Not sure how leaders can stand out on Zoom calls? It starts with how you communicate, study shows

More companies are embracing remote work, and with that comes a need for more frequent communication. Teamwork through a screen isn’t always the same as having a group in the same room, so how are companies cultivating leaders in these virtual settings?

New research involving a collaboration between Binghamton University schools and research centers—the School of Management (SOM), Bass Center for Leadership Studies, School of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering (SSIE) at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science and the Center of Complex Systems—shows how, in virtual teams where nonverbal cues are limited, a person’s engagement and influence in conversations can significantly shape whether they’re perceived as a leader.

The study, “Leader Emergence in the Digital Realm: Exploring Communication Dynamics via Machine Learning,” is published in the Academy of Management Proceedings.

But taking charge of the conversation isn’t enough, the study found; for leadership to be effective and teamwork to be successful, all the group’s participants must also speak up. The study’s findings could guide the development of new training programs to strengthen verbal communication skills in virtual workspaces and help organizations improve the structure of virtual teams.

“Emerging leadership is really important in a virtual environment because we have to rely more on the effectiveness of our communication since we cannot observe formal leaders directly or as easily,” said Fuhe Jin, Ph.D., now an assistant professor of management at The College of New Jersey, who worked on the study while a doctoral student in SOM.

“If you want to be recognized as a leader in a virtual group, you need to pay closer attention to how the audience responds to what you’re saying and support others’ ideas so you can better facilitate communication.”

In the study, researchers based their findings on data gathered from 51 participants in 12 virtual teams at universities in Tokyo between 2021 and 2022. They found virtual team members whose contributions received inspiring or affirming responses from others in the group were more likely to be viewed as emergent leaders because their central role in team communications was being highlighted.

Using a machine-learning program to gain a detailed look into the virtual teams’ verbal dynamics, researchers tracked affirmative responses such as “You are correct,” “Indeed it is,” and “I agree with you.”

Next, they followed each team member’s level of engagement and responsiveness.

One important takeaway from analyzing the data was that just because someone dominated a team discussion, that didn’t necessarily make them a better leader, said SOM Osterhout Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship Chou-Yu (Joey) Tsai, who worked on the study.

“We found speaking in Zoom becomes quite important for everyone because, in these virtual settings, you cannot capture many nonverbal backchannel behaviors that would indicate whether people agree with or understand you in the same way as if you were meeting in person,” Tsai said.

“This work reminds us that the audience matters as much as the person speaking, so both should have some common ground. That will enhance the perception of leadership, making you more effective in that role.”

This study represents a promising direction in artificial intelligence research because it shows how AI can be used to better understand and possibly improve human collaborative teams instead of seeking ways to replace them, said SUNY Distinguished SSIE Professor Hiroki Sayama, who was on the research team.

Researchers also noted in the study that if companies focused more on developing a person’s ability to engage in verbal interactions while also fostering team socioemotional support, virtual teams could more effectively nurture potential leaders.

“Regarding the scientific value of the key findings, we learn how leadership emerges from the complex interactions among people,” Sayama said of the study.

“A classic, traditional view would attribute leadership to individual traits (vision, determination, charisma, etc.), but our study clearly showed that leadership is more relational.”