Go Back Virtual Leadership

These 90-minute Virtual Leadership sessions for Senior Leaders are delivered via Zoom. If you are unable to attend any of the available dates but would like to express your interest in these topics, please complete this survey.

The first three masterclasses mentioned below are interlinked, each with a different focus. The first one focuses on setting the tone and nurturing a climate for effective virtual or remote working, rather like laying the foundations for a solid building or preparing the soil for plants to thrive. The second workshop explores your leadership role as a skilled online facilitator of virtual groups and teams. It offers tools, techniques and approaches to facilitating effective joint working in virtual or remote settings. The third masterclass focuses specifically on what it means to be a compassionate leader in the current circumstances.

In each masterclass, you’ll be encouraged to consider thought-provoking ideas, share your views, discuss issues with colleagues, reflect on your own team leadership, apply your learning to your own context and ask any questions you may have.

Virtual Leadership Masterclass

This first masterclass in the series is about how we as leaders create a climate which enables effective virtual working. Areas we will explore include:

• How do we create and sustain a climate of psychological safety in our virtual work?
• How do we keep and embed a sense of connection amongst our colleagues when we’re working remotely?
• How do we model collaborative, inclusive leadership behaviour in the current context?

Leading Remote Teams: Beyond Silos and Screens

In front of our computers, we can sometimes feel disconnected or isolated in our work. Without the usual corridor conversations and in-person catch-ups at work, we may find ourselves feeling rather separate and divided from our colleagues. Effective teamwork in a virtual context takes time and energy, neither of which are plentiful right now.

This session offers you a safe learning space to:

• Pause to reflect on how you’re doing in your teams – not just what you’re doing
• Recognise and review how your teams are responding to current pressures
• Learn ways to enhance your remote team-working, on screen and off
• Understand tools and techniques for effective online facilitation
• Embed human and emotional connection into your team-working, to underpin your joint work

Leading with Compassion in a Virtual Space

As we all deal with the emotional rollercoaster of Covid-19, being compassionate at work is more important than ever. Under such pressure, we need kindness and human connection more than ever. Despite all our best intentions, creating and leading compassionate cultures in a virtual context is courageous, challenging work.

This interactive masterclass offers you a safe learning space to:

• Refresh our understanding on the core facets of compassionate leadership practice
• Apply practical tools to enhance your own compassionate leadership practice
• Explore how to model compassionate leadership, even when the pressure is on
• Consider why and how compassion can wane in ourselves and our teams - and what to do in these circumstances
• Develop strategies for self-compassion

Embedding Psychological Safety and Compassion into 1-1s

This fourth masterclass is an alternative to the three above and distils key learning from all three into a workshop which focuses on 1-1 relationships at work. It is designed for line managers, team leaders and human resources professionals, to support you as you undertake 1:1s with your colleagues.

This session offers you a safe learning space to:

• Understand key, relevant aspects of psychological safety and compassionate leadership (these are covered in more depth in the workshops above)
• Apply this learning to 1:1s in your own contexts
• Explore how 1:1s can sometimes feel sensitive and tricky, and the challenges this poses
• Learn with and from each other, sharing tips and insights from your leadership practice

Recommended reading

Explore resources on virtual leadership topics:

Developing Effective Virtual Teams - Lessons from research | CIPD (May 2020)

Virtual Collaborate | NHS Horizons

Next Generation GP Lancashire - Sharing the learning to emerge from working virtually | Case Study