By Jaimy Ford, business writer and editor.
Are you a super fast typist? If not, you may not be cut out for this whole virtual leadership gig, says a new study out of the University of Iowa and published in the Leadership Quarterly.
To conduct the study, the research team divided 344 participants into four-member teams. Some teams were located in the same room, while other teams had one, two or even all members located in different rooms.
Each team role played the leadership team of a Hollywood studio that was deciding which of several scripts to produce, based on various marketing studies. For the teams broken up in separate rooms, they could communicate only by instant messaging. After the experiment, the participants were asked to rate in a survey the leadership skills of their teammates.
The survey found that the people who could type both quickly and accurately were more likely to naturally emerge as team leaders.
It’s what’s in the message that counts
While I find the study intriguing, I’m not so sure that it’s the speed of typing that matters as much as the “accurately” part. I’m also betting the clarity of writing played a role too. Succinct, clear messages are critical whenever you communicate, but especially when it comes to communicating via technology.
While sending rapid-fire responses could make you seem more decisive (I guess), I would highly recommend taking an extra minute to proof your messages and ensure that you’ve fully answered a question or provided a clear directive. In other words, do your best to make sure that the recipient will understand your message. If you dash off a message, but fail to get it right the first time, you’ll just cause confusion and waste everyone’s time. Fast just isn’t always better.
There’s no substitute for face time
During the study, team members also gave higher leadership scores to team members who were in the same room as them than they did to members who were in other locations. That makes sense to me. In those situations, it’s easy to see the qualities we relate to leaders emerge, such as confidence, control, organization and strong communication. When you rely 100% on email, text or instant messaging to communicate, it’s much harder to reveal those qualities.
If you want to be seen as a leader, you need to let your employees actually see and hear you. Bring employees together for in-person meetings when possible, use video chat, and pick up the phone more often. Doing so allows you to show that you are their leader, but it also allows you to build rapport, trust and deeper connections, all of which benefit the team in the long run.
What is the No. 1 skill that you believe leaders of remote and hybrid teams must possess?
Photo credit: http://www.freeimages.com/photo/fast-fingers-1529553
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