I’ve been working recently with clients who have undertaken the goal of maximising team effectiveness within remote and non-remote working environments.  One of the key findings for these leaders is the ability to manage polarities within their teams.  Polarities are everywhere because we live in such a complex world, for example work / life balance, to be independent and still need others, to be resilient and also need help. 

Within teams, it’s the pairings of values or competencies that appear on the surface to be contradictory but are in fact interdependent and usually complimentary – and produce effective outcomes.  Many challenges that virtual teams face are not problems to be solved but rather, polarities to be acknowledged and managed, with collaboration at the heart of it all.

For more information on this, have a look at Bain and Company who have extensively researched the traits that underpin effective teams – remote, hybrid and everything in between. 

And also worth revisiting is the amazing Peter Hawkins’ Five Cs Model for High Performing Teams, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81GDxAMnp8