Leading Virtual Project Teams: Adapting Leadership Theories and Communications Techniques to 21st Century Organizations

The second decade of the 21st century has brought unprecedented challenges to traditional workplaces. The global pandemic has forced the advance of working from home and telework. Individuals with little or no background or training in e-leadership, virtual project management, or virtual team management suddenly found themselves in the environment of virtual work.

Leading Virtual Project Teams, Second Edition addresses the challenges that today’s virtual project management environment poses to traditional methods of leadership and communication. Leadership for successful virtual team management is different from that for traditional, collocated project team management. Explaining appropriate e-leadership styles for virtual project teams and the transition toward new leadership styles, the book is filled with communication techniques for leading virtual project teams. It helps project managers develop e-leadership competencies needed to successfully deliver projects in today’s organizations. The second edition also examines:

• Virtual meeting techniques
• Inclusive language
• Managing virtual relationships
• Why virtual work is now more important
• The work-at-home environment

By recognizing how virtual teams are different from traditional teams, those managing virtual projects may be able to offer benefits to their organization by providing positive, successful leadership and exceptional communications, resulting in better project deliverables and products. This book provides an approach that explores all facets of e-leadership―from how traditional leadership theories and models can be applied by 21st century leaders to providing methods by which the virtual project manager can enhance virtual project communications to meet the needs of our modern global business world. It features project management checklists and templates and includes business cases, best practices, and tools and techniques for virtual project management communications.

Margaret R. Lee, PhD, PMP^®, has a doctorate in organization and management/project management from Capella University and is principal for LEE Consultants. Lee’s consulting practice assists educational facilities in strategically planning virtual project management and e-leadership development curricula and also provides basic project management training and consultation for small businesses to international corporations.

LEE Consultants is a Registered Education Provider (REP) for the Project Management Institute (PMI). Lee’s professional experience includes corporate trainer, instructional designer, and project manager. She currently teaches at Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois, and Benedictine University in Springfield, Illinois. She also teaches online for Florida Institute of Technology and the University of Northwestern Ohio and is a frequent guest presenter at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Fluno Center for Executive Education and for Project Management Institute chapters throughout the United States.

Lee is a referee for the International Journal of Project Management, is on the editorial review board for the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, and was a reviewer for the 2012 PMI’s Research & Education Conference. An active member of the PMI Central Illinois chapter, she is a facilitator for their Springfield, Illinois, division’s PMP Exam Review Course Certification Training. Her recent presentations include "Using Discussion Forum Rubrics as a Teaching Strategy to Enhance Collaborative Learning in Online Courses" at the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (ACCE) World Conference on Educational Media and Technology; "Stakeholder Management" for the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Business Fluno Center for Executive Education; and "Moving beyond the Ordinary Project Management Curriculum at the Graduate Level" as a panel symposium member at the PMI’s Research and Education Conference.

Lee’s articles can be found in the Journal of Project, Program and Portfolio Management, Special Issue: Project Management Education in the Online World; Roadmap―Project Portfolio Management in Project Management Consulting Journeys, Destinations, and the Best Paths to Take; Training and Management Development Methods; International Journal of Project Management; and International Journal of Aging and Development: A Journal of Psychosocial Gerontology. She has published chapters in the following texts: Project Management; Public Leadership; and Encyclopedia of E-Business Development and Management in the Digital Economy, Volume II.

The Project Management Professional^® (PMP^®) designation is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.