A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams Paperback – August 17, 2011

My role as a facilitator for a number of teams caused me to read Yael Zofi’s book, A Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams. A number of sections helped me directly in the initial team calls and being more deliberate in my collaboration efforts to provide more focus for the teams. While working on a new process for the company I work at, her recommendations on international factors led me to reach out differently than I would have normally to the international stakeholders for this new process. As a result I had much higher engagement, more honest feedback, and buy-in for the development of the process.Treating team members as “customers” has provided me a different perspective in the preparation for my team interactions and helps me to listen more effectively, particularly on conference calls and team meetings. Doing so is helping me frame my discussions and non-verbal aspects (when meeting face-to-face) in a way that puts more emphasis and value on "them" and less on my process or me. The impact is less stress, higher collaboration and better solutions.I have recommended Yael’s book on Virtual Teams to the other managers I deal with to help them manage more effectively with their “virtual” teams as well as be more deliberate with their local reports.Operational Excellence Team Leader

Good book. I hate reading electronically though, so only 4 stars.

So, this book is written very well and readable for the average non-high tech person because it's focus is on the PEOPLE. The author uses great organization to his book highlighting the big picture view, then going specific into detail. He utilizes practical application stories, real life examples and so on. The philosophy taught in this book stretches beyond just virtual teams into our everyday life with our kids, spouses, friends, and interpersonal relationship. It really is a great gem because it's simple, articulate and delivers contextually what is needed for practical application. I was pleased from both a business and personal perspective.

I used the Kindle version, and Although the information is all in here, the pagination is not. The lack of pagination makes for difficulty when trying to cite the book as a resource. If you are studying the content outside of the classroom, then this resource, Kindle version may be fine. Otherwise, if you are in school, as I am, it's really a difficult resource to use.

At first thanks for Amazon to deliver my book in time,(A manager's guide to virtual teams) is really a great book,I bought more than three books about this topic before but really this book is different. if you don't have any idea about virtual team this book will take you from the basics to advanced.It is very helpful for me as a PhD student.in easy words you put your money in the right place.

"A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams" gives a most comprehensive coverage of the topic. Yael Zofi draws on his experience of consulting with many virtual teams and their managers to provide everything one would need to know to set up and successfully manage a virtual team.Using the analogy of a car journey down the virtual highway, Zofi takes us through the three stages of virtual team development - set-up, follow-through and refresh - with plenty of "how to's", examples and case studies. There are also some good checklists to guide you down the right road and self-assessments to check your road worthiness.This is a great book for the detail minded. For those seeking the big picture or whose style of learning is more attuned to taking things in small chunks, I would have liked to have seen more "overview" at the start of chapters or topics. The topic of virtual teams, particularly told as it is by way of a road journey, would ideally lend itself to some visuals in the form of road maps. In fact, I would direct this type of reader to the checklist on pages 248 and 249 - Zofi actually labels this a "roadmap". It's a pity it doesn't look like one.I would also have liked to have seen some of the checklists used as virtual team assessments and team communication tools. For example, the "Eight Characteristics of High-Performing Virtual Teams" mentioned in the appendix would make an ideal assessment to be completed by team members (assessing their team as it is now) and then used as the basis of a team development meeting.This leads me to my final observation. Good and all as the content is, the book is taken from the virtual team manager's perspective. That's as it should be to start with. However, does there come a time when the virtual team members need to also take a leadership role? This perspective is most evident in the chapter on "Cross-Culture Communications and Virtual Teams" where a manager from a different culture might take another perspective. The figure (7-1) on High Context versus Low Context by countries/regions (page 197 and unfortunately not referenced) could have been an ideal vehicle to discuss a virtual team manager (role/style etc.) who is from a different culture to that of the author.All in all this is a good book on virtual teams. For some readers, perhaps a little too wordy, however for those readers it is worth persevering.Bob Selden

As a consultant who often works with global teams, I know from direct experience that this book is on target. This is a great resource to address team formation, common problems and practical solutions for team leaders and members.-Marjorie Derven, Managing Partner, HUDSON Research & Consulting

This text was an exercise to see how many different ways one could say that eatablishing "trust" was the key to virtual team management. It was challenging to remain focused while reading.