See you soon at the coffee machine, right?

Since the end of 2019 the world have been struck by the virus Covid-19 which have resulted in adjustments around the world such as working from home. Now it’s been over a year since the pandemic started and companies around the world are now wondering what to expect when the restrictions of working home dissolves. The aim of this study is to investigate how managers at the international company Parker Hannifin operating in the manufacturing industry have experienced the conversion of being a leader to become an E-leader due to Covid-19. We also want to investigate which possibilities and limitations managers experience with leading virtual teams. The aim is also to capture their thoughts of what’s important to bring to the future when it comes to continue leading virtual teams. To answer these questions inspiration was found about leadership and E-leadership, leading virtual teams, work-life balance, communication and teleworking. The empirical material in this qualitative study was collected through semi-structured interviews because the purpose of this study was to catch the experiences but also leave room for the respondents to tell more stories about the phenomenon in the interviews. The result shows that our respondents have experienced the conversion into becoming an E- leader easier than they thought. It also shows some disadvantages regarding increased virtual meetings and lack of spontaneous social interactions due to Covid-19. This comes with some challenges for the E-leader to face in the future. In the result some advantages appear such as more effective communication and cooperation. Furthermore, some complements are added into the E-leadership that is necessary to lead virtual teams such as soft values. Our study also discusses that a transformative and situation-based leadership is to prefer in times like these during Covid-19