In Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance (Pfeiffer, 2010), authors Darleen DeRosa and Richard Lepsinger share findings from their 2008 global research study. They wanted to know what factors made some virtual teams excel while so many dissolved in failure. What differentiated these high-performing virtual teams from those less successful? And what differentiated effective virtual team leaders from less effective ones?

The main difference between a virtual team and the more traditional type is that a virtual team is not co-located. Virtual team members may be in different departments in a building or dispersed around the world. Like their standard counterparts, virtual teams share a clear and common purpose, but the flow of pertinent information is enabled through information and communication technology.

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