Leading international teams in today’s diversified world
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.