If at all possible, have regularly scheduled team meetings in person. During this time, complete some team-building activities and some social activities together. This is also a good time to review ground rules and talk about process tools.

It’s all too easy for virtual team members to feel isolated, and for that isolation to turn into disengagement and chronic low morale. Help the team build relationships by:

• Engaging in small talk before and after a meeting
• Having meetings in person when possible
• Holding social events (in person or virtual)
• Making communication easy by providing instant messaging applications with video chat (which can also help overcome cultural barriers)
• Creating social spaces for people to hang out in
• Relying on each other for information and help, and using you (as the team leader) as a last resort

It’s essential to manage the performance of virtual team members proactively. Make sure that you set, manage, and monitor expectations. Keep lines of communication open and let your team know that you’re there to support them. Address communication issues immediately and help the team work through cross-cultural barriers.

Being consistent is extremely important when leading a virtual team. If you usually respond to e-mails within a few minutes, for example, but leave one team member hanging for days, they might start to wonder if they’ve done something to upset you.

Trust people to do the job that you’ve assigned them to do. Ensure that processes, resources, and tools are in place so that they can be successful and let them do their work. However, be aware of cultural factors that might prevent team members from reaching out for help, and offer support avenues that they feel comfortable with.

Rewards are important for traditional teams, and virtual teams are no exception. Reward them whenever you can, whether it’s words of recognition, an extra day off, or a free lunch delivered to everyone on the team. Remember that everyone is motivated by different things, so tailor your rewards to the culture and personality of each team member.

One of the biggest challenges for a virtual team is communication. One way to make communication easier is to make sure that everyone is accessible via phone, e-mail, and instant messaging during working hours. You may want to have a contact sheet posted on your team’s website with everyone’s contact information, as well as the best time to contact them. (This is particularly important for teams spread out across different time zones.)

Set a good example by checking in with everyone at least once a day, even if it’s just to say hi or ask how their weekend was. Make sure that everyone knows that they are expected to be available during working hours. Address any attendance issues right away.

E-mail can help communication, but it can also hinder it. There’s nothing worse than sitting at your computer and pressing the Receive button over and over, waiting for an important reply that you need to continue working. The easiest solution to this is to encourage people to use an alternate method of communication for important items, such as the telephone or chat.

You can also set expectations for communication response times. For example, many businesses dictate that a voice mail message must be answered within eight business hours. You can also set e-mail response times based on message priority, like this:

• Low importance: Answer within eight business hours
• Normal importance: Answer within four business hours
• High importance: Answer within one business hour

Another way to facilitate communication is to schedule it. For example, a communication schedule for a virtual customer care team might look like this:

• Daily: Update cases on the server as you complete work on them
• Weekly: Send report to manager with a summary of weekly metrics
• Bi-Weekly: Attend team meetings via video conference and report on any issues that need to be escalated
• Monthly: Attend individual meeting with manager via video conference to review performance

Behave in a way that reflects the expectations that you’ve set. If you expect team members to be online by 9 a.m. and reply to e-mails within an hour, but you log on at 11 a.m. and take all day to answer their questions, you’re sending the wrong message.