Six Tips For Leaders In The Global Business Environment
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I am the Managing Partner of EB5 Affiliate Network – a national EB-5 visa firm with 1,800+ foreign investors from 60+ countries.
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Diverse international teams are an asset in the global business environment. While effectively managing international teams is particularly important for multinational companies or companies with business interests in foreign markets, even companies that operate in only one country can benefit from using international remote workers.
At my company, an EB-5 visa program consulting firm, our international team includes everyone from agents in EB-5 markets to freelance web developers and graphic designers. We often work on time-sensitive projects, which makes effective collaboration across time zones essential. These six strategies have been particularly helpful in navigating the challenges of managing an international team.
1. Perfect your business processes.
Your team members, wherever they are, must understand your corporate structure and values. They might need to refer to your training process and sales goals or even your company mission statement and business model. Although the documentation relating to these structures and processes might change over time, ensure they are up to date, stored in one place and easily accessible to new starts.
The first step to focus on is the onboarding process. Ensure that joining the company is as easy as possible in terms of both corporate and local red tape. Provide new employees with a corporate structure chart to ensure they know to whom they report. You can also appoint mentors to help them navigate their first few weeks.
Next, clearly communicate their targets and goals, and explain how these align with your corporate values and contribute to your business goals. Explaining your management style and preferred communication channels is also helpful.
2. Focus on effective communication.
Effective communication is crucial in all teams, but it’s doubly important in international teams because of language and cultural differences. Managers must be able to listen effectively, identify unspoken concerns and respond in a way that’s clear to the other person.
To account for differences in language proficiency and reduce misunderstandings, use clear, jargon-free language and ask clarifying questions. Those who speak English as a first language might need to speak more slowly to enhance clarity. Additionally, you may need to call on team members who are not fluent in English in meetings to make sure they share their opinions.
Consider differences in culture and social norms. For instance, a team member might avoid speaking during meetings because this would be frowned upon in their home country due to conventions surrounding seniority. One of the simplest ways to overcome this is to facilitate open discussions of cultural differences.
3. Work around time zone differences through simple scheduling.
Members of international teams can be located anywhere in the world, which can make it difficult to find a meeting time that works for everyone. However, to avoid project delays and keep all team members engaged, everyone should have the opportunity to participate in meetings.
The simplest solution to this problem is to find a time that suits everyone and schedule a weekly meeting for that time. Use this meeting to provide progress updates and collaborate on projects. Alternatively, suggest two or three meeting times and allow the team members to choose which one suits them best. The meeting time might fall outside of some team members’ regular business hours, so remember to tell them how you’ll compensate them for out-of-hours work.
If any team members can’t attend a meeting, record the meeting and share it with them to allow them to follow the discussion and add their input at a later time.
4. Use technology solutions that are accessible to the entire team.
With the sudden and urgent need for work-from-home software caused by the pandemic, a plethora of technology solutions for remote working are available. Using a single platform can help improve communication and teamwork.
Choose an option that suits your needs and budget, but remember to consider the technology and internet access available to all the members of your team. Useful features for collaboration software include the following.
• Integrated recording function to share meetings.
• Chat or instant messaging.
• Presence indicator that allows team members to see who’s available if they need to ask a question or for advice.
• A shared calendar to facilitate the scheduling of meetings.
• Easy document sharing, as uploads or in real-time.
Project management software can be particularly useful. These tools facilitate planning projects, assigning tasks, discussing projects and tasks and tracking progress.
5. Clearly establish project deliverables.
To avoid misunderstandings that can lead to costly mistakes, clearly set out project objectives and deliverables from the outset. Don’t be tempted to micromanage the hours your team members keep; as long as they deliver the work by the due date and to the standard required, leave the rest up to them.
This is where project management software comes in. Using email to manage projects is cumbersome and risky; if you fail to CC the right people, you could end up with duplicated or missing work. A project management system keeps discussions, documents and shared data in one place and helps to overcome time zone differences by simplifying communication.
6. Check in often.
I’ve found frequent follow-ups with team members can make them feel valued and improve engagement. Sticking to a regular meeting schedule is the first step. Also, try to periodically travel to international offices or business locations for face-to-face meetings.
If possible, schedule a video call instead of sending an email to discuss important projects or deadlines. On the topic of emails, don’t leave emails piling up in your inbox. Team members can become demotivated by unanswered questions and a lack of feedback.
Managing an international team can be challenging, but being able to draw on global talent with diverse views makes up for it. Clear communication, effective scheduling, using the right technology for the job and keeping on top of things are effective management strategies for achieving success in the global business environment.
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