Digital Mastery: The Skills Needed for Effective Virtual Leadership

Relationship Building Skills

The first type of skills that are needed by the leaders of VTs are relationship building skills, because the members of the VT must work together in order to accomplish organizational goals (Suduc et al., 2009), and virtual teams cannot succeed without good leader-follower relationships (Robert, Dennis, & Ahuja, 2008; Shriberg, 2009). Strong relationships between the leader and the members of the VT can help to overcome the feelings of isolation experienced by the members of the VT (Pyoria, 2009; Hambley, O’Neill, & Kline, 2007), and good relationships enhance the ability of the VT to share information and knowledge with their fellow team members (“Distant unity,” 2010; Hastings, 2009; Muntean, 2009). Relationship building skills are also important, because it can help the leaders of VTs to defuse conflicts (Brake, 2006; Robinson & Rose, 2007), embrace change (McCallum & O’Connell, 2009; Van Velsor, McCauley, & Ruderman, 2010), and enable better communication among the members of VTs (Morris, 2008).