The pandemic has made significant adjustments to the life of business, education and those areas of life that are associated with the joint activities of people. The pertinence of the study stems from the widespread transition of working groups to a remote format of activity. Under these conditions, both individual (the style of responding to changes) and group factors (leadership and efficiency) that affect the effectiveness of various organizations have undergone changes. Today, there is a clear lack of research on the factors of the effectiveness of group work in a virtual environment. There is no reliable data on how the role of the leader of virtual groups is changing and what means of influence ensure the effectiveness of teamwork. The goal is to identify the relationship between the style of responding to changes of the facilitator and the effectiveness of teamwork in a virtual environment. Methodology and methods: the authors proceed from the activity paradigm (A.N. Leontiev, G.M. Andreeva), the role-based approach to the organization of joint activities facilitation, mediation, moderation (T.Y. Bazarov). The methods used were: an experiment with the specified parameters of group participants (self-assessment and styles of responding to changes), survey methods (“Master of group work”). The study was conducted in 3 stages in the virtual space on the “Zoom” and “Miro” platforms using the capabilities of “Google Form”. Data processing was carried out using “MS Excel”. Results and conclusions: the leader and the facilitator in the virtual team provide different levels of effectiveness of group work. In the formation of a successful virtual team, a special role is played by a facilitator with a predominance of the implementing style of responding to changes. The effectiveness of the virtual team is also positively associated with the heterogeneity of participants in response styles to changes. Research prospects: in the future, it is planned to study the phenomenology and psychological mechanisms of team (distributed) leadership in a virtual environment.