What’s the challenge in managing international teams?

There are a multitude of challenges, not least different nationalities, languages, employment laws, culture, time zones, working calendars etc. The good thing is there are now a multitude of good video conferencing facilities that enable you to bring teams together. It’s important then to maintain contact with all key team members and hold group calls as you would if you were communicating with teams sitting very close. Depending on location you may get issues with connectivity due to internet, power cuts etc. that may cut people off or impact on video functionality. Patience is important so as to not get frustrated when these things happen. Ultimately in an international business’ leading teams and managing individuals requires a bit more focus.

Speaking of people, with the number of diverse teams you have overseen, what has your experience been like?

Honestly, I don’t know any different. I first came to the Middle East as a fresh graduate in 1984, so throughout my career, I have worked with so many different nationalities that it has become second nature for me and something that I truly appreciate and learn from tremendously.

It continues to be very interesting to go out and find out about different cultures. You learn a lot from the local members of the team, things which if you are not culturally aware of, you would not be able to properly understand, such as why a decision has been made or how exactly the mind in front of you is thinking. We all continue to learn from each other and the ability of these diverse teams to work together so effectively continues to amaze me.

The one thing that I have noticed as a positive development throughout the years is the increasing number of women in the workforce, especially in many African and Middle East Countries where there’s an increasing percentage of women in leadership roles across all areas of business.

How can you support international teams to succeed?

To put it simply, it comes down to integrity and trust and to being able to develop advocates for your business within your customer base. Compared to operating in a single region or country it’s a much bigger challenge.

Most importantly, it’s really about relationships. There are many competitors, and you’ve got make sure that you keep your organisation on the top of clients’ minds when they are looking for a solution, subcontractor, service, or a partner. It’s not only about staying in touch, but it also comes down to reputation. You want to make your customers satisfied enough and trust you enough that they will be advocates for you within their organisation and across the industry. This involves performing well, delivering above expectations and being solution driven and adaptable.

You also need to be the advocate for international teams back at Corporate Office. They need to have the right resources and the same support that would be offered to domestic operations. Its also important for corporate functions to understand the differences in both scope and complexity that international teams have to manage.

What differences are there with external relationships?

Its critically important to network with customers, competitors, teaming partners and manage strong relationships. This can happen during industry events that allow you meet a whole host of customers, suppliers, and competitors. You never know where a lead or endorsement will come from. I remember one industry event where I chanced upon a close contact who was happy enough not only to introduce me to many new contacts but was equally happy to provide ringing endorsements. I just stood back, smiled, and handed out my business card!

International business usually involves a multitude of layers in the relationship, so you need to plan those relationships and match people with like-minded individuals from the customer side. Make sure that you both support and retain the right relationships to ensure a balance.

It’s also good to actively join international networks that help you showcase all that you can do and expose the organisation to the right people, in addition to conducting business trips where you meet people in person and get to know them. Business is all about people, and the better you are at making yourself trustworthy and memorable, the more success you will see.

What advice or tips do you have for those managing diverse teams or those across various countries?

The first thing is you need to get to understand how the teams are operating, under what circumstances and under what conditions. This can only be achieved by visiting operations on a routine basis, meeting key stakeholders in the business and spending time with the team.

One thing I always did, whenever possible when visiting international operations was to hold town hall meetings to provide the full team with updates and let them know you were aware of key activities that have taken place, recognising success and thanking them for their efforts. In addition, I would hold skip meetings at levels below my direct reports to get a much broader perspective of issues in the business and get to know more of the team more closely.

I think one of the most important things is being approachable and being friendly is very important. People will either be looking forward to your visit or in dread! So, aim to brighten people up when you walk into the room. Make sure to stop and say hello to people, try to remember as many of the names of the people as possible – it really makes a difference.

You must also do your best to try and understand what your teams’ needs and wants are. Your role is really to give direction and advice and to keep everyone motivated and moving forward. You need to trust your people and give the space to do what they have to do without intervening in every moment. Your people need to know that you are both honest and fair. To me, leadership is all about getting people to do what you want done because they want to do it and getting them to want to do it is the most challenging part. It involves keeping people motivated and letting them know the broad direction while giving them the space to come back with their ideas and suggestions to operate the business.

Finally, and most importantly, always respect hard work. To me, hard work and performance trump education, title, grade, or status. If you see yourself as a leader that is creating all the value without recognising the people doing the hard work, then that’s not leadership. Unfortunately, some people also confuse education with intelligence. The truth is some people haven’t had the opportunity to be educated but are very intelligent and vice versa, some people have had an enormous amount of education and are not very intelligent. Again, I don’t get very excited if someone says ‘I’ve got this or that degree’ that’s great but at the end of the day, I am going to judge you based on how you act and what you deliver, and I believe that’s a recipe for good leadership.

The Attain Performance communications team sat down with founder, Robert Smith, to hear his thoughts about the importance of good judgment in today’s fast-paced and globalized business environment.

Good judgment is definitely essential in today’s business world. Think of the newspaper headlines when something goes seriously wrong, and the people are looking for who to blame.

If you’re operating in any setting, one of the key strengths you look for in leadership is good judgment. You cannot give some big manual and say this is how you practice it. At the end of the day, you’re faced with so many different things, some of them unpredictable, some you have never experienced before, and you cannot have instructions that cover everything. Good judgment is a crucial human skill that needs to be developed.

So, if it’s a skill, how can it be developed?

As a start, adopting active listening skills is very important in developing that all important critical thinking mind set. You need to be able to listen, without distraction to different viewpoints, gathering information, and sometimes you have to do that very quickly. You have to focus on what people are saying, extracting the relevant information, assimilating it, looking for other non-spoken cues, and only then consider what’s right and what isn’t, what’s worth focusing on and what remains unclear or unconvincing. But it doesn’t’ end there, you need to evaluate the pros and cons of any proposed decision, while not losing sight of your objectives and what it is you’re trying to achieve. You have to always bring it back to your goals and to keep in mind how important your values are. Having a moral and ethical compass is crucial.

How can you develop critical thinking in the organisation?

Its important to bring emerging leaders at a young age into more senior level meetings and let them participate by asking their opinion and input. In those meetings, they can observe, listen, and see how a discussion would take place around a particular problem or particular opportunity. They can then witness how managers make their decisions. Unfortunately, young people don’t get exposed to that kind of thing very often. In return, they must be willing to give their input and contribute. That way, they can see how the process works, how people evaluate and make decisions and how they make sure those decisions are within the values of the organization.

I can still remember the first time I was invited into a meeting with the MD of our UK branch in London as a fresh graduate and when I was asked my opinions on the meeting agenda and how he told others to listen to me and not interrupt. The impact of that has lasted with me my entire life. The fail-safe process for critical thinking is for young leaders to have exposure and tune them in to observe, develop opinions and discuss those with a trusted mentor or close group of peers. As they develop then they will have experience to call upon when things don’t go to plan and the confidence to seek alternative opinions and data to improve decision making. A practice of self-reflection then becomes increasingly important to consider decisions taken, what was the outcome, what went well, what didn’t and how to improve.

As a leader, how do you try to encourage your people to practice sound decision making?

Effectively, at the end of the day, you have to give them the chance to make decisions and judgments. If you believe the judgment, they’re taking is wrong, you have to let them know why. This can also be further facilitated by letting people know how you made a certain decision, rather than just saying ‘this is the decision go off and do it.’ The combination of allowing decision making by young leaders in a supportive environment plus teams understanding why decisions are taken by senior leaders will long term facilitate better overall decision making. In addition, refection on how those decisions have succeeded or not is best practice.

How do you know if the decision you’re making is actually based on good judgment?

Every time you have to make decisions, go through a process. Consider the pros and cons, what might go wrong, what risks are understood and can be mitigated, whether you have the ability to control the situation, whether you understand or don’t understand the data or set of assumptions. If you simply go forward without a good plan, without knowledge of what you’re doing, and having the right people there to implement it, then you’re likely making a bad judgement call. Also have clarity of mind as to the desired outcome or what might be called what success looks like, then decide the probability of success knowing what you know at that point.

How do you find a balance between the pressures of making quick decisions in today’s fast-paced business environment and making the right call?

Sometimes you can be pressurized, and sometimes teams can say about their manager that they’re not quick in making decisions or they can’t decide, or even worse…. that they make bad decisions. The key to making a fast and effective decision is that you’ve got to be able to get to the right information quickly, ask the right questions and then assimilate that information in your head and form a decision. Good judgement comes from having the right information. Train your teams into understanding the process and what information they need to provide in order to have fast and effective decisions taken. Decisions then become more of a collective responsibility, and everyone has a sense of ownership on the outcome.

If we’re talking to people starting their careers, are there any more tips you would like to share?

It’s a bit like when you learn to drive your car, at first, you’re driving with great focus and attention. But after a few years, it becomes almost an instinctual process. It’s the same with decision making and good judgement. In the beginning, it’s something new, so give yourself a framework that you are comfortable with, which allows you to help make that decision and then test it to see if it’s working and then adapt it. Don’t overcomplicate it, but just find something that works for you. Keep in mind that good judgment will definitely come with time, the more you practice it the more you’ll perfect it. That said, and using the analogy of learning to drive, never get too comfortable. I have personally made bad judgement calls when taking my eye off the road or focusing too much into the future and not focusing on what’s in front of me.