1. Why might making sure to incorporate time for face-to-face interactions be an important component for many managers’ personal leadership styles? 

2. How might face-to-face interactions contribute to managers effectively engaging in consideration and initiating structure?

3. How might face-to-face interactions help managers effectively engage in transnational leadership?

4. How might emotional intelligence help managers to ensure that they have effective face-to-face interactions?

As businesses expect more senior leaders both to manage more far-flung teams and spend more time with distant clients, face time has become a precious commodity—and a source of professional agita. Technologies like videoconferencing and enterprise social networks claim to enable true connection over great distances, but the reality is often far from perfect. There is still no good substitute for being in the same room with a direct report or a high-level boss, many executives say. Yet there is little consensus about how much face time it takes to manage effectively.

Hands-off leadership carries career risks. Traveling frequently for work can leave employees without adequate feedback or a boss wondering whether you manage well. Also, some top managers do not travel enough to have face-to-face meetings with employees in different locations. To avoid such a situation, Mr. Tainwala travels 25 days a month for Samsonite from his base in Hong Kong. Since becoming CEO last fall, he has held four face-to-face sessions with his senior management team, stationed in four regions world-wide.

Yet a distant boss with a sudden yen for face time may encounter resistance from subordinates. For example, a senior manager realized she had been too hands-off with her team, missing meetings due to conflicting client demands. She soon scheduled half-hour sessions with each team member. Several staffers bristled at the sudden outreach, complaining that she was micromanaging them. She convened a meeting to explain how her increased engagement could help her help them. Her team adjusted over time. In one case, a boss on different floor of a building than his team felt walled off from them. In response, the boss moved his office to the same floor as the team. Wary colleagues gradually grew comfortable about dropping by.