I am pleased to announce my new book on dynamics of virtual teams that every manager will want to know. A virtual team has many functions in common with a traditional team, yet it works in an environment that is completely different. These issues cannot be overlooked. These are exactly the issues that I address in my upcoming book!

Virtual teams use computer-mediated communications (CMC) to complete tasks, often for multi-national corporations (MNC’s). As most know, in addition to telephone calls and video-conferencing, the main communication method continues to be e-mail. E-mail is actually preferred for focusing on the matter at hand and its asynchronous nature allows people to take time to respond carefully. E-mail has both advantages and disadvantages, which are covered in my book.

Unlike most of the books on virtual teams, which are gathered anecdotes, my research-based book will provide quantitative and qualitative data with a coherent theoretical basis and frame of reference. I’m interested now to see which publishing house will jump forward first to publish!

Through recent correspondence with MNC representatives, I have had a chance to see anew the relevance of my work and its potential application in many fields: health industries, online education, software development, and even international law!

As it stands, I am nearly complete with all the formatting changes and organization issues for a book on management of and participation in virtual teams. It looks pretty good now, and will undergo final peer review this spring. I will be considering an agent or publisher by June 2012.

I can’t wait to share this with you!

The work of our lives is to produce new meaning each day. Not only for ourselves, but for others. Leaders are story writers.

While I worked with pioneers in leadership development, I found that everyone was a leader in waiting, making meaning of each moment. Each one was carrying an inner myth of potential greatness.

What I discovered was that by honoring the inner mythology others, I was able to reconsider my own leadership as a part of a greater whole. This did not discount my own leadership and authenticity, but rather made it real and relevant.

The work of becoming a leader among leaders is the work we must do in these days. This involves being clearer about who we each are and what gifts we are bringing to the changing world.

This work is best done in concert with others, to keep us humble. Our inner myth may have us on a white horse, but in the eyes of others we may appear a little dusty and walking on small pathways to unknown destinations. I have found that the gift of communication and telling the inner narrative in appropriate ways can create empowering connections all around.

Leaders share themselves so that others may know them. Leaders communicate so that others know that they are interested in creating relationships. Shared leadership invites the emergence of shared narratives and new stories.

Tell your story to someone today and listen to theirs. Then find out where your stories blend and compliment. By doing so, you may be rewriting your stories to fit each other, or providing relevance to each other.

A new calendar on a desk or on a wall is a possibility for change.  Each January  brings new calendars with spaces for new appointments and ideas.

Calendars are a miracle in bringing people together.  They unite us and organize us as a collective on a planet.  By the calendar, we, on a round globe, are all on the same page, within the same day, occasionally separated by a date line.  It is truly magical. By our calendars, we agree to meet, and, if we are on the same page and remember what day it is and what time it is, we do. Within those meetings, if we let them have a little breathing room, new and unimaginable things happen.

Calendars can remind us of what we love.  I like wall calendars full of pictures, numbers, and pure white squares, each one ready for soemthing to happen.  My mom  likes cute animals: kittens and puppies, ducks and geese, chickens and roosters, pigs and horses. She loves them. (I wonder if a calendar with great pictures can take the place of having a pet.) My personal favorite calendars were from Gary Larsson’s Far Side and Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. For me, nothing since then has matched those sublime little stories within a single picture.

Calendars take us through seasons, both natural and legal. In the New Year, we prepare to organize, even if it’s just to pay taxes. Even if you don’t believe in the power of the Winter Solstice, celebrating New Year’s Eve, or taxes, the New Year brings us from darkness into daylight. It is hard to ignore.

This year, you may simply use your Blackberry or iCal to update To Do lists and appointments. These are very helpful and necessary. But where are the cute cartoons and funny pictures? I do miss them.

I find it helpful and grounding to have that hanging paper on the wall, or that book on the desk.

To keep track of time and change, I also keep an organic calendar of my own, a journal, in which I write every now and then.  In addition to my wall calendar, at the end of the year I can look back over these notes and refresh my life meaning before the treat of the next year’s calendar, it’s open possibilities, and pictures to make me smile.

When we don’t get social feedback, it upsets neural responses, so we have to learn to override that stress, by increasing our understanding. When we are informed, our customary emotional responses need to be readjusted — but only slightly. It may help to know that you are not alone. Very few people understand that we humans are largely in denial and in the dark about how our brains and feelings are responding to lags in online communications. I believe that, if we understood more, we would be able to cope better.

In the traditional workplace, we show up, sweep off the doorstep, to show we are open for business. Similar to face-to-face environments, showing up is a big deal. In an online environment we “show up” by contributing, such as by writing regularly, and by staying in touch with communities we would like to be a part of. It’s really great when we make a connection!

Through my articles, and planned seminars, I seek to teach people to understand the dynamics of how their brains work in online environments and how groups can better connect. This understanding should help them to get a handle on the emotions and frustrations, so that they can focus on getting the job done, whether seeking work or completing work already assigned.

If there are any areas that you would like to ask about specifically, I would be glad to write about those areas and post them through my web site ( www.thewellmanmethod.com ), and my facebook page (The Wellman Method) and Twitter (wellmanmethod). In this way, your question can help others. If you have any topics that could help others, please suggest. Perhaps it will start a new discussion group.

I make time available by appointment through telephone or Skype. This way, I teach people how to deal with their specific emotional and mental blocks.

Feel free to contribute to the discussion!

The virtual world sets up new anxieties: the faceless void.

Many people are sending out resumes to online sites, and often hear nothing back. HR resources are cut in many companies, which creates a void in responsiveness. Many companies say not to phone or call.

All of this leaves the individual at a loss and not knowing what the reaction was. Most of us are social creatures. Our sense of self and reality is confirmed by those around us. The lack of response in the online environment is very high in the job search arena. If people can’t see how they can use you, they won’t respond. Worse yet, if no one is responding, do I even exist or matter?

This sense of futility often accompanies job searches and is a key psychological matter that needs attention.

In these cases, it is very important to stay close to your friends, remain creative, and take care of your health and stress levels. Keep your vision fresh and going strong. Talk to people who will encourage your strengths and be honest about your not-so-strengths. Redefine friendship if you need to, to see these people as your friends.

Some people use visioning partnerships to keep moving forward. The Wellman Method is an example of one of many of these. Using a visioning partner, you can explore strengths and integrate these with your life story. From this you can refresh your personal vision, keep appraised of changes in the market place, consider moves, and have new hope.

This is important – even if you are a success.  Keep dreaming and dreaming large. Keep moving forward. Otherwise, as Woody Allen said in Annie Hall, “What we have here is a dead shark!”

So here’s to keeping your shark alive and swimming forward into the world of business!

Leadership development remains a mystery to most, which can make it difficult to choose or justify a results-oriented coach or leadership development program. While there are infinite ways of approaching this topic, this post is going to define leadership development in four stages or steps of increasing self-awareness to metacognitive awareness.

Research shows that leaders are aware of what is going on around them. And the best leaders continually integrate information and communicate it so that others feel included. Some leadership styles are authoritarian, while others are more democratic. This brief sketch includes both kinds of styles.

This step-by-step guide will be based in a sense of purpose, but it can also be understood as knowing defined goals.

A Very Brief History of Leadership Development

In the 1960s, leadership development was a matter of a retreat that could take 3 weeks or longer.  This pressure cooker allowed executives to achieve greater awareness–which they called “personal development”–which allowed them to understand their employees better.  This metacognitive awareness opened doorways to shared understanding.  This inclusive state of leadership is a characteristic of what we now call transformational leadership. A transactional leadership style gives instructions and says what the employee needs to do to get paid.  Either kind can work, depending on the temperament of the workers.  Usually, employees and coworkers prefer a style that demonstrates some degree of interest in the employee’s welfare and so opens up potential of listening to input.

A Word about 360-degree Feedback

With the retreat seminars also came a realization of the importance of feedback. 360 degree feedback is now used universally in all organizations to create new results. Feedback has become a form of formalized communication with an intercessor (a coach) and the next step of metacognitive awareness.

These days, we have many feedback tools in the coaching industry.  These are computer printouts that tell us about ourselves after we have answered a series of multiple-choice questions.  Typically, following the printout, the executive or employee has a session with a feedback expert to discuss the feedback and begin to work on areas that are called “weak.”  The problem with this approach is that we can spend a lifetime working on “weak” areas, because we are just not born that way.  However, this is good for your coach, because it means a long period of guaranteed income.   Other coaches are “strengths” based and help you to develop your strengths.

So, is this really scientific? Is it subjective? Or is it objective with measurable results? I will discuss how it is and how it isn’t.

It’s subjective: Leadership is perception. If someone thinks of you as a leader, then you are one to them.

It’s objective: Leadership is an agreed-upon status. You have a job that allows you to administrate or inspire others toward a defined and described goal.

In either case, here are the stages toward leadership. Starting from you and your Self, circles of awareness move out from there:

1. Self (often defined by purpose)
2. Self and Goal (often defined by purpose). This takes planning and effort to articulate.
3. Self and Other and Goal (often defined by shared purpose). We bring in others to help us to reach our goals. When we do this, we have the opportunity of expanding our awareness to include them and how they see the goal. We do this as leaders, to be able to predict how and when we will reach the goal.
4. Self and all Others and Goal(s) (often defined by shared purpose. We bring in more others and see how they interrelate and create a shared understanding of how to reach the goal. As leaders, the more aware we are of how they will reach the goal, how reliable they are, and what motivates them, and how they fit together, the more we can predict how and when we will reach the goal.

That is the size of it. This will give you enough information to select a consultant or leadership development coach to help you to achieve your goals. It will also guide you to choose your team and encourage you to learn about them.

The continuous integration of self and purpose and goals and others is the activity of leadership. It is a continuous activity.

Metacognitive Leadership development contains an awareness at these multiple levels.  Sometimes it is helpful to develop a shared leadership paradigm so that everyone shares responsibility for holding aspects of awareness. That is good management structure, when you have set up a communications system that acknowledges expertise in all the following areas.

Put another way:

1. awareness of Self
2. awareness of others
3. awareness of direction, purpose, and goals for the group.
4. Leadership awareness that is integration of all the above.

Leadership development requires metacognitive awareness. What is that? Here is an example:

If you have self metacognitive awareness you are aware of your actions and what effects those actions have. You know how to achieve goals because you know how to plan and sustain your energies. You know how to communicate your ideas to others becuase you have an awareness of how your words can influence them and teach them.

This begins to take you from Self awareness and what you can do on your own into Other awareness and how others can help you to do what you set out to accomplish. Metacognitive awareness also allows you to assess what the abilities are (i.e., the resources) of those around you to accomplish your tasks. In a perfect world, you know that anything can be done with unlimited resources. As resources become constrained you adjust goals and deadlines or you add to the talent pool or change it.

So, when choosing an executive coach you can focus on one of the stages and then you can measure the progress for yourself.  Do you want to

1. Develop your own personal vision and purpose?
2. Develop your awareness of one of your colleagues, and their skills, goals, awareness and purpose?
3. Develop your awareness of two or more of your combined colleagues, and their skills, goals, awareness and purpose, and how they interact?
4. Develop integration awareness of all goals and purpose and their skills, awareness, goals, and purpose?

In the process, you as a leader with goals to achieve, must communicate to others what the goals are and how you see you are proceeding toward them. The joy of leadership development is really You development. Enjoy the process.

Mark: Can you describe what makes you unique and distinct from other consultants or executive coaches.

RCW: Well, first of all, I believe in the regenerative and developing brain.  Eric Kandel, a Nobel Prize winner for his work in neuroscience on memory, observed that the neurons seek something familiar and grow new synapses to connect.  I also believe in T.S. Elliot the poet who said, “Only connect.” I work with connection instead of problem solving.

A lot of consultants focus on problems and provide answers. This is their job, to solve problems or come up with answers. But nobody really has all the answers. Every situation is unique. I’ve read a lot of books on how to make your business succeed.  But in the end, I believe that the person who is in the situation is the one most informed about the situation.  So I find a way to get them to talk about it. And they start coming up with new information that they didn’t even know they had.

Executive coaches use a lot of different methods, so I can’t really generalize.  But what makes me unique is that I have organizational knowledge about how people work well and what motivates them.  I also believe that everyone is looking for someway to make sense of the world.  And the only way to get to that is to find out what is making sense to them now, or what and when was the last time something made sense. And then I draw connections between that way of making sense and bring it into the present moment.  Experts know what they know, but that knowledge has to apply to the situation.  There is no one answer.

MS: So what is your approach?

RCW: I energize the brain.  I make observations. I ask questions. I rephrase and encourage reflection.  All of these activities massage the brain and stimulate the neurons to look up and look around.  Then, if you allow the brain to proceed, with proper support and tranquility, the neurons will grow new synaptic connections and energize the entire person. I see it in their eyes. A radiance comes over the entire face.  The “aha” moment is far beyond intellectual.  The neurons find something they  recognize and link up. It is a miracle.  We were born to think like this, but it happens in the context of peace and awareness.  It happens in the space of a kind of friendship of trust.

MS: What about goals?

RCW: I think goals are good. You need a mental model in place to hold things together while you find out what it is you are really meant to be doing. Sometimes it can be good to say, “I’d like to be more like that person.”  But would it? I find that when you know yourself, you don’t really need those mental models anymore. Those models are like training wheels. Once you know who you are, you take off the training wheels and just go.  No one can stop you because you are having so much fun being yourself.  The goals become a means of being yourself.

MS: So the goals become secondary?

RCW: Absolutely.  But once you are experiencing all this energy that comes from being authentic, you need something productive to do.  So, in a way, you just start eating up goals and producing a lot.  In a way, you can turn out to be an overachiever. Reaching far beyond any goals you ever dreamed of.

Mark Solomon is an Emmy-nominated television writer/producer.

Hello All,

It was a 4-hour drive from Ojai down the 101 then 405 to San Diego where 10 of us met at the UCSD Faculty Club.  But how exciting!

On Wednesday, Sept 15, 2010, Tom Munnecke hosted a 2-hour forum with James Fowler, (see  http://jhfowler.ucsd.edu/cooperative_behavior_cascades.pdf :

“The results suggest that each additional contribution a subject makes to the public good in the first period is tripled over the course of the experiment by other subjects who are directly or indirectly influenced to contribute more as a consequence. These are the first results to show experimentally that cooperative behavior cascades in human social networks.”

The purpose of the group was to discuss the relevance of Fowler’s research to implementing positive changes in health care and health care delivery. In his invitation to us Tom said: “This is a topic that Heather and I have been thinking about for at least 15 years, picking up on Jonas Salks’ thoughts that it is possible to “create an epidemic of health” here is our paper on the subject: http://munnecke.com/papers/USM01.doc”

Tom Munnecke (host) introduced Dr. Fowler, who spoke about his research to an eclectic group, and then hosted a discussion.

Of interest to me were the diverse points of view from experts in their fields:

Lewis Shuster – Stanford MBA, former COO of Invitrogen, active in personal genomics startups

Joseph Weiss, MD  UCSD Med school, plus his Nancy Cetel, MD, and daughter Danielle Weiss, MD.

Jay Kunin, PhD from MIT/Sloan; has done a lot of work on innovation and biotech startups.

Heather Wood Ion – cofounder of Uplift Academy, co author of our paper on Epidemic of Health, friend of Jonas Salk from whom the idea emerged

Stan Pappelbaum, MD, former CEO of Scripps Health, now consultant to a variety of health care delivery organizations

Tom Velez – CEO of Computer Technology Associates, a health care IT company.

And me– Renita Wellman – (current area of research is establishing communications practices in virtual teams), psychologist, coach, www.theWellmanMethod.com

Following James Fowler’s presentation, there was a spinoff discussion from varying position of expertise and a great deal of experience in the health services field.  Some of the points were:

(a)   seeking an alternative to hierarchy in health services

(b)  pointing out that “health teams” are often not really teams as in the combat squad sense where people really rely upon each other

(c)  how to change health systems – perhaps from the edges as opposed to a frontal assault

(d) a new generation of health practitioners is working to create change from microcosms in their own practices, employing a leap of faith

(e)   Directional asymmetry has value.

(f) Hospice teams are a good working model of effective health teams and so are operating room teams.  It was pointed out that operating room teams are there for a clearly defined objective (and, I would add here, each one knows their role).

(g) Teams which misunderstand that teamwork is unquestioning agreement make mistakes:  medical teams need a corrective voice embedded in them, so that they don’t just blindly do what all the others are doing (e.g., removing the wrong arm).  An example of mixing up teams for greater effectiveness: Co-pilots are switched regularly as partners to ensure safety.  For me, Renita, this was a fascinating point—to remain a team, while questioning and not always trusting that what is being initiated is the right thing.

(h) One question about Fowler’s research–a bias that all social connections are good–was how to approach social decision-making to break with associations that may not be a healthy influence on mental or physical health.

(i ) another was how to enter closed-off groups such as smoker’s groups to influence health habits

(j) For me (Renita), personally, it was a chance to consider how overlapping narratives and values can be useful.

We suggested using MeetUp.com to keep in touch and continue discussing ideas.

Best to all,

Renita

Executive coaching typically focuses on individual development, not on group processes. There are very few coaches who can separate and then integrate the two—monitoring group processes as well as acknowledging individual talent.

Look for someone who is familiar with coaching communications, processes, and noticing and integrating talent.