How to Influence Virtual Teams and Write a Book About It

by Hassan Osman · United States

Hassan Osman is a Senior Program Manager in Advanced Services. He works mostly out of his home office in Boston, leading virtual teams around the world. He also teaches an online course on managing a remote workforce, and he blogs about working from home.

The world is changing.  We will all eventually manage or work as a part of a virtual team – regardless of the industry we’re in.

I recently wrote and published a book that helps managers and executives in large organizations manage a remote workforce. I was excited to see that the book hit the #1 Amazon Best Seller list in three categories.

My book is titled “Influencing Virtual Teams: 17 Tactics That Get Things Done with Your Remote Employees.” I describe ways to communicate, negotiate, and influence effectively in a virtual team environment. The tactics are based on psychological research.

Hassan’s book hit the #1 Amazon Best Seller list in three categories

A lot of people are overwhelmed by the idea of writing a book, but it’s simpler than what most people think. Some people assume that it takes so much time that they will need to take a year off of work. However, I’m living proof that you can go through the entire process of writing, editing, publishing and marketing a book while working a full-time – and sometimes very demanding – job.  

I wrote the book over a period of a few months and published it on the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform. I initially launched the book for free to get readers to download it.  Amazon lets you do that for five days during a 90-day period, which helped create some buzz.

The subject of virtual teams is important to me because it epitomizes the future of work.  Everyone will need the skillset necessary to manage, collaborate and influence others in a virtual team environment.  Cisco is changing the way we work, live, play, and learn, and virtual teams will play a key role in all those areas.