WEBCAST: How to manage the employees you never see

SAN DIEGO
December 22, 2006 12:01am

To be a successful leader in the demanding world of companies without walls, today’s manage must know how to effectively manage the “virtual” employee, says management consultant and author Colleen Garton.

It’s becoming a skill that’s rapidly becoming more important by the day as millions of Americans head to their home office instead of their car to start their day.

But building a cohesive team of employees when not everyone is on-site can be daunting, says Ms. Garton.

Balancing deadlines, projects and employees’ personalities can be a juggling act when workers actually show up at the office each day. Add ‘virtual’ workers to the mix and that juggling act can end in a resounding crash if a manager isn’t prepared to overcome the many obstacles of being a ‘virtual’ manager.

(Ms. Garton outlines her thoughts in today’s CVBT Audio Interview. Please click on the link at the end of this article to listen or download the audio.)

Successful virtual managers realize that they can’t just cut and paste the skill set for “traditional management’ to lead a virtual team, Ms. Garton says.

She details her ideas, based on her experiences in consulting companies in the U.S. and Europe, in her new book, “Managing Without Walls.”