Poster child for distance leadership

Mike Kolleth leads a 10-person group that runs Dow's Web site. The group is based at Dow headquarters in Midland, Mich. However, Kolleth works from an office near Zurich, Switzerland. "I've become a poster child, for better or worse, for leading geographically dispersed teams," he says.

While Kolleth grew up in Midland and worked from headquarters for several years, he prefers to live in Switzerland because his fiancé is there. Because Europe has lagged behind North America in implementing e-business, Dow wants Kolleth to concentrate his efforts on Europe.

For Kolleth, videoconferencing and data collaboration fill the gaps between trips to Midland every two months. He chalks up five hours per week of videoconferencing, using video to meet with his team and to address new Dow employees. Kolleth notes that distance collaboration is ingrained in Dow's corporate culture, and that his team members are anything but strangers. "Fundamental in managing a team from this distance is that I knew and had worked with all of these people before assuming this job," Kolleth says. "So I'm just building on existing relationships."

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Rosen speaks on distance leadership and broadband topics. He is chief strategist of Impact Video Communication in San Francisco and can be reached at erosen@impactvid.com.

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