionally not acceptable.

What Do We Assess?

A key question is whether the diagnostics start at the individual level or with a focus on the overall team climate. Well, the answer is either one, both or it depends.  I will focus on the later. 

My personal bent is that much of aggregate or team behavior stems from what individuals bring of themselves to the team. Their attitudes (head), beliefs (heart) and the level of aligned activities (hands), all commonly referred as personality, IQ, EQ, style, values, purpose, even obvious habits. Looking at each individual on a team to help them discover themselves and how they interact with each other is never a wrong decision.

It’s sometimes a challenge to find the right people for a job alone, so combining team fit as well can be a ‘big ask’.  Individuals need to have mastered the technical or professional Skills required to succeed, but also need the Will in the form of attitude, personal discipline, and people skills plus the Horsepower (ability to grow in competency) required for alignment and fit with the organization and its values (EQ). 

… But How do we find out about this Skill, Will and Horsepower? IQ, EQ, habits? What can be done?   

Assessments Help Make Better Decisions

Our experience values the use to a range of diagnostic assessments to assist in decision making. The assess options are many; performance evaluations, learning development plans, business competencies, values based, sales and service, time mastery management, communication styles, and a range of sophisticated psychometric assessments that explore subconscious behavior which is often attributed to over 90% of our actual behavior. We recommend and offer a variety of these to help individuals move forward in their personal effectiveness contributing to the team.  

Choosing the right assessment can make a difference in helping you build teams with complementary Skills, Will and Horsepower. Leveraging strengths can help you build a better team. As will mending weaknesses and ensuring proper alignment

Aligning Assessment Results to Optimize Team Climate

As a leader, you want your company’s team climates to be as positive and efficient as possible. The more you understand how the people in your team work together, the better you can cultivate a culture that enables them to avoid issues.  A major part of this is ensuring that every employee is in the role best suited for them, based on not only skill and will but also personality. For instance, an introverted worker might want a more independent position, while an extroverted employee might enjoy collaborating with others. Knowing what works well for each person helps unify your team, with every member doing their preferred part.

Some personalities simply do not work well together.  Resultant clashes can lead to stalled projects, workplace tension and even fighting. Using assessments will allow you to build teams based on the personalities of individual team members, leading to far more compatible teams. Taking compatibility into consideration can help to reduce personality clashes that lead to delays in work. It also can help to fill all of the unique roles that the project requires and move your projects along. By taking the time to create teams based on how people respond in certain situations, you can be more confident in their potential success.

This type of testing also lets employers better understand their employees and get to know them better, which, in turn, can improve workplace productivity.

We can help you create a more unified team by using a range of assessments and analyzing the responses. Bringing a holistic approach with the right assessments at the right time into the team coaching process, will increase professionalism, improve results, save time, bring consistency to processes, while providing the opportunity for enhances financial performance.

Change and growth are impossible without awareness. Without some type of assessment strategy, how can leaders ask the right questions and make wise decisions.  The fact is, they can’t.  While assessments may only be one part of the process of building a great team, they are one of the most efficient and effective strategies to provide you with a strategic and tactical advantage.

The Author

David Smith, BComm, CMC, ACC, RPM has over 30 years of experience as an organizational leader and a decade as certified executive coach, facilitator and management consultant. He has served as a corporate executive (CEO), business owner and entrepreneur in multiple start-ups in different industries including one of Canada’s ‘50 Best Managed Companies’ and is Co-Founder of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.