Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22 - Issue 6

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June 2016 // Canadian Government Executive / 9
Leadership
fessional expertise. The fact is that work
gets done through these relationships.”
There is rich wisdom here. Numerous
case studies of Fortune 500 companies
reveal that successfully designed virtual
teams deliver higher returns than stand-
alone or proximity-based teams. CEOs of
major multinational companies have re-
ported returns of between twenty and fifty
percent, depending on the integrated na-
ture of the business model or production
delivery cycle. In the private sector, the
return-on-investment of virtual collabora-
tions can be measured by speed to market,
increased business opportunities, rev-
enues, sales and market shares. If private
sector results are indicators of success,
leaders of collaborative networks must
be equipped with skills and knowledge to
forge the high-impact and high perform-
ing relationships that will reach business
objectives.
In the public sector, much reflection is
still needed to identify the base-line met-
rics that describe how virtual success and
intended impacts will be measured. Cer-
tainly, many government organisations
are launching initiatives to explore new
ways of working collaboratively. The time
is right to build on the lessons-learned and
success stories of the private sector. The
challenge is to adapt those lessons to the
specific challenges and myriad cultures
within the public sector.
A special breed of
leadership
Designing a virtually-networked organisa-
tion calls for a special breed of leadership.
According to a Gartner strategic analysis
report, “virtual team leaders must be de-
liberate, explicit and disciplined in adapt-
ing their leadership styles to the crucial
differences in virtual team interaction,
and be diligent in prioritizing and execut-
ing the team start-up process.”
Creating a virtually-connected, dis-
persed organisation is a significant leader-
ship decision. It requires thorough design
“intentionality” to ensure that the support-
ing structures of governance, relationship
building, trust strategies, conflict resolu-
tion, change management and commu-
nications can withstand the inevitable
erosions in human relations caused by
the divides of space, time, language and
culture.
We can learn from the private sector
that this intentionality is focussed primar-
ily on sets of skills that allow executives to
build organisations that connect “islands”
of knowledge and expertise into high-per-
forming collaborative networks.
One of the foundational skillsets of the
virtual leader is the ability to assess and
CEOs of major
multi-national
companies have
reported returns of
between twenty and
fifty percent,
depending on the
integrated nature of
the business model
or production
delivery cycle.