Takako Hirata - The Virtual Leader: How to Manage a Remote Workplace

While the pandemic is still redefining what modern working space looks like, this is the time to care forand trustthe digital employee experience. At Microsoft, weve built technologies to enable all 175,000 employees across 74 countries to remotely develop cutting-edge software and services every day. In this book, Takako shares her best practices for how to be a successful virtual leader. From the workplace setup to meeting logistics to mental health, Takako gives you a total package to excel in this new world.

Alex Chiang, Principal Software Engineering Manager, Microsoft

The Virtual Leader is mandatory reading for any remote leader seeking to evolve their leadership style. Based on real-world experience and proven methods, the book is full of practical and actionable advice and strategies for remote leadership.

Michael Vermillion, Senior Managing Director, Global Business Intelligence, J.D. Power

This book is a must-read for you to stay on top of the current remote work trend thats dramatically changing the way people collaborate. Get in-depth insights from an experienced facilitator of 24/7 engagements with colleagues dispersed across time zones, countries, and continents. The Virtual Leader provides hope and a guidebook on how to thrive in the midst of the most significant work development of our time.

Diane Chen, former Senior Global Brand Design Manager, Procter & Gamble, and former Creative Director, Worldwide Brand Experience, Lenovo

Building a great remote culture is critical to the success of all remote teams. Takakos insights in this space and her overall expertise in managing remote teams are beneficial to all managers making the transition.

Andy Tryba, CEO, Gigster

The Virtual Leader serves as a best practices reference for navigating the virtual hybrid environment in our professional, personal, academic, and social lives. As a Harvard HealthTech Fellow, I regularly refer to Takakos work to structure how I engage with stakeholders across institutions, expertises, time zones, and industries, as we collaborate to develop novel medical technology. Takakos personal anecdotes give the reader unique insights and lessons learned, as she has developed a framework and a leadership style that can successfully motivate and empower virtual and decentralized teams.

Nicky Agahari, HealthTech Fellow, Harvard Medical School

As remote work is progressing rapidly due to the influences of COVID-19 and globalization, many companies are having a hard time managing employees and projects. Takako, the author of The Virtual Leader, has managed remote work from an early stage across national borders. The experience and knowledge she gained led her to develop the virtual workplace techniques she covers in the book, which will be of great value to managers everywhere.

Akihiko Morisawa, President and CEO, The Morisawa Inc.

This book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information about leadership. Neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services by publishing this book. If any such assistance is required, the services of a qualified financial professional should be sought. The author and publisher will not be responsible for any liability, loss, or risk incurred as a result of the use and application of any information contained in this book.

The Virtual Leader copyright 2022 by Takako Hirata

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Matt Holt Books is an imprint of BenBella Books, Inc.

10440 N. Central Expressway

Suite 800

Dallas, TX 75231

benbellabooks.com

Send feedback to

Matt Holt and BenBella are federally registered trademarks.

First E-Book Edition: April 2022

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021948613

ISBN 9781637741245 (trade cloth)

ISBN 9781637741252 (ebook)

Copyediting by Jennifer Brett Greenstein

Proofreading by James Fraleigh and Cape Cod Compositors, Inc.

Indexing by Amy Murphy

Text design and composition by Aaron Edmiston

Cover design by Virsitil Inc.

Cover art by zaie / Adobe Stock

Special discounts for bulk sales are available. Please contact .

To Aina.

My love, my life, my light

W here were you when you first realized that the pandemic was going to change the world? I remember where I was with vivid clarityin my apartment in Tokyo. I was packing my suitcase for another international trip, listening to my daughter chatter on her phone in the background. In a few hours, I was to board a flight to New Yorkthirteen hours directto attend a meeting with a major marketing company in the city. It was an important meeting. As Rohtos head of international business development, I was meeting with our United States division to come up with a plan to market our eye drops; theyre a particularly popular product, and I was thinking of partnering with the New York Yankees for a campaign. A big campaign, to say the least.

Hours before I was to get into a taxi to head to Haneda Airport, I received a notification that my flight was canceled. This didnt come as too much of a surprise; flights were being canceled across the globe, governments were starting to mull over lockdowns, and wed had our first confirmed case in Japan several weeks earlier. I shrugged it off and just figured that wed postpone the meeting, and we did.

That was the prevailing attitude at the time: postponing. School was postponed; my daughters birthday party was postponed; dinner with my friends was postponed, as were doctors appointments, soccer games, annual general meetings, college, and even the whole Olympics. Despite all that has happened over the last two years or so, this attitude hasnt quite gone away. As the vaccines start to flow, people get inoculated, and the world fights back against the virus, its easy to believe that everything that was once postponed will now happen, all at once. Or put more simply, that the world is going to go back to what was once normal.

By now, youve probably recognized that this isnt the case. The world has changed so much in a matter of months, and it now has a kind of momentum, or inertia, thats keeping it on the new path it has adopted. Our notions of what is normal have changed: school has changed; social gatherings have changed; travel has changed; hygiene standards have changedand the changes are all-encompassing.

Work too has changedfundamentally soand it doesnt seem to be returning to what it once was.

Dont just take my word for it, however. Here are some facts:

A survey by Microsoft of thirty thousand workers found that over 70 percent of workers wanted flexible, remote work options, even after the pandemic ended.